Seminars, Workshops and Conferences

Seminars, Workshops and Conferences

21 October 2004: 2nd SCE Colloquium entitled: 'Will the New Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi) International Airport Sink?' will be conducted by Dr. Dennes T. Bergado, Professor of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, SCE at 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m.
in room E220, SERD building.

Lying on an area of 3,220 hectares, the New Bangkok International Airport is envisioned to stand as one of Thailand's landmarks, an infrastructure that will transpire the country's plan to be the aviation hub of the region. Big as it would be, what many people do not know is that the airport sits on a swamp. With that reality, possibilities for subsidence is rather big.

22 October 2004: Workshop on Urban Safety for Sustainable Urbanization from Experiences of Japan will be held at the RCC Auditorium. The workshop organized by RNUS, SCE will be conducted by the following speakers: Prof. Taketo Uomoto will speak on Maintenance and management of urban infrastructure in Japan to decrease risk of injury to public; Prof. Reiko Amano will speak on Water Screen Fire Disaster Prevention System in Underground Space and Prof. Kimiro Meguro will speak on Universal Disaster Simulator towards earthquake disaster mitigation in Japanese cities

Abstract
Over half of the world's population is concentrated in urban areas covering just 4% of the world's surface. Mega cities in particular are characterized by a high population density and tremendous pressure on supporting infrastructure. It is estimated that by 2015, Asia will be host to more than 50% of the mega cities in the world. A phenomenal growth in the number of high-rise buildings and other infrastructure in these cities is clearly foreseen, though a balance is often not ensured with measures for their maintenance. Safety of infrastructure is foremost important for sustainable urbanization and economic development in Asia.

In this workshop, three prominent academicians from the University of Tokyo, Japan will deliver talks on how urban safety issues are addressed in highly urbanized Japanese cities. Various issues related to durability of urban infrastructure with proper safety measures including measures against disasters like earthquake and fires with the conventional and new technologies will be addressed in the presentations.

About the Speakers
Prof. Taketo Uomoto is the Director and Professor of the International Center for Urban Safety Engineering (ICUS), the University of Tokyo. He has been working in the field of research and development of FRP reinforcement since 1980. His interest lies in developing new methods for improving durability of concrete. Most of his works are related to deterioration mechanism, and inspection and preventive methods against deterioration of concrete structures. His recent research is focused on development of a new system for high quality shotcrete for tunnel lining and establishment of Asian Model Code of Concrete Structure.

Prof. Reiko Amano is a Visiting Professor of ICUS, University of Tokyo and Deputy General Manager of the Kajima Corporation, Tokyo. She has been working for Kajima Corporation since 1980. Her specialization is in design of different types of bridges. She has been engaged in developments of various types of bridges using latest (Pre-stressed Concrete technology as a designer, a researcher and a construction manager. In 1986, one of her main works, Birdie Bridge, a stressed-ribbon type bridge using the composite material with concrete and FRP, received Tanaka Award from the Japan Society of Civil Engineers.

Prof. Kimiro Meguro is an Associate Professor of ICUS, the University of Tokyo. His major is urban safety and earthquake disaster mitigation engineering. After receiving Ph. D from the University of Tokyo, he joined INCEDE of the University of Tokyo in 1991. Based on many disaster site investigations, he has been developing a disaster reduction strategy by appropriately balancing the structural countermeasures and the non-structural countermeasures. He has been also doing grass-root type of activities for earthquake disaster reduction in developing countries. Dr. Meguro is very active in international activities. He has been serving for last several years as one of the Directors of the World Seismic Safety Initiative (WSSI), which is an undertaking of the International Association of Earthquake Engineering (IAEE).

26 October 2004: Introduction to International Graduate Program of Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Saitama University, Japan and Seismic Damage Mitigation of Reinforced Concrete Structures by Controlling Bond of Reinforcement seminar will be conducted by Dr. Govinda Raj Pandey. The event will be held in room E-206, SCE Building at 1:00 p.m.

Abstract
Saitama University is one of the leading universities in Japan in the field of Civil Engineering. The university is located at some 40 km north to downtown Tokyo. Every year the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering awards up to 7 outstanding doctoral students with prestigious Monbukagakusho Scholarship administered by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of the Government of Japan. Pursuing doctoral course in Saitama University opens ample opportunities for students to involve in cutting edge research and state-of-the-art knowledge.

An extensive experimental and analytical investigation was carried out to examine how controlling the bond of the longitudinal reinforcements can enhance seismic performance, such as shear strength and ductility, of RC structures. The experiment employed fifteen 300 - 300 mm square RC columns tested under reversed cyclic loading. The columns were of six different bond conditions, varying from perfect bond with the use of ordinary deformed bars, to perfect unbond. The other test variables included the shear span to depth ratio, the shear to flexural strength ratio, and the length of unbonded region. The results of the experiment revealed that the failure mode at the ultimate state could be changed from shear to flexure by reducing the bond strength of the longitudinal bars. The test results also showed that RC columns reinforced with bond controlled bars had significantly better shear strength and ductility than RC columns reinforced with ordinary bars. From the finite element analysis, it was found that the enhancement of seismic performance and alteration of the failure mode of unbonded pier is due to the change in internal mechanism to the one resembling a tied arch.

About Speaker
AIT alumni Dr. Pandey is a JSPS postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Saitama University, Japan. He received B.Eng. from Regional Engineering College, Silchar, India in 1998, M.Eng. from the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand in 2001, and Ph.D. from Saitama University, Japan in 2004. During his doctoral research, Dr. Pandey won two awards for the best paper and presentation in the 5th International Summer Symposium of JSCE, Tokyo in 2003 and JCI Annual Conference, Kochi in 2004. His research interests include the effects of earthquake on concrete structures and durability of RC Structures.

2 November 2004: 'Chaos in Computer Simulation of Growth Processes' ISE seminar will be conducted by Prof. Hugo Pastijn, Dept. of Mathematics, Royal Military Academy, Belgium. The seminar will be held at 2:00 p.m., in room IE-115, Chalerm Prakiat Building.

The seminar will be continued by a 15 minute-presentation on 'Chaos in Design' by Ms. Somlak Wannarumon, a Doctoral Student in DME field, at the same room.

Abstract (of the first seminar):
After a short biography of P.-F. Verhulst in which the link with the Royal Military Academy and the University of Ghent in Belgium is emphasized, the early history of the so-called â??Logistic Modelâ?? is described. The relationship with older growth
models is discussed, and the motivation of Verhulst to introduce different kinds of limited growth models is presented in a historic perspective. The discovery of the chaotic behaviour of the discrete version of the logistic model is illustrated by means of computer experiments. The relationship of the logistic model with other one-peaked recurrence functions is made.
Milestones in the theory of chaos are illustrated by means of the logistic growth model. Finally the chaotic behaviour of growth models, used to describe the evolution of technological innovation, is discussed and illustrated by means of computer simulations.

All ISE students are expected to attend. Others are most welcome.

3 November 2004: 'General Motors' Marketing Strategy in Thailand' special seminar will be held at 2:00-3:30 PM in SOM
Amphitheater. The event is organized by SOM, the General Motors Thailand Limited, and the Asian Wall Street Journal. The guest speaker will be Mr. William S. Botwick, Executive Director GM ASEAN Operations and President General
Motors Thailand Limited.

Interested persons are invited. .

About the speaker
Mr. William S. Botwick, President of GM Thailand and Chevrolet Sales Thailand, is named as Executive Director of ASEAN, General Motors Asia Pacific and President & Managing Director for General Motors (GM) Thailand on June 27, 2001. GM's ASEAN operation headquarters is located in Thailand.

In these roles, he oversees all areas of GM operations in the ASEAN, including the advanced manufacturing operations at the GM Thailand Assembly Center in Rayong Province, export and domestic sales, marketing, and aftersales service, as well as operations in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.

November 30 - December 3, 2004: Renewable Generation and Cogeneration for Rural Electrification training workshop. The event is sponsored by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), organized by the Electric Power System Management (EPSM) FoS, SERD and supported by the EC-ASEAN COGEN Programme III.

Renewable Generation and Cogeneration for Rural Electrification
Electricity is a basic need for the social and economic development of a nation and providing it in the economical and secured way to the rural and urban consumers is a challenging task. Rural electrification, which is required huge investment, is thus an important concern in Asian electric power utilities. Renewable generation and cogeneration are new options being promoted to solve rural electrification problems along with the some other problems of urban distribution systems. The issues such as system capacity investments, grid expansions, etc. also benefit through renewable generation and cogeneration. There is a great need of training and education on renewable generation and cogeneration technologies to the utility officials and investors of power projects for proper understanding of the subject matters. The knowledge on importance of rural electrification, availability of resources, feasibility of applying renewable generation and cogeneration and benefits of rural electrification are essential to policy makers, planners, managers, investors, etc.

The training workshop is focused on renewable generation and cogeneration for rural electrification. It will discuss the issues related to rural electrification concentrating through alternate energy resources over applicability and economics of rural electrification and of renewable generation and cogeneration projects.

Participants in the event will be given the opportunity to attend the lectures and discussions related to rural electrification, renewable generation and cogeneration. Also it will be a great opportunity to share related experiences of participants from different utilities of different countries.

Who should attend?
Electric power utility staff of both technical and management disciplines, personnel from electric manufacturing and R&D; organizations, policy makers, and academia will find this workshop beneficial. Those who are interested in small-scale power projects will also benefited in this workshop. Interested persons are advised to contact in advance.

Topics
The main topics which will be covered in the training program are:

  • Integrated Resource Planning and Renewable Energy in Thailand
  • Load Forecasting
  • Voltage Drop and Loss Reduction in Distribution System
  • Biomass Energy Generation for Rural Electrification
  • Biomass Cogeneration Technologies
  • Cogeneration Project Development
  • Financial Issues of Cogeneration Projects
  • Environmental Benefits of Biomass Cogeneration
  • Successful Biomass Cogeneration Case Studies
  • Wind Distributed Generation
  • Fuel Cell Powered Distributed Generation
  • Solar-Thermal Power Generation
  • Photovoltaic (PV) Generation
  • Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in Thailand
  • SPP, VSPP and Renewable Energy Policy in Thailand
  • Technical visit to Advance Agro PLC

Interested persons are advised to contact:

Weerakorn Ongssakul
EPSM, Asian Institute of Technology
P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang

Pathumthani 12120, Thailand

Tel: (66-2) 524-5437, 524-6219

Fax: (66-2) 524-6589

E-mail: epsm@ait.ac.th

Website: http://www.serd.ait.ac.th/ep/epsm/RECORE.PDF

1-3 December 2004: Second International Symposium on Southeast Asian Water Environment will be held in Hanoi, Vietnam. The Symposium is organized by the Asian Institute of Technology branch in Vietnam (AITVN) and The University of Tokyo (UT), in cooperation with Southeast Asian Center on Water Environment Technology (SACWET), a joint center of UT and AIT. The Symposium is sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan through Special Coordination Funds for Promoting Science and Technology.

The Symposium aims to provide a forum for discussion and exchange among researchers/practitioners in Environmental Technology and Management and related areas from the Asian Region and to promote interaction among researchers from Asia-Pacific countries, Japan, the United States, Europe and other parts of the world. Through the Symposium, participants will hopefully find a strong network or partnership with active local change agents will be established, and our colleagues in Southeast Asia will learn more from the experts of other countries to protect the environment of the region.

Focus of the Symposium

The Symposium is focused on the following topics:

  • Conservation of natural aquatic ecosystems
  • Symbiosis with agriculture and aquaculture
  • Industrial/agricultural development and water management
  • Threats to ground water
  • Environmental infrastructure management
  • Urban development and coastal zone management
  • Social aspects

Call for papers and deadlines

Manuscripts for oral and poster presentations should be prepared according to the format specified at: http://www.env.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/project/asian_water/home.html

Paper for oral presentations should be submitted to:
E-mail: asiasympo@env.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp by August 15, 2004 and all applicants will receive an acknowledgment via e-mail upon submission of the manuscript. The corresponding author will be informed of the result of the review by mid September.

Paper for poster presentations should be submitted by September 30, 2004.
For applicants from Vietnam, please submit/contact directly to:

Asian Institute of Technology Center in Vietnam-AITCV
21 Le Thanh Tong

Hanoi, Vietnam
Tel: 84-4-825 3493
Fax: 84-4-825 3658
E-mail: eds@aitcv.ac.vn
Website: http://www.aitcv.ac.vn/index.asp?selects=5

Further details regarding submission procedure and registration can be viewed at:
http://www.env.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/project/asian_water/home.html

11-13 January 2005: 2nd International Conference on Innovations in Food Processing Technology and Engineering will be held at the AIT Conference Center.

The role of food processing technology and engineering in the economic development need not be overemphasized. Food science, technology and engineering (FS&E;) have been at the very core of numerous development and achievements to make a wide variety of foods available year around in palatable, nutritious, aesthetically packaged, in terms of appearance, functionality, storability, nutrition, and economic viability of innovative processes and modern food products.

Realizing the concepts, putting in practice and reaping the harvest through successful marketing. The role of FS&E; has been indispensable in not only making the necessary tools available but in review of new developments in food processing technology and engineering along with dissemination of relevant information among scientists, engineers, technologists and other professionals.

Technical Program: The technical program will include plenary and keynote lectures, parallel lectures and poster sessions.

Original contributors, case histories, of actual industrial operations, state-of-the-art papers, and commercial information on the following subjects are invited.

  • Food processing technology
  • Physical properties of foods
  • Thermal processing and preservation
  • Non-thermal processing
  • Food safety
  • Food packaging
  • Nutraceutical and functional foods
  • Postharvest preservation and processing
  • Novel technologies in food handling, processing and transport
  • Information technology applications in food industry
  • Automation in food industry
  • Food processing wastes

Please keep on visiting web site http://203.159.19.151/phfpe/conferences/fpc/index.htm for conference updates

Preliminary Registration: Contributions will be presented as keynote lectures, lectures or posters. The Technical Committee will make final decisions on the acceptance and allocation to oral or poster presentations. The abstract, not exceeding more than 300-400 words, should clearly indicate the objectives, brief methodology and conclusions.

The last date for the submission of abstracts is July 31, 2004. However, abstract received after the deadline will not be included in the proceedings but still be considered for presentation.

Application Form and Summary: Registration form and Summary in MS-Word format can be obtained by visiting: http://203.159.19.151/phfpe/conferences/fpc/index.htm

For further information please contact:

Miss Tasana Sa-id
FEBT, SERD
Asian Institute of Technology
P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang
Pathumthani 12120, Thailand
Tel: (66-2) 524 5488
Fax: (66-2) 524 6200
E-mail: phfpe@ait.ac.th

6 - 10 June 2005:
International Conference on 'Modeling Tools for Environment and Resources Management (MTERM)'. The conference will be coordinated by the Water Engineering and Management (WEM) FoS staff in cooperation with the faculty members of the Modeling Tools for Environment and Resources Management (MTERM) and will be held at the AIT Conference Center.

Interested persons are invited to submit their research/technical papers related but not limited to the broader themes listed as follows:

  • Integrated Water Resources Management
  • Modeling of Water Resources
  • Water Quality Management and Modeling
  • Air Pollution Modeling

A two-day pre-conference training workshop on 'Governance of Transboundary Waters' will also be conducted in collaboration with 'The Universities Partnership for Transboundary Waters' (http://waterpartners.geo.orst.edu)

For further information and details please visit http://www.mterm.ait.ac.th For other enquiries please e-mail: mterm@ait.ac.th
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