The starting point for any kind of digitalisation is to solve a customer pain point. Sometimes, that customer can be a real, paying customer. Sometimes, it’s just someone within your organisation.

I head a project, “Flip For Site”, whose customer is internal but whose reach grew to include all of Thailand. It was designed to address one of DTAC’s greatest challenges, finding new locations to build base towers. We had teams ready to build more cell sites, but we just didn’t have the locations. Given that network quality is so critical to the customer’s experience, this was an issue I really wanted to solve. And with Flip For Site, we did. Since last March, we’ve collected over 11,000 locations from landowners interested in letting DTAC build a tower on their|property.

To get to that point, we looked at recurring models in the digital arena. Netflix is often used to describe an online business where one can rent something instead of owning it. Renttherunway.com, for example, has been called a “Netflix for designer dresses”. Another model is crowdsourcing, such as Wikipedia or Kickstarter, where small individual contributions are compiled into an impactful final result. Even Uber started as the crowdsourcing of ride sharing.

The crowdsourcing model is what inspired Flip For Site. Previously, our engineers would select where to build the next base tower and hand over a latitude and longitude to the site acquisition team. In turn, they would drive out to that area and start knocking on doors, looking for landowners who are often not at home, or not willing to discuss the installation of a tower in their backyard with a perfect stranger. One day, I suggested to my boss, “What if our 25 million customers could be our site acquisition team, instead of just 25 people?”

Thus was birthed Flip For Site, which offers Bt10,000 to anyone supplying the contact details of a landowner with whom successfully manage to sign a rental agreement. Following the agile method, we quickly rolled out our idea in a basic shape good enough to test it out. By using Google maps and an online form, we were able to enrol our colleagues from within the technology group. Within a couple of weeks, over 450 sites were submitted! We then scaled the project to include all of DTAC before finally opening it to all our customers. And finally we successfully launched it nationwide, |so that anyone can now become a DTAC partner and rent their property to us.

Projects like Flip For Site would have been very difficult a few years ago, when the company was still structured quite traditionally. |Today, we have embraced a new |”flip it” culture, meaning everyone is committed to working quickly and collaboratively. I got a lot of support from our legal and regulatory teams, for example. It’s a huge cultural shift for the organisation, as new agile methods of working are much more fast-paced and imply a very horizontal organisation. But working like this means we can get new products to our clients faster and more often. With the “Internet of Things” |and 5G on the horizon, DTAC’s |flip-it culture will be key to becoming our customers’ favourite digital |partner.

Wannee Peeramanchai is AVP, head of service performance and quality assurance unit, DTAC.

WITH THE AIM to build the nation’s strength and to nurture Thailand as the leading hub of innovation in the Southeast Asia region, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL) has joined hands with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to establish CMKL University.

The collaborative activities, to be known collectively as the Carnegie Mellon-KMITL (CMKL) programme, will occur both in Thailand and at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is a longterm collaboration to significantly expand research and education in the areas of information, computing and autonomous technologies.

The Carnegie Mellon-KMITL programme will focus on collaborative education, research and faculty development programs.

The education component will sponsor students for masters-degree and PhD programs in electrical and computer engineering at CMU. Successful students will be awarded degrees from both institutions.

To facilitate the collaboration with Carnegie Mellon, a separate institution – CMKL University – has been established in association with KMITL to administer the programmes for research and education activities in Thailand.

Supan Tungjitkusolmun, president of CMKL University, said that the new institution aims to be a model new growth engine that provides world-class knowledge and expertise from Carnegie Mellon.

“The university aims to support the government’s Thailand 4.0 initiative and the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) special economic zone [plan]. CMKL University will work hand-in-hand with our industrial partners on advanced research to create new innovations. It is to bring the CMU culture of excellence to transform research and education in Thailand and Southeast Asia,” said Supan.

CMKL offers top PhD and MS programs in areas of computer engineering and digital technologies, including software systems, cloud computing, Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence and robotics.

The CMKM programme will involve professors, researchers and students from both Carnegie Mellon and KMITL, and include several industry partners from Thailand.

The industry partners so far signed up are Thai Beverage Public Co Ltd (ThaiBev) and Betagro Public Co Ltd.

“Students will do research according to addressing industry issues rather than taking an academic point of view. We’re doing research to really be used in industry,” said Supan.

Hyong S Kim, the Carnegie Mellon-KMITL (CMKM) program director, said that CMKL University is the fifth collaboration of this kind between CMU and universities in countries outside the United States.

“We initiated this [latest programme] three years ago,” said Kim. “We have a lot of Thai students who come to CMU for a PhD or masters degree and they are talented and smart. Thailand is a perfect fit for our culture of excellence. We do not collaborate with all, we are very focused and selective,” said Kim.

This kind of collaboration will help drive Thailand’s move forward and increase the country’s competitive strength, he said.

“CMU is not the best in everything. We are certainly a good quality [university] and we want to transfer the quality to KMITL and Thailand, which share our culture of excellence,” he said.

“Because we solving important research problems we hope to see the research deployed and commercialised and people using it. Then you would impact the economy of Thailand to become the technology hub in Southeast Asia.”

The university would offer three degrees – a PhD in electrical and computer engineering, a masters degree in electrical and computer engineering, and a masters degree in software engineering.

The PhD in electrical and computer engineering would be a research-focused programme utilising advanced knowledge in ECE, including AI, IoT and computer systems to solve industrial challenges. The MS in electrical and computer engineering would be an intensive study in the fundamentals of digital technologies with the opportunity to specialise in algorithms, AI, robotics, devices, communications, or software systems.

The MS in software engineering would develop the understanding and skills needed for graduates to become the architects and project leaders |of complex software systems with applications drawn from real-world challenges.

Chalermpol Toojinda, director of Software Park Thailand, said that the collaborative nature of CMKL University is good news for both education and industry sectors in Thailand. The focus on researching and then deploying solutions to real-world industry problems could result in important breakthroughs, said Chalermpol.

It would help build the resources in Thailand to improve the country’s competitiveness, he said.

“We are looking forward to a chance to collaborate or link with them to encourage the country’s software industry,” said Chalermpol.

The Federal Communications Commission, in a three-to-two vote, adopted a proposal by Republican appointed chairman Ajit Pai, who said his plan would scrap “heavy-handed” rules adopted in 2015 which he argued discourage investment and innovation.

The vote capped a heated partisan debate and is just the latest in a battle over more than a decade on rules governing internet service providers in the courts and the FCC.

Democratic member Mignon Clyburn, one of the two dissenters, charged that the agency was “handing the keys to the internet” to “a handful of multibillion dollar corporations.”

Immediately following the vote, officials from two states and others vowed to challenge the FCC action in court.

Net neutrality activists have staged a series of protests in cities around the US and online, amid fears that dominant broadband providers could change how the internet works by favoring their own services and hindering those of rivals, and charging more for certain kinds of access.

Net neutrality backers have argued rules are needed to prevent internet service providers from blocking or throttling services or websites for competitive reasons.

Critics of the 2015 rule counter that it was based on utility-style regulation designed for 1930s telephone companies, not a dynamic internet market.

Not a water pipe

Pai said ahead of the vote that his plan would restore “light-touch” rules which allowed the internet to flourish, and promote investments to enable new and emerging services.

“The digital world bears no resemblance to a water pipe or electric line or sewer,” Pai said.

“Entrepreneurs and innovators guided the internet far better than the heavy hand of government.”

But dissenting FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said the rollback will hurt consumers and others.

“Net neutrality is internet freedom. I support that freedom,” she said.

“This decision puts the Federal Communications Commission on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the law, and the wrong side of the American public.”

Appointed by President Donald Trump, Pai was a fierce critic of the neutrality rules adopted under former president Barack Obama in 2015 and earlier this month unveiled his plan named the “Restoring Internet Freedom” order.

Many Republican lawmakers backed Pai, although a few had urged the FCC to delay the vote to allow Congress time to consider legislation.

More court challenges

Within minutes of the vote, the attorneys general of New York State and Washington State vowed to challenge the FCC in court.

“The FCC just gave Big Telecom an early Christmas present, by giving internet service providers yet another way to put corporate profits over consumers,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said.

“New Yorkers deserve the right to a free and open internet. That’s why we will sue to stop the FCC’s illegal rollback of net neutrality.”

Others planned legal challenges including the consumer activist group Free Press.

“We’ll have plenty to say in court about the legal mistakes littered throughout this decision,” said Free Press spokesman Matt Wood.

Pai and internet firms have maintained that internet users will see no difference once the new rules are implemented.

Commission member Michael O’Rielly dismissed “fearmongering” by neutrality backers.

“The internet has functioned without net neutrality rules far longer than with them,” he said.

“Our solar system now is tied for most number of planets around a single star,” NASA said in a statement.

However, none of the planets are expected to be hospitable to life.

The eight-planet system — the largest known outside of ours — orbits a star called Kepler 90 some 2,545 light-years away.

“The Kepler-90 star system is like a mini version of our solar system,” said Andrew Vanderburg, an astronomer at the University of Texas at Austin.

“You have small planets inside and big planets outside, but everything is scrunched in much closer.”

The newly identified planet, Kepler-90i, is a rocky planet like Earth, but orbits its star once every 14.4 days, meaning a full year there is the same as two weeks on Earth.

“Kepler-90i is not a place I’d like to go visit, though,” said Vanderburg.

“Its surface is likely far too hot.”

NASA calculated its average temperature at about 800 degrees Fahrenheit (426 Celsius) — as hot as Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun.

– Artificial intelligence –

Scientists found it by using machine learning from Google.

The process involved teaching a computer to scan a trove of 35,000 possible planetary signals collected from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope for search for signs of planetary transits.

Transits are the dimming of light when planets pass in front of a star.

The Kepler Space Telescope launched in 2009, and has scanned some 150,000 stars.

Astronomers have already confirmed the existence of some 2,500 far-away worlds using Kepler data.

“I became interested in applying neural networks to astronomy when I learned that the Kepler mission had collected so much data that it was impossible for scientists to examine it all manually,” said Christopher Shallue, a senior software engineer with Google’s research team.

“Instead scientists selected the strongest signals, which are the most likely to be actual planets, to receive the most attention.”

Shallue likened this process to “looking for a needle in a haystack.”

“Machine learning really shines when there is too much data for humans to examine for themselves.”

More planets are expected to be found, because researchers plan to apply their neural network to Kepler’s full set of more than 150,000 stars.

“There is a lot of unexplored real estate in the Kepler 90 system,” said Vanderburg.

“It would almost be surprising to me if there weren’t any more planets in around that star.”

One day, artificial intelligence might even be used to search specifically for more Earth-like planets, which have proven difficult to pin down.

“For the first time since our solar system planets were discovered thousands of years ago, we know for sure that the solar system is not the sole record holder for the most planets, and we have just scratched the surface,” Vanderburg added.

“Maybe there are systems out there with so many planets that they make our eight-planet solar system seem ordinary.”

The findings are published in The Astronomical Journal.

Irma, the devastating storm, was the top trending topic globally when it came to news or searches at Google, according to rankings of top trending topics and people release on Wednesday by the California-based company.

Stories about cryptocurrency bitcoin were the second most keenly sought news, followed by coverage of the deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas, the crisis with North Korea and the solar eclipse.

Apple’s latest iPhone models ranked second and third overall in search, and topped the chart when it came to consumer electronics.

The fourth fiercest overall search trend was focused on TV host Matt Lauer, who was also the person who garnered the most interest at Google.

Matt Lauer’s two decade run as host of NBC’s morning show “Today” came to an abrupt end last month following harassment allegations by several colleagues, including one who claimed he locked her in his office and assaulted her.

Two others embroiled in sex harassment accusations, film producer Harvey Weinstein and actor Kevin Spacey also made a top five list of people who prompted online queries this year.

Weinstein was until a few months ago a king of Hollywood whose golden touch bagged his productions 81 Oscars. That all changed in October, when he was accused by multiple women of sexual harassment.

Two-time Oscar winner Spacey, considered one of the finest actors of his generation, was accused in October of having harassed several young male actors.

The second-most sought after person at Google was Meghan Markle, an American actress recently engaged to marry Britain’s Prince Harry.

The third most Googled person this year was Italian television personality Nadia Toffa who raised alarm about a nuclear experiment that did not happen.

Netflix appeared to strike a chord with its original series “Stranger Things,” which ranked as the television show getting the most interest at Google.

And when it came to people getting their hands dirty offline, a “how to” category was topped by queries about making slime.

PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP) last Friday unveiled the robot as part of the company’s collaboration with Prince of Songkla University’s Faculty of Engineering under the “PTTEP Love Sea Love Beach” project.

According a demonstration at Songkhla’s Samila Beach, the key advantages of the beach cleaning robot, which has been under development since last year, are:

+ Its ability to effectively scoop up and quickly separate rubbish from sand through a vibrating sieve;

+ Its small size, which enables collection of garbage around trees, wich is usually for tractor-pulled beach cleaners; and

+ Its use of a rechargeable battery.

Importantly, the robot can be built locally, saving import costs from having to import.

PTTEP also announced it would continue to support improvements to the robot’s capabilities before it enters full operation.

Vinit Hansamuit, senior vice president, technology and knowledge management division, PTTEP, said “The beach-cleaning robot is one of many green innovations that reflect PTTEP’s commitment to environmental sustainability through research and development collaborations with education institutions, supporting the education sector to create new technologies for practical application.”

Prince of Songkla University mechanical engineering lecterer Pruittikorn Smithmaitrie said: “Collaboration with PTTEP gives us the opportunity to develop innovation that address local problems and to augment the skills and practical experience of our students.”

The move comes just a month after Twitter rattled the twitterverse by doubling the limit for tweets in most languages to 280 characters, in a bid to draw in more users and boost engagement. It was the first time the character cap was raised since Twitter was founded.

“A few years ago we noticed people creatively stitching Tweets together to share more information or tell a longer story,” product manager Sasank Reddy said in a blog post.

“We saw this approach (which we call ‘threading’) as an innovative way to present a train of thought, made up of connected but individual elements.”

An “add another tweet” button is being added to the Twitter application, along with a “show this thread” label that can be clicked to see posts woven together by authors.

Threaded tweets will be published at the same time, but more posts can be added, according to Reddy.

“Launching tweetstorms/thread today,” Twitter co-founder and chief executive Jack Dorsey tweeted from the firm’s San Francisco headquarters.

Twitter posts about a topic, typically fired off in rapid succession by someone intent on writing more than allowed by the character limit, have been referred to as “tweetstorms.”

Many replies to Dorsey’s post called on Twitter to focus on dealing with extremists, trolls, and “bots” abusing the service instead of packaging tweets together.

“This will make some of the thoughtful longform posts on Twitter more accessible to a broader range of people. Good,” read a reply to Dorsey from a verified account of venture capitalist Chris Sacca, whose investments included Twitter.

“But not sure why it launched before you make more moves to reduce hate speech, ban Nazis, eliminate Russian trolls, and stop the spread of fake news.”

Threads will be rolled out in an update to Twitter in the coming weeks, according to Reddy.

For a large corporation with thousands of employees vested with them for decades, moving to the next level is truly a “big deal”. They need an engine that runs powerful and fast to uniformly drive all the constituent parts together toward a loftier goal. At Kaskikornbank (KBank), we have been preparing for this big step in our journey, and so established our KBank Digital Academy. We hoped it to would be a major force that drives everyone forward with a well-conceived, highly structured development roadmap and the strong intent to create a brighter future for KBank.

To become a world-class international institution |dedicated to our own digital transformation via human capital development, the KBank Digital Academy |co-designed several educational programmes with |expert partners to deliver modern content to help |leverage digital skills across our organisation.

Along our journey to the establishment of the KBank Digital Academy, we conducted several seminars to raise the digital awareness of KBank employees and enjoyed a high rate of participation at every session. We started with data analytics, which is an important key to corporate success because it gleans the “next best action” for business operations. The session resonated well with our employees. We noticed a highly vibrant mood among attendees starting with our very first session. It was a |perception that KBank was evolving into a more modern organisation with a promising future that seems more tangible than ever.

On a global scale, it has been proven that major changes must start at the top. Luckily, our KBank executive leadership has always supported this journey of transformation and so our second academy session featured KBank |president, Kattiya Indaravijaya, sharing how global |businesses like Facebook, Amazon, and Netflix work in a rapid changing environment using “design thinking” |concepts. She had attended a programme at the Stanford d. School (a hub for thinking on human-centred design) with top executives from around the world and shared her thoughts from that experience with all staff. Her narrative demonstrated that we really could move our bank; this is the core concept of our agenda.

The KBank Digital Academy on November 14 conducted an official kick-off event introducing our vision and opportunity to make a good impact on our organisation. We invited 10 “digital influencers” in Thailand to demonstrate how such an impact is created; they really impressed us. As said before, KBank Digital Academy is intended to pave the way for our staff to reach new |goals in digital banking. In order to run smoothly, we |categorised staff attendees into three target group levels and devised programmes of varying intensity and scope for each level.

At the first level, “Live” Digital, the target group is made up of all of our staff since they are regularly faced with changes to the way they work as well as their workplace settings. Basic digital capabilities need to be nurtured and become integral to their lives. Development coursework is provided to this group as public seminars and online courses that can reach all the participants.

At the second level, “Execute” Digital, the target group is those who will spearhead work through the KBank Digital Transformation team, as well as help staff working with digital products and services. Since they need to work in a really fast-paced environment, and they mostly learn on the job from their colleagues, KBank Digital Academy needs to assist them with complex skills specific to their tasks. Thus, the development tools we use with those working in such agile environments are on-demand courses accessed online and workshops with hands-on learning.

And at the highest group category, “Lead” Digital, attendees are workplace leaders and digital change agents. It’s undeniable that successful changes, as we can see from past examples, required strong visionary leadership. Therefore, we designed the Digital Leadership Program with content related to change management, decision-making using data and agile workplace |methodologies.

With this initial step, we expect to see the readiness of KBank staff greatly improved, along with a strong desire to learn. Our success would verify our choice of running KBank using “learning organisation” concepts. We have not only impacted our organisation internally, but also externally via the way the younger generation perceives us now.

In the process, we have revived our branding to now be seen as an employer of choice, a modern organisation that really cares about human capital development wherein everyone has a chance to learn and develop themselves, thereby learning to work more efficiently |in future workplaces.

Krit Jitjang is senior executive vice president, Kasikornbank.

Virtual reality or VR is becoming a vital technology for journalism and it is one of the newest trends in media.

“Through the perception of sight, sound, even smell, VR will cut us off from the current environment to get us into a simulated image,” said Francesca Panetta, VR editor of British newspaper The Guardian.

Panetta said that virtual reality journalism is in its infancy of developing a shared language. It will need to give audiences confidence in what they are offered as journalism, and it will need to maintain trust.

Experiencing a piece of VR journalism requires the “reader” to put a viewer over their eyes and listen through headphones. The more sealed off from other sights and sounds they are, the better the experience.

For this purpose, 87,000 Google Cardboard VR headsets with plastic lenses and a space to insert a mobile phone have been distributed in the UK. These are an affordable way to make accessible to many people.

Among The Guardian’s VR films, Panetta said, “The Party” propels the viewer into the world of an autistic teenage girl, and “Crime Scene” puts the user into the shoes of a trainee forensic officer trying to solve a murder. Panetta said that a range of experts on autism, and people with autism, were consulted for “The Party”.

The films can be viewed through The Guardian’s app, on Facebook and on YouTube.