Vung Pham (Pham, Van Vung)

About me

Introduction

I love teaching, researching, and working with Machine Learning, and Deep Learning, Data Analytics, Data Visualizations. I also authored the book Hands-On Computer Vision with Detectron2.

Machine Learning and Deep Learning

I guided a team with two undergraduate students and achieved Silver prize (ranked 2) as a data contributor and Bronze prize (rank 3) as the model contributor in the Crowdsensing-based Road Damage Detection Challenge (CRDDC2022) as a track in IEEE BigData 2022 Challenge.
I received 3rd place winner in the CosmicBC 1st Biannual Prediction Herobots Challenge. This project is about creating a module to predict the values of Bitcoin and Ethereum two hours ahead. Programing language: Python. Techniques used: Facebook Prophet.
Our team received an Honorable prize (ranked 7th) in KDD Cup 2020, Graph Adversarial Attacks and Defense. This project is about creating strategies to attack the citation graph and finding ways to defend from attacks. Programming language: Python. Techniques used: Graph Convolutional Neural Network.
I was a shorted list winner (ranked 11th) in Big Data Cup 2020, Global Road Damage Detection. This project is about detecting and classifying road damages from images. Programming language: Python. Techniques used: Detectron2's implementation of Faster R-CNN. Published several conference/journal papers as the applications of deep learning and uses of visualizations to explain deep learning models.

Data Analytics and Data Visualizations

I received the Strong Support for exploratory analysis Award for VAST 2018, Mini Challenge 2. The paper titled "MTDES: Multi-dimensional Temporal Data Exploration System." This project is about analyzing the spread of chemical concentrations in water in a reserved area. Programming language: JavaScript. Techniques used: Custom interactive visualizations created using D3.js.
I received the best paper award for the paper titled "SOAViz: Visualization for Portable X-ray Fluorescence Soil Profiles." In the ENVIRVIS 2019, Workshop on Visualization in Environmental Sciences. This project is about analyzing elemental concentrations in a soil profile scanned by a portable X-ray fluorescence device. Programming language: JavaScript. Techniques used: Custom interactive visualizations created using D3.js and Plotly.js.
I also published several conferences/journal papers in data analytics and data visualizations.

Teaching

I love teaching and I am currently an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Sam Houston State University (since August 16, 2021). I am teaching several courses in computer science. I also had 8 years of experience in teaching undergraduate courses in Computer Science from FPT University, Hanoi, Vietnam. I received the Excellent Employee of the Year in three consecutive years (2013, 2014, and 2015) then promoted as the head of the academic department for the FPT University and University of Greenwich collaboration programs. These collaboration programs deliver undergraduate programs in Computer Science and Business from University of Greenwich at FPT University. These programs use English as medium of instructions and the final degrees are awarded by the University of Greenwich.

Education

I received full scholarship from Texas Tech University, Texas, US for my PhD in Computer Science.
I received full scholarship for my Master of Science in Computing Systems Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy.
I also received full scholarship from President University, Bekasi, Indonesia for my Bachelor of Science in Information Technology.

Current Teaching

Sam Houston State University
August 2021 - Present

Department
Computer Science

Location
Huntsville, Texas, USA

Description
I am teaching several courses in computer science at the Department of Computer Science, Sam Houston State University.

Past Teaching

FPT University
September 2010 - May 2018

Department
FPT Greenwich Collaboration Centre

Location
Hanoi, Vietnam

Description
I taught several Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Computing courses in a collaboration program between FPT University, Hanoi, Vietnam and University of Greenwich, London, UK. This program delivers the University of Greenwich curriculum at FPT University, which uses English as medium of instruction. The award degrees are from the University of Greenwich, London, UK.

President University

Department
Department of Information Technology

Location
Bekasi, Indonesia

Description
With a good GPA after graduation, I was invited to be a lecturer at President University right after I graduated. I was teaching several computer programming courses (C# Programming, Java Programming, and C Programming) for the Bachelor of Science in Information Technology program.

Professional experience

Sam Houston State University
August 2021 - Present

Department
Department of Computer Science

Location
Huntsville, Texas, United States

Position
Assistant Professor

Description
Teaching computer science courses; researching on data analytics, data visualizations, machine learning, and deep learning; and providing services to the department and university.

Texas Tech University
June 2018 - July 2021

Department
Department of Computer Science

Location
Lubbock, United States

Position
Research Assistant

Description
Researching on data analytics, data visualizations, machine learning, and deep learning. I completed several projects and publications using mainly Python and JavaScript programming languages.

FPT University
August 2013 - May 2018

Department
FPT Greenwich Collaboration Centre

Location
Hanoi, Vietnam

Position
Head of Academic Affairs

Description
Managing lecturers and academic staff in the department; Developed curriculums for Pearson and FPT University collaboration program, which are currently being delivered.

FPT University
September 2010 - May 2018

Department
FPT Greenwich Collaboration Centre

Location
Hanoi, Vietnam

Position
Lecturer

Description
Teaching several courses in Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Computing. I consistently had high student evaluation scores across all teaching years (3.9/4.0). I also received the Excellence Employee of The Year in three consecutive years (2013, 2014, and 2015).

Education

Texas Tech University

Location
Lubbock, Texas, United States

Degree
Doctor of Philosophy

Field of study
Computer Science

Politecnico di Milano

Location
Milan, Italy

Degree
Master of Science

Field of study
Computing Systems Engineering

President University

Location
Bekasi, Indonesia

Degree
Bachelor of Science

Field of study
Bachelor of Science in Information Technology

Funding

NSF I-Corps
June 10, 2020 - November 30, 2021 (Estimated)

Location of Project
Lubbock, TX

Source of Support
NSF

Award Number
2017018

Total Award Amount
$50,000

Project/Proposal Title
Intelligent visual framework for analyzing chemical measurement data

Role
Entrepreneurial Lead

Description
I helped my advisor preparing the proposal, ran the NSF I-Corps as an Entrepreneurial Lead, and interviewed 102 customers related to our technology.

Scholarships

Full scholarship from Texas Tech University
May 2018 - Present

Location
Lubbock, United States

Degree
Doctor of Philosophy

Field of study
Computer Science

Description
President's strategic growth initiative (3-year fellowship of WCoE starting Fall 2018) for PhD in Computer Science.

Full scholarship from Politecnico di Milano
September 2007 - July 2010

Location
Milan, Italy

Degree
Master of Science

Field of study
Computing Systems Engineering

Description
Merit based, full scholarship for the Master of Science in Computer Systems Engineering from Texas Tech University.

Full scholarship from President University
September 2002 - December 2005

Location
Bekasi, Indonesia

Degree
Bachelor of Science

Field of study
Bachelor of Science in Information Technology

Description
Merit based, full scholarship from President University for the Bachelor of Science in Information Technology.

Patent

DATA VISUALIZATION DEVICE AND METHOD
Serial No.: PCT/US2020/050313

Inventors
Vung Pham, Tommy Dang, David Weindorf

Priority Date
September 16, 2019

Filing Date
September 11, 2020

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