“The Man Behind the Magic: Meet Nguyễn Trung Quân, the VinMotion Robot Wizard”

VinMotion Joint Stock Company, a member of the Vingroup ecosystem, has garnered attention with the official launch of its new generation of “make in Vietnam” humanoid robots. Behind these robots is Chairman Nguyen Trung Quan.

Born in 1989 in Nghe An, Nguyen Trung Quan was a physics major at Phan Boi Chau Specialized High School, one of the country’s most prestigious schools.

In 11th grade, he won third prize in the National Excellent Student Competition in Physics and was expected to excel in his final year. However, he again placed third the following year, missing the opportunity to participate in the International Physics Olympiad.

Nonetheless, Quan remained steadfast in pursuing a career in engineering. He was admitted to the Hanoi University of Science and Technology’s Talent Engineer program in Automation and Control.

Starting in his fourth year, Quan began exploring robotics out of pure interest, and this passion led him to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in the US, a top-ranked institution for robotics.

Initially, his doctoral application was rejected due to insufficient IELTS scores. However, on his second attempt, he was accepted into the graduate program and successfully defended his thesis in just three and a half years, an outstanding achievement considering that doctoral programs in the US typically span five years.

In late 2017, Nguyen Trung Quan took up a postdoctoral research position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In early 2019, he became a robotics professor at the University of Southern California (USC), one of the top ten technology universities in the US. In early 2025, he announced his move to VinMotion, aiming to contribute to Vietnam’s rise as a robotics powerhouse and calling on talents at home and abroad to join this endeavor.

On August 8, 2025, at the 32nd anniversary of Vingroup’s founding, VinMotion’s Motion robots showcased their dynamic synchronized dancing skills, self-balancing, and collision avoidance capabilities, despite interference from thousands of mobile devices nearby. According to Mr. Quan, the robots operated entirely autonomously, without human intervention, using sensors to maintain distance and balance while performing agile movements, rather than simply following a pre-programmed routine.

VinMotion was established with a charter capital of VND 1,000 billion. In less than seven months, the company has developed five versions of humanoid robots, with Vietnamese engineers handling everything from design, mechanics, electronics, software, artificial intelligence to control systems. Mr. Quan affirmed, “We are in full control of the process, and we do not import complete units or basic frames from any company. Every detail is developed here in Vietnam.”