Phung Manh Duong, PhD
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Assistant Professor - AI and Robotics
Biography
Dr. Duong Phung is an Assistant Professor in AI and Robotics at the College of Engineering and Computer Science, VinUniversity. He has over 15 years of academic and research experience, including lecturer positions at the University of Technology Sydney (5 years) and Western Sydney University (4 years). His research focuses on autonomous systems and artificial intelligence, with expertise in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), AI-driven robot vision, SLAM, path planning, and motion control.
Dr. Phung has authored more than 70 publications in top-tier journals and conferences and has received three Best Paper Awards from the Applied Soft Computing journal (Elsevier, 2023), the 7th International Conference on Control, Robotics and Informatics (ICCRI 2024), and the Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation (ACRA 2019). He was a recipient of the Endeavour Research Fellowship awarded by the Australian Government. He has also served as Principal Investigator and lead researcher on grants funded by academic and industry partners, including the Australian Department of Defence, Samsung Vietnam Mobile R&D, and the National University of Singapore.
A Senior Member of IEEE, Dr. Phung is actively involved in academic service. He has served as Program Chair, Keynote Speaker, International Coordination Chair, and Publication Chair for various IEEE conferences, and reviews for leading journals including IEEE RA-L, IEEE T-ITS, and IEEE TNNLS.
· Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
· Networked Robots
· Social Robots
· Computer Vision
· Applied Machine Learning Techniques
· Swarm Intelligence
· Internet of Things (IoT)
· Mobile Robotics
· Algorithms for Intelligent Robots
· Computer Vision
· Design Thinking
· Introductory Control
· Electronics & Circuits
· T. H. Khuat, D. -N. Bui, H. T. T. Nguyen, M. L. Trinh, M. T. Nguyen and M. D. Phung, “Multi-Goal Rapidly Exploring Random Tree with Safety and Dynamic Constraints for UAV Cooperative Path Planning,” IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 74, no. 9, pp. 13446-13457, 2025
· Duy-Nam Bui, Manh Duong Phung, Duy Hung Pham, “Event-based Reconfiguration Control for Time-varying Formation of Robot Swarms in Narrow Spaces,” Intelligent Service Robotics, vol.18, pp. 647-659, 2025.
· Thi Thuy Ngan Duong, Duy-Nam Bui, Manh Duong Phung, “Navigation variable-based multi-objective particle swarm optimization for UAV path planning with kinematic constraints,” Neural Computing and Applications, vol. 37 (7), pp. 5683–5697, 2025.
· Duy Nam Bui, Manh Duong Phung, “Radial basis function neural networks for formation control of unmanned aerial vehicles”, Robotica, vol.42 (6), pp. 1842 – 1860, 2024.
· Duy Nam Bui, Thi Thanh Van Nguyen, Manh Duong Phung, “Lyapunov-Based Nonlinear Model Predictive Control for Attitude Trajectory Tracking of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles,” International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences, vol.24, pp.502–513, 2023.
· Manh Duong Phung, Quang Phuc Ha, “Safety-enhanced UAV path planning with spherical vector-based particle swarm optimization”, Applied Soft Computing, Vol. 107, pp. 107376, 2021.
· Manh Duong Phung, Quang Phuc Ha, “Motion-encoded particle swarm optimization for moving target search using UAVs”, Applied Soft Computing, Vol.97, Part B, pp. 106705, 2020.
· Van Truong Hoang, Manh Duong Phung, Tran Hiep Dinh, Quang P Ha, “System Architecture for Real-Time Surface Inspection Using Multiple UAVs”, IEEE Systems Journal, Vol.14, no. 2, pp. 2925-2936, 2020.
· Q. P. Ha, S. Metia and M. D. Phung, “Sensing Data Fusion for Enhanced Indoor Air Quality Monitoring,” IEEE Sensors Journal, Vol. 28, no. 8, pp. 4430 – 4441, 2020.
· Tran Hiep Dinh, Manh Duong Phung, Quang Phuc Ha, “Summit Navigator: A Novel Approach for Local Maxima Extraction”, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, Vol. 29, pp. 551 – 564, 2019.
· VT Hoang, Manh Duong Phung, Tran Hiep Dinh, Quang Phuc Ha, “Angle-encoded swarm optimization for UAV formation path planning”, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 5239-5244, 2018.
· Manh Duong Phung, Cong Hoang Quach, Tran Hiep Dinh, Quang Ha, “Enhanced Discrete Particle Swarm Optimization Path Planning for UAV Vision-based Surface Inspection”, Automation in Construction, Vol.81, pp.25-33, 2017.
· 2017: Postdoc in Mechatronic Engineering, University of Technology Sydney
· 2015: Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering, Vietnam National University Hanoi
· 2005: B.Sc. in in Electronics and Telecommunications, Vietnam National University Hanoi
· 2024: Best Paper Award, 7th International Conference on Control, Robotics and Informatics (ICCRI)
· 2023: Best Paper Award, Applied Soft Computing (Elsevier)
· 2019: Best Paper Award, Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation (ACRA)
· 2015: Endeavour Research Fellowship, Australian Government
