Cartoons of the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia, the Merlion in Singapore and the golden temples in Thailand were amongst the long-lasting Southeast Asian landmarks flashing across the screen under the name “Sea Wander.”
A mobile application with colourful cartoon characters and academic games was showcased and declared the winner on the UNESCO and Microsoft Hackathon for Culture and Peace on May 21, after the team responsible spent a month developing it.
The UNESCO and Microsoft Hackathon for Culture and Peace was organized by Microsoft as a part of Microsoft’s efforts to encourage young women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and arithmetic (STEM) fields, and one in all the necessities for the hackathon was to have a minimum of teams mixed genders. Currently, only 30% of STEM graduates in Thailand are women.
“I learned a lot of new things that I can use in my work. I even gained a new perspective on history,” said 18-year-old Yensira Chaisuk, or “Shin,” one in all the five members of the NASHIMETEKO band. “In many ways, everything in ASEAN has the same roots.”
Team NASHIMETEKO, which was formed by combining the primary syllables of every member’s name, received a money prize price 20,000 baht and a trophy from Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. The five highschool team members are from Rayong Wittayakom School in Rayong Province, 3.5 hours from Bangkok. They will soon begin their first yr at their universities to pursue science, engineering and the humanities.
“When I was a child, I loved drawing,” said 17-year-old Nappasorn Sangkiew, one other MACHIMETEKO member. “I started drawing on paper before I started painting digitally on my laptop. Now I’m working on logo designs and graphic animations.”
The Sea Wander app allows players to choose from being a Bali rice farmer or a Cambodian silk producer. The game uses cultural folk tales to assist educate users in regards to the history of rice and silk as they plow fields or feed silkworms in mini-games inserted between narratives.
“I am a mother of a five-year-old and this is the main reason why I want to know where I can download this app,” said one in all the judges, Montira Unakul, a UNESCO cultural program specialist in Bangkok. “I think my son would like to play this game and even many of the adults sitting in this room would like to play it too.”
NACHIMETEKO was chosen by all five judges as the ultimate alternative, leading to a unanimous decision to honor them because the winner. Five finalists were present on the winners’ announcement session at UNESCO Bangkok.
The program began on March 27, with each team having two months to design and design a web based or mobile educational application that teaches the shared history of Southeast Asia and present it to a panel of judges. Entries developed by a few of these teams include an app that has implemented augmented reality questionnaires, story-based time travel, and even an academic journey along the spice routes.
The app’s purpose is in step with UNESCO’s “Shared Histories” project, an initiative launched in 2015 that goals to ease tensions between Southeast Asian countries and promote understanding between neighbors.
Promoting national identity while portraying neighboring countries as adversaries is embedded in history curricula in 11 Southeast Asian countries, historians say. These hostile depictions influenced the pondering of many generations of people that viewed neighboring nations as enemies. The Shared Histories project goals to present recent, unbiased views of history and propose recent ways of teaching it, while highlighting similarities between nations to cultivate respect.
“We believe that education is very important,” said Desarack Teso, director of corporate, external and legal affairs (CELA) at Microsoft Thailand and one in all the judges. “Today’s job may not exist tomorrow, and tomorrow’s job may not exist today, so you don’t really know the skills you’ll need to compete in the future.”
Teso emphasized that the Sea Wander app with child-friendly graphics, clear subtitles, upbeat melodies and smooth gameplay is a fantastic example of mixing technology and science.
“The app reflects Microsoft’s belief that technology, irrespective of how advanced, is meant to serve and empower humanity,” he added.
The hackathon is a component of Microsoft’s goal to assist people gain the digital skills and knowledge they need to reach the digital economy and grow to be “future-ready” – especially for girls.
