The role of educational institutions in smart city construction

To build a smart city, it should come from smart people. Therefore, universities in the province have been trying to improve their training quality to meet the requirements in the new situation.

To develop high-quality human resources

Human resources are the decisive factor for all successes, including the building of smart city. Therefore, each university has made a significant move and has long-term plans in training. In order to provide the society with high quality human resources, educational institutions have renovated their training content and programs towards international integration.

Students of Thu Dau Mot University introduce sensors to access information of Binh Duong culture and people.

At present, many universities are applying the entire curriculum or in some fields in English, such as: Viet Duc University, Eastern International, Thu Dau Mot University... In addition, these universities have high-quality majors, postgraduate training. For example, Thu Dau Mot University has 6 high-quality majors, and is expected to have two more majors in the coming time. According to Mr. Le Tuan Anh, Dean of Information Technology - Electric, Electronic Faculty, postgraduate training program on information system is oriented towards high-quality training. Currently, this program has 50 postgraduates. The university also opens an open Lab for students; has deployed phase 1 of a Lab in cooperation with Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group to study about Smart City.

At the Eastern International University, in October, the university opened its lighting laboratory. This is the premise laboratory in the plan to build Binh Duong Smart City. The Lighting Lab will be used in teaching subjects related to lighting techniques for students, enabling them to access and practice the modern lighting technologies of Philips. It is also a place for training and advanced training for engineers of enterprises, universities and agencies that need to have the best knowledge and skills in lighting techniques in order to achieve optimum efficiency in the use of flexible lighting, which helps reduce the cost of industrial production...

To build long-term strategy

To integrate and affirm the prestige and position in the educational environment, universities have devised strong and feasible advancements. According to Management Board of Thu Dau Mot University, in the strategy of developing scientific research and technology transfer program, the university is seeking to implement three research projects, including smart city research project. Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Van Hiep, Rector of the university, said that the project had being deployed by staff, teachers and students to use smart technology to create tools to serve and improve human life and make diverse applications in such areas as: hi-tech agriculture, intelligent health care, intelligent transportation, smart homes...

While building smart city, we should pay attention to human resource development. Binh Duong University of Economics and Technology has actively integrated into regional and international educational activities. The university has 3 international volunteers to teach free Chinese and English for students. In addition, the university cooperated with Isuhai Company to give Japanese classes to students. Up to now, the university has trained 15 classes, each class with 25 students. In the future, the university will send students to practice in foreign countries in the region. With the above steps, the university wants to train students to become dynamic people, have good knowledge to build Binh Duong Smart City.

Viet Duc University is one of the early schools to recognize the integration of industry 4.0 into education and the role of universities in building smart city. According to Rector Ha Thuc Vien, the goal is to train good students, fluent in theory and practice, good at critical thinking and creative thinking, are fully equipped to be ready to assume leadership roles in future generations of scientists, engineers and administrators.

Education plays an important role in the development of a country. Education does not stop at improving people's knowledge but also fostering talents, building a highly skilled workforce. The training of skilled people will help Binh Duong to successfully build the smart city in the spirit of the 10th Provincial Party Resolution, term 2015-2020.

Reported by H.Thai – Translated by Ngoc Huynh