The 2016 CDIO National Conference, was hosted by Ho Chi Minh National University, on August 25, 2016 at the operations house of Ho Chi Minh National University. To participate in this Conference, there were: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hoi Nghia-Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh National University–Chief of the organization committee, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Huynh Thanh Dat-Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh National University, Prof. Dr. Ho Tan Nhut-California State University Northridge, USA-the person, who brought CDIO spirit to Vietnam; with the participations of the leaders and 300 delegates, who were the officials-lecturers of the universities inside the country.

At the opening speech, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hoi Nghia introduced cursorily about the itinerary of deploying CDIO at Ho Chi Minh National University, as well as the spread to other universities in the country. At present, Vietnam has three universities that are the members of the world CDIO organization; they are Ho Chi Minh National University, Duy Tan University and Thu Dau Mot University. In addition, more than 30 universities, which attended this Conference, were improving the training programs according to the promotion of CDIO and some of them were learning to deploy for their units.

According to the spirit of the prediction, the Conference spent a working day “busy, active, and effective”. With 11 reports presented at the opening and the closing sessions, 30 reports presented in 5 subcommittee sessions, the Conference gathered the achievements, experiences during 7 years of deploying CDIO in Vietnam. Besides, through the Conference, we could analyze and elucidate the obstacles in the implementation process, learned from the experiences of some schools to solve the current problems of other schools; extended the support relationships, cooperation for a general aim that is improving the education of Vietnam.

The delegation of Thu Dau Mot University, with Dr. Ngo Hong Diep-The Vice-Rector of the School was the leader, presented four essays at the Conference. The essay “Strengthening the teaching abilities of the lecturers to meet the work of deploying teaching according to the way of approaching CDIO” of the authors Nguyen Ngoc Mai and Nguyen Thi Hong Tham, which was presented at the opening session, attracted the attentions of the attending delegates. The essay introduced about the program of strengthening teaching abilities of the lecturers with the training methods that the School had done during the last year. Exchanged with the two authors, Prof. Dr. Ho Tan Nhut expected that the School would continue to promote the program, and conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching abilities of the lecturers who participated in training, thence, we could take the form of the developing data systems of each lecturer. The last 3 essays were presented at the subcommittee sessions, were “Applying the CARD model in the design of teaching activities to meet the output standards about the attitudes for the engineering technology discipline” by the authors Vo Thi Hong Tham, and Nguyen Phan Quynh Anh. The essay “The advantages and disadvantages of CDIO approach in non-technical discipline at Thu Dau Mot University” of the authors Nguyen Thi Xuan Hanh and Pham Thi Thuy Trang. “Deploying the introduction of Information Technology discipline at Thu Dau Mot University” was the essay of the group of authors Le Tuan Anh, Nguyen Thi Thuy, Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet and Duong Thi Kim Chi. The essays reported at the Conference, somewhat introduced the itineraries of  deploying seriously and effectively measures to improve the training programs according to CDIO of Thu Dau Mot University-a new member but had many positive activities for CDIO organization in Vietnam.

Derived from the mechanical engineering and aerospace engineering but with the superior characteristics in the implementation and evaluation, CDIO became the standard frame-the frame of reference for the innovations of the training programs of both technical and non-technical disciplines. Concurred and completely unified with this idea, the reports of the experts came from the universities inside the country, which were implementing CDIO, demonstrated the flexibilities in application, in accordance with the characteristics of each school but still kept the spirit of CDIO.