Continuing the tradition of almost 10 years, this summer four Vietnamese students visited the Ruhr-University Bochum for a four months’ stay to write their master’s thesis.

 Since establishing CompEng@VGU as a sister course at the Vietnamese-German University, and signing a double-degree agreement in 2022, Ruhr-University Bochum is the destination for VGU students for a stay to not only get to know their course of study from a new side and gain a direct connection to the sister course at the Ruhr-University Bochum and the Professors and young researchers in their field of study, but to also get the chance to learn more about German life and culture.

This year’s exchange students are Vinh Nguyen Quang Thien, working on his thesis under the supervision of M.Sc. Kerem Ciftci from the Institute of Mechanics of Materials. His work’s title is “A Multi-objective optimization approach of model-free data-driven computational mechanics using deep learning methods.” Phuong Bui Quoc is working on his thesis “Geometrically Nonlinear Topology Optimization Using A Bi-directional Evolutionary Structural Optimization Method” under the supervision of Dr.-Ing. Ulrich Hoppe from the Chair of Mechanics - Material Theory. Mot Vo Thanh is working on his thesis under the supervision of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Romuald Skoda from the Lehrstuhl für Hydraulische Strömungsmaschinen (Chair of Hydraulic Fluid Machinery). His work’s title is “Seamlessly coupled three-dimensional / one-dimensional flow simulation of cavitating hydrofoil flow and piping for the evaluation of acoustic characteristics.” Huan Le Cong is working on his thesis under the supervision of Dr.-Ing. Sergey Kozinov from the Chair of Continuum Mechanics. The working title of his thesis is “Adaptive Finite Elements for Quasi-static Problems “. Mr Le Cong decided to extend his stay at RUB for the upcoming winter semester in order to complete his thesis and participate in a presentation of the same.

The CompEng Team was very pleased to welcome the four VGU students in Bochum. In addition to the academic support at RUB, the students were able to gain an insight into German culture and history, not least through the annual CompEng excursion, which this year led to Berlin.

At the end of August, Mr Nguyen Quang Thien, Mr Bui Quoc and Mr Vo Thanh returned to Vietnam while Mr Le Cong move to his new accommodation in Bochum for the next six month. On 23th of August, the three departing students were bid farewell at a joint dinner in the Qwest restaurant on the RUB campus.

We wish all four candidates good luck for the final phase of their master’s thesis!

Our special thanks go out to the DAAD (link: https://www.daad.de/en/) who made this exchange possible through its financial support, as they have in past years.