Professor Ngo Bao Chau shows how to get out of the deadlock in research

On the afternoon of April 1, Professor Ngo Bao Chau, Scientific Director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics, spent more than an hour discussing with students of Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City. He received many questions about difficulties in the process of studying, researching and the role of Mathematics in the current context.

Prof. Chau said, in his experience, more than 90% of the time during the research process, the researcher will fall into a deadlock situation. Breakthrough moments are rare but they are well worth the effort.

“When deadlocked, don’t worry too much,” Chau said, pointing to two main causes of deadlock.

First, researchers do not fully understand the problem they are working on, manifested by the inability to state clearly and simply about the problem. For example, many people can only say “roughly” but not exactly a problem they are solving. Without understanding the problem, it is impossible to solve difficult problems.

The deadlock in the research also comes from the reuse of the methods of the predecessors. According to Professor Chau, learners must find ways to have “new thinking weapons”. Of course, not every problem has many options, different ways of doing things, especially in Mathematics. Thus, learners can find new ways of thinking about “similar problems”.

According to Mr. Chau, scientific research and creativity is a process that must be accumulated. Each concept, equation, theorem may be new to people when first approached, but after practice, it will be the knowledge that stays. He advises students to practice their research skills on a daily basis.

At the exchange, student Nguyen Dinh Dang Khoa asked about how to keep balance in life and do scientific research. Mr. Chau said that everyone sometimes falls into an unbalanced state at work; The way to overcome it is to find other pleasures in life. Besides Math, Mr. Chau is interested in science, philosophy, literature and art.

Being highly focused, completing tasks responsibly and on time is also a way to overcome imbalance or feelings of “laziness”. “We don’t lack time, we just lack focus,” Chau said.

Sharing with a student who had lost his way in study and research, Mr. Chau said he also had a serious crisis because he “didn’t understand what he was studying” when he first came to France. Most of the problems, he could solve but did not understand the nature of the theorems and concepts.

Thanks to a teacher, Mr. Chau understood the value of grasping abstract problems to solve concrete problems.

Professor Chau also spent time talking about the change of Mathematics in the context of information technology, artificial intelligence flourishing. According to Mr. Chau, the challenge of Mathematics is to find new and interesting problems to solve, such as Deep Learning.

As technology develops, the search for scientific information also changes drastically in a positive direction. Previously, it was not easy for graduate students to find good instructors and good books. Now, cyberspace, such as Google, gives learners an effective search engine and reference.

According to Professor Chau, scientific research conditions in Vietnam are still difficult, although there have been improvements compared to 10-20 years ago. To follow the path of in-depth research, students need a research group and a good teacher.

Manh Tung