A portrait of the 21-year-old who earned a PhD in AI.

Despite being only 23 years old, Lai Tien Dung has been invited to teach at Swinburne University in Australia. Born in 1998, Dung received a PhD scholarship in AI at Swinburne three years ago, when he was just 21 years old. He has now completed his first semester.

 

Dung wasn't from a gaming family and was very fond of playing games when he was a child. However, in 7th grade, he realized he had to do something meaningful for his family instead of continuing to play games. And Dung thought that the only way was to study hard.

 

At the age of 17, Dung's family invested in his education abroad. Dung asked his parents to let him study programming instead of construction, as they had hoped. While in Australia, Dung worked part-time while studying to cover his living expenses and tuition fees.

Later, Dung stopped doing extra jobs like carrying trays or serving at cafes. Instead, he proactively contacted lecturers to see if he could help with anything at the school. Thanks to these jobs at the school, Dung's knowledge gradually improved.

In his first semester, Dung received a perfect score in programming. Afterward, he participated in a project with the faculty, which was later recognized at an Australian scientific conference and presented at the government building.

At the end of his first year, Dung achieved a perfect score in programming along with many other research accomplishments. As a result, he was invited to teach programming at Swinburne University.

Later, Dung was recommended by his teachers and accepted to work at the A2I1 Research Institute at Deakin University. Immediately after receiving his Bachelor's degree in AI, Dung was awarded a PhD scholarship in AI at Swinburne University at the young age of 21.

Dung applied to Google twice but was unsuccessful both times against other outstanding candidates. However, he didn't give up and is preparing to apply a third time. Dung also has many startup projects in mind and hopes to contribute more to his homeland, Vietnam.