Source - Bangkok Post
Writer: SASIWIMON BOONRUANG

The French National Institute for Transport and Safety Research (Inrets) has teamed up with Thailand's Software Industry Promotion Agency (Sipa) to exchange knowledge on traffic management.

This will open opportunities for local software houses to learn from international large-scale software architecture.

The cooperation of both organisations will allow Thai software companies to acquire the algorithm software of traffic management from Inrets so that they can further develop the program and carry out knowledge-based modelling design, according to Sipa president Dr Rungruang Limchoopatipa.

Initially, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) will partner Sipa and BMA representatives will join a training course staged by experts from Inrets.

Meanwhile, Sipa will invite other agencies involved with traffic, transport and logistics to join the project, Rungruang said.

France is keen on engineering integration and Inrets has implemented traffic management technology of traffic management in Paris since 1986.

According to Inrets director Dr Habib Haj-Salem, the co-research training will encompass simulation tools, traffic management and traffic impact evaluation.

Bangkok, similarly to Paris in the past, suffers from terrible traffic jams. The traffic management system developed by Inrets can reduce congestion in urban areas, with the problem having lessened in Paris since the system was implemented in 1994. It is hoped a similar improvement can be seen in Bangkok.

Dr Haj-Salem noted that while Thai developers can learn about the traffic management algorithm from France, the French team can in turn learn from the challenges presented by Bangkok, which is notorious for it traffic congestion and pollution.

France and Thailand share population similarities, with 60-65 million people in each country and around 10-12 million in each capital city.

In the past, Inrets has signed an MoU with King Mongkut Institute of Technology Thonburi for conducting research, but this is the first international cooperation between Inrets and the Thai government.

Based on the co-research training, Inrets will bring knowhow of software algorithm to Thai software developers, who will have a chance to learn both application and modelling design.

Association of Thai Software Industry (ATSI) president Somkiat Ungaree said that the technology transfer between France and Thailand expose both countries' software developers to large scale architecture with a totally different approach from the traditional methods that they have experienced.

"The Thai software firms have tended to look from inside-out and make use of existing knowledge, but this new approach will allow us to learn in an outside-in fashion from the world-class experts", said Somkiat, adding that cloud computing will be another major issue that ATSI would discuss with the French experts.

Somkiat added that ATSI would focus on how this exchange would benefit the whole country. It would take into account the entire eco-system, not just the traffic management, he said, as the logistics of transportation can be applied to other concerns that rely on IT.

Thai Animation and Computer Graphics Association president Lak Taechawanchai noted that the advantage of the traffic management engine is its exact accuracy, allowing developers to apply the program to animated simulations and navigation.