Bangkok, Thailand - 18 June 2020: IBM (NYSE: IBM), and Mahidol University’s Faculty of Engineering today announced a joint collaboration to bring IBM High-Performance Computing (HPC) and AI Vision technologies to support the research work and critical skills development in Thailand. This is in alignment with the country’s roadmap to becoming a digital economy and accelerating Thailand’s industry 4.0 vision. This collaboration will also support Thailand in driving industry S-Curve and new S-curve, while preparing the Kingdom’s workforce with skills to meet the ongoing Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) development roadmap.

This cooperation marks an important step for IBM and Mahidol University in moving towards the digital society and sustainable development of the country. Under the agreement, IBM will provide 3-month usage of IBM’s High-Performance Computing (HPC) IBM Power Systems hardware and IBM Visual Insights software, as well as hands-on workshops, to Mahidol University’s engineering professors, to drive the research and education in three areas:

• Research on the use of AI-enabled Computer Vision technology in healthcare, for example for Medical Imaging, Medical Informatics, among others, in collaboration with the Siriraj hospital and other hospitals under Mahidol University’s network.
• Skills development, which includes reskilling and upskilling of industrial and manufacturing employees. The program will start with industrial parks located in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), which are also aligned with Thailand’s industrial development strategy.
• Research to bring AI platforms to build machine learning and deep learning models for analyzing and monitoring the performance of engines as well as detecting defects in the manufacturing plants.

The disruption caused by COVID-19 has prompted businesses to transform fast and heightened the need for their talent to acquire critical skills to drive competitive advantage. “The current pandemic has brought about dire impact to us all and only the most resilient and adaptable companies will be able to thrive. It is by leveraging cutting-edge technology and working with academic partners to build future-ready skills to support economic development that we can emerge stronger under the new normal,” said Sirikorn Boonsermsuwong, Country Manager, Digital Sales and Commercial, IBM Thailand Co., Ltd.

“Today’s collaboration with the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University, will bring IBM Power Systems High-Performance Computing (HPC) with world-class security standards designed for advanced analytics and AI, and IBM Visual Insights, a video and image analysis AI platform with built-in deep learning models, to support researchers and innovators in Thailand especially those in the field of healthcare and manufacturing,” added Sirikorn.

Associate prof. Dr. Chakkrit Sutthakorn, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University, said, “Our engineering faculty is always focused on creating interdisciplinary research and education towards world-class engineering. We try to reflect the market requirements in line with our 2020 plan to develop the right engineering skills to support Thailand’s Industry 4.0 and digital economy vision. With the current challenges, the reskilling and upskilling of local talent has become top priority. It is crucial for the faculty to continuously build new skills sets for our engineering students to meet the market needs, including critical skills such as AI so we can reap the benefit of big data and automation.”

In the next two years, as many as 120 million workers in the world’s 12 largest economies may need to be retrained or reskilled as a result of AI and intelligent automation, according to IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) study. In addition, only 41 percent of CEOs surveyed say that they have the people, skills and resources required to execute their business strategies. The study, which includes input from more than 5,670 global executives in 48 countries, points to compounding challenges that require a fundamental shift in how companies meet and manage changing workforce needs throughout all levels of the enterprise.

As a global technology company, IBM sees the labor market shifting to higher value-added services. Working with Mahidol University fits into IBM’s long-term strategy, which helps to create the necessary skills for practical application in applying the latest technology in Thailand.

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