'The Tsunami Disaster and its Prevention' Distance Lecture
On 15 March 2005, experts in Japan and at AIT made presentations, exchanged their views and perspectives on tsunami and the masses response to it at a distance lecture session called 'The Tsunami Disaster and its Prevention.' The session was made available through remote interaction via satellite and is part of the i-Space e-learning program between AIT, the University of Tsukuba, Japan and the Multimedia University of Malaysia.
The event was opened by Prof. Hitoshi Nishimura, Dean of the School of Information and System Engineering at the University of Tsukuba, and formerly an AIT faculty and Trustee, who expressed his sense of solidarity with the region following the recent disaster and conveyed the willingness to help in the reconstruction process and the mitigation of further disasters.
The session started with distance lectures on 'What is Tsunami?' and 'Overview of the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004' by Prof. Hisamichi Nobuoka, an Assistant Professor at Ibaragi University and an expert in coastal engineering, who has been working for the research of three-dimensional shallow water flow modeling including near shore currents.
At the distance lecture, first row from left: Dr. X. Chen, RS &GIS; Coordinator;
Prof. Michiro Kusanagi of RS&GIS;/SAT; Mr. Jean-Philippe Thouard, IT Coordinator;
and Prof. Suphat Vongvisessomjai, former SCE faculty.
Tsunami disaster reports were followed by three AIT faculty members: Dr. X. Chen, RS & GIS Coordinator, on '3D Visualization'; Dr. K. Honda, RS&GIS;, on 'Tsunami Open Source Database'; and Dr. Soparth P. of SERD on 'Tsunami Socio-environmental Aspect'. After that, Prof. Nobuoka gave lectures on 'Tsunami Disaster Surveys in Maldives and Thailand' and 'Japanese Tsunami Disaster Prevention Effort'. The session was concluded with a presentation and discussion on 'What can WINDS Satellite Do for Diaster Preventions?' led by Mr. Kazunori Inagaki, JAXA (Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency).
First row, from right: Prof. Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai of SCE; Prof. Suphat
Vongvisessomjai, former SCE faculty; Mr. Jean-Philippe Thouard, IT Coordinator;
Prof. Michiro Kusanagi of RS&GIS;/SAT; and Dr. X. Chen, RS &GIS; Coordinator