​​Immigrating to the United States from Vietnam at seven years old, Minh Tran immersed himself in books and keenly observed conversations to learn English. The struggle to become fluent—especially in a school environment where he felt isolated because of communication barriers—was intense. 

​Today, Minh is a senior at CSU San Marcos majoring in computer science. Dedicated to his community, Minh has contributed his time with the Key Club and TRIO Student Support Services. 

Beyond the classroom, Minh joined Research Experience for Undergraduates, focusing on software security of “Internet of Things” devices at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Successfully completing the project, Minh published and presented the results at a computer science conference. He was also recruited as a student researcher to work on leveraging AI and prompt engineering for plagiarism detection. 

​​A first-generation college student, Minh envisions a career as a software engineer, cybersecurity expert or AI researcher.​