HIGHLIGHTS
- Thammasat University approved over 600,000 THB in funding for three winning student-led projects under the TU Sustainability Active Citizen programme to tackle real-world campus problems and advance the SDGs.
- Sustainable Events: The TU Folksong Club is pioneering a ‘Green Event Guide’ alongside a comprehensive waste management system to transform student concerts into eco-friendly activities.
- Campus Safety: The BEEP BEEP! SOS system utilises a LINE Official Account and a complete back-end management system to eliminate delayed emergency reporting and enhance security.
- Health and Well-being: The VRX (FitQuest) web application leverages virtual reality-based exercise and AI motion tracking to boost motivation and foster sustainable physical health behaviours across the university community.
Looking back at 2025, on the launch day of the TU Sustainability Active Citizen programme under the theme of “Well-being University”, the atmosphere was filled with the creative energy of Thammasat students. Over 100 young representatives from the Tha Prachan, Rangsit, Lampang, and Pattaya centres gathered to brainstorm and co-design the future of the university.
The Division of Quality Development and Sustainability, acting as the organiser, invited Thammasat students from all years to pitch highly creative ideas and projects to solve real daily problems on campus and concretely drive the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Backed by a total funding pool of over 1,000,000 THB, the Sustainable University Fund Executive Committee reviewed 11 proposals and approved a first-round budget of over 600,000 THB for the top 3 winning teams. These teams designed sharp, measurable solutions that can create a genuine positive impact (TU Impact), transforming paper blueprints into tangible results.
An In-depth Look at the 3 Winning Solutions
The sustainability solutions from all three winning teams stemmed from deep insights and directly addressed the university’s problems, successfully winning over the judging panel. The projects are as follows:
1. TU Folksong Club’s Development Towards Sustainable Events – Transforming Concerts to be Eco-Friendly
A classic problem following student activities is the volume of waste and resource management, which often lacks continuity. The TU Folksong Club team aimed to revolutionise the organisation of concerts and student events on campus to be more environmentally friendly. They established a comprehensive waste management system—spanning the source, intermediary, and end stages—alongside green procurement and fair employment practices. The team’s primary goal is to create a standard operating procedure (SOP/Handbook) for hosting environmentally and socially friendly music events, complete with a set of indicators and baseline data. This can serve as a model for future club generations and other university departments to implement, driving long-term sustainability goals.
Regarding current progress, the team has field-tested the actual system during the Larn Folk 1 event (under the Chiang Rai Expo) by setting up a pilot waste sorting station with 6 categories: food waste, waste awaiting washing, refuse-derived fuel (RDF) waste, hazardous waste, water, and recyclable waste. The team forwarded organic waste for composting at the Tiew Son canteen and fully integrated recyclable waste into the university’s waste management system. Simultaneously, they continue to record waste weight statistics, log user behaviour, and measure the volume of water used for cleaning. All these deep insights will be utilised to produce the Green Event Guide, acting as a standard model for all clubs and societies across the university to adopt.
2. BEEP BEEP! SOS Alert in the TU GREATS App – Ending Delayed Incident Reporting
A team of students from the Faculty of Science and Technology and the College of Interdisciplinary Studies jointly developed this innovation to bridge the gap in delayed information reception during campus emergencies, such as flooding, fallen trees, or the sighting of suspicious individuals. They developed a function on a LINE Official Account that operates in tandem with an identity verification system via student ID numbers. When an incident occurs, users can press the SOS button and attach photographic or video evidence to send to staff in real-time, thereby concretely addressing campus safety goals.
In addition to student-facing features, the team has also designed and developed a comprehensive back-end management system for staff. This includes a Ticket System for receiving reports, a Case Dispatch system to forward issues to the directly responsible departments, and a Broadcast system to promptly send critical danger alert messages back to application users.
Currently, the developers are modifying the system to operate as a Web Application via the LINE Official Account, paired with the identity verification system. This ensures agility and data security in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), with collaboration from students at the Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology (SIIT) who are assisting in back-end development. Furthermore, they are preparing to organise an incident response rehearsal with a pilot group of 30 people to test system stability and GPS coordinate accuracy before the official launch.
3. VRX (Virtual Reality Exercise) – Attracting People to Exercise Using Virtual Technology
A team of students from the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences developed the VRX project to break down the barriers for individuals who exercise infrequently, are overweight, or lack motivation for traditional workouts. By utilising virtual reality-based exercise technology, the project helps promote the physical fitness of Thammasat students and staff. The system is designed to elevate the heart rate into the aerobic zone (40-59% of Heart Rate Reserve, or HRR) or increase it by at least 20 beats per minute compared to a resting state. Additionally, it uses virtual environments to create enjoyment and boost exercise motivation for users by over 20%.
The system features a Virtual Coach that provides step-by-step exercise posture guidance whilst monitoring the heart rate in real-time. This enables beginners to exercise correctly, safely, and consistently. The team conducted a Pilot Test with users at the Puey Ungphakorn Library and common areas at the Rangsit Centre. The results confirmed that VRX genuinely stimulates the cardiovascular system in accordance with sports medicine standards (ACSM).
At present, the team is upgrading the project into a web application called “FitQuest,” which is easily accessible via laptops and tablets. It highlights the use of single-camera technology combined with AI to detect posture and measure heart rates (Single Camera Motion Tracking), eliminating the need for complex additional equipment. Moreover, the team is preparing to expand the project into health campaigns such as “Dance for Points,” allowing users to accumulate exercise time to redeem university privileges. This will be a key factor in building sustainable health behaviours moving forward.
The ongoing success of all three projects stands as clear proof that students’ ideas can genuinely create an impact and solve real on-campus problems when the university opens spaces to listen to their opinions and provides ready-to-support resources. This success marks the beginning of Thammasat’s journey to create a “Well-being University” that truly answers the SDG goals through the “power of thought” of the entire Thammasat community.
