Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar’s Nui Vatanasakdakul, associate teaching professor of information systems, spearheaded the first national chapter of the Association of Information Systems (AIS) in Thailand. CMU-Q is a Qatar Foundation partner university. 

Vatanasakdakul is also the president-elect for the AIS Qatar chapter.

Born and raised in Thailand, Vatanasakdakul moved to Australia and then Qatar to pursue her career in information systems (IS) education. During the summer of 2020, she returned to Thailand to bring together a committee of senior IS researchers. Together, they submitted an application to the global association and, in 2021, the Thailand AIS chapter was formally launched. 

“It is a dream come true for me to bring together leaders and researchers of information systems in Thailand,” she said.

The Thailand AIS chapter has already grown to 65 members. The first task of the group is to define the field, and to discuss the past, present and future of IS in Thailand.

“Research is collaborative, so bringing together researchers in Thailand and connecting them with the rest of the world will only help build IS research and move it forward.”

In addition to information systems, Carnegie Mellon Qatar offers undergraduate degree programs in biological sciences, business administration and computer science.