Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Chair of the DE Fund Executive Committee, General Prawit Wongsuwan, has set the direction of the country’s Digital Economy and Society Development Fund (DE Fund) for 2023, with the goal of enhancing Thai economic and social development capacity through digital technology.
The DE Fund Management Committee acknowledged the Fund’s performance, which can be carried out as planned because progress has been made and nearly 100 per cent of the money has been disbursed for projects funded from the Fiscal Year 2019 to date, particularly for projects funded in the Fiscal Year 2019.
The committee discussed and approved the Long-Term Action Plan (B.E. 2023-2027), which included the Fund’s Operational Plan and Budget for Fiscal Year 2023 as a guide for future operations.
They have also collaborated on the creation of a general funding policy framework. In the following seven areas for the Fiscal Year 2023:
Thailand Smart City is utilising innovative technologies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of city management and services in seven areas: intelligent environment, intelligent economy, intelligent transportation, intelligent energy, intelligent citizens, intelligent living, and intelligent public administration
The DE Fund is currently considering projects that request funding for Fiscal Year 2022 under the cap of 2,500 million baht. After the proposal was closed, over 600 projects were submitted.
The Fund has formed a working group of specialists from various sectors to select a digital development project that is compatible with the country’s development context and can provide visible results. The outcomes of the annual sponsored projects will be made public on the Digital Economy and Society Development Fund’s website in September.
The committee evaluated the DE Fund’s performance collaboratively and decided on the course of operations for 2023 by establishing guidelines for all stakeholders to work together to run the fund. Digital development initiatives must be able to operate within agreed-upon timeframes and scope while also producing measurable results.
Making such advancements a part of assisting the country’s progress in digital development. It is appropriate for the fund’s goal of accelerating and strengthening Thai social and economic development through digital technology.
Meanwhile, Thailand recently discussed the implementation and follow-up of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Extended Connectivity in Southeast Asia project, which aims to bridge the Southeast Asian connectivity gap.
The main goal of implementing the OECD Recommendation on Broadband Connectivity is to increase connectivity and improve the quality of broadband networks. This is expected to result in highly efficient regional international connectivity. It also adheres to the roadmap, communication policies, and regulations that have been established.
According to the goals of the National Digital Economy and Society Development Plan as well as the Office of the National Digital Economy and Society Commission, the country has contributed information related to Thailand’s digital technology infrastructure, such as the Pracharat Internet Project and the Public Internet to Community Project, which are important parts of promoting and supporting Thailand to have a telecommunications infrastructure covering the entire country.
According to the national data development and statistics policy of Thailand, the master plan of the nation’s statistical system plays an important part in the country’s development.
Organising and administering the nation’s statistical system will utilise the master plan and will boost the country’s development to address the obstacles to the growth of Thailand’s digital economy. Local statistical data should be integrated and transformed into big data to aid in planning management that can encompass all aspects of the economy, society, and environment in Thailand.
Scientists at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used an innovative microscopy method to observe how new-born neurons struggle to reach their proper locations in advanced human brain tissue models of Rett syndrome -bringing new understanding to how the brains of people with the potentially destructive illness have been found to have growing impairments.
Mutations in the gene MECP2 cause Rett syndrome, which is characterised by symptoms such as severe intellectual disability and impaired social behaviour.
Researchers grew 3D cell cultures called cerebral organoids, or mini-brains, using cells from people with MECP2 mutations and compared them to otherwise-identical cultures without the mutations to gain new insight into how the mutation affects the brain develops early on.
The development of each type of mini-brain was subsequently examined by the researchers, under the direction of postdoctoral fellow Murat Yildirim, using third harmonic generation (THG) three-photon microscopy. THG enables very high-resolution imaging deep into living, intact tissues without the use of chemicals to label cells.
The new study is the first to photograph organoids using THG, essentially leaving them undisturbed. Prior organoid imaging investigations necessitated the use of imaging technology incapable of penetrating the 3D tissue or techniques that necessitated killing the cultures by either slicing them into thin sections or chemically cleaning and labelling them.
Since a laser is used in three-photon microscopy, the lab’s microscope was specifically designed to only use as much power as a cat toy laser pointer on the tissue (less than 5 milliwatts).
The reason why researchers are so cautious regarding power and chemical labelling is so they can ensure they are not negatively altering or impacting the neuronal physiology and preserve everything intact without introducing anything external that may be harmful.
They managed to get enough signal, even at low power, to image fixed and living organoids without labels. They compared their THG images to those created using more conventional chemical labelling techniques to verify that.
They were able to follow the migration of developing neurons as they moved from the inner edge, which is like the cortex of the brain, to the rim around ventricles in the mini-brains.
They observed that the nascent neurons in the mini-brains simulating Rett syndrome migrated more slowly and in meandering patterns than did the same cell types in mini-brains without the MECP2 mutation, which moved faster and in straighter lines.
The effects of these migration abnormalities are in line with what scientists believed to be happening in foetuses with Rett syndrome.
Researchers knew from post-mortem brains and brain imaging techniques that something goes awry during brain development in Rett syndrome, but it has been extraordinarily difficult to determine what and why; therefore, the technique has enabled them to directly visualise a critical component.
Due to its sensitivity to changes in the refractive index of materials, THG can scan tissues without labelling. Consequently, it dissolves the borders between biological structures such as blood vessels, cell membranes, and extracellular spaces.
The researchers were also able to distinguish clearly between the ventricular zone (the region around the ventricles where the new-born neurons arise) and the cortical plate because neural forms change as they develop (an area that mature neurons settle into). Additionally, it was quite simple to separate multiple ventricles into separate regions and resolve them.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and Europe’s largest ports have teamed together to create the world’s longest Green and Digital Corridor. Decarbonising shipping is a top priority for the agency addressing climate change and calls for the cooperation of the entire maritime industry.
“As a trusted global maritime hub, Singapore contributes actively to IMO’s efforts to make international shipping more sustainable, and global supply chains more resilient,” says S Iswaran, Minister for Transport and Minister-in-Charge of Trade Relations, Singapore.
He added that the collaboration demonstrates how like-minded partners can collaborate to supplement the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) efforts and that it will serve as a valuable platform to pilot concepts that can be scaled up for more green and global shipping.
The MoU will bring together stakeholders from the entire supply chain to launch the first sustainable vessels on the route by 2027. While international shipping currently relies heavily on marine gas oil (MGO) and low-sulfur fuel oil, sustainable alternatives such as biofuels, including biogases, are becoming more widely available.
Other alternatives, such as synthetic methane, hydrogen, and hydrogen-based fuels such as ammonia and methanol, are in various stages of research and development in preparation for future trials and deployment.
Each alternative fuel has its own set of challenges in terms of cost, availability, safety, and range limitations due to lower energy density when compared to fossil fuels. To address these issues, the MOU will bring together a broad coalition of shippers, fuel suppliers, and other businesses to collaborate on potential solutions.
Apart from alternative fuels, the MoU aims to improve maritime efficiency, safety, and the transparent flow of goods by establishing a digital trade lane for the exchange of relevant data, electronic documentation, and standards. This will allow for the smooth movement of vessels and cargo while also optimising vessel arrival times from port to port.
The port authorities will collaborate with some action partners as well as other supply chain partners. This will allow the Green and Digital Corridor project to gain investor trust, attract green financing, and launch joint bunkering pilots and trials for digitalization and the use of low- and zero-carbon fuels along the route.
Moreover, shipping is one of the most important industries to decarbonize because of its extensive international reach and growing volume. Authorities can enable carriers to switch to zero-carbon fuels and accelerate the transition to more sustainable shipping by bringing parties from across the supply chain together along one of the world’s busiest trade lanes.
The MoU bolsters Singapore’s strong economic partnership by reaffirming the country’s commitment to facilitating a multi-fuel bunkering transition as part of the Maritime Singapore Decarbonisation Blueprint 2050 and accelerating digitalisation efforts to improve maritime efficiency and supply chain resilience.
The pilot will supplement efforts by the shipping industry and partners to support the decarbonisation and digitalisation transition for international shipping, with a focus on developing and scaling up green and digital solutions for wider adoption.
On the other hand, OpenGov Asia earlier reported that the MPA will keep advancing research and development, implementing marine technology (MarineTech), and enhancing maritime cybersecurity skills to establish industry-wide capabilities. This should increase the nation’s resilience and ability to handle disruptions.
Beyond 31 December 2022, MPA will continue to provide cash support for the deployment of previously authorised digital solutions to marine firms that qualify. More than 3,000 SMEs in the Sea Transport subsectors will be qualified to apply for co-funding because of the expansion.
Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), a pharmaceutical company and a healthcare venture capital firm have signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MoU) to support the collaboration and development of biomedicine to enhance Hong Kong’s status as an international I&T hub.
HKSTP has been in close discussion with the two firms for an in-depth collaboration since early this year and subsequently reached a consensus on the MoU terms. The MOU signing ceremony was hosted during the visit of representatives from the pharmaceutical company to the Science Park in August.
The partnership between the three parties in the MoU means a collective effort to co-incubate and co-invest in start-up ventures, enhance collaboration in clinical trials and provide support to contract research organisations (CRO) and contract development manufacturing organisations (CDMO) in areas including autoimmune diseases, anti-ageing, gene and cell therapy, and messenger RNA (mRNA) / small interfering RNA (siRNA).
A fund will also be set up with HKSTP to support collaboration across drug discovery, innovation treatment and other clinical aspects to accelerate the incubation and translation of basic biomedical research in Hong Kong, advancing the city’s mission to be an international I&T hub.
The CEO of HKSTP stated that the Park is will seize the opportunities under the 14th Five-Year Plan and the Greater Bay Area to reinforce collaboration with different sectors. The collaboration with the two industry partners will amplify Hong Kong’s R&D strengths and start a new chapter in the city’s biomedical technology development.
With Hong Kong being Asia’s largest and the world’s second-largest biotech fundraising hub, Hong Kong’s unique platform and advantages in research capability and clinical resources will continue to be leveraged to accelerate technologies and deliver world-class biotech innovation for the city, he added.
The President and Executive Director of the pharmaceutical company stated that building on the exceptional biomedical foundations and R&D capabilities of Hong Kong, the three parties will leverage their collective advantages and vast resources to collaborate in areas such as incubation and translation of research projects, clinical trials, CRO platforms and provide support to the industry.
He noted that by forming an ‘Innovation Alliance’ with the government sector, tertiary education institutions, the Science Park, pharmaceutical companies and capital markets, the ecosystem will be scaled up with even more effective incubation and translation of basic biomedical research in Hong Kong.
The President of the venture capital firm noted that the company’s vision of Shanghai HealthCare Capital is to build a biomedical innovation investment platform that is based in Shanghai and Hong Kong, connecting with the Yangtze River Delta, while exploring the international market.
He added that the strategic cooperation between the three parties will effectively combine their strengths and develop a translational ecosystem for early R&D products with the government sector, tertiary education institutions, the Science Park, capital markets and corporations, driving state-of-the-art biotechnologies from Shanghai and Hong Kong to the global market.
The global biotechnology market was valued at US$852.88 billion in 2020 and is expected to increase to approximately US$3.44 trillion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 17.83% during the forecast period.
Key factors driving the market include favourable government policies, the roll-out of new and advanced products, robust investment in the biotechnology sector, and rising demand for funding through alliance investment in start-up biotechnology companies for adopting new and advanced products are contributing to market growth.
A multidisciplinary team of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers led by Iddo Drori, a lecturer in the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), has used a neural network model to solve university-level math problems at a human level in a matter of seconds.
“It will help students improve, and it will help teachers create new content, and it could help increase the level of difficulty in some courses. It also allows us to build a graph of questions and courses, which helps us understand the relationship between courses and their pre-requisites, not just by historically contemplating them, but based on data,” Iddo explained, also an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University’s Department of Computer Science.
Additionally, the model automatically explains solutions and rapidly generates new math problems for university-level courses. When the researchers presented these machine-generated questions to university students, the students were unable to distinguish whether the questions were created by a human or an algorithm.
This approach might be used to simplify the creation of course content, which would be particularly beneficial for big residential courses and massive open online courses (MOOCs) with thousands of students. The technology might also be used as an automated tutor that demonstrates to students how to solve basic math problems.
In the past, researchers employed a neural network, such as GPT-3, that was merely pretrained on the text like it was shown millions of examples of text to learn the patterns of natural language. This time, they employed a neural network that was trained on the text and “tuned” on code.
A machine learning model can perform better by using this network, known as Codex, which is effectively an additional pre-training procedure.
The model was exposed to millions of code examples from internet repositories. As the training data for this model contained millions of natural language words and millions of lines of code, it learns the relationships between text and code.
The machine-generated questions were evaluated by showing them to university students. The researchers assigned students 10 problems from each undergraduate math course in random order; five questions were prepared by people and the remaining five were generated by a computer.
Students were unable to discern whether the machine-generated questions were produced by an algorithm or a human, and they scored the difficulty level and course-appropriateness of questions generated by humans and machines similarly.
Researchers emphasised that this effort is not meant to take the place of actual teachers. They claim that although automation has reached 80 per cent accuracy, it will never reach 100 per cent. Every time someone figures something out, someone else will pose a more challenging problem.
Simply this work opens the door for people to begin using machine learning to answer ever-harder questions, and academics are optimistic that it will have a significant impact on higher education.
The team has expanded the work to handle math proofs because of the approach’s effectiveness, although there are several limits they intend to address. Due to computational complexity, the model is currently unable to answer questions with a visual component or resolve computationally intractable issues.
The model is being scaled up to hundreds of courses in addition to these obstacles. They will produce more data with those hundreds of courses, which they may use to improve automation and offer perceptions into course design and curricula.
An Educational Technology expert at CQUniversity has been named amongst Queensland’s brightest minds in education research and granted over AU$ 76 000 for an upcoming digital safety project. He was one of 14 successful applicants to receive a Queensland Government Education Horizon grant to respond to modern challenges in education and build solutions that will benefit Queenslanders for generations to come.
The project focuses on digital safety in schools and includes holistic digital citizenship, incorporating aspects of literacy, well-being, relationships and awareness of technology habits.
He noted that the team anticipates that, through this project, a greater understanding of how kids interact online for learning will be gained. This will inform a set of workshops designed as professional development for educators and we will deliver this back to Queensland schools.
The professor stated that, since COVID-19, how students use the online space has changed significantly. However, there has, thus far, been little empirical evidence of their current usage and how it relates to safety needs. Thus, this project focuses on the perspectives of Year 6 to 8 students, who are newly independent internet users, to identify the factors that enable or challenge their ability to use technology in empowering ways for learning.
By identifying these complex and often less visible aspects of students’ technology engagement and decision-making, our findings will contribute to a holistic and up-to-date framework of a digital safety culture, as well as a professional learning package that informs staff and student engagement for learning, and impacts new policy and practices, the Professor said.
The project is expected to run over six months and Assoc Prof Cowling will collaborate with CQUniversity adjunct academics Dr Kwong Nui Sim and Dr Joanne Orlando (Auckland University of Technology and Western Sydney University respectively).
Education Minister Grace Grace said the Education Horizon grants were more than just funding to support quality research, they were an investment in students’ futures.
Research projects like these cover a wide range of education matters, from health and wellbeing, to leadership, to learning in a rapidly changing modern world.
The Queensland government supports vital research
The Queensland Education Department’s Education Horizon research grant scheme funds high-quality local research that aligns with the government’s priorities and the department’s priority research themes. Queensland researchers with a Queensland-based sponsor organisation are eligible to apply at the time of invitation to their university’s vice-chancellor office. Limitations may be placed on the number of applications per university.
Some of Queensland’s brightest minds in education research have been granted a combined $1 million in the Queensland Government’s funding to respond to modern challenges in education and build solutions that will benefit Queenslanders for generations to come.
The region’s Education Minister recently announced the 14 successful projects to receive Education Horizon grants for high-quality early childhood and school education research for 2022 – 10 of which are led by women. She noted that the Education Horizon grants are more than just funding to support quality research, they are an investment in students’ futures.
The selected research projects cover a wide range of education matters, from health and wellbeing, to leadership, to learning in a rapidly changing modern world. Each of the 14 projects were selected by a departmental panel from a total of 42 applicants, with the successful projects to be delivered over six months.
The Minister said the Education Horizon grants were first launched in 2016, with this the fifth grant round to be awarded.
The Science and Technology Academic and Research-Based Openly Operated Kiosks or STARBOOKS of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) have arrived on the island of San Miguel in Tabaco, Albay, providing easy access to S&T learning.
STARBOOKS is the country’s first digital science library, created by the Science and Technology Information Institute (DOST-STII). It is a stand-alone information source intended for those who have limited or no access to S&T information resources.
The project’s goal is to provide Science, Technology, and Innovation (ST&I) content to geographically isolated schools and communities across the country. STARBOOKS contains many digitized S&T resources in various formats such as text and video or audio organised in specially designed “pods” with an easy-to-use interface.
STARBOOKS, as SMNHS teacher John Darnell Balbastro put it, is “one way of elevating the scientific and technological literacy” of their students. Its wide range of digitised S&T resources in various formats will “intensify the curiosity among our young learners,” and its offline access will address the lack of S&T learning resources in San Miguel.
Through this programme, DOST Region V, in collaboration with its dedicated Provincial S&T Centres and implementers, will continue to promote and empower S&T knowledge and education.
Meanwhile, Jamaica Pangasinan, Senior Science Research Specialist at the Space Mission Control and Operations Division (SMCOD) of the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA), said that she was impressed by the level of environmental and social awareness of the incoming senior high school students, which was shown in their work at the “LIFT OFF: PhilSA Space Science Camp 2022.”
She said that the mission goals showed how eager the students were to solve the problems and threats facing the environment right now.
Fourteen science high schools from the 16 divisions of Metro Manila chosen by the Department of Education (DepEd) to attend the camp presented their space missions. Each team had five (5) minutes to talk about their satellite’s mission, its most important technical features, and why it was important.
The students came up with a wide range of missions, from observing Earth to keeping an eye on space junk to sending probes to other planets.
Only two missions were better than the rest. These are the Monitoring Illegal Mining Activities in Remote Areas (MIMA) by Bianca Louise B. Cruz and Oscar A. Araja II of the City of Mandaluyong Science High School, and the Venus Seismic Activity Monitoring Satellite (V-SAMS) by Peter James Lyon and Ysabela Juliana Bernardo of the Caloocan City Science High School.
The students who work on MIMA said that the goal of their satellite mission is to protect the environment and make sure that mining laws and rules are followed better in the country. Based on their plan, MIMA would be a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite that could see through clouds to spot changes in areas where mining could be happening. It would take pictures with the help of optical imagers.
The goal of V-SAMS, on the other hand, would be to learn more about Venus, which is like Earth’s twin, and especially about its earthquakes. To do this, V-SAMS would use infrared imaging to track the surface temperature of Venus’s volcanoes, figure out which ones will erupt, and find other volcanoes that are still active on the planet.
It would also have an interferometric SAR (InSAR) to look for changes on Venus’s surface and signs of earthquakes. V-SAMS would also have an optical payload that would let it take high-resolution pictures.
The Ministry of Communication and Informatics together with the Communication and Information Office of East Java Province, and the Indonesian Anti-Defamation Society (MAFINDO) recently held a Digital Literacy Week which aimed to increase the digital literacy capacity of the local communities and the millennials so that they can utilise the digital technology effectively and responsibly.
There is a pressing need for digital literacy since the pace of technological advancement continues to outpace the skills of the human workforce. To keep up with the pace of technology advancements, HR development needs to accelerate.
– Hudiyono, Head, Communications and Information Technology, East Java Province
The Digital Literacy Week is one part of the National Digital Literacy Programme entitled Indonesia Makin Cakap Digital which raises four pillars of digital literacy, namely Digital Ethics, Digital Capability, Digital Security, and Digital Culture. This activity aims to reach 50 million people by 2024.
Digital literacy has been promoted since 2017 by the Ministry of Communications and Informatics but because of the pandemic, digital literacy programmes became part of President Jokowi’s vision and mission efforts regarding the development of digital human resources.
With this, millennials or the younger generation are referred to as one of the potential generations in the current era of technological disruption.
Moreover, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics has created digital literacy modules such as the digital security module on fundamental personal digital privacy and security practices; hoax resistance class; personal branding class; and creator content class.
The digital literacy discussion assembly, in which participants from millennial groups and local communities explored how to become more digitally literate using the four pillars of digital literacy, was attended by more than 350 individuals.
Meanwhile, according to the Director General of Information and Public Communication of the Ministry of Communication and Informatics, Usman Kansong, the development of digital skills for MSMEs is needed to be able to promote their products in the online market (e-commerce). In addition, with digital skills, MSMEs are expected to be able to produce new technology or applications that can be used by other similar business actors.
The agency also involves scholars, priests and the younger generation to encourage the productive use of digital space. Director General Usman emphasised that the Ministry continues to aid MSMEs in actively selling on digital platforms.
After the recently held 3rd Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG) Meeting of the G20 Presidency, the Minister of Communication and Information, Johnny G. Plate visited the MSME exhibition booth in West Manggarai Regency.
The Minister noticed the product produced and interacted with West Manggarai MSME entrepreneurs and appreciated the process of agricultural products and packaging with good, attractive designs and the “Proudly Made Indonesia” logo.
The Minister also provides input so that MSME entrepreneurs can narrate their products well and are able to take advantage of technological advances to market MSME products and transact with buyers such as barcode technology.
Local entrepreneurs hope that the MSME digitisation process will be able to elevate the West Manggarai MSMEs to compete at national and international levels.
The visit of Minister Johnny is a matter of pride for them, and they hope that the process of digitising MSMEs will be able to elevate West Manggarai MSMEs to international markets, which will lead to improving the economy of MSME entrepreneurs.
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