Three-way push for transformation of KMITL into a digital university
HUAWEI, G-Able and King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL) are collaborating to lay down information technology infrastructure to support the institutes’ transformation into a digital university in a couple years.
Suchatvee Suwansawat, president of KMITL, said that under the government’s Education 4.0 roadmap, the infrastructure consists of a 100Gbps Internet network and 3,000 wi-fi access points spread over 1,000 rai of the campus.
The three-year roadmap started this year and has three phrases. The first phrase kicked off with construction on the high-speed network to cover 35 per cent of the campus.
Next year will be the second phrase that will expand the network and access points to 70 per cent of the campus. It will also provide online courses for students and develop a redundant system to back up information on the network.
For the third phrase in 2019, the university will provide fully online courses so that students can access courses and knowledge from outside the classroom.
The high-speed and wi-fi networks will cover 100 per cent of the campus with over 150 buildings.
The university will promote itself as an innovative campus and data centre where students can access knowledge, courses and lessons from anywhere, anytime with the high-speed network.
It will help create an expert professional workforce in the country.
“The collaboration and KMITL’s revamped network will play crucial roles to enhance teaching quality in the university.
“Students and faculty can integrate their knowledge to create new innovations that can benefit the public as a whole,” he said.
Within a couple years, students can attend classes remotely.
Zhang Lin, president of Huawei enterprise business group in Southeast Asia, said that under the collaboration, it will implement a software-defined-network and the first full-function data centre container, which is a container converted into a data centre.
It will help reduce the cost of implementation. It also provides a digital transformation that simultaneously reduces the university’s daily operating costs.
“KMITL will be Thailand’s first university that can offer a super high-speed data transmission rate at up to 100Gbps to support over 10,000 students and allow them to watch live lectures via a real-time, streaming experience and participate in classes with a multimedia platform,” he said. Suthep Oonmettachit, president of G-Able group, said the firm’s role is to implement KMITL’s digital university. It also offers technologies that support energy efficiencies as well as eco-friendly technologies with high flexibility and short installation time.
The university was ranked in the top four in the country by a survey conducted by Time higher education this year.
