Against the backdrop of the adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations, and the signing of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change under the aegis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Regional Resource Centre of Asia and the Pacific (RR.CAP) at AIT organized a two-day “International Forum on Sustainable Future in Asia.” Co-hosted by AIT, National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) Japan, Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science (IRSSS) of the University of Tokyo Japan, and Alliance for Global Sustainability Asia, the conference was attended by 160 participants.

College of Agriculture (CoA), Maharashtra, India has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) for the launch of a Unified Bachelor-Master program. The MoA was signed by representatives of CoA and AIT on 27 January 2016.

As the host institute of the Wetlands Alliance Secretariat, the Asian Institute of Technology organized an international conference on ‘Wetlands Management: Science, Practice and Sustainable
Development’ in Siem Reap, Cambodia from 19-21 January 2016.

The climate change battle has to be fought in cities since it is the cities that generate the maximum Gross Development Product (GDP), emit the maximum GreenHouse Gases (GHGs), and are increasingly becoming more vulnerable. These were the remarks of Dr. Bindu Lohani, Senior Advisor to the AIT President, and former Vice President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) while delivering the Distinguished Adjunct Faculty (DAF) Seminar on “Technological Challenges and Opportunities in Addressing Climate Resilience Smart Cities” at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) on 26 January 2016.

Dr. Peeyush Soni, an Associate Professor in the School of Environment, Resources and Development (SERD) of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) has coauthored a publication titled “A regional strategy for sustainable agricultural mechanization.”

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kashipur, India, has signed agreements with the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) for facilitating student exchange, faculty exchange, and undertaking joint research projects. Prof. Gautam Sinha, Director, IIM (Kashipur), and Prof. Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, AIT President, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) on 19 January 2016.

While star-gazing and new techniques enable scientists to explore objects billions of kilometers away, the fact remains that we cannot see what is happening a few centimetres below the ground. Unless one is a geophysicist, the mysterious of what happens “under the ground” always remain an enigma.