Tag: Thailand

At Pridi Banomyong International College, Thammasat University, academic scholars from Thai studies, Chinese studies and Indian studies collaborated in conducting research under the topic of “Thailand’s One Year After COVID-19” to study the effects and analyze results to offer solutions and policy proposals that provides benefits to Thai people and community as follows.

Assistant Prof. Dr. Yi Lin from Chinese Studies Program found that focusing on cultural and traditional tourism would contribute to more success for Chinese tourist market to allow social and cultural exchanges between Chinese tourists and Thai people. The key to a positive attitude between Thai and Chinese people is that both of us have long-standing social and cultural integration.

Dr. Thomas Bruce, Head of Thai Studies Program, who highlighted the study of “The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Food Retail in Bangkok”, found that government measures against COVID-19 had a direct impact on the food retail and public transportations that remain available, such as MRT, are the crucial factors to the survival of Chinatown’s food retails because despite loss of foreign tourists, they were replaced by Thai customers.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Shweta Sinha from Indian Studies Program conducted a comparative study of the effects of COVID-19 on the agricultural sector of India and Thailand. The results showed interesting facts; during the pandemic, India increased rice exports by 44% compared to 2020. Vietnam also ordered rice from India for the first time in decades. However, Thailand rice exportation decreased by 31%due to its high price resulting in lack of competitiveness. According to Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), Thai farmers had a household debt of 54% and 50% of Thai farmers had debt over 200,000 baht per household and another 20% owe more than 400,000 baht per household.

“The challenges of the agricultural households are declining income and increase in debt, COVID-19 is also a factor of digital disruption,” noted Asst. Prof. Dr. Shweta Sinha.

Dr. Mohd Faheem, Head of Indian Studies Program, addressed the lessons learned during the lockdown in India which resulted in a massive relocation of labour to bigger cities for works and better income. Most of the migrants suffered from shortages of food, shelters, and money. In addition, they dealt with anxiety, paranoia, and fear of COVID-19 infection. Thus, his research suggested that the most important thing is that the labors should not have been ignored by the government and establishing labour database and distributing opportunities to the countryside would help manage and minimize migration to big cities.

Dr Usanee Lertrattananon, Head of the Chinese Studies Program, found that during the COVID-19 crisis, live streaming technology had become a key to success for several businesses. In addition, it became the people’s means to socialize. There were various successful Chinese websites and applications, e.g., Lazada, Shopee, and TikTok, that was introduced to Thai market. Therefore, COVID-19 offered opportunities and challenges for businesses at the same time.

Dr. Ornthicha Duangrat, Thai Studies Lecturer, focused on the conflicts between the superpowers, China and the United States, and mentioned “COVID-19 pandemic had inevitably intensified the competition between these two nations as well as expanded the influence of their powers. While vaccination currently played an important role. As we could see from Vietnam and the Philippines that they had to compromise and adapt themselves to balance the power of China and the United States. Likewise, Thailand needed to find more approaches for vaccination which might get from the ASEAN cooperation.”

Prommin Lertsuridej, M.D., the Former Deputy Prime Minister, said “The first priority of Thailand at this moment is vaccination and availability of rapid test kit to allow borders reopening so that Thai people would not lose their hope and faith. To be able to find infected patients quickly could save time and cancellation of quarantine measures would increase tourists’ interest in visiting Thailand. The rapid test kit is affordable and Thai specialists are developing it. I would like to see more of the government’s attention on this issue.”

COVID-19 has an impact on various aspects. It is more than a health issue because its impact remains widespread through the economy and society. This crisis is not only a challenge, but it is also a change that allows us to learn and grow at the same time.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Duangrit Benjathikul Chairungruang, Secretary to the Minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI) as the ministry spokesperson has led a team of researchers from MHESI organizations: National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (TISTR) and Center of Excellence in Agriculture Innovation through Supply Chain and Value Chain, Thammasat University, to visit to help Durian farmers in Nonthaburi, Thailand

The farmers encounter the saltwater intrusion resulting in agricultural issues, and using innovations from NSTDA, TISTR and TU including nanotechnology for water purification, water quality monitoring system with the mobile application will allow the real-time monitoring, seawater desalination system as well as fertilizers that give durians sweet creamy flavour and rich and smooth texture with a floral scent and soluble fibres.

The biggest problem was that local farmers had been affected by the saltwater intrusion causing the agricultural problems and they expected assistance from MHESI to bring technology and innovation to solve this issue.

TISTR will use arbuscular mycorrhiza to help improve salt stress and drought resistance. These fungi also enhance durian productivity, along with their own developed desalination filter to desalinate seawater from freshwater in durian plantations. While NSTDA will set up the water quality monitoring system with a mobile application that can be monitored at all times.

TU will regulate the plant root salinity defence mechanism to desalinate seawater from freshwater and allow the plant roots to find the nutrients from the proper areas which would improve the growth and resistance from drought and salt stress.

MHESI Secretary continued that besides solving the saltwater intrusion, MHESI had other technologies that are beneficial for durian cost reduction, productivity and quality enhancement. To help farmers TU and NSTDA would deploy these technologies.

Some of these technologies are IoT-based smart irrigation systems to manage water distribution in appropriate quantity from root transpiration and absorption that is dynamic in terms of temperature, humidity, transpiration and evaporation rate to save water and energy; Basin-Fertigation to increase the efficient use of water and fertilizers to increase fruit yield and give the sweet creamy flavor, rich and smooth texture with floral scent and soluble fibers to durians; Active bagging technology for the highest quality fruit packaging, Water management forecast for plantation according to Global GAP, Technology for fruit packaging materials that allows air flow through the package and smart irrigation controller and sensor via surrounding factors etc.

National Research Council of Thailand announced the 2021 National Outstanding Researcher Award winners. Professor Watchara Ngamchitcharoen from the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University has been named as the national outstanding researcher in Philosophy.

Professor Watchara Ngamchitcharoen said that he took an interest in Buddhism since childhood. He began researching Buddhism in 2003.

He has created nine research papers mainly related to Buddhism in 3 dimensions: concept, teaching or principle, application of principles in today’s world, reforming, developing and solving problems related to monks. He expressed he is very proud to have received this award.

National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT), Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI) organised the third National Outstanding Researcher Award of the year 2021” to honour Thai researchers with outstanding contributions to Thai education and Thailand.

NRCT announced the 7 winners of the 2021 National Outstanding Researcher Award in five fields. One of them is Professor Dr Kesara Na-Bangchang, Professor from Chulabhorn International College of Medicine, Thammasat University, as an outstanding researcher in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Science.

Dr Wiparat De-ong, Director of NRCT said, “Professor Dr Kesara Na-Bangchang was recognized with the national outstanding researcher award by NRCT because of her consistent initiatives and devotion to research. She is one of the key contributors in promoting research and pursuing studies in the area of the pharmacology of Malaria and Cholangiocarcinoma in Thailand to meet international standards and is recognized internationally.”

“Both Thai and international researchers expressed interest, followed and adopted her works for further studies, for example, pharmacokinetic studies, studies funded by public and private research organizations for Malaria infection and Cholangiocarcinoma, including international organizations such as UNDP World Bank Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases: WHO/TDR where she was responsible as the Director. She also provided academic services which include knowledge, training, as well as audit and assessment of research projects associated with research standards to Thai and international researchers,” Dr Wiparat added.

Prof. Dr Kesara is also ranked among the list of “Top 2% World’s Scientists” for the year of 2020 by Stanford University, USA, has been awarded for her studies and contribution to various publications and references of studies in academic journals.

The National Outstanding Researcher Award recognizes Thai researchers who are dedicated to a specific subject or multiple subjects in a group of academic disciplines or interdisciplinarity of research on a regular basis and have made contributions to outstanding research with initiatives for not less than 5 years.

The award emphasizes Thai researchers with professional ethics who are well recognized and accepted in each academic discipline for their research that benefit Thailand’s economics, community, society and policy which can be used as the prototype for other researchers in the future.

Those who are recognized as the National Outstanding Researcher will receive the award with the certificate and the prize money at Thailand Inventor’s Day 2021.

The students of the Faculty of Computer Science and the Faculty of Science and Technology from Thammasat University, Lampang Campus, participated and received eight research awards at the 9th Asia Undergraduate Conference on Computing (AUCC2021).

The event was hosted by the Rajamangala University of Technology Rattanakosin, Klai Kang Won Palace Campus. The academic conference took place via ZOOM.

The project “Intelligent Kale Farming with Automatic Watering System Based on Climate Predictions” won the Oral Presentation Research Awards (Category: Excellent). The project owner are Mr. Theerachai Mueangpan, Mr. Peerapat Yato, and Mr. Natthapon Tajai. Instructor Kritkom Srijiranon is the Advisory Professor for the project.

The Project “Classification of Dog Vocalization on an Edge-AI Device” won in the Oral Presentation Research Awards (Category: Very good). Mr Theerapat Kanchanakom, Mr Noppanat Nampan, and Mr Thaweesak Wangpo are the project owners while Associate Professor Wornwan Diaz Garbayo is the Advisory Professor.

The third award-winning project is “Thai Rice Price Prediction Simulation by LSTM”. It won the Oral Presentation Research Awards (Category: Very good). The project owners are Mr. Athibodi Mahawan and Mr Suthipong Jaithiang and they were supervised by Instructor Kritkom Srijiranon.

The project “Lampang Café Introduction Chatbot” by Ms Pornsawan Waisith, Ms Wiraporn Rosamod, Mr Prapanpong Pianchan, and Mr Thanapat Tanai also won the Oral Presentation Research Awards (Category: Very good). For this project, Dr Pokpong Songmueang is the advisory professor.

The fifth project to win the Oral Presentation Research Awards (Category: Very good) is “System for Recommending Northern Local Cuisine for Tourists” by Mr Yossakorn Lertrattanakam, Mr Apisith Wongson, and Mr Pachorn Meewongukot. Instructor Kritkom Srijiranon is the advisory professor for the project.

“MRak: Application for Recommendation Films by Filter with Privacy Considerations” by Ms Jintapa Kamonpitupong and Ms Natsuda Tidla also won the Oral Presentation Research Awards (Category: Very good). The advisory professor for the project is Associate Professor Wonwan Diaz Garbayo.

The seventh project to win the Oral Presentation Research Awards (Category: Good) is “Performance Measurement Based on the Bert Model on the Center of Computer Resources for Advanced Computation: Case Study Involving MNLI Data Sets” by Mr. Chanon Chanpeng and Mr Wacharapong Sukkapan. Associate Professor Wonwan Diaz Garbayo supervised the project.

Finally, the project “Web Application for Appointment (WUSY)” has won the Poster Presentation Research Award (Category-Good). The project owners are Mr Suppakiat Waipinit, Mr Kanokpon Saweang, Ms Wilasini Maithong, and Ms Waewta Saengsuwow.
Dr Pokpong is the advisory professor for the project.

Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI) represented by the NCTC: NSTDA Characterization and Testing Service Center, National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), held a press conference on MOU signing ceremony for scientific instrument analysis and testing between NSTDA and the Advanced Science and Technology, Thammasat University to enhance the bilateral approaches and services.

Dr. Ladawan Krasaechon, Deputy Director of NSTDA and Associate Professor Gasinee Witoonchart, Acting Rector of Thammasat University signed the MOU for scientific instrument testing to enhance the bilateral approaches and services .

Dr. Ladawan Krasaechon, Deputy Director of NSTDA, said, “NSTDA under MHESI is an organization that aims to enhance the practical research, development, design and engineering and promote the human resource development as well as the vital scientific and technological infrastructure with the National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) to allow Thai standard to be consistent with international standards through the NCTC, which is a provider of international standard characterization and testing.”

Dr Ladawan continued, “NCTC is the central laboratory of NSTDA that supports research and provide analysis, testing and development services with various techniques (share use-related) which mitigates the redundant burden of NSTDA and Thailand’s investment on equipment. It aims to provide the characterization and testing services according to the standards, support research and high-value product development as the operational center for the development and promotion of scientific and technological characterization and testing services with modern equipment, control of the laboratory quality system to meet the international standard ISO / IEC17025 for the organization’s efficiency and effectiveness.”

NSTDA and the private sectors in Thailand Science Park as well as related networks and partners currently focus on the analysis and testing of products for reliability. Thus, the characterization and testing service has been developed with modern scientific instruments providing the international standard accreditation for private and public agencies, including ISO standards, Thailand Industrial Standards (TIS) and other specific standards. NSTDA covers testing instruments for various industries providing support on the studies by researchers and modern scientific equipment and developing high-value products for the public and private sectors in many industries.

“It would be impossible to successfully promote NSTDA’s research, analysis, testing and services to meet international standards without cooperation and collaboration with educational institutions of advanced research centers. This will also increase opportunities to develop the laboratory standards, making Thailand’s research and analysis and testing development meet the international standards and encourage the integration of expertise from various fields which results in products that improve the quality of life and drive the national knowledge-based economy,” said Dr Ladawan Krasaechon, Deputy Director of NSTDA.

Associate Professor Gasinee Witoonchart, Acting Rector of Thammasat University, said,  “This MOU signing ceremony with the Advanced Science and Technology, Thammasat University which included for the Center of Scientific Equipment for Advanced Research, Drug Discovery and Development Center, Laboratory Animal Center, Centre of Intellectual Property and Business Incubator which was the central units of Thammasat University that provide services.”

“This cooperation would give opportunities for both organizations on analysis and testing and bilateral cooperation in the development of method and services with scientific instruments, interpersonal knowledge integration. The application of tools and resources could be efficient and flexible in management leading to innovation that will benefit the national development,” Associate Professor Gasinee Witoonchart concluded.