IRD presented its research projects carried out in Southeast Asia for a day at the Sustainability Expo 2024 (SX 2024) in Bangkok, the largest sustainability event in ASEAN. A participatory workshop led by NSTDA also enabled visitors to discover the SIMPLE project.
Now in its fifth consecutive year, SX2024 brings together leading sustainability organizations from Thailand and abroad, representing leading industries in sustainable innovation, at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center (QSNCC) from September 27 to October 6. More than 600 speakers and experts, as well as a network of over 400 companies, share their visions of sustainable development, emerging technologies and creative solutions to mitigate climate change. With over 300,000 registered visits in the previous year, SX has become the largest sustainability event in ASEAN.
© IRD - Joséfa Balavoine
On Saturday September 28, the IRD took over the French Pavilion to present the Institute and the development research projects carried out in the region through its 6 representations (Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam): One Health approach, biodiversity, environment and natural resources, air pollution.
At the same time, NSTDA teams led an interactive workshop at the SX Idea Lab stage on the SIMPLE project (Sustainability Issues Metaverse for building Participatory Learning Environments). After a presentation and explanation, several dozen visitors were able to discover and experience the project, which aims to educate young citizens in the ASEAN region about sustainable development and biodiversity issues through scientific simulations in a virtual reality environment. The universe presented, “BiodiVRestorer”, focuses on the restoration of Thai forest ecosystems, and is currently being implemented in 4 partner schools in Thailand.
© IRD - Joséfa Balavoine
© IRD - Joséfa Balavoine
© IRD - Joséfa Balavoine
© IRD - Joséfa Balavoine
More than simply raising awareness, the environments developed as part of the project enable students to work together, in real time, to explore different solutions, in different scenarios, to the complex problems posed by sustainable development and environmental protection. Used as short modules for the youngest students, or as an integral part of school curricula for high-school students, these virtual worlds are based on scientific models that have been calibrated and validated in documented case studies, guaranteeing the realism of development scenarios.
Contacts:
- Alexis Drogoul, SIMPLE project manager (IRD)
- Panyavut Aumpuchin, researcher (NSTDA)
