On 18 October 2007, AIT President Said Irandoust, along with Dr. Nitin Tripathi met with Professor Dr. Chira Hongladarom, Secretary General of the Foundation for International Human Resource Development. Professor Chira is interested to discuss further the possibility of AIT partnering the Foundation in capacity building through training programs in important areas such as effects of globalization, tourism, energy and environment, agriculture, and SMEs. The AIT President invited Professor Chira to deliver a seminar / workshop at AIT on pedagogical thinking in the context of developing training programs for professionals.

On 17 October 2007, the AIT administration welcomed a delegation of State Universities and College Presidents and Faculty Members from the Bicol Region, Philippines, who were in Thailand as part of an international benchmarking visit. AIT President Said Irandoust was able to update them of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) plans to support two-stage master's programs, and he encouraged them to approach DOST for this purpose.

The AIT Community School announces its Admission Advisory for the January 2008 Semester as follows:
 

Application Forms will be available from Monday, 12 November 2007 at the AIT Community School Office. Please note that downloaded application forms will not be accepted.

On 18 October 2007, the Institute received the visit of Dr. Moncef Meddeb, Advisor to the Administration of the Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC). AIT President Said Irandoust personally met him, together with Dr. Pritam K. Shrestha, Head ERCO, and Mr. Jean-Philippe Thouard, Advisor to the administration.

During the "Underground Economy" workshop recently organized by AIT's Internet Education and Research Laboratory (intERLab), AIT President Said Irandoust along with Dr. Naveed Anwar met with Mr. Ammar Jaffri, Project Director in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) of Pakistan, who is one of the workshop's resource persons.

2007 Nobel Peace Prize co-winner IPCC Chairman to speak at AIT via international video conference

You are all cordially invited to join a special lecture this week from Dr. Rajenda Pachauri, IPCC Chairman entitled "The IPCC Fourth Assessment and  Beyond", on Friday, 2 November at 11:00 a.m. in the Milton Bender Auditorium, Asian Institute of Technology.

 
The pioneering work of Dr. Joydeep Dutta, professor in the Mechatronics and Microelectronics field of study, Associate Dean for New Development at the School of Engineering and Technology, and director of the Nanotechnology Center of Excellence based at AIT http://www.

An AIT delegation headed by the Chairman of the Board, Dr. Tej Bunnag, and which included the two Vice Chairpersons of the Board, H.E. Mrs. Merete Fjeld Brattested, Ambassador of Norway, and Dr. Jean-Pierre A Verbiest, ADB Country Director for Thailand, and AIT President Said Irandoust, paid a visit to Mr. Virasakdi Futrakul, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Thailand, on 11 October 2007.

The AIT delegation was able to provide a detailed briefing on the AIT Charter, which has now been formally submitted to the Ministry as the Board approved final version.

On 11 October 2007, AIT President Said Irandoust, participated at a dinner reception hosted by Mr. Christer Holtsberg, Director of the Swedish Environmental Secretariat for Asia, to welcome H.E. Mr. Lennart Linnér, the new Ambassador of Sweden to Thailand.

AIT had a fruitful promotions brainstorming meeting on 11 October 2007, which was coordinated by the External Relations and Communications Office (ERCO) to initiate effective and efficient coordination of institute-wide promotional activities. The meeting was coordinated by the External Relations and Communications Office (ERCO), with representation from all three schools - including Deans of the School of Engineering and Technology (SET), and the School of Environment, Resources and Development (SERD).

The outputs of the meeting can be summarized as follows: 

"Promotions" should NOT be focused on just student recruitment, but also on research at AIT, prospective training participants; sponsored projects; faculty exchange; student exchange and network building;

The number of students enrolled in each school should not be more than the capacity of the school - in terms of number of faculty and available infrastructure, in order to maintain quality;

The number of qualified applications for graduate studies at AIT, representative of the Institute's international character, has to be greatly increased in order to have a greater choice and selection of the best students; 
The target group of prospective students of each school/FoS are varied; the Schools/FoS are requested to inform ERCO about their prospective student target groups; 

The Schools do not have their annual promotional plans, but are requested to share at least a quarterly promotional plan with ERCO; 

Head-ERCO and ERCO staff assigned to individual Schools are urged to attend the Schools’ promotional meetings; the Schools will inform ERCO about such meetings’ details (date, time, location);

Participating in educational exhibitions may assist in increasing the visibility/image of AIT amongst the general public in the target countries/cities and generate students - but targeted seminars in partner universities may be more effective;

More effective ways are to be sought for increasing the visibility/image of AIT amongst the public in the target countries/cities;

We should not be desperate in getting students, and thus compromising on the quality; 

It is encouraged to seek help from current students in promotional activities;

Current faculty/staff and, importantly, successful alumni, could also help in promotions; and 

Putting increased efforts in the publication of popular articles and stories in the media.