Asian Institute of Technology November 2010

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Sri Lankan President welcomes AIT

Recent News / Happenings at AIT...................... 2-3People............................... 4

What’s Happening at AIT............ 5Backpage................................... 6

A sian InstituteofTechnology (AIT)Presi- dentProf.SaidIrandoustmetthePresidentofSriLanka,H.E.MahindaRajapaksa,todiscussthe issue of establishment of an AIT satellitecampusinSriLanka.InresponsetoAIT’sdesiretoestablishasatellitecampus, theGovernmentofSriLankahasexpresseditsintenttoprovidelandforthispurpose.

PresidentRajapaksaexpressedhisfullsupportandendorsementtotheproposaltoestablisha full-fledged AIT campus in Sri Lanka. He assured that the Government would help inproviding land as well as facilitate the pro-cess.TheGovernmentwould alsohelpAITinattractingglobalinvestorstoparticipateinthisventure.

AIT President Prof. Said Irandoust with President of Sri Lanka, H.E. Mahinda Rajapaksa.

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Recent news / happenings at ait

New Philippine Ambassador pledges to work with AIT

AIT’s output is absolutely brilliant: Dr Junaid Ahmad

AIThasagreatlearningenvironmentanditsoutput,especiallyintermsofitsalumni,is“absolutelybril-liant”.TheseweretheremarksofDr.JunaidAhmad,Chairman,NationalManagementConsultants,duringaninteractionatAITon4October2010.Dr.AhmadremarkedthatAITshouldcapitalizeonitsresources,since ithascreatedastrongbrandequityandnameduring the past five decades.

Fourmonthsintoherdiplomaticpost-ing in Thailand, the Philippines newAmbassador to Thailand, H.E. Mrs.LinglingayF.Lacanlale,hasexpressedakeendesiretopursueactiveengage-

CollegeofAgricultureandBanking(India)islookingtowardsgreaterparticipa-tionandinteractioninprogramsatAIT.ThiswasstatedbyMr.R.R.Kulkarni,Deputy General Manager, CAB, during the International exposure on Micro,SmallandMediumEnterprise(MSMSE)FinancingorganizedbyAITExtension.HerevealedthatCABhadalreadysenttwocohortsofparticipantstoAIT,andthecurrentbatchofparticipantsformedthethirdgroup.“Welooktowardsmoreac-tiveparticipationbetweenthetwoinstitutes,”headded.

CAB looks for greater partnership with AIT

Prof.JoydeepDutta,VicePresidentforAcademicAf-fairs,whilewelcomingDr.Ahmadstated thevisionofAITis tobe“TheUniversityofAsia”duringthenext10years.Theinstitutehasverystronglinkagesallovertheregion,particularlywithPakistan,anditwould like to further build on these linkages. “AITstressesoninternationalitywithanAsianorientation,”Prof.DuttaremarkedwhileaddingthatthesigningofthenewAITCharterisalandmarkstepwhichwouldhelpstrengthenAIT’sglobalnetworkofpartners.

ment with AIT in a number of mutually beneficial areas. The Ambas-sadormadeherremarksduringhervisittoAITon14October2010,meeting with President Said Irandoust, senior administration officials, Filipinonationals in theAITCommunity, and later touringRIMESRegionalEarlyWarningCenter,andtheNanotechnologylaboratory.

Ambassador Lacanlale was joined by embassy officials Ms. Maria Te-resaL.Taguiang,DeputyChiefofMission,andMrs.PrincessUman-dapTomas-Tayao,ThirdSecretaryandViceConsul.

AmbassadorLacanlaleremarkedthatthepossibilityofestablishinganAITsatellitecampusinhercountry“holdspromise”andsheinvitedtheAITPresidenttoexploretheideafurtherwiththeembassy.“WecanworkwithyoutomakeAITbetterknowninthePhillipines,”Am-bassadorLacanlaletoldPresidentIrandoust.

�Recent news / happenings at ait

AsianInstituteofTechnology(AIT)isapremierinstituteofengineeringandhighereducationandinits50years,ithascontributedimmenselytothedevelopmentofmanyregionsin the region.Thesewere the remarks ofChairperson oftheStandingCommitteeonEnergyoftheThailandSenate,GeneralLertratRatanavanich,atAITon27October2010.

Gen.RatanavanichremarkedthattheStandingCommittee

NSF interested in AIT

Dr.JosephMook,NationalScienceFoundation(NSF)Pro-gramManagerbasedinWashingtonD.C.forThailand,Bru-nei,Cambodia, Indonesia,Laos,Malaysia,Myanmar,andPhilippines, paid a fact-finding and information-sharing visittoAITon26October2010.HewasaccompaniedbyMrs.SelmaGarrido,U.S.DepartmentofState,EmbassyoftheUnitedStatesofAmerica,Bangkok,whofacilitatedthemeeting.

“There’s noquestion thatAIT is aworld-class institutionwhichNSFisinterestedincollaboratingwith.I’mhopingto encourage international collaborators to participate in

onenergywasverygladtovisitAITanditwasveryimpressedwiththeinstitute.“Thousandsof graduates fromAIT have contributed im-menselyinthedevelopmentofthecountryforthe past four to five decades and we thank AIT forthiscontribution,”hesaid.

He also suggested that AIT should quicklyembark on a project on flood prevention and control since the disaster seems to be loom-ing large inThailand. “I would propose thatAIT initiates a project to prevent flood in Thai-land since the North, Northeastern and Cen-tralpartsofThailandarebadlyaffected,”theGeneralsaid.AIT’sexpertiseinEarlyWarningSystemsanddisastermanagementcancontrib-utetowardsthisproject,headded.

AIT is a premier institute: Thai Senator

AITAA GBM held at Hanoi

The39thGoverningBodyMeetingoftheAITAlumniAssociationwasheldatHanoiinViet-namon23-24October.AITalumnusDr.BuiCach Tuyen, Deputy Minister, National Re-sources and Environment, Vietnam deliveredthekeynoteaddress.AITPresidentSaidIran-douststatedthatsinceAsiaandtheworldhaschangeddramatically,AITmustalsobeagile,flexible, responsive and entrepreneurial in all itsactivities.

NSF-supported opportunities to create win-wincollaborativeprojects,”Dr.Mooktoldse-nior AIT officials.

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IT played a pivotal role at the recent 2010Asia-Pacific Climate Change Adapta-tionForum(Forum2010),whichwas convened at the UnitedNations Conference Centre inBangkokonOctober21-22.

AIT plays a pivotal role in Forum 2010

A

wo students from Asian Institute of Technology(AIT) are among the team offour volunteers of TélécomsSansFrontières(TSF)whohaverushed to Indonesia followingthe earthquake and tsunami inMentawai Islands in WesternSumatra.The deployment is in

AIT students rush to disaster areas in Indonesiaresponse to the request of the Office of the President of Indonesia.

ThetwostudentsareMr.ClintonSmithofDisasterPreparedness,Mitiga-tionandManagement(DPMM)programinAIT’sSchoolofEnvironment,ResourcesandDevelopment(SERD)andMs.AlbaneCoeurquetinofIn-formationandCommunicationTechnology(ICT)ofSchoolofEngineeringandTechnology(SET).TheTSFteamisledbyMr.OisinWalton,Delegatefor Asia-Pacific. TSF is a partner of AIT and its Asia-Pacific headquarters arebasedatAIT.

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peOpLeDr. Peeyush Soni,Adjunct Faculty in theAgriculturalSystemsEn-gineering(ASE)programintheSchoolofEnviron-ment,ResourcesandDe-velopment (SERD), hasbeen awarded the AMAShin-Norinsha Associa-tion forAgriculturalEn-gineering(AAAE)YoungResearcherAward.

Mr. Amila Abeynayaka,a research associate at theSchoolofEnvironment,Re-sources and Development(SERD) of AIT, has wonthe“AwardforAsianYoungProfessional on Water Re-search.” He was awardedat the Eighth InternationalSymposium on SoutheastAsian Water Environmentheld at Phuket, ThailandfromOctober24-26,2010.

OrganizedbytheRegionalClimateChangeKnowledgePlatformforAsia(Adaptation Knowledge Platform) and the Asia Pacific Adaptation Net-work (Adaptation Network), the event brought together more than 500participants from across the Asia-Pacific region. AIT President Prof. Said Irandoustservedasamoderatorinoneofthekeythematicdiscussionson“RoleofScienceinAdaptiveDevelopment”.Prof.SudipK.Rakshit,VicePresidentforResearch,servedasapanelistandsharedhisthoughtsonun-certainilityinvulnerabilityassessment.Ms.LeenaWokeck,Director,CSRCenteratAITwasapanelistatthesessiontitled“FinancingAdaptationandAidEffectiveness”.AITCenterofExcellenceonSustainableDevelopmentinthe Context of Climate Change (SDCC) had a significant presence at the Forum.

TheAdaptationKnowledgePlatformhasbeen jointly establishedby theAsianInstituteofTechnology-UnitedNationsEnvironmentProgrammeRegional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific (AIT - UNEP RRC.AP); Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI); Swedish Environmental Secretar-iatforAsia(SENSA)andUNEP,withfundingsupportfromtheSwedishInternationalDevelopmentCooperationAgency(Sida).

Dr. Peeyush Soni (Right)

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What’s happening at AIT

China Day: Nov 5Thai students visit AIT: Nov 5AIT Career Fair: Nov 12

Open minds and presentation skills dazzle AIT

Withanopenmindandunderthewatchfuleyesofagalaxyof expert judges, studentsofAIT showcasedtheirpresentationskillsatthesecondAITOpenPre-sentationCompetitionorganizedon26October2010.

“Team GDS” comprising of Mehwish Qudoos, RiaParmana Sari, Nafisa Rashid and Dimdaline Sar was the winner in the School of Environment, Resourc-es andDevelopment (SERD),while fromSchoolofEngineering and Technology (SET), the team “As-One” comprising of Muhammad HarisAziz, NancySykora,WarisaWisittipanich,ChayakarmBamrung-butr and Saowanit Lekhavat came first. The competi-tionreachedacrescendowhen“ThreeJewels”fromSchoolofManagement(SOM)comprisingofCherryThan, Olga Olegovna Shipina and Subodh BahadurPradhanang,emergedwinnersintheirschool.

Apart fromProf.Said Irandoust,President,AIT, thejudgesincludedMr.RaymondBrandes,ProgramSpe-cialist,“PartnersforPrevention(P4P)-WorkingwithBoys and Men to Prevent Gender-based Violence”; Dr. Aphiya Hathayatham, Director of InformationTechnologyMuseumat theNationalScienceMuse-um, Thailand; Mr. Bjorn Turmann, writer, filmmaker and consultant; Dr. Branford Johnson, Education Edi-toroftheEnglishdaily,TheBangkokPost.Mr.Bik-endraShamsherThapa,ChairpersonofAITStudentUnionExternalAffairsCommittee,whowasthemainorganizerofthecompetitionstatedthatthecompeti-tionhadestablishedanewbenchmarkinAIT.

Scenes from the Open Presentation Competition NSF interested in AIT

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Editor:BajinderPalSingh

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A study by Robert Lerman, an economicsprofessoratAmericanUniversity,andHarryHolzer,professoratGeorgetownUniversity’sPublicPolicyInstitutehasrevealedthatabouthalfoftheavailablepositionsdonotrequireacollegediploma.Instead,these“middle-skill”occupations generally require only a highschool education and specific on-the-job or vocationaltraining.

Somepositionsthatpayover$50,000ayearin theUSdonotrequireafouryeardegree.These include Air Traffic Controller, Con-struction Manager, Real Estate Broker andOccupationalTherapistAssistant.

NewsYouCanUse

TheMiniOlympicsorganizedbythe Student Union of theAsianInstitute of Technology (AIT)gotofftoaninterestingstartwithtug-of-war competitions on 25October 2010. AIT Vice Presi-dentforAcademicAffairs,Prof.JoydeepDuttaandProf.GaborL.HornyakofCenterofExcellenceinNanotechnology(CoEN),per-sonally entered the fray to leadtheirteamfromNanotechnology,astheeventgotofftoacrackingstart. A range of competitionsare being organized by theAITStudent Union during the com-ingweeksas apartof theMiniOlympics.

Read more at this link.