Nghia Duong-Trung

Personal Info

- Dr. rer. nat. Nghia Duong-Trung (Dương Trung Nghĩa)
- Current Employer: Educational Technology Lab (EdTec), German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI GmbH), Berlin, Germany.
- Current Employer: IU International University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany.
- Located in Berlin, Germany.
- Emails:
  - duong-trung /at/ ismll.de (primary, general contact point),
  - nghia_trung.duong /at/ dfki.de (related to research and cooperation at DFKI)
  - nghia.duong-trung /at/ iu.org (related to teaching, research, and thesis supervision at IU)
- Linkedin, ResearchGate, GoogleScholar, DBLP, ORCID, Scopus, Github, Xing
- Languages: Vietnamese (native), English (professional); German (B1 TELC), ongoing German B2 (09.2025-02.2026).
- download (brief) CV (last update 05.12.2025)

About me:
AI researcher and lecturer focused on AI‑for‑Education and applied machine learning, with 7+ years in ML/LLM development and 10+ years in university teaching, supervision, academic affairs, management, and curriculum design. Track record includes 84+ publications, 1370+ citations, Google h‑index 20, involvement in 6+ funded projects (Horizon Europe, BMBF, BMFTR, CATALPA), supervision of 34+ BSc/MSc theses (plus 2 ongoing PhD co‑supervisions), and delivery of 14 academic courses. Professional experience spans research, teaching, and industry collaboration across institutions such as DFKI, IU International University of Applied Science, Humboldt‑Universität zu Berlin, Gisma University of Applied Sciences, Technische Universität Berlin, and Can Tho University, with a consistent focus on translating AI research into production‑ready teacher tools, trustworthy data/LLM pipelines, and application‑first learning resources.

Active contributor to the global AI-in-Education community: AI-Grid Science Mentor (.11.2025–present); conference organizer/proceedings editor for EAI GOODTECHS 2024–2025; member of the CATALPA young researchers network; invited seminar and talk at Humboldt‑Universität zu Berlin and Technische Universität Berlin; collaborator with the PICOM Lab (3rd place, Siemens “Tech for Sustainability”); Area Editor for EAI Endorsed Transactions on Industrial Networks and Intelligent Systems (INIS); and program committee member for LAK, AIED, and EDM.

Work Experience

- 12.2025 - 02.2026. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
  - Scientist. Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Institute of Computer Science, Didactics of Computer Science | Computer Science and Society.
- 10.2025 - present. Gisma University of Applied Sciences.
  - Freelance Lecturer and Supervisor.
- 09.2022 - present. German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI GmbH), Berlin, Germany.
  - 05.2023 - 11.2025: Project Lead
  - 09.2022 - present: Senior Researcher
- 06.2022 - present. IU International University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany.
  - 06.2024 - present: Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter, Module Director
  - 06.2023 - 05.2024: Academic Teacher
  - 06.2022 - 05.2023: Guest Lecturer
- 12.2020 - 08.2022. Technische Universität Berlin, Germany.
  - Machine Learning Scientist / Postdoc (Full-time), BMBF KIWI biolab project
- 05.2019 - 12.2020. University of Greenwich, Can Tho Campus, Vietnam.
  - Visiting lecturer (Part-time)
- 05.2018 - 12.2020. FPT University, Can Tho Campus, Vietnam.
  - Visiting lecturer (Part-time)
- 04.2011 - 12.2020. Can Tho University of Technology, Vietnam.
  - Lecturer (Full-time)
  - Head of Computer Science Department (05.2018 - 12.2020).
- 03.2017 - 07.2017. Instructor (Part-time), University of Hildesheim, Germany.
- 04.2011 - 02.2014. Teaching assistant (Full-time), Can Tho University of Technology, Vietnam.
- 04.2010 - 01.2011. Web Developer (Full-time), SoftCom GmbH, Schwaigern, Germany.

Research Interests

Machine Learning, Transfer Learning, Time Series Forecasting, Immersive Learning, Educational Data Mining, Artificial Intelligence in Education, Federated Learning

International Services

- Science Mentor at the AI-Grid network.
  - 11.2025 - present
- Conference Organizer and Proceedings Editor
  - 2025. EAI GOODTECHS2025: 11th EAI International Conference on Smart Objects and Technologies for Social Good. December 18-20, 2025. Da Nang, Vietnam.
  - 2024: EAI GOODTECHS2024: 10th EAI International Conference on Smart Objects and Technologies for Social Good. December 5-7, 2024. Proceedings Part 1, Part 2. Can Tho City, Vietnam.
  - 2024: EduRS @ DELFI2024: 2nd Workshop on Recommender Systems, DELFI Fachtagung Bildungstechnologien. September 9-11, 2024. Fulda, Germany.
- Member
  - 02.2024 - present: young researcher at CATALPA, FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany.
  - 02.2024 - present: Vietnam - Germany Innovation Network (VGI), Germany.
- Invited Guest
  - 4-5 April 2024. Future of Information and Communication Conference (FICC) 2024, Berlin.
- Project Collaborator
  - 09.2022 - present: PICom - Open Laboratory for Pervasive Intelligence and Computing.
    - 16.03.2023. 3rd place, Tech for Sustainability Campaign 2023, in the challenge Swarm Behaviour on the Grid by Siemens.
- Area Editor
  - 01.2022 - present: EAI Endorsed Transactions on Industrial Networks and Intelligent Systems (INIS)
- Reviewer
  - 06.2019 - present: International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications (IJACSA)
  - 2019. Conferences: AIIPCC 2019, IEEE KSE 2019
- Program Committee
  - 2026. ITS2026. 22nd International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS2026), June 1-5, 2026, Pafos, Cyprus.
  - 2026. LAK2026. 16th International Learning Analytics & Knowledge Conference. April 27 - May 1, 2026, Bergen, Norway.
  - 2025. AIED2025. 26th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education. July 22-26, 2025. Palermo, Italy.
  - 2025: EDM2025: Eighteenth International Conference on Educational Data Mining. July 20-23, 2025. Palermo, Italy.
  - 2024: EDM2024: Seventeenth International Conference on Educational Data Mining. July 15-19, 2024. Atlanta, GA, United States.
  - 2023: MILeS2023: Multimodal Immersive Learning Systems, September 4, 2023. Aveiro, Portugal.
  - 2023: ISDS2023: The First International Conference on Intelligent Systems and Data Science. Can Tho University, Vietnam.
  - 2020: IEEE NSICT 2020: Hội thảo Quốc gia lần thứ XXIII "Một số vấn đề chọn lọc của Công nghệ thông tin và Truyền thông"
  - 2020: IEEE KSE 2020
  - 2019 - 2024: PC member. IEEE ACOMPA: International Conference on Advanced Computing and Analytics.
- Session chair:
  - 2021. KIWI-biolab Symposium 2021, Berlin, Germany
  - 2020. IEEE KSE 2020, Can Tho city, Vietnam
- 05.2018. Training of IBSTPI - International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction. 08.05 - 11.05.2018, FPT University, Cantho campus.

Invited Talks

13.06.2024. Nghia Duong-Trung, Milos Kravcik. Augmented Intelligence in Tutoring Systems: A Case Study in Real-time Pose Tracking to Enhance the Self-Learning of Fitness Exercises. Seminar at Humboldt University on "AI in Education". Berlin. Slides.
24.05.2024. Nghia Duong-Trung, Xia Wang. AI in Education - Knowledge, Generative AI, and Large Language Models (LLMs) in Several Educational Scenarios. DFKI & Constructor Group Workshop. Berlin. Slides.
27.03.2023. Speaker to the Opening Day of Annual "Career Week for International Junior Researchers", Technische Universität Berlin. Slides.
12.12.2022. Real-time Pose Estimation via State-of-the-art Computer Vision Models. Consortium MILKI-PSY project meeting, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany. Slides. Git.

Teaching and Tasks

Module Director of Data Utilization, High-level Vision, Internship: Bachelor Data Science and AI, Project: Design Thinking for IT at IU International University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany.
Lecture series on Introduction to Computer Science at IU International University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany.
Lecture series on Neural Nets and Deep Learning at IU International University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany.
Lecture series on Deep Learning at IU International University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany.
Lecture series on Data Utilization at IU International University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany.
Lecture series on Machine Learning at IU International University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany.
Lecture series on Artificial Intelligence at IU International University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany.
Lecture series on Data Science at IU International University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany.
Lecture series on Project: Data Science Use Case at IU International University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany.
11.2021. Lecture series on Transfer Learning at Technische Universität Berlin, Berin, Germany.
09. 2017 - 12.2020. Lecture series on Data Structures and Algorithms, Databases, Big Data, Object Oriented Programming with Python, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing at Can Tho University of Technology, Can Tho City, Vietnam.
2019 - 2020. Lecture series on Programming at the University of Greenwich (Vietnam), Can Tho City, Vietnam.
03.2017 - 07.2017. Tutorial series on Big Data Analytics at the University of Hildesheim, Germany.

Grants and Awards

- 04.2025. Awarded a performance-based salary increase. IU. Berlin, Germany.
- 09.2024. Awarded a performance-based salary increase. DFKI. Berlin, Germany.
- 05.06.2023. Best Full Paper Award, 19th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS2023), June 5-8, 2023, Corfu, Greece.
- 16.03.2023. 3rd place, Tech for Sustainability Campaign 2023, in the challenge Swarm Behaviour on the Grid by Siemens.
- 12.2020 - 12.2022. Postdoctoral Researcher by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany.
- 01.2019. Best Presentation Award at the 3rd International Conference on Machine Learning and Soft Computing (ICMLSC) 2019. Da Lat, Vietnam.
- 03.2017 - 07.2017. Teaching Assistant Grant by ISMLL, University of Hildesheim, Germany.
- 03.2014 - 07.2017. Ph.D. Fellowship by ISMLL, University of Hildesheim, Germany.
- 09.2016. ECML/PKDD Discovery Challenge Award: Best System of the Bank Card Usage Analysis Challenge. Riva del Garda, Italy.
- 03.2014 - 02.2017. Ph.D. Scholarship by Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam.
- 03.2009 - 09.2010. MSc. Scholarship by Can Tho City, Vietnam.

Long‑life Learning

12.2025. Google. Google Data-Driven Decision Making. Link.
12.2025. Packt. Harnessing Ollama – Create Local LLMs with Python. Link.
12.2025. Duke University. Developing Explainable AI (XAI). Link.
12.2025. University of Colorado. Foundation and Potential of AI in Healthcare. Link.
01.2024. IU International University of Applied Sciences: Generative AI for Professors and Academic Lecturers.
- Introduction GPT in Teaching, Master of Prompts, Academic Content Creation, How We Learn, Tutor Bots I, Tutor Bots II, Academic Work.
04.2023. UNSW Sydney: Learning to Teach Online. Link.
02.2022 -.08.2022. Deeplearning.AI: Machine Learning Engineering for Production (MLOps) Specialization. Link.
- Introduction to Machine Learning in Production. 05.02.2022. Link.
- Machine Learning Data Lifecycle in Production. 02.03.2022. Link.
- Machine Learning Modeling Pipelines in Production. 09.08.2022. Link.
- Deploying Machine Learning Models in Production. 17.08.2022. Link.
12.2021. AWS Academy Graduate - AWS Academy Machine Learning Foundations. Issued by Amazon Web Services Training and Certification. Link.
12.2020. Intercultural Challenges for Visiting Scholars at TU Berlin (LM 13B). Issued by Technische Universität Berlin.

Education

- 12.2020 - 08.2022: Postdoc, BMBF KIWI biolab project, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany.
- 03.2014 - 07.2017: Ph.D. in Computer Science, supervised by Prof. Dr. Dr. Lars Schmidt-Thieme, ISMLL, University of Hildesheim, Germany.
- 03.2009 - 02.2011: MSc. in Software Engineering and Management, Heilbronn University, Germany.
- 09.2003 - 04.2008: BSc. in Informatics, Can Tho University, Vietnam.