KMUTT and IBM Collaborate to set up Thailand’s First on Campus "Center of Excellence"
Thailand’s leading university to leverage IBM Academic Initiative resources; Knowledge and skills development in technology will meet market needs and help make the world 'smarter'
Bangkok - January 26, 2011: The School of Information Technology at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) have announced a collaboration with IBM to launch Thailand’s first “Center of Excellence" to produce high quality IT specialists, who will be certified by IBM. This centre aims to teach and develop skills on IBM technologies so as to produce personnel with the knowledge, skills, business and IT abilities to meet the growing IT and business needs of the public and private sectors in Thailand.
A recurring challenge in the development of information technology is a lack of skilled personnel with the relevant IT knowledge. This is caused by an insufficient number of skilled resources produced each year, particularly in the areas of mainframe technology. The Center of Excellence is being set up to help overcome these issues.
The center will enhance the capabilities of IT education at institutes such as KMUTT in producing graduates and postgraduates, who possess high quality skills and professional certification. KMUTT will provide an advanced technology infrastructure including required facilities, whilst IBM will provide the leading software, educational materials, training, curriculum, and the testing necessary to gain IBM certification, when the student graduates.
Students will also be schooled in the many areas of hardware and software technology from IBM, for example in the System z mainframe technologies, DB2, WebSphere, Lotus, and Tivoli software capabilities, and new important technologies and disciplines such as cloud computing and business analytics .
These skills enable students to help build a Smarter Planet by contributing immediately upon graduation in numerous jobs that require both business and IT savvy. In addition, the learning process in a modern laboratory will inspire students to become familiar with innovation, to motivate them to compete domestically and globally.
Associate.Professor.Dr. Nipon Charoenkitkarn, Dean of the School of Information Technology, KMUTT said., "KMUTT, as the nation's leading university, has been focused on science and technology for the past 50 years. We are looking to further reinforce our superiority in technology and research, to reach our aim of becoming a world-class university, with the School of Information Technology playing a key role.
We aim to improve students’ IT skills and knowledge, to help them keep up with the rapid change in technology. IBM is one of our long-standing partners working with the faculty, to provide support through their global IT expertise and experience to our university’s professors, students, and researchers. "
He continued, “We recognise the need for more IT specialists as they are essential to any enterprise, but are hampered by the current lack of such skilled resources. Responding to the demands of the market, and the increased requirement for research and development knowledge, the Center of Excellence is being established with the aim of producing such graduates with the required knowledge, ability and analytic skills to plan and manage IT effectively through innovative learning process and practical teamwork."
Khun Parnsiree Amatayakul Managing Director, IBM Thailand Co.,Ltd. said, "IBM is pleased to continue our cooperation with institutions that are prominent in information technology such as KMUTT. This new Center of Excellence will be an important source of developing and producing IT professionals for local and international companies. IBM aims to continue collaborating with other leading academic institutions to expand the scope of endless learning, to encourage openness and innovation, so as to benefit the general public. "
Associate.Professor.Dr. Prasert Kanthamanon, Senior Vice President for Administrative Affairs and Chief Information Officer Level (CIO), KMUTT added "There are over 50,000 graduates from IT and related fields per year, but unfortunately only 10 percent of them have the required knowledge and professional skills so Thailand has a major shortage of personnel in this field . The establishment of the Center of Excellence will empower the School of Information Technology at KMUTT to produce graduates with the relevant IT knowledge and skills, to contribute to the creation of valuable work, meeting the demands of both public and private organizations, locally and for the international market. "
Concentrating on the development of technological infrastructure, KMUTT is currently the first and only institution in Thailand to teach its students capabilities of the IBM System z mainframe that comes with features that are fully in line with IBM’s vision of a “Smarter Planet”. The flexibility of the system integration provides distinction in terms of processing stability, contributing to lower costs and energy savings.. Universities around the world are using the IBM System z mainframe as part of the teaching curriculum, with more than 500 universities and over 50,000 students who have been certified.
About the Thailand Center of Excellence
The Thailand Center of Excellence is part of the IBM Academic Initiative project, which has seen IBM partnering with thousands of educational institutions around the world and is focused on developing the knowledge and skills of IT personnel and students around the world.
The IBM Academic Initiative Project was established in 2004 with the aim of fostering collaboration between IBM and various universities to develop knowledge, skills and expertise in information technology of professors, students and the general public, especially where the numbers are lacking. There are currently more than 30,000 teachers from more than 5,900 institutions in a worldwide partnership with IBM on this project. More than 2.5 million people worldwide have trained in the program.
More information about the IBM Academic Initiative is available at
www.ibm.com/academicinitiative.