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PMU-B hosts a Hackathon & Pitching event for the Northeastern Coding & AI program, supporting Minister Supamas’s policy to update curricula and equip youth with essential modern skills.

PMU-B hosts a Hackathon & Pitching event for the Northeastern Coding & AI program, supporting Minister Supamas’s policy to update curricula and equip youth with essential modern skills.

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On January 22, 2024, Professor Dr. Sompong Klainongsuang, Director of the Program Management Unit for Human Resources and Institutional Development, Research and Innovation (PMU-B), presided over the opening ceremony of the "Hackathon & Pitching E-SAN Thailand PMU-B Coding & AI Academy" held from January 22–24, 2024 at the Faculty of Education, Khon Kaen University, and Rachawadee Resort and Hotel, Khon Kaen Province.

Distinguished attendees included:

  • Asst. Prof. Dr. Phulsak Kosiyaporn, Deputy Director of the Office of the National Higher Education Science Research and Innovation Policy Council (NXPO)

  • Dr. Monsak Socharoentham, AI expert

  • Dr. Wisit Taweesangsuporn, Frontier technology expert

  • Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rina Patramanon, Chair of the Frontier Technology Cluster Committee

  • Ms. Jaturaporn Chokphukhiow, Chair of the Frontier SHA & AI Cluster Committee

They attended the final round to observe the talent of northeastern youth in coding and artificial intelligence.

This competition stemmed from youth who completed the Coding & AI training course under the project: "Integrated Learning Ecosystem Model for Youth – Coding & AI", utilizing the U.S.-certified CodeCombat platform and innovations in AI across five career domains:

  • Blockchain Fintech

  • BCG Industrial-IoTs Factory

  • AR-E-Sport

  • Data Science

  • Personal AI

A total of 65 finalists were selected from over 1,000 youth participants across Northeastern Thailand.

During the event, participants received real-world challenges from industry professionals, including companies such as CodeCombat, Sun Smart Tech, Intelligist Public Co., Ltd., ClusterKit Co., Ltd., BOTNOI Group, Precision Diets Co., Ltd., Let’s Code Thailand, and The Asia Foundation. Each domain awarded a 100,000 THB prize to the winning team, with one outstanding participant per category selected to visit Silicon Valley, USA.

🏆 Winning Teams (100,000 THB each, total 500,000 THB):

  • “Share Pao” – Blockchain Fintech

  • “MBP” – BCG Industrial-IoTs Factory

  • “ไหนก็ได้” (Whatever Works) – AR-E-Sport

  • “แมวส้ม” (Orange Cat) – Data Science

  • “ไม่มีตังค์” (No Money) – Personal AI

🌍 Selected Participants for the Silicon Valley Study Visit:

  • Weerapat Namkiri – Mae Fah Luang University (Blockchain Fintech)

  • Pitikorn Klaiamniang – Chulalongkorn University (BCG Industrial-IoTs)

  • Nattapong Tungsatianrapap – Khon Kaen University (AR-E-Sport)

  • Methee Yingyongwattanakit – Khon Kaen University (Data Science)

  • Sittattaka Jarassang – Khon Kaen University (Personal AI)


The Hackathon & Pitching competition marks the final round of a series of activities aimed at developing the potential of Thai youth aged 15–25 who participated in training programs supported by the Science, Research and Innovation Promotion Fund (TSRI Fund) under the 2023 fiscal year initiative titled:

“Youth Competency Development through Science, Mathematics, and Coding Literacy with Science, Research, and Innovation”

This initiative consists of five regional research-based programs:

  1. Building Coders (Northern Region)

  2. E-SAN PMU-B Coding & AI Academy (Northeastern Region)

  3. Talent RAC – Robotics, AI, and Coding (Central, Eastern, Western, and Southern Regions)

  4. Braincode101 X AI-Builders (Central Region)

  5. Agri-Tech (Central and Eastern Regions)

As the leading agency for workforce development, PMU-B has played a key role in advancing youth skills and competencies in coding and artificial intelligence, in line with the national policy set forth by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI), led by Minister Supamas Isarabhakdi.

At the "Future Thailand" forum held on January 11, 2024, Minister Supamas outlined six key national development strategies, four of which directly relate to these programs:

  1. Reforming curricula and instruction to equip learners with modern workforce skills in areas such as AI, data science, cloud computing, coding, and e-commerce.

  2. Promoting experiential and entrepreneurial education, combining hands-on learning with practical applications to foster new entrepreneurs.

  3. Implementing skill transcripts to document competencies and skill development each academic year.

  4. Establishing a National Credit Bank to promote lifelong learning for youth, students, and individuals of all ages.

These five initiatives clearly demonstrate the impact of educational reform focused on real-world learning, skill-based training, and progressive evaluation systems—including trainee tracking and “Train the Trainer” development. There are also plans to integrate these training programs into the Credit Bank and National Credit Bank systems.

Furthermore, this Youth Competency Development Program has been selected as a "Quick Win" project by the Ministry and was showcased as a gift for Thai youth on National Children’s Day at the “Play Fun Fest: PMU-B Coding Era 2024”, held at Central Rama 9 in Bangkok.

📍 Those interested in learning more or gaining skills in coding and AI through these research-based programs can visit:👉 https://codingacademy.pmu-hr.or.th/Additional updates on upcoming programs for the 2024 fiscal year can be found on the official PMU-B website.


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