NAVER Opens Second Research Base in Vietnam to Strengthen Its Global AI R&D Belt
NAVER Opens Second Research Base in Vietnam to Strengthen Its Global AI R&D Belt
NAVER Opens Second Research Base in Vietnam to Strengthen Its Global AI R&D Belt
- NAVER teams up with PTIT, one of the top universities in the IT field in Vietnam, to establish a joint AI center to conduct international cooperative R&D programs
- PTIT-NAVER AI Center is NAVER’s joint AI center in Vietnam after opening one with Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) in March
- The new AI center is the latest link in NAVER’s rapidly expanding Global AI R&D Belt, with locations in U.S., France, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia
2021-05-27
NAVER Corporation (KRX: 035420) announced today it has opened PTIT-NAVER AI Center, a dedicated space to carry out cooperative research and development (R&D) programs focused on artificial intelligence (AI). NAVER chose to work with Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology (PTIT) on AI as it is Vietnam’s leading advanced technological research institute and the only university under Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communication.
PTIT-NAVER AI Center is NAVER’s second R&D base in Vietnam after opening another joint AI center in March at Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST), Vietnam's most prestigious engineering university, ranked in the top 4 of the IT field in Southeast Asia. NAVER and HUST are actively exchanging technology and fostering a new generation of IT talent.
The research centers at PTIT and HUST are part of NAVER’s rapidly expanding Global AI R&D Belt, which it announced in 2019 at DEVIEW, the largest developer conference in Korea. With its Global AI R&D Belt, NAVER aims to create a vast technology research network that can compete with those centered in the U.S. and China. As part of the belt, NAVER has also established a Silicon Valley-based R&D center and started a joint AI research program with Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Seoul National University.
Officials who attended the opening of PTIT-NAVER AI Center included Nguyen Minh Hong, Chairman of the Vietnam Digital Communications Association (VDCA); Tu Minh Phuong, Chairman of PTIT; Bu Van San, President of PTIT; and Dang Hoai Bac, Vice President of PTIT.
At the new AI center, PTIT and NAVER researchers will plan and conduct various cooperative R&D projects focused on deep learning, mapping, video and voice recognition. They will work together to develop and validate capabilities, such as indoor semantic segmentation, fine-grained segmentation by deep learning, neural network approaches to improve performance of H.264 video coding standard, neural adaptive video streaming and Vietnam speech-utterance corpus construction for ASR.
Along with joint research, NAVER also strives to foster excellent local talent in the long term by supporting various programs, such as global training for local researchers, special lectures by NAVER engineers, internships and scholarships. In addition, campus events, closely related to AI and ICT technology, will be held in the center.
“It is a great honor to be selected as NAVER’s industry-academic research partner in its Global AI R&D Belt,” said Vu Van San, president of PTIT. “The active AI technology exchange with NAVER, along with ongoing research activities at PTIT, is expected to greatly enhance our digitalization process and further enhance our competitiveness. We wish NAVER and PTIT many achievements and opportunities for cooperation in the future.”
“As PTIT is the only university under Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communication, NAVER and PTIT’s industry-academic cooperation marks a major step forward in Vietnam’s AI R&D,” said Nguyen Minh Hong, chairman of the Vietnam Digital Communication Association. “By establishing a joint AI center, NAVER and PTIT will collaborate with government ministries and educational institutes to conduct education and research programs nationwide.”
“With joint AI centers at the best research institutes in Korea and Southeast Asia, management integration between Line and Yahoo in Japan, R&D centers in U.S. and Korea and Naver Labs Europe in France, NAVER is well positioned for a great leap forward as a global technology company,” said Dong-jin Park, head of NAVER Vietnam Corporation and co-head of AI Center. “We will be reborn as a leading global AI technology company.”
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