Visiting AIT
On 4 November 2005, Dr. Si-Chen Lee (above, seated left), National Taiwan University (NTU) President and delegation accompanied by Dr. Karl Kuan Hua Lee, officer from Taipei Economic & Cultural Office in Thailand met Prof. Said Irandoust (above, seated right), AIT President.
During the visit the delegation held meeting with Prof. Peter Haddawy, VP-Education; Prof. Vilas Wuwongse, VP-External Relations; Prof. Sivanappan Kumar, Dean, School of Sustainable Development (SSD); Prof. Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, Dean, School of Engineering and Technology (SET); Prof. John C.S. Tang, faculty member, School of Management and Entrepreneurship (SME); Dr. Voratas Kachitvichyanukul, Dr. Joydeep Dutta and Dr. Xiaoyong Chen, faculty members of School of Engineering and Technology; Mr. Sanjeev Jayasinghe, Head of External Relations and Communications Office (ERCO); Mr. Kyaw Soe Hlaing, Alumni Relations Coordinator; and Mr. Tenzin Rabgyal, Program Officer, ERCO.
The visit aims to explore possible collaboration between NTU and AIT in the areas of Management programs, Nano Technology and Semiconductor technologies, and Remote Sensing and GIS as well as students and faculty exchange programs.
On the same day, a delegation from JAXA, headed by Mr. Kaoru Mamiya, Vice President, visited AIT. The delegation was welcomed by Prof. Said Irandoust, AIT President; Prof. Vilas Wuwongse, VP-External Relations; Prof. Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, Dean SET; Dr. Chen, Dr. Susaki and Dr. Lal who are seconded faculty from JAXA. The collaboration between JAXA and AIT was discussed. In principle, JAXA expressed the willingness to provide continued support to AIT in various aspects, e.g. faculty secondment and research and training support. JAXA has also planned to expand its activities in the Asia-Pacific region and would like to involve AIT in such activities. JAXA was also invited by AIT to partner in the development of the 'Disaster Engineering and Management' program at AIT.
Joining the JAXA delegation was Prof. H. Fukui from Keio University. The JAXA delegation was witness to the signing of a joint research project agreement by JAXA and AIT called 'Establishment of Digital Asia Nodes.'
On the same day, following the JAXA's visit, an MOU between AIT and the Asian Association of Remote Sensing (AARS), Institute of Industrial Science,
University of Tokyo was also signed by Prof. Shunji Murai, General Secretary of AARS and Prof. Irandoust, AIT President. Areas of collaboration covered will be on promotion of remote sensing, GIS, GPS and related educational research and technology transfer in Asia-Pacific through the establishment of AARS
coordinating office at AIT, the publication of Asian Journal of Geoinformatics and the organizing of seminars and workshops.
From right: Ms. Ochiai, Mr. Kaji, Dr. Moriyama and Prof. Fukui
Prof. Irandoust signs (above) and exchanges (below) signed MoU Agreement Prof. Fukui.
Prof. Irandoust exchanges MOU with Prof. Murai (above right), AARS General Secretary.
On Oct. 26, Ms. Yuki Iida from First Country Assistance Planning Division, Economic Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan visited AIT.
She was accompanied by Mr. Daisuke Okabe, First Secretary, Embassy of Japan in Bangkok. Ms. Iida and Mr. Okabe met with President, VP-ER and Japanese faculty at AIT. Ms. Iida has recently been appointed to look after the collaboration between Japanese MOFA and AIT. She visited AIT to familiarize herself with AIT and its activities. During the visit, the collaboration between AIT and the Japanese Government was discussed. Although the support from MOFA has been decreasing during the recent years due to the Japanese Govt.'s ODA policies for multilateral aid, the Japanese delegation expressed positive attitudes towards increased funding from other Japanese governmental and non-governmental sources.
From left: Dr. Susaki, Dr. Aramaki, Prof. Vilas, Prof. Said Irandoust, Ms. Iida,
Mr. Okabe and Khun Kanya