NI Professors day Yangon Gallery

 Leading international educators and ICT industry practitioners have got together to exchange ideas and best practices with Myanmar educators.
National Instruments (NI), the provider of platform-based systems that enable engineers and educators to solve the world’s greatest engineering challenges hosted the inaugural Professor Days in Myanmar at Lotte Hotel Yangon on December 8.
Professor Days is a forum for the academic community that aims to present the latest platforms for teaching and research for the academic segment, and how education can be improved leveraging these platforms. Consisting of a keynote, technical sessions and hands-on sessions, Professor Days is an interactive platform where teachers share ideas with peers from different locations and experience firsthand the advanced technology for engineering education and research.
Mr. Matej Krajnc, Managing Director of ASEAN and ANZ, National Instruments, said: “Education is key to Myanmar’s long-term competitiveness. Through Professor Days, we hope to help Myanmar educators ‘future-proof’ their students. We also encourage teachers of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to pursue their passion and research ideas.”

 National Instruments, a Nasdaq-registered company, is a leading provider of a complete platform for teaching engineering, from entry level to advance courses in Mechatronics, Circuits and Electronics, and Wireless Communications.
Products and platforms such as NI ELVIS, LabVIEW and Multisim are widely used by teachers and students across the world, including in Myanmar. These tools transform the way students learn circuits, controls, measurements and communications, accelerating discovery, productivity and innovation.
Held in partnership with Synopsis Technology Myanmar, the event in Yangon brought together some 100 Myanmar engineers, researchers and educators; and international guest speakers from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Thailand.

Best practices and insights were shared on areas such as experiential learning in engineering, enhancing teaching and research in a Control laboratory, and educators’ evolution from teaching to research.
Speaking at the event Zaw Lwin Maung, Director of Synopsis, said education is the only way the
people of Myanmar can create new opportunities and prepare for the digital future.
“As it is, Myanmar is so far behind other countries in the region. If we don’t start now to improve the quality of education and invest in advanced technology training, the challenge will be greater in the future. Industry 4.0 is upon us and there is intense competition for investments and jobs. We can’t miss the boat. We are working with universities to prepare our future industries, our future workforce,” he said.

Myanmar is one of the fastest growing economies in the region. But the shortage of skilled talent particularly to support high growth sectors is a prevailing challenge and barrier to investments.
Producing ‘industry-ready’ university graduates is thus a priority, alongside improvements in primary education. In Myanmar, development of information and communications technology (ICT) capacity at tertiary education level falls under the Ministry of Education. Since 2015, the Ministry has been running a partnership initiative with UNESCO to strengthen pre-service teacher education, conduct in-depth assessment of ICT infrastructure and develop a five-year framework for upgrading ICT capacity in education colleges.
Together with Synopsis, NI has been contributing expertise and resources towards enhancing engineering and technology training in Myanmar. This includes International Conference on Science and Engineering (ICSE) sponsorships at Yangon Technology University, support for inter-school competitions such as the Myanmar Skills Competition under the Mobile Robot Competition focusing on robotics, wireless communications and advanced engineering; and NI LabVIEW trainings and workshops at local technology universities.