Center for Environmental Intelligence

Next week, VinUniversity opens its doors to some of the sharpest minds working at the intersection of optimization, AI, and sustainability and the conversations that follow may shape how we approach some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

Here's what's coming:

⚡ July 1: Training Bootcamp
Hands-on tutorials with Prof. Nitesh Chawla (Notre Dame) and Dr. Mai Anh Tien (Singapore Management University). Whether you're deep in the field or just entering it, this is where the learning starts.

⚡ July 2: Conference Day 1
Plenary talks by Prof. Nitesh Chawla and Prof. Alexandre Bayen (UC Berkeley). Close the evening at the Conference Banquet, where the best conversations happen off-stage.

⚡ July 3: Conference Day 2
Prof. Yinyu Ye (Stanford) takes the plenary stage. Then: a Fireside Chat on Integrated AI for Developing Countries featuring Prof. Alexandre Bayen, Mr. Antoine Rostand (Kayrros), Dr. Le Ngoc Anh (Petrovietnam), and Prof. Laurent El Ghaoui (VinUniversity).

⚡ Closes with Paper & Poster Awards.

Three days. One question: how do we build systems that actually work for people and the planet?

HORIZONS 2026: Optimization for Sustainability
📅 July 1–3, 2026 | 📍 VinUniversity, Hanoi, Vietnam
🔗 horizons2026.vinuni.edu.vn

🌏 Introducing CEI's Advisory Board
Real-world environmental challenges don't wait for perfect conditions and neither do the people who've dedicated their lives to solving them.

CEI's Advisory Board brings together seven of the world's foremost minds in energy, materials science, AI, and disaster resilience. What draws them to VinUniversity? Vietnam's moment. A rapidly evolving research landscape, and the rare institutional ambition to turn academic excellence into tangible impact.

Prof. Omar M. Yaghi — UC Berkeley | Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025 | VinFuture Prize 2021
The father of reticular chemistry, whose materials capture carbon, store energy, and purify water at molecular scale. He sees in CEI a bridge between frontier materials science and the environmental solutions Vietnam and the world needs now.

Prof. Konstantin S. Novoselov — University of Manchester | Nobel Prize in Physics 2010
Co-discoverer of graphene, one of the most transformative materials of our era. His belief that fundamental science must connect to real applications aligns directly with CEI's mandate to make research matter beyond the lab.

Prof. Daniel Kammen — Johns Hopkins University | Nobel Peace Prize contributor (IPCC 2007)
"Clean and sustainable energy should be made available to all, not just the privileged." A lifetime spent desiging energy solutions for underserved communities worldwide, from rural mini-grids to national climate strategies. At CEI, that conviction meets one of Southeast Asia's most dynamic energy transitions.

Prof. Rajib Shaw — Keio University | UN Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction 2022
Asia's leading voice on disaster governance and climate adaptation, with over 450 academic papers and direct field experience across the region's most vulnerable communities. Vietnam's exposure to floods, storms, and evironmental stress makes this partnership urgent.

Prof. Thuc-Quyen Nguyen — UC Santa Barbara | National Academy of Inventors
A Vietnamese-born scientist whose childhood dream of converting sunlight into electricity became a research program redefining what solar cells can be. Advising CEI is, in part, bringing that work home.

Prof. Nitesh V. Chawla — University of Notre Dame | Fellow of ACM, IEEE, AAAI, AAAS
Founder of Notre Dame's Lucy Institute for Data & Society, driven by one question: how can technology advance the common good? At CEI, AI and data science meeting environmental intelligence is exactly where that question leads.

Prof. Alexandre Bayen — Associate Provost, UC Berkeley
A pioneer in AI-powered systems for mobility, infrastructure, and environmental monitoring. Where others see data, he sees the architecture of smarter, more resilient cities and ecosystems.

Seven perspectives. One shared conviction: that the most important environmental research of the next decade will happen in places like Vietnam and institutions like VinUniversity are where it begins.

It's not that we lack sustainable solutions. It's that people don't use them.

We already have well-optimized systems and infrastructure in practice (e.g. efficient energy grids, smart resource management tools) that work exactly as designed. Yet these frameworks often assume rational, consistent adoption: expecting people to keep choosing the "correct" option even as competing priorities, habits, and convenience pull the other way. The result: unsustainable practices default as the easier choice, and technically optimized solutions remain hard to integrate into everyday life.

For Assoc. Prof. Ann-Marie Conrado, this is the gap that many sustainability-focused optimization frameworks miss. So she poses a different question: what if, instead of optimizing the system and hoping behavior follows, we treated human behavior itself as a central design parameter from the start?

📢 Hear her findings at HORIZONS 2026: Optimization for Sustainability

📍July 1–3, VinUniversity, Hanoi.

🔗 Register now → horizons2026.vinuni.edu.vn

🎓 HORIZONS 2026 Training Bootcamp | Reinforcement Learning

Center for Environmental Intelligence at VinUniversity is delighted to invite you to our Training Bootcamp, organized as part of HORIZONS 2026: Optimization for Sustainability this July!

Led by two global experts: Prof. Nitesh Chawla (University of Notre Dame) and Dr. Mai Anh Tien (Singapore Management University), the bootcamp offers participants a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience and explore the latest advances in Reinforcement Learning and Optimization, with a focus on real-world sustainability challenges.

The lectures will feature a blend of theory, interactive discussions, Q&A sessions, and hands-on Python and mathematical exercises, providing an engaging learning experience for graduate students and young researchers.

To ensure a smooth learning experience, please:
- Bring your laptop. Internet access will be available at the venue.
- Have a Python notebook environment installed and ready to use.
- Familiarity with Python notebooks is recommended

📢 Register here: https://forms.office.com/r/NhSpi2GbYn
Date & Time: July 1, 2026 | 8:30 AM – 3:30 PM
Venue: Room D303, VinUniversity
Free registration

We asked one of the world's leading optimization experts what Vietnam's real opportunity in AI looks like. His answer might surprise you.

Prof. Stephen Boyd of Stanford University argues that the countries that benefit most from the AI revolution won't be the ones training the largest models, they'll be the ones asking the clearest questions about what their communities actually need.

At CEI, that's exactly what we're building toward. And this July at HORIZONS 2026 (VinUniversity, July 1-3), we're bringing together researchers and institutions across the region to do the same.

Read the full conversation and learn more about the conference: https://cei.vinuni.edu.vn/blog/vietnam-doesnt-need-to-beat-meta-it-needs-to-build-what-meta-never-will/

📢📢 HORIZONS 2026 Official Extension of Abstract Submission Deadline

In response to the high level of interest and requests from prospective participants, the Organizing Committee of HORIZONS 2026 is pleased to announce that the deadline for abstract submission has been extended to June 01, 2026. Subsequently, the notification for abstract acceptance will be rescheduled to June 10, 2026.

Authors are kindly invited to submit their abstracts and ensure that all required information is completed on the official submission portal by this new deadline.

🔗 https://horizons2026.vinuni.edu.vn

For further inquiries or assistance, please contact the HORIZONS 2026 Conference Secretariat at: [email protected]

We look forward to your valuable contributions to HORIZONS 2026.