Thailand’s top technological trends for
this year come from health tech, digital tech, artificial intelligence and
material tech.
An announcement
from the Bangkok Post highlighted how health technology is the top sector to
contribute among the top 10 technological innovations to watch for this year.
The National Science and Technology Development
Agency (NSTDA) declared that among the top 10 technologies to watch
out for this year are health/medical tech, digital tech, artificial
intelligence (AI) and material tech.
NSTDA President Narong Sirilertworakul said
that research and development (R&D) is capable of affecting social and
economic development.
He explained that six out of the top 10
tech trends this year are from the medical field. He said, “Health tech is one
of the most advanced sectors this year.”
Malaria is a health concern for many countries.
The first technology trend is the Wolbachia, which targets mosquitoes. This
technology makes use of the Wolbachia bacteria in order to eradicate
mosquitoes, addressing the problem of malaria. Moreover, Mr Narong added that
this technology can be shared with other parts of the world such as Africa.
A second technology trend from the health
sector is edible vaccines. These vaccines are made from transgenic plants,
which make use of agrobacterium and are produced for pharmaceuticals. Edible
vaccines are better alternatives for parents since they are more cost-effective
and are more convenient. These vaccines remove the need for parent to bring
their children to the hospital for injections.
Mr Narong explained, “Thailand can
capitalise on this trend as we have various kinds of herbs.”
Personalised medicine is advocated by the third
technology trend because cell lines will be used for drug testing instead of testing
on animals.
Two techniques used for personalised
therapy will be the focus of the fourth technology trend. Personalised
treatment will look into building stem cells and reprogramming cells, which
will then be combined with genetic design.
Retrieving information directly from the
human system is the aim of the fifth technology trend. Nanoneedles that are
integrated with sensors will be able to get vital information such as blood
sugar levels for those with diabetes.
The sixth technology trend focuses on the
use of nanovalves for drug delivery. Nanovalves are a new kind of nanoscopic valve.
Material science and customised sound
absorbers are the seventh technology trend according to Mr Narong. He said that
the customised sound absorbers are able to absorb sounds at different
frequencies and are cheaper by around 50% than imported ones.
The NSTDA is collaborating with private
firms to develop the eighth technology trend, which is 3D printing for metals.
This technology can be used for different industries like healthcare,
aerospace, and automobile.
Cyber technology and physical technology
constitute the ninth technology trend. City management systems are greatly
improve with the aid of Internet of Things (IoT), communications, and Cloud.
Integration of both physical and digital aspects will advance the systems.
Chatbots complete the ten technology trends
to look out for this year. Chatbots will be used alongside smart speakers,
service robots or digital assistants for smart homes.
Thailand’s pain points can be addressed by
this key solution: an integration of multidisciplinary technologies with
imaginative thinking.