Nassim Razaaly, from ISAE-ENSMA, participated in an academic exchange stay at the Polytechnic Institutes of Hanoi (IPH) and Ho Chi Minh City (IPHCM) in April 2024, as part of the Program for Training Engineers of Excellence in Vietnam (PFIEV), a unique opportunity for academic and scientific collaboration.
The first week at IPH, Hanoi, began with a warm welcome from the Aerospace Department. Exchanges with teachers, including several former ENSMA trainees or doctoral students, were very constructive. The courses on optimization and gradient descent methods aroused keen interest among the students. The discussions revealed their curiosity and desire to learn. Informal moments, such as lunches and city tours, encouraged enriching exchanges and opened up prospects for scientific collaboration.
The second week at IPHCM, Ho Chi Minh City, continued the positive momentum. The courses on parametrization methods and genetic algorithms were well received. Interactions with Ms Hong-Hieu Le and her team have opened up prospects for joint projects. Dinners with colleagues from the Foreign Language Center strengthened ties and facilitated a better understanding of the Vietnamese education system.
The welcome from the teaching teams and students was exceptionally warm, creating an environment conducive to exchange. The discussions helped identify areas for improvement, particularly by strengthening students’ language and mathematics skills. Their enthusiasm and desire to learn was very encouraging. To maximize future exchanges, it would be beneficial to organize more friendly moments, to allow students to express themselves more freely. In conclusion, this stay was a success, laying the foundations for lasting scientific and educational collaborations thanks to the PFIEV. Prospects include strengthening students’ key skills and increasing opportunities for informal exchange, fostering greater participation and mutual enrichment. The positive interactions and potential projects identified bode well for the future of relations between ISAE-ENSMA and Vietnamese institutes within the framework of the PFIEV.
