A senior from a major university in southern Vietnam has created a package of artificial intelligence (AI) applications that can conveniently link students and their school in cyberspace.

As Nguyen Dang An, an information technology faculty major at the University of Science in Ho Chi Minh City, had to embark on a graduation project, he came up with an idea - a program called SHub.

An initially intended it as a means of checking attendance in classes in his school and rendering student management procedures there less cumbersome for staff.

He then equipped the AI-based platform with the feature filtering important information from the webpages of the university’s various departments, administrative offices and clubs before sending it on demand to students’ smartphones installed with the system.

After the piece of software earned commendation from those marking his thesis, the school’s academic affairs office experimented with it.

An worked with peers to improve the program and build additional tools.

The platform is now a cluster of products, the centerpiece of which is SHub Social.

This core app is modeled upon social media sites and expected to send to students notifications about course schedules, exam dates, tuition payment deadlines, scholarships and employment opportunities posted by the college.

Another component, SHub Chat, allows students to talk with lecturers and administrative offices, obviating the need of arriving at the institution and spending time filling out the forms there in order to have their problems handled.

The app can search for answers to student questions and connect the person who asks with a relevant school staff member.

SHub Admin, An said, can facilitate administrative staff’s work while its sister, SHub Teacher, is a space where a student of high academic performance can offer to run an informal tutoring class which can be attended by 20-30 others who are in need of exam revision.

The platform package’s SHub Store, inspired by e-commerce dynamics, is somewhat different as the website enables student users to share their inventions and scientific research ideas.

An hopes SHub Teacher and SHub Store can yield profits in the long run.

He plans to develop many more free programs tailored to colleges around Vietnam and make money from their popularity.

“When the user number is high enough, financial benefits will come from firms with services related to my product,” An said.

Tran Minh Triet, vice-president of the University of Science, who witnessed the evolution of An and friends’ app package at the outset, praised their collective enthusiasm and activeness in improving it.

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