Thanh Linh Nguyen

PhD candidate at Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin

About Research Publications Projects Work Experience and Awards Teaching Blog Misc

Thanh Linh Nguyen | PhD candidate at Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin

Welcome to my personal space! This webpage is not only dedicated to my academic pursuits, but also serves as a place where I share technical posts, memorable travel experiences, and the wonderful people I’ve met along the way.

Short Biography

I am Linh. I am currently a 3rd-year PhD candidate in the fields of Federated Learning/Unlearning, Incentivization, Network Economics, and Blockchain at Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin. My PhD is fully funded by the School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin and Research Ireland ADVANCE CRT. I have been fortunate to complete two 3-month internships: one on incentivization for federated unlearning, from June to September 2025, at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), and one on client-level federated unlearning solutions, from July to September 2026, at Montimage.

In addition to doing research, I enjoy designing, modelling, and turning academic ideas into practical products. Here is my tech stack:

Python Go Javascript Solidity Docker TensorFlow PyTorch Ethereum Hyperledger Fabric Amazon AWS

In particular, I am always looking to collaborate on research topics in Blockchain, Federated Learning, game-theoretic network economics and, more recently, LLMs.

News

  • [07-09/2026] I have started my research secondment at Montimage, Paris, where I will develop robust and efficient unlearning solutions for FL-based applications in next-generation networks. The work I co-authored, ‘XAI-Driven Runtime Validation for Zero-Touch Security Management in AI-Native 6G’, was accepted at NextGCom’2026.

  • [08/2026] I participated in From Zero to Hero: Federated AI in Healthcare Systems Workshop and Collaborative Agent Hackathon, organized in Cambridge, UK. It was a brilliant opportunity to discuss the bottlenecks of deploying Federated Learning in practice, from regulatory to technical constraints. We also developed Flower Seed, a federated AI agent app built on Flower SuperGrid that improves post-operative outcomes for cataract surgery through federated insights across multiple facilities, without sharing patient records.

  • [07/2026] My work Carpe Diem: Critical Learning Period-Aware Contract-Based Incentives for Federated Learning on Incentivization for Federated Learning utilizing the concept of neural network plasticity (critical learning periods), contract theory, and blockchain has been accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering [IF: 7.3]. In this work, we addressed the challenges of information asymmetry between clients and service provider, and assumptions of temporal homogeneity for incentivization by transforming the dynamics of the training and incentivization processes, while improving the final shared global model performance for downstream tasks. Specifically, our proposed incentive attracts clients to join and contribute resources (i.e., data) in the early training phase under constraints of budget and strategic behaviors of clients (e.g., Individual rationality, Incentive compatibility).

  • [04/2026] My joint work CoCoGen+ on Coopetition (see Definition) and Federated Learning with University of Liverpool is available on arXiv and featured on a LinkedIn post by Flowers. This work models the joint effects of inter-organizational competition and data heterogeneity on organizational decision making process and social welfare. With a payoff redistribution-based incentive mechanism, CoCoGen+ mitigates competitive externalities to sustain long-term collaborations between strategic and competitive organizations.

  • [02/2026] I attended the Research Ireland ADVANCE CRT Research Colloquium for specialized training on developing competitive Horizon Europe proposals. You can read my key takeaways and insights here.

  • [01/2026] Our work 6G AI Security: From Fundamentals to Offensive and Defensive Landscape in 6G with multiple partners has been accepted in IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials [IF: 50.6].

  • [01/2026] veriFUL has been accepted in IEEE Internet Computing [IF: 3.3].

  • [10/2025] My joint work on Verifiable Federated Unlearning (FUL) with TU Delft is available on arXiv. This work recasts the FUL paradigm as verifiable FUL, grounded by the trust-by-design principle. Particularly, we presents a trust-by-design reference framework for verifiable federated unlearning, called veriFUL, that upholds both the right to be forgotten and the right to verify for clients (i.e., data owners) thereby strengthening client trust and privacy control in modern AI systems.

  • [07/2025] My work on Federated Learning and Coopetition got accepted in the flagship IEEE Global Communications Conference 2025, Taipei, Taiwan.

  • [06-09/2025] I have started my research secondment at TU Delft, Netherlands, the European Union’s Horizon Europe MSCA Staff Exchange - ENSURE-6G project.

  • [05/2025] I attended 2025 CONNECT plenary to showcase my research, help in Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Ireland. You can find my poster here.

  • [03/2025] I got my first research paper on Critical Learning periods and Federated Learning accepted in a semi-annual flagship 2025 IEEE 101st Vehicular Technology Conference: VTC2025-Spring, help in Oslo, Norway.

  • [03/2025] I got my first SoK article on Blockchain, Federated Learning, and Data Sharing accepted at a prestigious journal ACM Computing Surveys [IF: 30.4].

  • [11/2024] My team secured 3rd place in the Balbriggan Innovation Challenge - The EcoCore Hackathon (Here is Media news). We conceptualized and pitched “BART,” a transformative model aimed at overhauling transport systems in and around Balbriggan while fostering a circular economy.

  • [09/2023] I started studying PhD in Computer Science at Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin in Ireland, fully funded by School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin and Science Foundation Ireland.

  • [07/2023] I just got the acceptance to attend the 6th DTU Summer Research School, which will be organized by Prof. Duong Quang Trung and Duy Tan University from July 7–9, 2023, in Da Nang City, Vietnam.

  • [08/2022] I just got the acceptance to attend the 9th Vietnam Summer School of Science (VSSS09), which was sponsored and organised by the Recontres du Vietnam Foundation, ICISE and Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics (VIASM). Out of 700 applicants, 150 Vietnamese students and scientists were chosen for this cohort. I am so proud to be here with warm-hearted and talented people! You can find some images of mine in VSSS09 here!

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