Nguyen Thi Huyen has been named valedictorian of the Advanced Generative Artificial Intelligence Engineering Program at Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST), graduating with an outstanding cumulative GPA of 3.96 and a final thesis score of 9.7 out of 10. She was also selected to represent more than 400 graduates and deliver a speech at HUST’s 2026 Master’s and Advanced Engineering Graduation Ceremony.
Few would have imagined that the 2000-born graduate once earned a degree in Business Administration from Foreign Trade University (FTU) and had virtually no technical background before venturing into the field of Artificial Intelligence. Huyen’s journey into AI began with a simple curiosity about how the technology could transform the way digital products are created and operated.
While working as a Product Manager for a website-building platform, she found herself asking a fundamental question: if AI could understand users’ business objectives, customer needs, and brand identities, would people still need to manually adjust every detail of a user interface in the future? Describing herself as a complete beginner in AI, Huyen spent more than a year studying independently before applying to HUST’s Advanced Generative AI Engineering Program. During the day, she worked full-time; at night, she immersed herself in mathematics, machine learning, deep learning, and programming. Weekends were devoted to textbooks, online courses, and countless lines of code. At times, the self-learning journey felt like wandering through an endless “AI desert.” The more she learned, the more she realized how much remained unknown. As the field continued to expand before her, she felt increasingly exhausted and in need of a clear roadmap to navigate the rapidly evolving technological landscape.
At that point, HUST’s Advanced AI Engineering Program, which welcomes candidates from non-technical backgrounds, became the roadmap Huyen had been searching for. Applicants without a computer science background are required to possess at least three years of relevant professional experience and complete a number of foundational courses in computer science. As a result, adapting to the demanding academic environment at HUST was far from easy for her.
On her first day of class, Huyen was the only female student among many highly accomplished technology professionals. She enthusiastically attended intensive weekend sessions consisting of three consecutive classes, each lasting three hours and requiring a high level of concentration and commitment. While many of her classmates already possessed strong technical foundations, Huyen had to build her knowledge of programming, mathematics, and systems thinking almost from scratch. Some semesters, she enrolled in as many as ten courses. There were nights when she worked on projects until four o’clock in the morning, and at one point she even put her professional career on hold to focus entirely on her studies.
What makes Nguyen Thi Huyen particularly remarkable is not only her academic excellence but also her ability to bridge business thinking and technology. “Technical thinking helps me answer the question of ‘how,’ while my business background encourages me to ask ‘why’ and ‘for whom,'” she shared. Perhaps for this reason, Huyen does not view AI merely as a technology, but as a tool for solving real-world problems. When approaching an AI challenge, she begins by examining customer journeys, process bottlenecks, critical data, and genuine user needs before selecting the most appropriate technical solution.
Her unconventional path from business to technology required tremendous sacrifices in time, effort, and personal pursuits. Yet she has never regretted the decision. “Before every major journey, we need an open mindset-like a blank sheet of paper waiting to be filled, transformed, and renewed,” the valedictorian reflected.
That perspective perhaps best captures who Nguyen Thi Huyen is: a young professional willing to start over from nearly zero, courageous enough to step into one of the most challenging frontiers of modern knowledge and continually push the boundaries of her own potential. Following graduation, she plans to pursue AI as a long-term career path, not only in her professional work but also through a startup venture she hopes to build in the future.
In her graduation speech, Huyen emphasized that the most valuable thing she gained was not the title of valedictorian itself, but the confidence she developed by daring to start over and move further than she once thought possible. “A person’s starting point does not determine their limits. What truly matters is having the courage to begin, the determination to persevere, and the commitment to continuously strive for excellence in becoming a better version of yourself,” she said.
Her message resonates strongly with many young people facing career crossroads, uncertain about starting over or afraid that they may not be capable of entering an entirely new field. Huyen’s story demonstrates that success is not defined by where one begins, but by the willingness to keep moving forward-even when the path ahead is not yet clear.