Royal Thai Army looks at AIT projects
On Thursday 10 August 2006, a team of high-ranking officers from the Royal Thai Army visited AIT and listened to presentations on research projects. The main objective of this visit was to determine if AIT's advanced technology might be applicable to the use of the army.
The projects presented were: vision-based mapping and navigation for mobile robots; video surveillance using face detection and human behavior profiling; flying robot; tsunami early warning and warning systems; campaign assessment tool; conversation analysis and tracking system for Internet and audio surveillance; reinforced earth embankments.
The team was sent by the commander in chief of the Royal Thai Army, led by the director of Military Education Division, and contained representatives from the following units:
- Military Education Division
- Faculty of Ordnance College
- Research and Development Division, Directorate of Operations
- Military Material Section 5
- Prototype Section
- Department of Ordnance
- Directorate of Intelligence
- Research and Development Division, Directorate of Operations
- Department of Engineer
- ICT Division, Directorate of Operations
- Bureau of Research and Development
- Department of Signal
The AIT presentation team led by Prof. Peter Haddawy, vice president for academic affairs, included Prof. Dennes Bergado, Dr. Manukid Parnichkun, Dr. Matthew Daily, Dr. Pisut Koomsup and Dr. Paul Janecek from the School of Engineering of Technology. They presented nine projects under their supervision, which were of great interest to the visitors.
This visit marked a good sign of cooperation between academics and practitioners, and the report has been made and submitted to the upper levels in the army. AIT has now been recognized as an advanced academic institute that can be of use to Thailand as host country. Professors who presented their research work may be invited to visit the army for further presentations.