Projects are currently being developed by the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in partnership with the government to further develop digital technology and data science in the Philippines.
According to a recent report, they are working on three projects and that the third, and in a much larger scale, remains to be confidential.
The first two projects were expanding the data science curriculum in lower levels of education and bringing back more Filipino scientists amid the country’s attempt to adapt to the fourth industrial revolution.
The Institute recently launched its Master of Science in Data Science course during the early part of 2018.
They want to trickle it down to university students, as well as high school and elementary students in order to get them excited to work with science, especially data science.
Moreover, the Institute’s Master’s program has brought back home some data scientists to fill the faculty’s roster.
This has encouraged the Institute to its second mission of bringing home more Filipino scientists from abroad in order to reverse brain drain.
The other project that they are actually working on is finding a way on how they will be able to bring back the talented Filipino scientists and engineers from abroad.
A proper platform should be thought of to entice all of them to come back to the Philippines.
The Institute also launched its Analytics, Computing, and Complex Systems Laboratory last March. Also called ACCeSs@AIM, the lab would be used for the data science program.
It is the first corporate laboratory of the Institute. It is envisioned to lead and promote the use of data science, artificial intelligence (AI), and computational models to help industries government agencies, and other sectors to innovate.
The research and development facility houses one of Southeast Asia’s fastest supercomputers, a 500-terabyte Acer supercomputer with a computing speed of 500 teraflops.
Furthermore, the Institute has also formed a partnership with the Asian Development Bank to improve digital technology programs during the Digital Development Forum 2018.
The first of their collaboration resulted to a Hackathon event held earlier in September.
This is not the first time that the Institute and the Bank have worked together. They have maintained a relationship in so many different ways.
They have provided scholarships, for instance, on the Development Management Master’s Program, and did the case development together.
Amid the changes across various sectors brought about by digital technology, it is important for the collaboration between private and public sectors to adapt as well as prepare the incoming generation through education.
The relationship has been ongoing and it is in the area of digital transformation, in particular, that they have decided to strengthen it.
The Institute is looking and hoping to replicate the collaboration again in the coming year but will wait to see how it goes.