The group of representatives from some of Malaysia’s top universities
visited AIT to study SET’s Professional Masters’ program in Hard Disk
Drive (HDD) Engineering Technology.
Dr. Suwan made his remarks at a meeting chaired by Prof. Nitin
Afzulpurkar, Dean, School of Engineering, AIT, who outlined the
rationale, objectives, academic details, unique attributes and mutual
benefits of the professional master’s program launched in 2007 in
partnership with Western Digital (WD), Thailand, and NECTEC.
Through the tripartite collaboration, WD provides funding for 56
scholarships for its employees to obtain an advanced,
professionally-tailored master’s degree at AIT. Prof Nitin said the
program is interdisciplinary in nature and takes two years to complete,
with students attending classes on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Each year
14 full-time employees-cum-scholars enter AIT under the program, he
said. They must complete 27 academic credits from nine courses in the
first year, and a comprehensive research study in the second.
“The research topics are about technical work-related issues for WD,”
Dr. Suwan said, explaining that his firm was committed to educating its
engineers to think about solving problems of benefit to the
company.“The program is successful because it has the support at all
levels within Western Digital, from staff to supervisor to senior
executive,” Dr. Nitin added.
Leading the fact-finding group, Prof. Dato’ Dr. Mohamad Kadim bin
Suaidi, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research and Innovation, Universiti
Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, said the two-day visit may assist the
development of similar programs in Malaysia. Prof. Dato also inquired
about the possibility of offering the professional program as a double
degree with a partner university in Malaysia.
The vice chancellor informed AIT and WD officials that “Industrial
PhDs” was an area of interest to the Malaysian government and that
funding exists to explore collaboration with suitable candidates in
Thailand. “We are very optimistic of future collaboration,” he said.
On February 23 the delegates representing the Ministry of Higher
Education Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, University of Malaya,
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, and Universiti of Malaysia Perlis
visited Western Digital’s facilities and met with senior executives.
Dr. Manukid Parnichkun of AIT’s SET stated that Thailand is a world
leader in hard disk drive production and it is a priority industry for
the government. This fact was underscored by Dr. Suwan who said
Thailand is the “undisputed world leader in the manufacturing of
hard disk drives.” The delegation concluded their stay at AIT with
a visit to SET's Industrial Systems Engineering laboratory.
Dr.Suwan Trongjitwikrai, second from right, listens to Dr. Manukid
Parnichkun along with the Malaysian delegation at the
Industrial Systems Engineering laboratory.