The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development of the World Bank has renewed its cooperation with AIT through a MoU signed on 18 January 2008. Under this MoU, the World Bank, through the collaboration under the Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarships Program (JJ/WBGSP), supports master's degree studies in development- related fields at AIT. AIT has offered 6 credit fellowships to each of the JJ/WBGSP scholars.

Dr. Sugimin Pranoto, Director of AIT Center in Indonesia (AIT-CI), initiated through the Directorate General of Highways, Ministry of Public Works, the following new programs for AIT:

Short Courses (Legal and Contractual Risk Management; Information Technology in Construction; Road Safety and Management in Construction; Transportation Policy and Environmental Limits). These short courses are to be conducted in 2008 under funding from the World Bank through the ERTP program.

On 16 January 2008, AIT President Said Irandoust met with a group of Indian faculty member, namely Professor S. P. Pawadee, Dr. Mrs. Gauri Rane, and Mr. Anil Rao, from the Khandesh College Education Society, Jalgaon, India, (www.jalasri.kces.in). The group had participated in the HealthGIS 2008 Conference, organized by Dr. Nitin Tripathi and colleagues from our Remote Sensing and GIS field of study.

Professor Sudip Rakshit, Vice President for Research was invited to join the editorial board of the new journal Recent Patents on Biotechnology which is brought out by Bentham Science Publishers.  Their journals are indexed by the major indexing media such as, Medline / PubMed, and the Science Citation Index.

A research publication of Dr. Suthasinne Nilsang, a student of Professor Sudip Rakshit, "Monoclonal Antibody Production Using a New Supermacroporous Cryogel Bioreactor" has been the most-accessed article published in the journal Biotechnology Progress in the 3rd quarter of 2007.  It is currently featured on the journal's Most-Accessed Articles Web site of ACS. This was part of Dr. Suthasinnee's doctoral thesis and was done with close collaboration with the biotechnology program at the University of Lund in Sweden.

Professor Peter Haddawy's doctoral student in Computer Science Field of Study, Mr. Hameedullah Kazi, has been accepted to serve on the Student Editorial Board of the international journal Methods of Information in Medicine. This is an innovative program in which a few students from around the world are selected to serve on the editorial board in order to gain experience in the editorial process.

On 16 January 2008, AIT President Said Irandoust met with Professor Vilas M. Salokhe, who has returned from his sabbatical at Kyoto University and resumed his duties at AIT. The AIT community welcomes Professor Salokhe, whom AIT President has assigned to follow up on the integrated-bachelor’s master’s initiative with Shivaji and Singhania Universities.

AIT faculty members recently received research grants from various organizations as follows:

Professor Ram M. Shrestha of Energy field of study, School of  Environment, Resources and Development (SERD) has received a new research grant from the UNEP Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific (RRC.AP) for a project on Atmospheric Brown Cloud (ABC), amounting to US$ 129,500. This will run up to 31 December 2008.

During the week AIT signed a new MOU with the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center, Thailand (NECTEC) for the project coordinated by Professor Kanchana Kanchanasut, Director of intERLab, amounting to 1.9 million Baht entitled "Interconnectivity between Mobile Ad Hoc and Fixed Infrastructure Networks for Multimedia Disaster Emergency Communications".

AIT also signed an agreement for a Tsunami Science and Preparedness Program with the University of Washington, which is coordinated by Dr. Amrit Bart, from the Aquaculture and Aquatic Resources Management field of study, SERD. The total budget for the project that will run for one year is US$137,000.

Dr. Lal Samarakoon from the Geoinformatics Center, School of Engineering and Technology (SET) has received a new research grant from the Center for Spatial Information Science, University of Tokyo for the project entitled "Thailand Geographic Information System Development" with a total budget of 3.4 million Yen for 1.5 year duration.

 

In honor of His Majesty the King of Thailand's 80th Birthday Anniversary, the Office of the Supreme Commander has granted approval for the Army Training Command Department to send 3 applicants from the Office of the Supreme Command Secretary to study at AIT at the master's level.

On 15 January 2008, AIT President Said Irandoust met with Professor Mohammad Mahdi Mazaheri, Vice President for Cultural Relations, Islamic Azad University (IAU), Iran, expressing a common interest in the establishment of a "Spatial Data Infrastructure and Management Center". The Center would develop projects on SDI, spatial networking and management, academic programs, and conduct other related activities.