Thai unis, private firms join hands to open AI Engineering Institute
Six leading Thai universities have agreed to cooperate with the Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Ministry and some private firms to open the Artificial Intelligence Engineering Institute (AIEI).
The joint move was announced by Prof Supachai Pathumnakul, deputy permanent secretary at the Higher Education Ministry, on Monday.
During the event to announce the cooperation, Supachai signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with representatives of the six universities — the rector of CMKL University Thailand, rector of Mahidol University, vice rector of Chiang Mai University, vice rector of Price of Songkla University, acting rector of the King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, and dean of Khon Kaen University’s Faculty of Engineering.
The MoU was also signed by the representatives of Huawei Enterprise (Thailand), TCC Technology Co Ltd, Advanced Info Service, True Digital Park Co Ltd and Kasikorn Business-Technology Group.
In his speech to mark the signing ceremony, Supachai said Higher Education Minister Anek Laothamatas wants universities to speed up the creation of an AI workforce through their sandbox AI courses.
He said the AI engineering graduates from the AI sandbox course will have the right skills and qualities to develop the country.
He said the AI sandbox courses will be jointly opened by the six universities in August this year.
Supachai added that the AI sandbox courses do not have to follow conventional standards but the six universities can share academic resources for the courses.
He said the AI courses would help raise the standards of Thai industries so that the country could pursue its goal to become a developed nation by 2037.
He said CMKL University will launch a pilot study programme, with focus on students’ competency-based education, which will be unconventional and develop teaching skills that students can use in their work.