A team of students from AIT's School of Management (SOM) were judged as runners-up in the recently-concluded Global Social Venture Competition: South East Asia (GSVC-SEA), which is a Business Plan Competition on ventures with social importance. Moreover, the team has been nominated with two other teams to represent South-East Asia in the Asian Regional Finals to be held at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India from the 7th to the 9th of March 2008. The winning business plan was based on a new type of solar technology (Dyesensitized Solar Cell) developed in Center of Excellence Nanotechnology led by Dr. Joydeep Dutta and his team.

The AIT community has received, with deep sadness and regret, the news of the sudden passing away of Professor Awnashilal Barkharam Sharma, "Brij" to most faculty colleagues, in Bangkok on the night of Wednesday, 30 January 2008.

The AIT community represents the many grateful AIT faculty, staff, students, and alumni who have directly benefited from Professor Sharma's dedication to his career as educator, researcher and administrator.

The following AIT faculty received new research/project grants from various organizations:

The Statement of Understanding between AIT and ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communications (SIGCOMM) was signed for organizing the 4th Asian Internet Engineering Conference (AINTEC), which is coordinated by Professor Kanchana Kanchanasut, Director of Internet Education and Research Laboratory (intERLab).

Dr. Dhirendra Thakur of Aquaculture and Aquatic Resources Management (AARM) Field of Study, SERD, received a new research grant from OxSea Vision (Thailand) Co., Ltd.

On 24 January 2008, AIT received the Finnish Identification Mission, led by Dr. Goran Nillson Axberg and Dr. Marko Mannila, who were joined by Ms. Helena Ahola, First Secretary (Development Cooperation) at the Finnish Embassy in Bangkok. The purpose of their mission was to further define potential areas for future co-operation within the Mekong region (particularly in Lao PDR and Cambodia), consistent both with the regional and national development and Finnish development policy priorities.

On 21 January 2008, AIT President Said Irandoust was introduced by Dr. Saied Pirasteh to Dr. Hamidreza Maskani and Dr. Ali Meraji from the Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR), Environmental Research Institute, Iran who were here in Bangkok to participate in HealthGIS 2008 Conference.

On 21 January 2008, AIT President Said Irandoust met with Professor Gautam Dasgupta, who was invited by Dean Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai and Dr. Joydeep Dutta to deliver a lecture at AIT, and also explore possible partnerships. Professor Dasgupta who is from School of Civil Engineering, at Columbia University, has lots of new ideas on launching innovative programs which are unique in areas such as intelligent infrastructure and security engineering, both covering interesting areas such as disaster control and mitigation by engineering tools.

On 21 January 2008, Professor Peter Haddawy, Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Nandana Rajatheva, Coordinator of the Telecommunications field of study and AIT President Said Irandoust, met Dr. Matti Latva-aho, Director of the Centre for Wireless Communications (CWC), University of Oulu, Finland, who was accompanied by Mr. Attaphongse Taparugssanagorn, Research Scientist.

On 23 January 2008, AIT President Said Irandoust met through contacts provided by Dr. General Montri Supaporn, President of the Community Support Foundation Thailand, a delegation comprising of Dr. Chiradaporn Supaporn, Admiral Thomrat Hatayodom, Vice President of the Community Support Foundation Thailand; Dr. Chainaron Cherdchu, Head, Chemical Metrology and Biometry Department, Ministry of Science and Technology, Thailand; and Dr. Pongskorn Ridchomporn.

From left: Professor Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, School of Engineering and Technology (SET) Dean; Assistant Professor Dr. Jackrit Suthakorn, President of Thai Robotics Society; Mr. Jeffrey D. Nygaard, Vice President and Country Manager of Seagate Thailand Operations and Dr. Manukid Parnichkun, Mechatronics Field of Study, SET.

Global computer hard drive leader Seagate Technology (Thailand) Ltd.

An International Symposium on Urban Energy and Carbon Management: Challenges for Science and Policy and International Workshop on Urban Energy and Carbon Modeling will be held on 4-6 February 2008 at the AIT Center, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathumthani, Thailand

The event is organized by the Global Carbon Project (GCP), Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan.