Research Interest Keyword: Data Analytics, Complex Systems, Human-Computer Interaction, Tangible Interfaces, Augmented Reality, Programmable Materials, Constructionist Learning, Human Motivation, Educational Innovations and OER

Personal Values

Because I was born and grew up in Thailand where people are sympathetic and helpful towards others, my personal values lean towards family, friendship and concern for others. These values reflected¹ in the ATCMS project when I studied at Chulalongkorn University. It was not until I came to MIT that knowledge, challenge, creativity and accomplishment became part of my personal values. Together with my interest in educational technologies, the attainment of the Guided Learning Pathways (GLP) research project, Reachmydream.org and my master's thesis on Education at MIT were the results of my personal values. I noticed that all of these values have determined my decisions and guided me to become a sophisticated researcher, a creative innovator and a conscientious system architect in the future.

Personal Interests

My intial interest in computer and information technologies inspired me to study computer sciences at Chulalongkorn University and information sciences at University of Pittsburgh². After working for almost 5 years in various IT roles, my interest in how to effectively design and architect a software system brought me back to the States to further my knowledge in the system design and system management at MIT. During my study at MIT, Thailand's violent clashes in April 2010 and Thai military crackdown in May 2010 triggered my interest in leveraging technologies to revolutionize education and learning in Thailand. Since a combination of education and new media appears to be an effective tool to help transform a human's mindset, searching for the optimal design of interconnected analytical learning tools became my primary research objective, which led to my recent interests in constructionist learning, data science, complexity science, human computer interaction, tangible user interface and augmented reality³.

Skills

The academic programs in computer sciences and information sciences have initially cultivated my skills in computer programming, web application design and development and multimedia production. As times went by, I developed and enhanced not only my attitude towards teamwork but also expertise in problem solving and data analysis through my professional working experiences (i.e., an application developer, a system programmer, a business line application analyst and a service administrator). In addition to that, the demanding learning experience from the system design and management program at MIT have honed my critical thinking skills, system-thinking skills and researching skills. For these reason, I am very confident that I possess abilities to accomplish the proposed research goal within a given timeframe.

Notes

1. Those values also reflected in the invention from recyclable materials when I studied at Bangkok Christian College.

2. As of 2011, the Chulalongkorn University is Thailand's first ranked institution in Engineering and Technology while the University of Pittsburgh is ranked 6^th in the information systems specialty by US News & World Report.

3. I strongly believed that advanced research in these particular areas would introduce an novel approach to cultivate not only a critical thinking mindset but also a creative thinking mindset in people through meaningful learning experiences. The analytical learning tools not only facilitates users to construct their personal learning objects but also allows the users to exchange, modify and build upon existing learning objects developed by other learning communities to suite their dynamic learning needs.