Pansak Siriruchatapong prefers to be a technologist rather than an executive. But on the day four months ago when he stepped into the top position at the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec), he resolved to put as much effort into the organisation's directorship as he always did when developing new technologies.

In 13 years at Nectec, the former doctoral lecturer at Kasetsart University has been involved in many areas of the centre's development. Apart from conducting his own research, focused mainly on the development of computer and electronics hardware, he has also been a key figure behind the establishment of the centre's research laboratories.

"When I joined Nectec, the centre had nothing. It had neither research labs nor researchers, so as a part of Nectec's team, I helped form up research labs and laid down the infrastructure to serve researchers that we hoped would come back from abroad to work here," he recalls.

Pansak was "borrowed" from Kasetsart University for just four years, to help Nectec's establishment. But after that time, there was still much to be done, so he decided to join Nectec as a permanent official so he could devote his time to helping the centre push Thailand towards technology development.

When it came to development tasks, he always kept in mind that his research needed a practical purpose; whatever he developed had to be put into real use. So he never stopped steering the development of technology towards the needs of industry.

"I always see the needs of industry first, and then I try to bring technology to help address those needs and problems, and this is crucial to making technology development serve real demands," he says.

In the 1990s, Pansak realised that Thailand's electrical and electronics industries lacked an organisation to certify the standards of products for export, so he set about pushing for the creation of such a centre. His efforts came to fruition with the establishment in 1998 of the country's first Electrical and Electronic Products Testing Centre, to provide testing services on electromagnetic compatibility. The centre became a key element in helping electrical and electronics manufacturers achieve international production standards.

Meanwhile, working closely with the local electronics industry helped Pansak to see that it was still based on electronic parts assembly, and offered no added value to the country. Rather than using real knowledge as a support, the industry was simply relying on skilled labour.

So, to lift the value of Thailand's electronics industry, Pansak once again began pushing. This time he was urging the industry to step up to wafer fabrication, a process in the production of microprocessors or integrated circuit chips. In this way, he hoped to establish an upstream industry that would give the country added value.

To make a showcase for the industry, he and his Nectec team launched the Thai Microelectronics Centre (TMEC) as the country's first wafer fabrication plant. He hoped it would be a model for the industry, showing it the way to business in higher technology. The project was approved by the government in 1996.

But the road to the first wafer fabrication plant was not rosy. The project, which required high investment, was hit by the 1997 economic crisis while still in its construction stage, and was halted.

"We struggled to push the project ahead, but the government had no money at that time. The budget, which was earlier approved, was frozen. We tried everything. In the end, we made some changes and downsized the project so the centre could begin operations six years later," he says.

One of the big difficulties in establishing the TMEC was that wafer fabrication was something far beyond the understanding of either the people or the government, and the Nectec team had to develop public relations skills to explain its vital importance.

Eventually, the TMEC made Pansak proud. Although the plant was built only as a small-scale production site, it has grown to receive overseas orders for small sensors used in medical devices.

Once the TMEC achieved a stable operation, Pansak turned to another area of technology development. He had seen that the emerging embedded systems technology would play a key role in the so-called Post-PC era.

Embedded systems are a combination of computer hardware and software designed specially for various application devices. It is expected that embedded systems will be used increasingly in new intelligent devices in automobiles, cameras, mobile phones, household appliances and toys.

"As the trend is moving towards these kinds of devices, we believe that embedded systems is an area where both local hardware and software developers can play a role, so we intend to build up this industry," he says.

What's more, because embedded systems provide huge opportunities for local development and no single country has yet taken a major lead, Pansak believes the Thai electronics industry should seize the moment and forge ahead.

Working with a group of embedded systems researchers in universities, Pansak helped to form the Thai Embedded Systems Association (TESA) in 2002 and has been its president ever since. From his former position as Nectec's deputy director, Pansak adopted a "tri-collaboration" model to help TESA push local embedded systems to serve industry.

The association soon became a place where the government sector, represented by Nectec, the private sector in the form of various industries, and researchers from universities came together to share ideas on technology development. It was able to gather Thailand's best experts from both the developers' and users' sides of the market to develop a technology that was badly needed.

"From nothing, we began to see the emergence of an embedded systems industry in Thailand," Pansak says. "Many researchers in the pioneer group which helped to form TESA have spun off to set up their own companies to do embedded systems development. This shows that the embedded systems industry has already started."

Pansak still enjoys pushing the development of new technologies to serve Thai industries. But these days he is Nectec's director, and he spends more time in meetings and setting strategies. He says the new position pushes him to do more and, importantly, to think more.

"As a director, I have to look forwards and do many things one step ahead," he says. "I have to see future trends and develop a technology foresight so that I know in advance what will be going on, so that I can prepare a readiness to respond to what may occur in the future."

Pansak believes that thinking forwards to the next step will help Nectec become a leading technology research organisation, not only in its thinking and development processes, but also in producing and expanding research for commercial use.

"Nectec is an organisation that has qualified people, and I want to use this strength to help people and other organisations to develop technology to fit their requirements," he says.

Pansak also plans to reshape Nectec to become a more open organisation. While it once focused on developing technology within its own walls, he says that in the future it will have to use its knowledge to help develop industries and to work more with outside organisations, bringing university researchers and industries together on a partnership basis to serve market demand.

"Nectec is just part of a mechanism," he says. "To make technology research and development in the country really successful, we have to work with partners in all fields. Importantly, we must be like friends of equal status, bringing a sense of trust when we come to work together." 

Pongpen Sutharoj

The Nation