Microsoft and Nectec in three-year project

Collaboration aims to boost local work in security, agriculture, traffic control

Microsoft (Thailand) has joined the Science and Technology Ministry in an effort to boost software research and development in Thailand.

Under the collaboration, Microsoft and the ministry's National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec) will join in research and development in three areas: assistive technologies, developing "digitized Thailand" and software testing. They will also collaborate on software development for traffic control.

Nectec director Pansak Siriruchatapong said the partnership would aim to lift up research and development in Thailand, to bring research and development to the industrial sector, and to chart a career path in research and development for future generations.

"We plan to persuade Microsoft to set up a joint development lab in Thailand in the future," he said.

The priority is co-development of assistive technology related to Desy (Deutsches Electronen-Synchrotron) software. The aim is to bring open-standard Desy features to operate with a majority of Microsoft's software suite.

At present, Microsoft's software has a "Save as Desy" feature to facilitate the transfer of text-based documents to Desy format. The collaboration effort will seek to extend this facility in the Microsoft software suite, with more features such as text-to-speech, to help bridge the "digital divide" between normal and disabled people.

Another priority is mobile development to serve a wide range of applications such as traffic, security and agricultural management.

"Nectec has received Bt400 million for development of an information archive for three provinces in the South be using mobile technology developed by Microsoft and Nectec. This project is initially to serve the government's security policies and then it can be used for other purposes as well," Pansak said.

Microsoft (Thailand)'s managing director Patama Chantaruk said that by signing the Memorandum of Understanding with the Science and Technology Ministry, Microsoft was promising to spend a three-year research budget in Thailand that had already been approved by the company's headquarters in the United States.

The timeline is more important than the amount of the budget, she said, since Microsoft has committed itself to a three-year research and development effort in Thailand.

The company plans to set up another research and development centre in Thailand, after having chosen this country to establish its first healthcare research centre outside the US. It is possible, after this collaboration, that the next such centre will cover the areas of agriculture and education, she said.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/