Prof. Dr. Dang Luong Mo - microchip pioneer

Dang Luong Mo - Photo 1.

Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen greets Prof. Dr. Dang Luong Mo at the 2024 intellectual meeting conference - Photo: TTD

Many research works of Professor Dang Luong Mo have been published or cited in research books published in the US, especially textbooks used at American universities.

The return journey

During his years abroad, Professor Dang Luong Mo always turned his attention to the country and made contributions in both aspects: training talents and scientific and technological consulting.

In the spring of 1994, he was invited to Ho Chi Minh City to attend the conference on "Reforming HigherEducation ". This was the starting point for his journey back to contribute to the development of microchip design technology in Vietnam.

In 1997, he opened a course on microchip design at the University of Technology (Ho Chi Minh City National University), and at the same time helped young staff of the school to study at Hosei University, under his sponsorship.

In 1999, he campaigned for the signing of an agreement between Hosei University of Technology and Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, according to which Hosei University annually provides Polytechnic University staff with a 12-month scholarship (180,000 JPY/month) plus a three-bedroom apartment with full amenities and electricity, water, gas, etc.

"The Polytechnic University sent two people in the first few years, but from the third year (1999), it sent three people, each for four months. The three staff members from the university in 1999 were trained to return to take charge of operating the microchip design and simulation laboratory. Up to now, this agreement has been in effect for 25 years... There have been about 50 Polytechnic University staff members who have gone to study in Japan under this agreement," said Professor Mo.

In 2000, overseas Vietnamese professor Dang Luong Mo mobilized more than 35,000 USD in aid to support Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology to build a microchip design and simulation laboratory (using FPGA). This FPGA technology had only appeared in the US and Japan a short time before.

This first microchip design and simulation laboratory in Vietnam has contributed to training and research. Electrical and electronics students and postgraduates are trained here. In just 10 years, it has contributed to spreading FPGA technology throughout the country.

Vietnam's first chip manufacturing "furnace"

The microprocessor chip is the product of a group of lecturers and young engineers at the Integrated Circuit Design Research and Training Center (ICDREC) of Ho Chi Minh City National University. This center was launched on January 16, 2008, becoming one of the 10 national scientific and technological milestones that year.

It was Prof. Dr. Dang Luong Mo who proactively proposed the establishment of ICDREC at Ho Chi Minh City National University in 2005 and has been an advisor to the center since then. ICDREC is a large-scale organization with diverse activities: training, research, chip design, application product development, start-up and technology transfer, international cooperation, and organization of the 4S international scientific conference.

The chip was designed and successfully manufactured by ICDREC. Starting from zero, three years later ICDREC announced the successful manufacture of Vietnam's first 8-bit processor chip called SIGMAK3.

A year later, the center continued to launch the VN801 microprocessor chip, a version with higher features and better performance than the first chip. After four years of research and testing, ICDREC successfully manufactured Vietnam's first commercial chip, the SG8V1.

"The actual products prove that Vietnamese people are fully capable of creating their own chips. The day my colleagues and I at ICDREC created the first chip after many months of research was the happiest day for me since returning to work in my homeland. All the hardships and difficulties before were gone, and I cannot describe the joy," Professor Mo confided.

Opened the first microchip design industry

With the desire that Vietnam can master chip design technology, Professor Mo is always concerned about the need to train human resources for this field at domestic universities. He proposed and then directly participated in managing and teaching the postgraduate program on microchip design at the University of Natural Sciences (Ho Chi Minh City National University).

He was also the one who connected and invited foreign lecturers to come back to the country to teach... As a result, the list of lecturers for the program included 22 people: 6 permanent lecturers from the University of Natural Sciences, 2 lecturers from the University of Technology; the remaining 14 lecturers, including him, were all overseas Vietnamese professors or Japanese professors.

Thanks to careful preparation, the application to open the program was sent to Ho Chi Minh City National University in May 2007 and was granted an operating license just two months later. In September 2007, the first course opened.

To date, the program has completed its 17th course, many of whom have become lecturers at universities at home and abroad.

300 research projects and more than 10 patents and inventions

Prof. Dr. Dang Luong Mo: Pioneer in developing Vietnam's microchip industry - Photo 2.

Prof. Dr. Dang Luong Mo spoke at the conference "Overseas Vietnamese give opinions on the program to improve the quality of university and college education in Ho Chi Minh City" on the afternoon of November 29, 2018 - Photo: TRAN HUYNH

Mr. Dang Luong Mo was born in 1936 in Kien An, Hai Phong . After graduating from high school, he and his family migrated to Saigon. He was valedictorian of the entrance exam to the School of Technology Engineering (the predecessor of the mechanical engineering department, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology).

At the age of 21, he won a scholarship from the Japanese Government to study electronics in the land of cherry blossoms.

In 1962, Dang Luong Mo graduated from Tokyo University and two years later he completed his master's program. In 1968, he successfully defended his doctoral thesis in science, becoming a research specialist at Toshiba Central Research Institute, Japan for four years (1968 - 1971). He then returned to Vietnam to teach at Saigon University of Science (now Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Sciences).

During this time, he also taught at the National Institute of Technology (now Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology) as the director of the School of Electricity. In 1973, he was promoted to the position of director of the National Institute of Technology.

In 1976, he returned to Japan to continue his work as a senior researcher at Toshiba Central Research Institute, Japan. In 1983, he was invited to teach at Hosei University, as head professor of the newly opened Department of Electronic Informatics.

He was elected to the New York Academy of Sciences in 1992. He is also a senior member of the IEEE (American Society of Electrical and Electronics Engineers).

In 2002, he returned to Vietnam to teach and guide graduate research at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology; member of the scientific council of the Nanotechnology Laboratory; advisor to the director of Ho Chi Minh City National University; member of the scientific council of Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Park.

He has more than 300 research works and more than 10 patents and inventions.

Campaign to establish Overseas Vietnamese Science and Technology Club

Prof. Dr. Dang Luong Mo is also a familiar face at most overseas Vietnamese conferences in Ho Chi Minh City. In 2005, he proposed the establishment of the Overseas Vietnamese Science and Technology Club, serving as a bridge between overseas Vietnamese scientists and technicians around the world and domestic scientific, technical and higher education organizations. The club has truly become a bridge for overseas Vietnamese intellectuals to contribute their intelligence to serve the country.

* Associate Professor, Dr. Phan Thanh Binh (former director of Ho Chi Minh City National University):

Continuously contributing to Vietnamese higher education

Prof. Dr. Dang Luong Mo has always devoted himself to science and education in Vietnam, especially at Ho Chi Minh City National University. Not only mobilizing scholarships, teaching, conducting scientific research, and building a semiconductor research center at Ho Chi Minh City National University, Professor Mo has also consulted on the development of Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Park, promoted the microchip industry, and supported many domestic universities.

In addition to his expertise, Professor Mo also wrote books about reforms during the Meiji Emperor period, scientific integrity...

Today's achievements of Ho Chi Minh City National University have the silent but great contributions of patriotic scientists like Professor Mo.