AIT’s Offshore Technology and Management Program (OTM), School of Engineering and Technology, will organize a seminar on “Lessons learnt from Offshore Projects” by Prof. Marc Ducros, Member of the Executive Committee, Total Professors Association, on Wednesday, 24 October 2007, from 2:30 – 4:30 p.m. at Milton Bender Auditorium.

Prof. A.T.M. Nurul Amin of Urban Environmental Management in the School of Environment, Resources and Development (SERD) at AIT will present a Professorial Lecture on “Legacies in Planning Education: Economic Aspects of the Informal Sector & Urban Environmental Management” on Wednesday, 24 October 2007 at 2:00 p.m. at AIT Center Auditorium

Abstract

This lecture is a personal account of an economist whose knowledge pursuit has been in the problematic of development, urbanization and environment and the professional work on the informal sector and urban environmental management.

An AIT delegation headed by the Chairman of the Board, Dr. Tej Bunnag, and which included the two Vice Chairpersons of the Board, H.E. Mrs. Merete Fjeld Brattested, Ambassador of Norway, and Dr. Jean-Pierre A Verbiest, ADB Country Director for Thailand, and AIT President Said Irandoust, paid a visit to Mr. Virasakdi Futrakul, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Thailand, on 11 October 2007.

The AIT delegation was able to provide a detailed briefing on the AIT Charter, which has now been formally submitted to the Ministry as the Board approved final version.

On 11 October 2007, AIT President Said Irandoust, participated at a dinner reception hosted by Mr. Christer Holtsberg, Director of the Swedish Environmental Secretariat for Asia, to welcome H.E. Mr. Lennart Linnér, the new Ambassador of Sweden to Thailand.

AIT had a fruitful promotions brainstorming meeting on 11 October 2007, which was coordinated by the External Relations and Communications Office (ERCO) to initiate effective and efficient coordination of institute-wide promotional activities. The meeting was coordinated by the External Relations and Communications Office (ERCO), with representation from all three schools - including Deans of the School of Engineering and Technology (SET), and the School of Environment, Resources and Development (SERD).

The outputs of the meeting can be summarized as follows: 

"Promotions" should NOT be focused on just student recruitment, but also on research at AIT, prospective training participants; sponsored projects; faculty exchange; student exchange and network building;

The number of students enrolled in each school should not be more than the capacity of the school - in terms of number of faculty and available infrastructure, in order to maintain quality;

The number of qualified applications for graduate studies at AIT, representative of the Institute's international character, has to be greatly increased in order to have a greater choice and selection of the best students; 
The target group of prospective students of each school/FoS are varied; the Schools/FoS are requested to inform ERCO about their prospective student target groups; 

The Schools do not have their annual promotional plans, but are requested to share at least a quarterly promotional plan with ERCO; 

Head-ERCO and ERCO staff assigned to individual Schools are urged to attend the Schools’ promotional meetings; the Schools will inform ERCO about such meetings’ details (date, time, location);

Participating in educational exhibitions may assist in increasing the visibility/image of AIT amongst the general public in the target countries/cities and generate students - but targeted seminars in partner universities may be more effective;

More effective ways are to be sought for increasing the visibility/image of AIT amongst the public in the target countries/cities;

We should not be desperate in getting students, and thus compromising on the quality; 

It is encouraged to seek help from current students in promotional activities;

Current faculty/staff and, importantly, successful alumni, could also help in promotions; and 

Putting increased efforts in the publication of popular articles and stories in the media.

Dr. A. Yakupitiyage
18-26 October 2007
Colombo, Sri Lanka and Male, Maldives
To attend IUCN project workshop

Prof. S. Kumar
Dr. Mithulananthan Nadarajah
21-23 October 2007
Dhaka, Bangladesh
To visit Bangladesh universities, government and institutions for possible partnership in a proposed new project ‘Energy for Sustainable Development and Climate Change’ to be funded by Sida and coordinated by AIT

Prof.

A proposal under the EU-FP7 Programme submitted by Dr. Ram C. Bhujel, Affiliated Faculty, in the Aquaculture and Aquatic Resources Management (AARM) Field, has been selected for funding. The 36-month project entitled "Sustainable Aquaculture Research Networks in Sub-Saharan Africa (SARNISSA)" will start in January 2008, and will be coordinated by the University of Stirling, UK, with AARM-AIT, as one of the key partners in the project.

On 12 October 2007, AIT President Said Irandoust met with Professor Mario T. Tabucanon, who proposed two new initiatives for collaboration between AIT and Italy - one with Politecnico di Milano (PdM), and one with an Italian business concern, the Danieli Group.

On 10 October 2007, AIT President Said Irandoust met with former AIT Extension, Program Director, Professor K. Harigopal, who is currently President of K P R Educational Society, which is a non-profit organization registered with the government of Andhra Pradesh in India.

 

In a robust presentation delivered on October 9th at the 4th Annual Meeting of the Science and Technology in Society (STS) Forum, in Japan, AIT President Said Irandoust spoke of what he feels is a vital imperative for higher education in the twenty-first century.