In early February, AIT President Said Irandoust along with Professor S. K. Rakshit, Vice President for Research; faculty colleagues Professor C. Visvanathan, and Dr. Preeda Parkpian, and Dr. Pritam Shrestha, Head ERCO, met with officials from the Chulabhorn Research Institute (CRI) and Mahidol University to discuss a new MOU which will be in effect for the coming five years.

AIT President Said Irandoust on January 30th signed an MoU with the Vishwakarma Institute of Technology (VIT), located in Pune (India), to collaborate on the development and the establishment of two-stage master's programs, and on research cooperation and faculty and student exchanges.

AIT President Said Irandoust along with Vice Presidents for External Relations and Research, Professors Vilas Wuwongse and S. K. Rakshit, recently met with Mr. Supachai Lorlowhakarn, Director of the National Innovation Agency (NIA) Thailand (www.nia.

AIT President Said Irandoust, along with Dr. Kunnawee Kanitpong, Transportation Engineering, field of study coordinator, and Dr. Mukand Singh Babel, Water Engineering and Management field of study coordinator, from the School of Engineering and Technology, visited Indonesia last week to promote the Institute.

The Asian Institute of Technology’s own Dr Lalit Johri, a professor of international business at the School of Management (SOM), is to lead the redesign of the Advanced Management Programme (AMP) at Oxford University’s prestigious Saïd Business School.

The Asian Institute of Technology’s own Dr Lalit Johri, a professor of international business at the School of Management (SOM), is to lead the redesign of the Advanced Management Programme (AMP) at Oxford University’s prestigious Saïd Business School.

An inaugural brainstorming workshop aimed at paving the way for a sound urban research proposal recently took place at AIT Conference Center on 25th of January 2008. The event attracted many experts from the academia and professionals from governing bodies of ten Asian countries, among others.

An International Symposium on Urban Energy and Carbon Management: Challenges for Science and Policy, and International Workshop on Urban Energy and Carbon Modeling are being held on 4-6 February 2008 at the AIT Center on the campus of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT).

Both events are organized by the Global Carbon Project (GCP) www.

AIT President Said Irandoust had a productive meeting with the executive committee of the Student Union on 21 January 2008. They discussed a number of initiatives, particularly the hope to make the Student Union more visible not only among members of the AIT community but to prospective students in nearby universities as well.

A team of students from AIT's School of Management (SOM) were judged as runners-up in the recently-concluded Global Social Venture Competition: South East Asia (GSVC-SEA), which is a Business Plan Competition on ventures with social importance. Moreover, the team has been nominated with two other teams to represent South-East Asia in the Asian Regional Finals to be held at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India from the 7th to the 9th of March 2008. The winning business plan was based on a new type of solar technology (Dyesensitized Solar Cell) developed in Center of Excellence Nanotechnology led by Dr. Joydeep Dutta and his team.