VAST–CNRS Winter School 2026 brings together researchers and young scientists from Vietnam and France to explore interdisciplinary data science, from mathematics and modeling to computing.
Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology · Centre national de la recherche scientifique
VAST–CNRS Winter School 2026
Interdisciplinary Data ScienceFrom Mathematics, Modeling to Computing
About the school
The school brings together leading researchers in mathematics, modeling and computer science from Vietnam and France, under the collaboration between VAST and CNRS.
It gives senior researchers, young researchers, PhD candidates and master’s students from both countries a place to deepen their knowledge, present current work, build professional networks and shape joint projects for the years ahead.
Four days are structured by research area: sessions on the principles of mathematics and modeling first, then advanced topics in computing, with flash communications and poster sessions at the end of each of the first two full days. An optional two-day tour of Ha Long Bay follows the closing session.
Topics
The program is built around seven themes. The list is not exhaustive — related work is welcome in the flash communication and poster sessions.
Interdisciplinary research and challenges
Where mathematics, modeling and computing meet, and what breaks at the seams.
Mathematical foundations of data science
Belief functions, quantum and combinatorial optimization, probability, numerical analysis.
Complex system modeling
Automata networks, random walks, discrete dynamical systems, agent-based simulation.
Distributed infrastructure and edge computing
Cloud architectures, parallel computing and GPU acceleration, networks and security.
Machine learning and deep learning
Neural networks, graph neural networks, optimization in learning, reinforcement and few-shot learning.
Applications of math and interdisciplinary data science
Genomics and bioinformatics, imaging, big data, and work carried out with domain partners.
Flash communications and posters
PhD students and young researchers present ongoing work in 180 seconds, then discuss at the poster boards.
Speakers
Researchers from Vietnam and France
Keynote speakers
Three keynote talks open the school on Monday, November 16.
Keynote 1 confirmed
Prof.Michel Daydé
IRIT, Toulouse — CNRS
“From Calculus to Exascale and new computing paradigms”
Keynote 2
Prof.Đoàn Thái Sơn
Institute of Mathematics, VAST
Title to be announced
Keynote 3
Assoc. Prof.Nguyễn Trường Thắng
Institute of Information Technology, VAST
Title to be announced
List of speakers
Thirty-two speakers in total from Vietnamese and French institutions. Scroll each list to see everyone.
Vietnam 18
| Name | Institute | Specialty |
|---|---|---|
| Trần Giang SơnAssoc. Prof. | USTH | Deep learning, computer vision |
| Trần Hoàng TùngDr. | USTH | Deep learning, image processing |
| Lê Hải KhôiAssoc. Prof. | USTH | Complex variable functions |
| Nguyễn Minh HươngDr. | USTH | Wireless networks |
| Nguyễn Hoàng HàDr. | USTH | Computer graphics |
| Giang Anh TuấnDr. | USTH | Wireless networks |
| Đoàn Nhật QuangDr. | USTH | Data mining |
| Đoàn Thái SơnProf. | IOM | Numerical analysis |
| Đinh Nho HàoProf. | IOM / IRL FVMA | Numerical analysis |
| Lê Xuân ThanhDr. | IOM / IRL FVMA | Optimization |
| Phan Thị Hà DươngAssoc. Prof. | IOM / IRL FVMA | Discrete dynamical systems |
| Cấn Văn HảoAssoc. Prof. | IOM / IRL FVMA | Probability and statistics |
| Nguyễn Trường ThắngAssoc. Prof. | IOIT | Computer science |
| Nguyễn Đức DũngAssoc. Prof. | IOIT | Computer vision |
| Nguyễn Việt AnhAssoc. Prof. | IOIT | Artificial intelligence |
| Phạm Thanh GiangAssoc. Prof. | IOIT | Network security |
| Hoàng Đỗ Thanh TùngDr. | IOIT | Big data |
| Nguyễn Thị Phương ThảoDr. | IOIT | Bioinformatics |
France 14
| Name | Institution |
|---|---|
| Daniel HagimontProf. | Toulouse |
| Michel DaydéProf. | Toulouse |
| Sixin ZhangMaître de conférences | Toulouse |
| Julien HerrmannChargé de recherche | Toulouse |
| Benoit Gaudou onlineProf. | Toulouse |
| Alain TchanaProf. | Grenoble |
| Nguyen Kim ThangProf. | Grenoble |
| Dominique LavenierProf. | Rennes |
| Mohamed Ez-zaouiaMaître de conférences | Rennes |
| Constance ThierryMaître de conférences | Rennes |
| Nguyen Viet HungProf. | Clermont |
| Pascal BourdonMaître de conférences | Poitiers |
| Lilian Aveneau onlineProf. | Poitiers |
| Sylvain SenéProf. | Marseille — IRL FVMA |
Two French speakers take part online. Ten PhD students and postdocs from Toulouse, Rennes, Poitiers and Clermont travel with the French delegation and take part in the flash communication and poster sessions.
Committee
The people organizing the school
Organizing Committee
Chairs
- Prof. Đinh Thị Mai Thanh chairUSTH
- Prof. Daniel Hagimont co-chairIRIT UMR 5505, INP Toulouse
- Assoc. Prof. Trần Giang Sơn co-chairUSTH
Members
- Prof. Đoàn Thái Sơn IOM
- Assoc. Prof. Nguyễn Trường Thắng IOIT
- Assoc. Prof. Phan Thị Hà Dương VIASM, IOM, IRL FVMA
- Prof. Marc Peigné Institut Denis Poisson UMR 7013, IRL FVMA
- Prof. Lilian Aveneau XLIM UMR 7252, University of Poitiers
- Dr. Trần Hoàng Tùng USTH
- Dr. Nguyễn Minh Hương secretaryUSTH
Supporting team
- Nguyễn Thị Hiền VAST
- Đinh Thành Trung VAST
- Đinh Đàm Khánh USTH
- Phạm Thị Thùy Ngân USTH
Program
November 15–19, 2026 · Tam Dao, Phu Tho, Vietnam
Tentative schedule. Talks marked as confirmed have a speaker and title agreed; the rest are being finalized.
Day 1 — Sunday, November 15
Arrival and check-in at Tam Dao. No scientific program.
| Time | Item | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | Arrival, transfer from Hanoi and Noi Bai airport | Shuttle times to be announced |
| Evening | Check-in and informal welcome | Conference hotel |
Day 2 — Monday, November 16
Opening, plenary talks, and interdisciplinary research.
| Time | Talk | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 9:00 | Welcome ceremonyMC: Dr. Trần Hoàng Tùng | Prof. Trần Hồng Thái, President of VAST; representatives of CNRS and of the VAST Department of International Cooperation; Prof. Đinh Thị Mai Thanh and Prof. Daniel Hagimont, chairs |
| 9:25 | Photographs | — |
| Session A — General 2 chairs | ||
| 9:30 | From Calculus to Exascale and new computing paradigms keynote 1 | Prof. Michel Daydé CNRSconfirmed |
| 10:15 | Coffee break | — |
| 10:30 | Title to be announced keynote 2 | Prof. Đoàn Thái Sơn Institute of Mathematics, VAST |
| 11:15 | Title to be announced keynote 3 | Assoc. Prof. Nguyễn Trường Thắng Institute of Information Technology, VAST |
| 12:00 | End of session — lunch | — |
| Session B — Interdisciplinary research and challenges 2 chairs | ||
| 13:30 | Automata Networks at the Heart of Natural Computing | Sylvain Sené Marseilleconfirmed |
| 14:00 | Complex Systems and Random Walks | Phan Thị Hà Dương IRL FVMAconfirmed |
| 14:30 | Title to be announced | Nguyễn Việt Anh IOIT |
| 15:00 | Coffee break | — |
| 15:15 | Title to be announced | Nguyễn Đức Dũng IOIT |
| 15:45 | Title to be announced | Đinh Nho Hào IOMconfirmed |
| 16:15 | Title to be announced | Trần Giang Sơn USTH |
| Flash communications and posters 2 chairs | ||
| 16:45 | PhD students and young researchers present ongoing work in 180 seconds | — |
| 19:00 | Dinner | — |
Day 3 — Tuesday, November 17
From mathematics and modeling…
| Time | Talk | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| Session C1 — Mathematical foundations of data science 2 chairs | ||
| 9:00 | Belief function theory for defining models or combining it with AI | Constance Thierry Rennesconfirmed |
| 9:30 | Title to be announced | Lê Hải Khôi USTH |
| 10:00 | Coffee break | — |
| 10:30 | Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithms for Combinatorial Optimization | Nguyen Viet Hung Clermontconfirmed |
| 11:00 | Title to be announced | Cấn Văn Hảo IOM |
| 11:30 | Title to be announced | Lê Xuân Thanh IOM |
| 12:00 | End of session — lunch | — |
| Session C2 — Complex system modeling 2 chairs | ||
| 13:30 | Title to be announced | Speaker to be announced |
| 14:00 | Scheduling Single Round Robin Tournaments with Different Court Types | Lê Xuân Thanh IOMconfirmed |
| 14:30 | Title to be announced | Nguyen-Huu Tri IRD |
| 15:00 | Coffee break | — |
| 15:15 | Title to be announced | Giang Anh Tuấn USTH |
| 15:45 | Title to be announced | Benoit Gaudou Toulouseonline |
| Flash communications and posters 2 chairs | ||
| 16:15 | PhD students and young researchers present ongoing work in 180 seconds | — |
| 19:00 | Dinner | — |
Day 4 — Wednesday, November 18
…to advanced computing.
| Time | Talk | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| Session D1 — Distributed infrastructure and edge computing 2 chairs | ||
| 9:00 | Cloud Computing Architectures | Alain Tchana Grenobleconfirmed |
| 9:30 | Title to be announced | Daniel Hagimont Toulouse |
| 10:00 | Coffee break | — |
| 10:30 | Title to be announced | Phạm Thanh Giang IOIT |
| 11:00 | Security and cryptography — title to be announced | Nguyễn Minh Hương USTH |
| 11:30 | Parallel Computing and GPU acceleration | Lilian Aveneau Poitiersconfirmedonline |
| 12:00 | End of session — lunch | — |
| Session D2 — Machine learning and deep learning 2 chairs | ||
| 13:30 | Neural Networks | Sixin Zhang Toulouseconfirmed |
| 14:00 | Authoring tools (multimodal) coupled with AI agents | Mohamed Ez-zaouia Rennesconfirmed |
| 14:30 | Optimization in machine learning — title to be announced | Nguyen Kim Thang Grenoble |
| 15:00 | Coffee break | — |
| 15:15 | Graph neural networks, multi-level domain decomposition, distributed AI training, AdaGrad for GNNs | Julien Herrmann Toulouseconfirmed |
| 15:45 | Reinforcement learning — title to be announced | Đoàn Nhật Quang USTH |
| 16:15 | Few-shot learning — title to be announced | Trần Hoàng Tùng USTH |
| 19:00 | Gala dinner | — |
Day 5 — Thursday, November 19
Applications, then departure.
| Time | Talk | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| Session E — Applications of interdisciplinary data science 2 chairs | ||
| 9:00 | Genomics and Bioinformatics | Dominique Lavenier CNRS Rennesconfirmed |
| 9:30 | Bioinformatics — title to be announced | Nguyễn Thị Phương Thảo IOIT |
| 10:00 | Coffee break | — |
| 10:30 | Title to be announced | Pascal Bourdon Poitiers |
| 11:00 | Title to be announced | Nguyễn Hoàng Hà USTH |
| 11:30 | Title to be announced | Hoàng Đỗ Thanh Tùng IOIT |
| 12:00 | End of session — lunch | — |
| 15:00 | Departure | — |
Optional — Ha Long Bay
Two days and one night, for participants who want to stay on after the closing session.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Duration | 2 days, 1 night |
| Departure | To be announced |
| Cost and booking | To be announced |
Participants should indicate their interest when registering so the organizers can size the booking.
Venue and travel
Tam Dao, Phu Tho, Vietnam
Tam Dao sits at about 900 meters in the mountains northwest of Hanoi, in Phu Tho province — a hill station of pine slopes, stone steps and near-permanent cloud.
Mid-November is a good time to be there: cool, dry, and clear enough in the afternoons to see down over the delta. Bring a jacket; evenings drop to around 15 °C (59 °F).
The drive from Noi Bai International Airport takes roughly ninety minutes, and about two hours from central Hanoi. A shuttle will run on November 15 for arrivals and after the closing session on November 19; times will be circulated with the final program.
