Vietnamese PhD honored in Silicon Valley

Vu Duy Thuc - founder of a robot that takes care of the elderly's health is one of 40 prominent faces under 40 years old in Silicon Valley.

The Silicon Valley Business Journal, the leading newspaper in Silicon Valley (USA), has just honored 40 individuals under 40 years old who are most active in all fields here. The list was selected by the newspaper's Editorial Board, including people with high responsibility in their careers and contributions to the overall development of Silicon Valley.

This year’s list includes many big names in various fields. Among them is Vu Duy Thuc, a famous figure in the startup world in Vietnam. He was the youngest Vietnamese PhD in Information Technology (specializing in Artificial Intelligence) at the prestigious Stanford University (USA).

Vu Duy Thuc - founder of a robot that takes care of the health of the elderly.

Vu Duy Thuc is currently the co-founder and CEO of OhmniLabs - a robot that helps connect, suitable for everyone, especially the elderly who are not used to using technology when they do not need to do any operations. The operator can control the robot remotely through software. The robot has a tablet attached and is capable of moving. Both parties can see each other's images and chat directly through webcam.

He plans to develop an open robot platform in the near future so that researchers and programmers can develop many different applications in the fastest time and at the lowest cost. The 8x founder hopes to contribute to accelerating the robotic revolution in the near future.

Sharing about his inspiration at the request of the award organizers, Vu Duy Thuc said that his father was the one who helped guide and inspire him in his studies and work. To him, his father is also a great friend who always shares and sympathizes with many things in life.

When asked to choose a word that represents his inspiration, the founder of OhmniLabs said "kindness". In his opinion, when people die, they cannot take their material possessions or fame with them. Therefore, the most important thing is what you can do for your family, society and what feelings you leave behind for everyone.

"Orienting my work based on compassion helps me feel lighter in success and failure as well as feel that life is more meaningful," he shared.

It is the keyword “compassion” that has motivated the CEO to pursue many social projects, co-founding the VietSeeds scholarship fund for poor students to overcome difficulties since 2011. Having met many excellent and hard-working students but had to give up their dreams because of their families’ difficulties, he hopes that in the future there will no longer be such situations.

"We are currently fundraising for the new school year to award more than 200 scholarships. Hopefully more people will join in to help more students pursue their dreams," he said.

Having lived and worked in the US for many years, the founder of OhmniLabs believes that Vietnamese people have made their mark in Silicon Valley. Many are working in leading technology corporations, from engineers, researchers to CTOs or CEOs, participating in projects that contribute to changing the world.

The desire of Vietnamese startups to step out into the world is highly appreciated by Mr. Thuc. However, according to him, before that, startups should find world-class advisors or investors who are familiar with the markets they want to penetrate to learn. "They will help you take more appropriate steps, connect you with new markets, strategic partners or important capital and human resources," the founder in Silicon Valley advised.

Vu Duy Thuc was the co-founder of the social network Katango - the first software company co-founded by a Vietnamese to be acquired by Google. He also co-founded the chat application Tappy, which was also acquired by a Silicon Valley company, Weeby. In addition, Vu Duy Thuc is also an angel investor for many projects.

According to VNE