Argonne National Laboratory is expanding its digital presence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education with two channels aimed specifically at students and teachers: STEAMville and a social media account that focuses on education. These new virtual programming initiatives, led by the laboratory’s Educational Programs and Outreach (EDU) department, will connect EDU and Argonne to STEM-driven students, teachers, and communities in Chicagoland and beyond.
Online social networks are a big component of how students and schools interact today. While other parts of the laboratory have used digital platforms before, this is a relatively new area for EDU, and we’re excited to dive into the field. By stepping into digital platforms, we can advance STEM learning to new audiences and influence the STEM growth of more students than ever before. And at the same time, these networks expose us to new perspectives on STEM learning that we can use to further develop our interactive programs.
– Jessica Burgess, Outreach Lead, Argonne EDU
One of the new platforms being explored by EDU is STEAMville, a combination of a social learning network and a learning management system. Northwestern University has developed the network over a decade to give schools, students, and science organisations their own virtual space to share and utilise STEM activities. This creates a rich catalogue of STEM programming that individuals and institutions can use and apply to their own programs, while also letting different groups and individuals interact with each other.
The platform closes the learning gap by providing kids with 24/7 STEM learning opportunities, so they can engage in STEM anytime, anywhere — whether they are at school or home for the summer. By joining STEAMville, Argonne creates the opportunity to reimagine itself as a national educator. The platform allows Argonne to extend its reach and connection to young people across multiple states.
In addition, EDU now has its own social media account. Although Argonne National Laboratory has maintained its own account, EDU’s separate social media account will allow it to more personally connect with audiences and inform them about EDU opportunities — and for some, introduce Argonne and its research.
Furthermore, this account will build ties with other youth-serving STEM institutions in the Chicagoland youth area by providing an educational social media presence in addition to their main channels. This in turn will increase EDU’s presence in the Chicagoland out-of-school learning community.
For teachers and students who are interested in STEM but do not usually look at things related to Argonne, EDU’s page will act as a friendly virtual introduction to the lab and Educational Programs. Through these new outreach initiatives, EDU can create new ways to communicate with our audiences — both youth and adults — and welcome them into our STEM education community.
As reported by OpenGov Asia, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have been using AI to search through a vast number of small molecules to find usable drug candidates. Recently, they have utilised new computing hardware to speed the process, reducing searches that might have originally taken years to mere minutes.
The advantage of using AI is that it can quickly adapt to and accommodate chemical structures that it has never seen and that has never been synthesised and do not exist in nature. Artificial intelligence gives us both the speed and flexibility that pure physics-based computation would have a very hard time achieving.
In tests on a large dataset of small molecules, the researchers found they could achieve 20 million predictions, or inferences, a second, vastly reducing the time needed for each search. Once the best candidates were found, the researchers identified which ones could be obtained commercially and had them tested on human cells.
The Centre for the Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and four Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have created and launched an online course on applied artificial intelligence (AI). The course is aimed at learners with at least a basic knowledge of machine learning; students in their final year of Engineering, science postgraduates, PhD scholars, and professionals. It will begin at the end of the month.
The course contains 33-sessions that will cover how to implement AI-based solutions in domains like healthcare and smart city projects, as well as how to scale these projects to an industrial level. The four partnering IITs are from four different locations: Kharagpur, Madras, Palakkad, Goa. According to a report by the government-run website IndiaAI, the curriculum will include the fundamentals of AI accelerators and system setup, accelerated deep learning, end-to-end accelerated deep science, and will explore industrial use-cases of accelerated AI.
Several leading national institutions will intermittently participate in the course. For instance, learners will have code walkthroughs and industrial case studies that are part of the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM). NSM is spearheaded by the Department of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) through C-DAC and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). NSM aims to enhance research capacities and capabilities in the country by connecting them to form a supercomputing grid, with the National Knowledge Network (NKN) as the backbone.
Due to the greater adoption of technology in healthcare, education, finance, and almost every other sector of the economy, there is a growing need for digital and technical experts to meet the demand for modern solutions. In fact, the demand for cybersecurity domain experts increased two-fold in the past year. The government through its various educational institutions and agencies has been pushing for digital upskilling and reskilling of the country’s workforce, focusing on digital technologies.
Earlier this month, OpenGov Asia reported that IIT-Madras and an Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-Ahmedabad)-incubated start-up, GUVI, announced free Python and AI training courses. They are available to more than one million socially and economically disadvantaged youngsters in India. The Python and AI skills included in this initiative focus on face recognition technology that any beginner can master. The courses will be taught in various vernacular languages including English, Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu, among others. Free access to the courses will be available through a registration process enabled on GUVI’s official website.
More recently, the IIT in Guwahati, in partnership with a private player, has begun a postgraduate (PG) certificate programme in cybersecurity and a PG certificate programme in AI. The eight-month-long course focusing on cybersecurity will equip students with subjects that will help them become adept for careers as network security specialists, cybersecurity analysts, cybersecurity architects, cybersecurity managers, etc. The nine-month-long course on AI and deep learning will cover fundamental modules such as Python programming, data analytics, neural networks, computer vision, image recognition, etc. The course will prepare students for careers as AI and ML engineers, computer vision experts, software R&D engineers, cloud support engineers, etc.
Georgia is replacing its current voter registration system with a Salesforce cloud-based platform. The new system, called the Georgia Registered Voter Information System (GaRVIS), will be housed on secure Salesforce servers authorised by the Federal Risk and Authorisation Management Program (FedRAMP) at the highest security level – the same level the company uses for its most sensitive government clients.
Technology consulting firm is the implementation partner developing the user interface that Georgia’s elections officials will use as part of the Salesforce system. The changes to the voter registration process will be entirely on the administrative side, officials said. Georgia voters will not see any difference in their voting experience.
This new system is more advanced, more secure and more user friendly and will give our election directors and my office new tools to better manage our election efforts.
– Brad Raffensperger, Secretary of State
The current system was initially unable to handle the high turnout associated with early voting in the 2020 election. During early voting, wait times exceeded eight hours before extra capacity was added, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Technology evolves just as the threat environment evolves. The team realised that people needed a faster, better, friendlier and more secure system, and that’s why they chose this more secure technology platform.
GaRVIS will house the state’s 7.7 million voter registration records and process early votes and absentee ballots. The new system will cost less than $3.5 million, a spokesman for Raffensperger’s office said. This upgrade is the result of a modernisation initiative to build modern, scalable, resilient and secure technology for Georgia elections.
“Since day one, I have taken action to secure the vote in Georgia. This partnership will help ensure Georgia’s voting system is secure, reliable, efficient for years to come,” Raffensperger said.
County and local elections officials around the state have already been introduced to the new system and will be trained on it in the coming weeks and months, officials said. Following training, the new system will be launched statewide. County and local elections offices will still be able to use the old system while learning to use the new one. The current system will remain operational so it can be used as a backup if necessary.
As reported by OpenGov Asia, a report titled “Government Cloud Platforms 2021–2022 RadarView” evaluated 15 providers based on product maturity, enterprise adaptability and future readiness. The report identifies four trends that are shaping the market. The first is the increasing compliance needs that are accelerating the shift to the cloud. The cloud helps agencies address sensitive workloads, such as those involving health care data while complying with requirements.
State and local governments are increasingly adopting cloud to lower IT and licensing costs. Cloud can help city councils manage and organise resources and foster communication and collaboration. It can help them securely store, analyse and process sensitive economic data, and they can more easily capture and process data from the internet of things and edge computing.
The second trend is the emergence of tailored cloud regions for communities such as defence and intelligence. Such regions can address the level of sensitive data that these communities work with, and these users can look to these isolated cloud resources to deploy workloads securely and compliantly.
The third trend is the fact that convergence with emerging technologies is driving change. Fourth, government cloud providers are expanding their influence by growing into new regions and helping the public sector shift to the cloud while maintaining data governance and sovereignty. Moves toward modernisation, smart cities and a digital economy are driving governments to upgrade their IT infrastructure, and the cloud is the best way to ensure that data is securely and readily available.
In the measurement of the Indonesia Digital Literacy Index 2021, Digital Culture has the highest score. The pillar of Digital Culture was recorded with a score of 3.90 on a scale of 5 or good. Furthermore, the pillars of Digital Ethics (digital ethics) with a score of 3.53 and Digital Skills with a score of 3.44. Meanwhile, the Digital Safety pillar got the lowest score (3.10) or slightly above average. The measurement of this digital literacy index is not only to find out the status of digital literacy in Indonesia but also to ensure that efforts to increase people’s digital literacy are more targeted.
We want to continue to accelerate and continuously monitor the level of people’s digital literacy. We also aim to keep pace with the rapid and increasingly strategic development of digital technology for the lives of Indonesian people today.
– Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan, Director General of Informatics Applications, Ministry of Communication and Informatics
The four pillars that form the Digital Literacy Index are measured annually by the Ministry of Communication and Informatics. This year the Indonesian Digital Literacy Index is at a score of 3.49 or at a moderate and close to a good stage. The use of the four pillars in this measurement refers to the 2020-2024 Indonesia Digital Literacy Roadmap compiled by the Ministry of Communication and Information, based on previous national research and refers to similar measurements held by UNESCO.
Compared to the previous year, in the 2021 index framework there is a change in the grouping of the constituent elements that make up the index. This is an effort to continue to ensure that Indonesia has a stable measuring tool and now Indonesia has a roadmap that can be used as a reference both in measuring and improving literacy.
The measurement of the 2021 Digital Literacy Index was carried out through a face-to-face survey to 10,000 respondents from 514 districts and cities in Indonesia. The characteristics of respondents are internet users aged 13-70 years.
Compared to the 2020 Digital Literacy Index, there was an increase in the index (from 3.46 to 3.49). Improvements occurred in the Digital Culture and Digital Skills pillars, but there was a decline in the Digital Ethics and Digital Safety pillars.
The pillar of Digital Safety that gets the lowest score needs attention. There are still many respondents who have not been able to protect themselves in cyberspace. The researchers found that there are still many who are not aware of the dangers of uploading personal data.
In addition to measuring the literacy index, the survey also analyses the behaviour of internet users in Indonesia. Through this survey, the researchers also found that people today have increased skills in clarifying fake news. This is shown by the increasing number of people who diligently search through search engines in cyberspace to get the truth of information. Analysis of the results of the index found that efforts to increase literacy among women, low-income groups, low educated and old people also need to be done.
As reported by OpenGov Asia, President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo emphasised the acceleration of national digital transformation for five aspects, one of which relates to accelerating the expansion of telecommunication access, increasing digital infrastructure and providing internet services.
In 2021, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology of the Republic of Indonesia has built a digital infrastructure that includes all aspects. The Ministry also has reorganised the radio frequency spectrum to optimise the quality of 4G network services, develop 5G networks, and make the Analog Switch Off (ASO) program a success.
Following the recent spate of SMS-phishing scams targeting bank customers, The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) are introducing a set of additional measures to bolster the security of digital banking.
MAS expects all financial institutions to have in place robust measures to prevent and detect scams as well as effective incident handling and customer service in the event of a scam. The growing threat of online phishing scams calls for immediate steps to strengthen controls, while longer-term preventive measures are being evaluated for implementation in the coming months.
MAS is deeply concerned about the recent spate of scams and the financial losses suffered by victims. The threat of scams will not go away, but we can reduce our vulnerabilities. This requires a multi-pronged response across the ecosystem. MAS, together with the Police, IMDA and other relevant government agencies, is working closely with the financial industry, the telco industry, consumer groups, and other stakeholders to strengthen our collective resilience against scam attacks. We will ensure that digital banking remains secure, efficient, and trusted.
– Ravi Menon, Managing Director, MAS
Banks in Singapore, in consultation with MAS, will work to put in place more stringent measures within the next two weeks, including:
Customer vigilance remains of paramount importance. Scammers are quick to adapt in targeting unsuspecting consumers. To avoid falling for online banking scams, customers must:
Banks will continue to work closely with MAS, the Singapore Police Force, and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to deal with this scourge of scams. This includes working on more permanent solutions to combat SMS spoofing, including the adoption of the SMS Sender ID registry by all relevant stakeholders. MAS is also intensifying its scrutiny of major financial institutions’ fraud surveillance mechanisms to ensure they are adequately equipped to deal with the growing threat of online scams.
As reported by OpenGov Asia, Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), in collaboration with commercial partners have successfully concluded the world’s first cross-border digital trade financing pilot of its kind.
The pilot used IMDA’s TradeTrust framework to facilitate the transfer of electronic records between jurisdictions that have adopted the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR). This harmonises the legal recognition of digital documents such as electronic bills of lading (eBLs) across both jurisdictions and complements the larger global trade movement by the G7 economies on adopting electronic transferable records in international trade.
The government has launched a project that is expected to speed up the delivery of several citizen services using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). The project, the Digital Government Mission, will break down silos and make government systems more intelligent, according to an official. The system will help citizens discover schemes that they are eligible for, and government benefits they can receive. The idea is that the benefits should be offered to citizens without them having to apply for them.
For instance, a student who qualifies for a government-funded scholarship scheme will get an automatic alert from the concerned department instead of the student enquiring and applying for the same. The official claimed that this is the next phase of e-governance. Citizens will also have easier access to subsidised food grains through ration cards under the project, which is currently in the advanced stages of discussion within the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). A proposal is likely to be drawn up soon, the official added. As per data from The Economic Times, the Ministry is creating a strategy note on digital government, which is in line with the Prime Minister’s vision of accelerating the digitalisation of governance.
An industry expert said that the overarching concept of trying to receive services without asking for them is necessary, and with AI and ML, the predictive part becomes easier. People should be able to get automatic renewals every time their driving licence or passports expire since all the data is already available with the government. At best, a message that seeks permission before someone’s passport is renewed or asks if changes need to be made, should be sent, while the rest of the process should be automatic. With the ability to interlink data, through AI and ML, governance can become far easier. It can offer services in an integrated manner across services and departments, which will tremendously benefit citizens.
The government launched the national e-governance mission over 15 years ago when it digitised scores of government services like passports, land records, certificates and income tax in mission mode. Over several years, almost all government services have been digitised. Officials say that the government is looking at the platformisation of the current projects. For instance, the health mission follows a platform approach where there is going to be one interface for all the major initiatives. Similar is the case for education, agriculture, and transport, where the centre wants to transform them into one domain. Currently, there are many applications, which have to be made seamless and features such as a single sign-in have to be introduced.
In 2020, the government released a discussion paper on a policy called the National Open Digital Ecosystem (NODE). It aimed to replicate the success of Aadhaar, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), and the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN). It set out to build platforms that not only help the government improve public service delivery, but also enable private companies to build applications with these “digital rails”. Preliminary estimates suggest that by 2030, NODEs have the potential to unlock over US$500 billion in economic value together with tremendous societal and governance benefits.
The Penang Development Corp (PDC) and a top property developer in Malaysia recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the development of an RM9.9 billion Medi-Tech City occupying a 230-acre land in Batu Kawan, Penang. This project is expected to complete in 10 years.
Medi-Tech City is earmarked to be an integrated, sustainable and hi-technology medical city and business hub in Penang which is already occupied by more than 300 multinational companies. It will be a development with compliance to the responsible business alliance and environmental, social and corporate governance.
Upon its completion, Medi-Tech City will serve as a medical hub providing eco-tourism and global business services with facilities including hospital, medical campus, medical supply hub, corporate suites, rehabilitation centre, retirement village, hotel, wellness centre, sports centre, electrical and electronics sectors, logistics and distribution hub.
The property developer also has a 20-acre built-to-suit development in Penang situated at Bayan Lepas close to Penang International Airport and Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah Bridge, providing value-added logistical support to the project which is aimed to capture the demand from various sectors in the vicinity of Bayan Lepas.
The Group Managing Director of the property developer stated that they are honoured to work with PDC and are proud to be entrusted to jointly develop this land. It is anticipated that this project, with its future international investors, will continue to support PDC’s vision to achieve international city status for Penang.
The CEO of the PDC stated that the signing of the MoU is in line with PDC’s role in working alongside private organisations in realising its vision to make Penang a conducive state for sustainable socio-economic developments as well as attracting more international investors to Penang.
It is expected that PDC’s venture with the property developer to develop Medi-Tech City with their experience in working with international investors and successful projects will ensure that this project will benefit Penang’s overall development.
A recent article noted that the Malaysian Science and Technology Information Centre’s (Mastic) National Survey of Research and Development found that the medical and healthcare sector forms about 9% (RM135 million) of the total gross domestic expenditure on research and development for Malaysia, which was estimated at RM1.5 billion in 2018.
However, despite growing demand and potential, the MedTech ecosystem in Malaysia’s “economics of MedTech innovation” is somewhat lacking. To remedy this, Malaysia recently launched the Malaysian Research Accelerator for Technology and Innovation (MRANTI) which will drive the three interlinked areas of speed, scalability and synergy — and when enabled, will help take society forward.
Research shows that Malaysia’s healthcare sector itself is expected to grow to RM127 billion (US$30 billion) by 2027, with potential in the areas of medical tourism, the manufacturing of medical devices, pharmaceuticals and clinical research.
Thus, conducting IP audits on the IPs filed within agencies under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, and through a structured review process, evaluate how local innovations can be commercialised. Through MRANTI, continuous innovation and the streamlining of the MedTech ecosystem in Malaysia will be converged.
The ongoing pandemic has made it evident that medical technology has never been more urgent. Moreover, the industry is full of potential within Malaysia.
Growth in the digital economy remained robust in 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic pushed digital adoption further. Indonesia welcomed 21 million new users of online services during the pandemic, according to the e-Conomy SEA 2021 report.
The report showed that Indonesia’s internet economy will stay to be the biggest digital economy among the six Southeast Asian countries assessed. However, scrutiny of the relatively young industry has been growing as reports of scams, cyberattacks and high platform fees make the rounds, jeopardizing users’ safety and therefore also their trust in digital services.
In terms of size, Indonesia’s digital economy has grown, but there is much to be done when it comes to advancing the quality of the digital economy ecosystem.
– Bhima Yudhistira, Director, Center of Economics and Law Studies
The online lending industry was in the spotlight this year as the Financial Services Authority (OJK) closed down 593 unlicensed P2P lenders in 2021. The task force has pulled the plug on more than 3,500 such platforms since 2018. While taking down illegal lenders addressed the criminal aspect of the issue, industry players needed to ramp up efforts to educate the public. Victims of illegal online lending are usually those with low digital and financial literacy, so lending platforms must increase education for the public.
Legal P2P lenders have also come under scrutiny for steep administrative fees or interest rates, and some have resorted to intimidatory debt-collection practices. In response, the Indonesian Fintech Lenders Association (AFPI) has lowered the cap on interest rates by more than 50% to 0.4% per day. News of scams and data theft have also tarnished the banking sector, and with 88% of consumers in the Asia Pacific region having actively used digital banking services this year, the data protection bill has become the talk of the town.
Indonesia currently has no regulation that authorizes law enforcement authorities to bring criminal charges against perpetrators of data breaches, theft or misuse. However, that could be about to change as the long-awaited data protection bill has made its way to the priority list of the 2022 National Legislation Program (Prolegnas).
Not passing the bill next year would be counterproductive, as each ministry and government body would then try to pass diverging or even conflicting rules. This would create confusion and uncertainty, especially for the digital economy.
Recently, the Indonesian Fintech Association (Aftech) published an ethics code on how its members should handle and protect user data on their respective platforms. The code to some extent fills the regulatory void amid sluggish progress on the data protection bill.
While the country has not seen any high-profile data breaches among digital service companies this year, the National Cyber and Encryption Agency (BSSN) did note that Indonesia logged 888 million cyberattacks in the first eight months of 2021. That marks an alarming increase from 190 million attacks recorded over the same period in 2020.
As reported by OpenGov Asia, OJK) wants to encourage banks to improve information technology governance and risk management. This is in line with the banking industry’s migration from the old banking system to digital banking. Banking Supervision Deputy Commissioner, OJK as previously stated, banks must anticipate issues such as customer data protection and exchange, the risk of customer data leakage connected to fraud, probable incompatibility of technology investments with business strategy, and others.
“The risk of cyber-attacks is one of the main risks that banks need to watch out for and mitigate in the digital era, considering the development of banking digitalisation increases the emergence of cyber security risks for banks,” said the Commissioner.
