UK-Thailand HE STI Forum: Advancing HE and Innovation Ecosystem - MHESI Fair

Osteoporosis is a widespread and serious condition, yet its detection is often missed until a debilitating bone fracture occurs. The gold standard for diagnosis is a DXA scan, but this technology is not widely available in Thailand, limiting access for many. The UK-Thailand HE STI Forum will feature two in-depth seminars that address this critical issue by showcasing a groundbreaking project that uses advanced technology to improve osteoporosis diagnosis.

Dr. Somrudee Deepaisarn (Thai lead) and Dr. Nguyen Truong (UK lead) will be presenting in two sessions:

Session 1: Panel - Enhancing Internationalisation through Higher Education and S&T partnerships

In this session, Dr. Deepaisarn and Dr. Truong will share their experience in establishing new global research collaborations. They will discuss how they identified key research gaps and trends to create impactful projects, as well as how they successfully navigated the application process for the ISPF matching fund scheme between the UK British Council and the Thai PMU-B, offering valuable insights for early-career researchers looking to secure similar funding.

Session 5: Panel - Generating impact from research partnerships - Lessons learned from ISPF

This discussion will focus on the practical aspects of working in a multidisciplinary team. The project involves computer scientists, engineers, and medical doctors, and the presenters will cover the benefits and challenges of cross-disciplinary communication. They will also highlight how they used a project website, including a public forum, to effectively communicate their progress and findings, ensuring their research makes a real social impact. This approach not only aims for sustainable research links but also seeks to expand the network for future collaborations.

Additionally, the event will feature a presentation on our proposed solution, which transforms osteoporosis diagnosis using Federated Learning (FL). This innovative method allows AI models to be trained on readily available routine X-ray and abdominal CT scans, bypassing the need for a centralized data server. This approach is especially crucial in a post-PDPA (Thai Personal Data Protection Act) landscape, as it protects patient privacy while still leveraging valuable data.

Attendees will also have the opportunity to see a 3D metaverse demonstration that integrates the FL system with a virtual hospital. This interactive showcase will make the project's convenience and effectiveness easy for a general audience to understand, highlighting the potential of this technology to revolutionize healthcare services. The presentation will also touch on broader solutions for privacy and data protection in AI/Machine Learning applications.