ASEAN Data Science Explorers 2019 winners announced

BANGKOK, 9 October 2019 — The ASEAN Foundation, SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) and Digital Economy Promotion Agency (depa) today held the regional finals of ASEAN Data Science Explorers (ASEANDSE) 2019 that saw three teams from Viet Nam, Singapore and Thailand emerge as winners for their insights and data-driven solutions to solve the region’s most pressing social and economic issues.

Co-hosted by depa, Executive Vice President of depa Ms. Kasama Kongsmak, presided over the prize presentation ceremony. The winners of ASEANDSE 2019’s Regional Final are as follows:

Team AWM from Viet Nam, comprising Ha Vu and Trung Vu from RMIT University Vietnam, took first place at the Regional Final. Their project focused on ethnic minorities as a potential source for economic development in ASEAN.

Team Revolution from Singapore, comprising Shi Xuan Teng and Egwin Fan from Nanyang Technological University, emerged as the runner-up. Their project was designed to solve the waste management problem in ASEAN.

Meanwhile, Team NT from Thailand, comprising Noppawan Rakthinkumnerd and Bao Tran Ngo Le from Thammasat University, became the second runner-up for their project on gender inequality in work force in ASEAN

This event was the culmination of a year-long journey that involved a series of enablement sessions where close to 500 educators and 3,000 students were trained in SAP Analytics Cloud. The ASEANDSE 2019 competition had 1,341 participants competing in the national finals held in all ten ASEAN Member States. The national champions progressed on to compete at the regional competition in Bangkok, Thailand. The three winners were chosen for their excellent capabilities in developing and presenting data-driven solutions that highlight six Sustainable Development Goals, namely good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation & infrastructure, and sustainable cities and communities.

Trung Vu, a member of Team AWM from Viet Nam said, “we were just excited and delighted that our ideas and our solutions were acknowledged by ASEAN, UN and other governmental agencies to turn our vision into reality. We also got exposure to diverse cultures from students from other countries that we’ve become friends with. We can learn from each other and share our knowledge and different perspectives in the region and I believe that diversity is crucial for someone who wants to be a global citizen such as myself and a lot of other students.”

ASEANDSE is a regional programme by the ASEAN Foundation and SAP that recognises the importance of equipping ASEAN youth with skillsets that will help them to thrive in the fourth industrial revolution and unleash the region’s full potential. Since its inception in 2017, ASEANDSE has empowered over 9,000 youths from 230 higher education institutions in the region with data analytic skills. Participating students came from a wide range of disciplines such as political science, engineering and architecture gleaning actionable insights from data to come up with solutions that have an impact on these areas.

The Executive Director of ASEAN Foundation Elaine Tan said, “ASEAN Foundation is honoured and proud to collaborate with SAP for three consecutive years. SAP played a significantrole in thisinitiative as together we are addressing the post-2020 direction of ASEAN youth development that focuses on fostering future-ready ASEAN youth through digital skills development. The initiative help ASEAN youths to seize the vast opportunities that lie ahead of them. At the same time, the initiative equips them with relevant digital skills they require to tackle the challenges posed by the Industrial Revolution 4.0,” said

Meanwhile, Head of Corporate Affairs, SAP Southeast Asia Eugene Ho highlighted, “we have identified that a widening digital skill gap is becoming a growing challenge across all industries and sectors in ASEAN. The collaboration with ASEAN Foundation has helped us to steer our focus on developing the human capital pool to ensure that all ASEAN young citizens have the relevant skills needed to thrive in the digital economy. Through the ASEAN Data Science Explorers programme, we hope to work towards filling the digital skills gap in the region.”

 On her part, Kasama Kongksmak said, “seeing the youth as the generation of tomorrow, depa pays great attention to empowering them with universal mindset, innovative tools and most importantly compassionate visions. With the objectives of ASEAN Data Science Explorers being in line with our core mission and the theme of Thailand’s 2019 ASEAN Chairmanship ‘Advancing Partnership for Sustainability’, we are more than pleased to support the programme by being the co-host of the ASEANDSE Regional Finals 2019 and look forward to many more regional collaborative opportunities to come.”