Initiated in 2017, the ASEAN Data Science Explorers program stands tall as one of the SAP CSR initiatives, manifesting its unwavering dedication to the augmentation of data analytics skills. The impressive scope of this program is evident: by 2022, it successfully armed over 43,400 young minds across ten nations with vital data analytics tools and knowledge. The continuation of this initiative is not merely a renewal of a commitment but a clear acknowledgment of the critical role that data proficiency will play in the region’s future.

Dr. Piti Srisangnam, the visionary Executive Director of the ASEAN Foundation, portrays a future where the youth’s untapped potential is channeled towards innovative solutions for regional challenges. Concentrating on niche domains such as data analytics could be a pivotal strategy in achieving broad-based regional improvements.

Pushing SAP CSR Towards Data Analytics Proficiency

On the same note, Verena Siow, the dynamic leader of SAP Southeast Asia, spotlighted the irreplaceable role of robust partnerships in curating a generation of digitally adept leaders. These leaders, she believes, are not only the torchbearers of tomorrow but are integral in steering positive change. The narrative emphasizes the intertwined destinies of public, private, and plural partnerships in realizing this vision.

It’s pivotal to understand the demographic landscape: youth form an overwhelming third of ASEAN’s overall population. This isn’t just a statistic but represents an ocean of untapped promise and potential. The program astutely recognizes the existing roadblocks in the region, most notably the digital divide and the lamentable underrepresentation of female talent in technology sectors. Addressing these disparities head-on, the initiative retains its focus on uplifting and digitally educating these marginalized groups.

Strengthening Social Enterprises: A Trio Collaboration

To magnify their outreach and enhance the efficacy of their initiatives, the ASEAN Foundation and SAP have ushered in TikTok, the digital giant, as a collaborator. The ASEAN Social Enterprise Development Program (ASEAN SEDP), operational since 2020, stands as a testament to its dedication. Through this program, they’ve successfully uplifted 20 youth-anchored social enterprises, extending support to almost 1,200 direct beneficiaries. This aid, comprehensive in nature, spans across multiple fronts, including mentorship, funding avenues, networking platforms, and capacity-building resources.

TikTok’s involvement supercharges this endeavor, offering these burgeoning enterprises a robust digital springboard, optimizing their market visibility, and fostering sustained regional resonance. As TikTok solidifies its position as an indispensable ally for SMEs, this trilateral collaboration is poised to redefine the social enterprise landscape in ASEAN.

Verena Siow offers further insights into the transformative power of such collaborations. Bridging the chasm between local communities and expansive market opportunities requires a blend of innovation, resources, and expertise. In the recent past, the ASEAN SEDP social entrepreneurs have exemplified this by showcasing their innovative mettle. When fortified with the right knowledge reservoirs and skill sets, there’s little doubt that these ventures will catalyze significant positive shifts within their local ecosystems.

To complement these flagship programs, additional initiatives like the ASEAN Digital Empowerment and the ASEAN SAP Apprenticeship programs are also in play. These are designed to ensure that no community remains on the fringes. By granting these underserved segments access to online educational content, certification pathways via the SAP Learning Hub, and tangible real-world training opportunities, the collaboration envisions a more inclusive digital ASEAN.

The unwavering alliance between the ASEAN Foundation and SAP, championed under the SAP CSR banner, epitomizes a shared vision. Their mission, both noble and pragmatic, seeks to endow Southeast Asia’s vibrant youth with the instruments and avenues they require to architect a brighter, inclusive, and progressive future.

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ASEAN DSE is a flagship programme under the ASEAN Foundation’s partnership with SAP that encourages the youth of Southeast Asian countries to deliver data-driven, innovative, and feasible solutions that tackle pressing socio-economic in the region across the six United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This year, with a renewed focus on SDGs that target climate and sustainability, the regional data analytics competition for tertiary students recognised the 10 best all-rounded concepts based on creativity, feasibility, innovation, and the team’s ability to demonstrate the solution’s implementation.

“2021 marks the fifth-year milestone for the ASEAN DSE competition. Initially starting as a platform to empower youths with digital skills to grow the next generation of leaders, this year, we have added climate action as a key focus in our program, This sharpened focus is aligned with the ASEAN priorities. I am proud of the diversity of ideas the participants brought to this initiative. Their passion for creating social impact is impressive. ASEAN DSE continues to play a role in educating and inspiring the future workforce by enabling youths so that we, as one ASEAN, can be a sustainable economic powerhouse,” said Mr. Atul Tuli, Managing Director of SAP Indochina.

2021 National Champions

In 2021, 714 students from ten ASEAN countries across the region competed to represent their country in the National Finals. Here are the 10 national winners to compete for the regional finals next month:

Brunei: Team Start Up- Food Waste Minimisation Towards a Sustainable World

Cambodia: Team Sprinkle- Recycle Center is the solution for waste management; To reduce municipal solid waste in urban areas

Indonesia: Team Spotindev- Bridging Sustainable Fashion in ASEAN Society

Laos: Team Growy- Food Loss and Waste Reduction to Sustainable Community: Collaborative of every sector can help us to achieve SDG 12.3 by 2030

Malaysia: Team Brain Drain: Prioritizing E-Waste: How Can Earth Keep Up with Digital Integration

Myanmar: Team Glory- Newborn to Travel: Downfall &Recovery to Tourism

Philippines: Team Amplify- ASEAN Sustainable Consumption Loop: Limiting waste and sustaining capabilities in ASEAN communities through real-time information cloud

Singapore: Team Czus- Unsustainable Necessities: Digitizing palm oil supply chains

Thailand: Team Youth Forward- Altering Collars: Empowering Farming Towards a Sustainable Future of the ASEAN Community

Vietnam: Team Dastronaut- Adaptive Urban-Industrial Symbiosis Strategy: Utilizing Municipal Waste as an Economic Source

Harnessing SAP Data Analytics Software

In 2021, the programme organised by SAP and ASEAN Foundation in collaboration with NGOs was able to deliver SAP Analytics Cloud training to 11,782 students and lecturers– a 158{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} increase from 2020 (4,563 youths and lecturers). 

Sharing their experience in the competition utilising the SAP data analytics software, Malaysia’s ASEAN DSE National Champion Team Brain Drain from Sunway University said:

“Data analytics has helped us make the process of identifying problems in ASEAN countries, analysing data, and coming up with solutions to solve the identified problems much easier. With that, we would like to thank the ASEAN Foundation and SAP as the organisers of the ASEAN Data Science Explorers for providing this opportunity for us to venture further into this field to get hands-on experience in exploring data, and creating data-driven solutions.” 

Dr. Yang Mee Eng, ASEAN Foundation’s Executive Director, explained that amidst today’s uncertainties, the organisation and SAP’s commitment to empower the ASEAN youth with future-ready skills and accelerate the growth of the digital economy in the region is reflected by ASEANDSE. Commending the participants that showcased innovative data-driven proposals, Dr. Eng stressed:

“It is a testament to what our youth can do when provided with an immersive platform to showcase their talents. We believe that if given the opportunity, our ASEAN youth can create impactful solutions for the community to prosper. We also hope that the collaboration between ASEAN Foundation and SAP can inspire more public-private partnerships in the future to support the development of our future generation.”

We, at InsideSAP, advocate sustainability practices into SAP projects through our own TRP (Talent Resource Planning) platform, InsideSAP Careers. Aside from championing contactless and paperless recruitment, we plant trees for every person hired, across every project, every month.

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RMIT University Vietnam students Hoa Phung and Thinh Nguyen of Team Catfish were named the ASEAN DSE Regional Finals 2020 grand winners for their presentation that was focused on People with Disability: Unlocking the economic bottleneck. 

This year’s virtual ASEAN DSE Regional Finals named the top 10 teams from 10 ASEAN nations that have presented data-driven solutions that can make a difference to its people, supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the region. The selected six SDGs themes that the participants covered in their proposed solutions are Good Health and Well-being, Quality Education, Gender Equality, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, and Sustainable Cities and Communities.

Thomas Zipperle, Chief Financial Officer at SAP Southeast Asia said:

“The ASEAN DSE program underpins the cultural diversity that SAP celebrates and embraces in the ASEAN region. Digital skills are essential for the workforce of today and the future. SAP Analytics Cloud aims to bridge the digital gap in ASEAN and empower youths to create sustainable innovations to address socio-economic issues.” 

ASEAN Foundation and SAP Data Science Competition Winners

The participants’ innovative ideas were judged on the best all-rounded concept, which includes creativity, feasibility, and the team’s ability to demonstrate the implementation of the solution. The young contenders addressed issues such as social inequalities, relooking into and managing new energy sources, mental and physical health, empowering people with disabilities and youth to be active contributors to community and society, and growing ASEAN’s workforce through digital integration.

Executive Director of ASEAN Foundation, Dr. Yang Mee Eng, highlighted:

“ASEAN Foundation and SAP share the common objective of equipping youths with future-ready skills that will enable them to thrive in the new normal era and supporting the theme of Viet Nam’s ASEAN Chairmanship, which is building a ‘Cohesive and Responsive ASEAN.” 

As the regional champion, Team Catfish received the grand prize of USD 1,500. Sharing about their momentous win, the RMIT students said:

“The journey of ASEAN Data Science Explorers has taken us from our observations of the surroundings to data-driven solutions, and ultimately actions. From this, we now truly believe that, even as young people, we can contribute to building a better future. And as we’ve said in our presentation: ‘Let’s work together for a future that works.” 

The National University of Singapore and Yale-NUS College students Koay Tze Min and Ng Yi Ming of Team Halcyon Seraph took the first runner-up position and the USD 1000 prize for their presentation that was focused on ASEAN Women-UP Township Network covering SDG 5 – Gender Equality and SDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth. 

Universiti Teknologi Brunei students Oscar Fang Jack Ling and Quah Chun Meng of Team Psyduck tackled SDG 4 – Quality Education, SDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth, and SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities in their presentation that was focused on Digital Integration – the Key to Growth. The team took home USD 500 as a prize.

The top three presentations were part of the 852 proposals submitted this year.

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The ASEAN Foundation, Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA), and SAP have awarded the young teams of Viet Nam, Singapore, and Thailand as the winners of the Regional Finals of ASEAN Data Science Explorers (ASEANDSE) 2019 last 9th of October 2019. The teams’ insights and data-driven solutions to solve the region’s most pressing social and economic issues brought them recognition. 

Executive Vice President of DEPA Ms. Kasama Kongsmak presided over the prize presentation ceremony. 

ASEANDSE 2019’s Regional Final Awardees

First Place: Team AWM from Viet Nam, comprising Ha Vu and Trung Vu from RMIT University Vietnam

The first-prize winner’s project focused on ethnic minorities as a potential source for economic development in ASEAN, covering United Nations Sustainable Development goals 4 (quality education) and goal 8 (decent work and economic growth).

Second Place: Team Re:volution from Singapore, with Egwin Fan and Teng Shi Xuan from Nanyang Technological University. 

With a project designed to solve waste management issues in ASEAN countries, covering the United Nations Sustainable Development goal 11 (sustainable cities and communities), the Singaporean team emerged as the first runner-up.

Third Place: Team C, comprising Bao Tran Ngo Le and Noppawan Rakthinkumnerd from Thammasat University.          

Coming in as second runner-up, the Thai team showcased their project on closing workforce gender gaps, covering United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 (gender equality) and goal 8 (decent work and economic growth).

The ASEANDSE 2019 was a year-long journey that involved a series of enablement sessions where close to 500 educators and 3,000 students were trained in SAP Analytics Cloud. 1,341 (70{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} YOY increase) participants competing in the national finals held in all 10 ASEAN member states joined the competition. After winning on the national level, the national champions competed at a regional level held in Bangkok, Thailand.

The awarded teams won for their excellent capabilities in developing and presenting data-driven solutions that highlight six Sustainable Development Goals such as: (1) good health and well-being, (2) quality education, (3) gender equality, (4) decent work and economic growth, (5) industry, innovation & infrastructure and (6) sustainable cities and communities.

Trung Vu, a member of Team AWM from Viet Nam, said:

“We were just excited and delighted that our ideas and our solutions were acknowledged by ASEAN, UN and other governmental agencies to turn our vision into reality. We also got exposure to diverse cultures from students from other countries that we’ve become friends with. We can learn from each other and share our knowledge and different perspectives on the region and I believe that diversity is crucial for someone who wants to be a global citizen such as myself and a lot of other students.”

ASEAN Foundation and SAP Joining Forces

The ASEAN Foundation and SAP launched ASEANDSE in 2017 as a regional programme that would equip ASEAN youth with skill sets fit for the fourth industrial revolution and, at the same time, unleash the region’s full potential. For the past two years, over 9,000 youths from 230 higher education institutions in the region with data analytic skills have already benefited from the programme. Participating youth from across different disciplines like political science, engineering and architecture build actionable insights from data to come up with solutions that have an impact on these areas.

Elaine Tan, the Executive Director of ASEAN Foundation, shared:

“ASEAN Foundation is honoured and proud to collaborate with SAP for three consecutive years. SAP played a significant role in this initiative as together we are addressing the post-2020 direction of ASEAN youth development that focuses on fostering future-ready ASEAN youth through digital skills development. The initiative helps ASEAN youths to seize the vast opportunities that lie ahead of them. At the same time, the initiative equips them with relevant digital skills they require to tackle the challenges posed by the Industrial Revolution 4.0.”

Eugene Ho, Head of Corporate Affairs, SAP Southeast Asia, explained:

“We have identified that a widening digital skill gap is becoming a growing challenge across all industries and sectors in ASEAN. The collaboration with the ASEAN Foundation has helped us to steer our focus on developing the human capital pool to ensure that all ASEAN young citizens have the relevant skills needed to thrive in the digital economy”. 

Ho stressed that with the help of the ASEANDSE programme, the digital skills gap in the region will be solved.

Ms. Kasama Kongsmak also said:

“Seeing the youth as the generation of tomorrow, DEPA pays great attention to empowering them with universal mindset, innovative tools, and most importantly compassionate visions. With the objectives of ASEAN Data Science Explorers being in line with our core mission and the theme of Thailand’s 2019 ASEAN Chairmanship ‘Advancing Partnership for Sustainability’, we are more than pleased to support the program by being the co-host of the ASEANDSE Regional Finals 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand and look forward to many more regional collaborative opportunities to come.”

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Malaysia is particularly interested in improving its efficiency and productivity; however, the lack of talents to fill the pipeline is still a problem. And data analytics programs are playing an important role in filling the lack of data talents.

SAP and Academia have been collaborating in raising the quality and quantity of data analytics talents in Southeast Asia. One of its initiatives includes the ASEAN Data Science Explorers (ASEANDSE) 2019 competition. 

The ASEANDSE aims to enhance the digital literacy skills of youths in the region by collaborating with industry leaders and initiating data analytics programs. It will also promote the importance of civic participation.

The ASEAN Foundation and SAP held the Malaysia leg of the competition on 19 September 2019 at the Monash University.

This year’s theme was Today’s Youth for Tomorrow’s World. It focused on finding the capacity of data analytics in potentially finding solutions to the problems that impact the people and the environment.

More than 270 students from all over Malaysia received training on SAP Analytics Cloud, which helped them fast-track their projects. After the training, they were tasked to pick a social issue impacting the Southeast Asian region and used the software to obtain relevant insights.

The social issue of their choice needs to be aligned with one of six United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: decent work and economic growth, gender equality, good health, industry, innovation and infrastructure, quality education, and sustainable cities and communities.

The judges for the competition consisted of representatives from the ASEAN Foundation, Impact Hub, Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), National Council of Women’s Organisation, SAP, and United Nations Development Programme.

Ten teams from seven participating universities presented their initiatives in the finals. Leong Zhuan Kee and Peh Wei Li, the winning team, presented data for their food sustainability project. They shared during an interview with Computer Weekly that the success of the presentation should be credited to the user-friendly industry solution provided by SAP.

MDEC’s share in boosting the data analytics talent pipeline

IDC shared the numbers of potential global revenues for big data and business analytics. According to the global market intelligence firm, the two technologies will surpass $210 billion in 2020 despite the 20,000-fold increase in data volumes between the year 2000 and year 2020.

MDEC’s data economy director, Karl Ng, also shared that big data is expected to boost Malaysia’s efficiency and productivity.

MDEC envisions a high-income and knowledge-based society by 2020. It has spearheaded ICT initiatives that focus on the data economy in hopes that it will become the foundation for artificial-intelligence initiatives. They have also been promoting the importance of continuous learning as an essential aspect of the digital culture of Malaysia.

IDC applauded initiatives such as the ASEAN Data Analytics Exchange (Adax), in its 2018 report. Adax is a regional platform that collaborates development models and talents and showcases the latest analytics technologies.

Adax has a proven track record of training 1,800 people from 298 companies across 19 industries since its establishment in 2017. These individuals learned skills to become data leaders, data managers, and data practitioners.

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At the Philippine run for the 2019 ASEAN Data Science Explorers’ National Finals, the ASEAN Foundation and SAP SE identified the teams from top universities in the Philippines. These universities include Ateneo De Manila University (ADMU), De La Salle University (DLSU), and Technological Institute of the Philippines (TIP).

About 624 students from all over the Philippines received training for the SAP Analytics Cloud. During the training, the ASEAN Foundation and SAP provided support for the students to analyse real-time data of ASEAN member nations’ current social and economic crises in creating a solution to address the problems. Two hundred forty-three registrations were submitted for the competition.

The participating teams from various universities presented their storyboards. The winners were chosen based on the relevance and urgency of the topics. These were showcased on their individual storyboards and clarity of their presentations.

Each team harnessed SAP’s Analytic Cloud software in developing the data-driven solutions that focused on six Sustainable Development Goals: good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, and sustainable cities and communities. These solutions can contribute to addressing the most pressing social issues of the region.

Team Sustainablue from ADMU bagged the top price. This team was composed of Krystel Iris de Castro and Anne Nicole Dolfo. The pair presented solutions on how talents can flourish in the digital industry by gearing them with skills necessary for the Industry 4.0 which involves improvements on the educational systems, provision of mid-career training for a successful job transition, and the reconstruction of an integrated ASEAN labour market.

Team Isdabest from DLSU-Manila, which comprised of Patricia Nicole Joyce Cruz and Hannah Dominic Sy, came in second place. Their project highlighted and promoted gender equality in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) industry. The pair presented data and solutions that will help women in getting professions in the STEM industry.

Team Celestial-EX from TIP-Quezon City placed third with their carbon emission management project. The pair highlighted the importance of alleviating the carbon footprint of each ASEAN country by leveraging the power of solar and shifting to electric cars. They have also emphasised the importance of reforestation and usage of CO2 filters and air purifiers.

The grand winner, Team Sustainablue of ADMU, will represent the Philippines in the Regional Finals to be held in Bangkok, Thailand on 8-10 October.

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