“Towards
environmental and socio economic sustainability: A vital role for
AIT”
“AIT, with its broad global reach and a clear mandate for
research and education relevant to the needs of society, can and should
play a pivotal role in effecting the changes that are required to
correct some very troubling global trends.
For the first time in its history, last month AIT participated in an
educational exhibition in Iran to promote the institute to the many
prospective students existing in the large central Asian country. At
the Thailand Trade Exhibition held in Tehran from 10 to 13 August 2008,
the Institute joined Chulalongkorn University and the Asian University
of Science and Technology (AUST) in a common booth for promotional
purposes.
The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) has recently been making
concerted efforts to connect with Africa in terms of higher education.
This week H.E. Mr. Umaru Azores Suleiman (below
right), Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to
Thailand, accompanied by Mr. Abubakar Ramat Salihu,
Second Secretary Embassy of Nigeria, visited AIT to discuss
possibilities for partnership in joint research projects, capacity
building and poverty alleviation, all of which could lead to more
students from Nigerian coming to Thailand.
On 20 August 2008, Professor Said Irandoust, President of the Asian
Institute of Technology (AIT), along with Professor Vilas Wuwongse,
Vice President for External Relations, and Acting Director of the
AIT Center in Vietnam (AITCV), met with
high-ranking officials of the
Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), and Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MOFA) Vietnam.
The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) has signed a Memorandum of
Agreement (MoA) with Vietnam's University of Agriculture (HUA) and Hue
University of Agriculture and Forestry (HUAF) for a two-phased
collaboration intended to assist the development of a curriculum for
the establishment of a new master's program in integrated natural
resources management.
The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) recently
signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with
India’s GIS Development (GISD) during the Map
Asia 2008 conference which was held from 17-18 August
2008 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
AIT President Prof.
The unique essence of AIT was fully explored in a recent interview of President Prof. Said Irandoust conducted by the leading Thai lifestyle website ThaiAsiaToday.com (http://thaiasiatoday.com). In an exclusive question and answer feature article, the president shares his thoughts on some of the things that make the Asian Institute of Technology so special.
At the recently held Thailand Energy Awards 2008 held on July
30, in Bangkok, AIT alumnus Dr. Juntakan
Taweekun (above), who graduated from the Energy Field of Study
at the School of Environment, Resources and Development (SERD),
won a prestigious award under the Special Submission Category:
Low Energy House, from the Ministry of Energy, the Royal Thai
Government.
The Greater Mekong Subregion Academic and Research Network (GMSARN)
recently conducted its 4th workshop on the formation of a GMS Energy
and Environment Network (GMSEENet). The objective of the workshop was
to train participants on how to effectively share expertise and
resources in the energy and environment domains using the Knowledge
Management Toolkit (KMTk) developed at the Asian Institute of
Technology, which includes a collection of community tools such as
weblogs, wikis, and digital libraries.
As part of an official orientation, on August 14th AIT
welcomed almost 500 of the 626 confirmed incoming students for the
August 2008 semester. The School of Engineering and Technology (SET)
will be home to 261 new students while the School of Environment,
Resources and Development (SERD) welcomed 221 new faces.