222 students from 20 countries and three continents receive graduate degrees at Thailand’s international intergovernmental institute of higher learning

Eating coconuts for a meal, sleeping under the stars without a roof, and being marooned on an island may not be an ideal situation for a young student. But for Ms. Albane Coerrquetin, a Master’s student at Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and a volunteer of Téléoms Sans Frontière (TSF), it was a once in a lifetime experience.

For 10 days and 10 nights, Mr. Clinton Smith had a meal that was monotonously simple – boiled rice and chicken. But even then, he considered himself fortunate. For many people in the island where Clinton was based, even this meal was not guaranteed.

Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) played host to the eight nation 2010 Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Trophy Challenge championships held from 4-11 December 2010. Two finalist teams, Maldives and Saudi Arabia, qualified for the elite International Cricket Council (ICC) qualifying tournament. The World Cup finals will be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand in 2015.

With plentiful opportunities existing for AIT in neighboring Myanmar, AIT President Prof. Said Irandoust recently led a team of AIT officials on a three-day promotional visit to Thailand’s neighbor where they met with some of the country’s senior higher education administrators.

“Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) has been a driving force and had it not been for its contribution, I would not be visiting AIT today.” This was stated by H.E. Mr. Muhammad Azam Khan Swati, Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Pakistan during his maiden visit to AIT on 8 December 2010. The minister described AIT as a “marvelous institute,” and Pakistan as a “long haul partner” of AIT.

Government of India has decided to establish 20 new Indian Institutes of Information Technologies (IIITs) under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Model with an outlay of 620 million USD. The Union government will contribute 50 per cent of the capital cost, while the provincial state governments would contribute 35 per cent. The remaining 15 per cent will be contributed by the private sector.

The eight-day-long training program on “Area wide Integrated Pest Management (IPM) of fruit flies in South and Southeast Asia” got off to a start with the Dr. Hguyen Minh Chau, Director of Southern Horticulture Research Institute (SOFRI), Vietnam inaugurating the workshop on 7 December 2010 at Tien Giang, Vietnam.

Packaging is creating a new revolution in the food industry, and nations will have to adapt to new reusable and biodegradable packaging materials to be able to compete globally. This was stated by Dr. Tipvon Parinyasiri, Director Food Control Division, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Thailand, while delivering the keynote speech at the “5th International Conference on Innovations in Food and Bioprocess Technology”, being organized at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT).