Hewlett Packard Enterprise, KMUTT build AI for EEC hub
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise, KMUTT build AI for EEC hub

From left  Surachai Atthamongkol-chai, hybrid IT country manager for Hewlett Packard Enterprise Thailand, Mr Palasilp and Mr Djitt.
From left  Surachai Atthamongkol-chai, hybrid IT country manager for Hewlett Packard Enterprise Thailand, Mr Palasilp and Mr Djitt.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Thailand, a local unit of the US tech firm, is joining forces with King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) to build a high-performance computing prototype for artificial intelligence (AI) to support the medical hub and smart city scheme in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC).

"The company has invested tens of millions of baht in supporting high-performance computing to process AI use cases that would help drive Thailand 4.0, particularly in the EEC," Palasilp Vichivanives, managing director of HPE Thailand, said yesterday at the company's tech conference in Bangkok.

The Thailand 4.0 policy was created by the last government to bolster the economy through innovation and technology.

Enterprise technology spending growth is higher than GDP growth because of the 4.0 policy as well as investment by the private sector in digital transformation, according to research firm IDC.

The market for computer servers and storage in the second quarter of this year grew 35% year-on-year, IDC said.

Djitt Laowattana, executive adviser of the Eastern Economic Corridor Human Development Center (EEC HDC), said the prototype of use case applications involving AI in medical imaging and X-ray readings to support the EEC medical hub should be completed by this year.

The rise of Internet of Things (IoT), cloud and AI together with 5G technology will empower new business models and turn data into insights or valuable information, such as radiologist services for hospitals powered by AI and cloud, autonomous vehicles and smart city management, said Mr Djitt, who is also deputy director of the Institute of Field Robotics (Fibo) in industrial services under KMUTT.

"IoT, cloud, AI and big data are the heart of Industry 4.0, as well as key drivers of the economy and social development," he said.

"Our collaboration with HPE is an important mechanism to drive the development for both high-level technology and human resources with AI and big data capabilities".

Mr Djitt said the government needs to position AI as a national agenda and iron out strategies on AI development, similar to what was done by 23 economies during 2017-18.

He said the policymakers need to have new AI development plans, including action plans for AI and innovation for universities and colleges, and a strategy on information science and data analysis.

HPE is helping Fibo train 20-30 data scientists for AI development, with these individuals to become trainers at 24 universities and vocational schools under the Fibo network, said Mr Djitt.

The EEC scheme is likely to generate demand for 479,000 jobs in 10 targeted industrial clusters, he said.

Of them, 38,000 jobs are needed in robotics, 120,000 jobs in digital development and 15,000 jobs for data scientists.

Mr Djitt said factories need to embrace automation and robotics amid the workforce shortage.

It is a necessity to develop workers' skills, particularly in the fields of IoT programming, data sciences, machine control and analytics, he said.

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