Take Advantage of New Opportunities at AIT: President Woon

First Day@AIT: 5 August 2019

AIT Orientation: 2 August 2019

Dr. Subin Pinkayan Student Exchange Scholarship Program
Q&A with Vice President (Administration)

Open Innovation is More Effective in Emerging Markets AIT Faculty Research Published in Top Journal
Global Engagements (Incoming and Outgoing)
Three AIT Students Attend Ochanomizu Summer Program 2019
5 AIT students attend International Summer School on "Geo-informatics Serve the Belt and Road"
Seminars, Conferences, and Workshops
Partnerships and Agreements (MoU/MoA)
Lawsgroup Charity Student Exchange Scholarship Program

What is Happening in September?
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Take Advantage of New Opportunities at AIT: President Woon

For the 400-plus students hailing from 32 countries who made Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) their new home, Institute President Dr. Eden Y. Woon had a fresh and welcoming message: “Take Advantage of New Opportunities at AIT.”

As the Institute celebrates 60 years of existence, it is transforming itself, and this transformation is bringing new opportunities for AIT students, with the Edmond Yue Exchange Scholarship Program being one such initiative. The goal is to have 100 of our students travel abroad on exchange programs and internships. President Woon highlighted the strategic initiative he has been championing — I2E2S2 (Innovation, International, Enterprises, Entrepreneurship, Stakeholders, and Support), stressing that for AIT, the most important stakeholders are its students.

The latest intake includes students from 32 countries from Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and Oceania, with Thailand, Nepal, Myanmar, India, and Bangladesh being the top five points of origin of students. Also addressing the new students were the three Vice Presidents: Prof. Deepak Sharma (Academic Affairs), Dr. Naveed Anwar (Knowledge Transfer), and Mr. Russell Bruce Rein (Administration). President of the Students Union (SU) Mr. Natthanan Promsuk introduced the array of activities planned by SU during this semester as his team broke the ice with the new students with some warm up games. The Student Union and other responsible AIT staff

briefed the new students on various services available to them, including the new Entrepreneurship Center.

First Day@AIT: 5 August 2019

AIT Orientation: 2 August 2019

Dr. Subin Pinkayan Student Exchange Scholarship Program

On 26 July 2019, Dr. Subin Pinkayan, Chairman, AIT Board of Trustees, handed over a cheque of Thai Baht 1 million to AIT President, Dr. Eden Y. Woon for the AIT Exchange Scholarship program.

Dr. Subin Pinkayan is the second donor to support the AIT Student Exchange Scholarship Program. The 1,000,000 Baht is to be used for the next five years for AIT students of any nationality exchanging for a semester to a partner university of AIT. This would enable AIT Masters students to have the opportunity to broaden their International exposure through a onesemester academic exchange to globally recognized universities.

The scholarship is to subsidize half of the student’s exchange expenses—up to 100,000 baht, and can be applied for by students from all three Schools of AIT. Any students granted this Exchange Scholarship will be called a Dr. Subin Pinkayan Exchange Scholar.

QA with Vice President Administration

Mr. Russell Bruce Rein joined AIT as Vice President for Administration (VPA) on May 1, 2019. He has served as Head of Business Services and Director of Operations with

the International Schools Group, Jubail, Saudi Arabia and formerly performed the same role at the United Arab Emirates University andthe American University of Phnom Penh. AIT’s Office of Public Affairs joined him in his office and had a long and engaging discussion with him.

Read the interview at this link: https://bit.ly/2HxVFkk

Open Innovation is More Effective in Emerging Markets AIT Faculty Research Published in Top Journal

Open innovation is more effective in emerging markets compared to developed markets. This is particularly true in firms and organizations that lack sufficient technical knowledge.

However, employees in firms in emerging markets appear to search broadly but not deeply across external knowledge sources, which risks reducing their innovative output.These are some of the highlights of a study by Dr. Yuosre F. Badir of AIT’s School of Management (SOM), which has just been published in the latest issue of the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, a top-ranked journal in the field, with an Impact Factor of 9.36.

The study titled “Employee-level open innovation in emerging markets: Linking internal, external, and managerial resources” also offers recommendations that managers instruct

employees in engaging in deep rather than excessively broad external searches for information. The study also highlights the importance of merit-based hiring and promotion

practices based on technical expertise in order to effectively bring external knowledge into the firm and leverage it into innovation outcomes.

Global Engagements

INCOMING

Northwestern Polytechnical University, China

5 August 2019

Research Center for Eco- Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

6 August 2019

Chubu University, Japan (led by President Osamu Ishihara)

14 August 2019

Soochow University, Taiwan, led by President Dr. Wei-Ta Pan

20 August 2019

OUTGOING
President's Visit to Bhutan

Meeting with Honorable Agriculture and Forests Minister (Bhutan) and AIT Alumnus Yeshey Penjor on 8 August 2019

Meeting with Honorable Education Minister Jai Bir Rai on 8 August 2019

Three AIT Students Attend Ochanomizu Summer Program 2019

Three AIT students — Anuj Pradhananga (Nepal, Master in Structural Engineering), Melissa Shrestha (Nepal, Master in Regional and Rural Development Planning), and Nilan

Sachintha Jayasiri (Sri Lanka, Master in Geotechnical and Earth Resources Engineering) attended the Ochanomizu Summer Program 2019 from 27 July – 9 August 2019.

5 AIT students attend International Summer School on Geoinformatics Serve the Belt and Road

Five AIT students participated in Summer school on “Geo-informatics Serve the Belt and Road” organized by the School of Geoscience and Info-Physics of the Central South

University of China. Participating students were Nattapon Trumikaborworn, Ranadheer Mandadi, Hasan Reaz Kallol, Afsana Shahid, and Gautam Dadhich.

The event was coordinated by Prof. Lixin Wu of Central South University of China and Dr. Indrajit Pal of AIT.

Seminars,, Conferences and Workshops

Workshop on “Mapping Groundwater Resilience to Climate Change and Human Development in Asian Cities”

5-7 August 2019

Lecture on “Greedy Pursuit algorithms for Sparse Signal Processing” by Prof. K V S Hari, Department of ECE, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India

5 August 2019

Discussion: Coffee and conversation on “Is AIT Raising Ambition to Act Now for Climate Change Resilience in Cities and Communities?” with Professors Joyashree Roy and Shobhakar Dhakal

15 August 2019

Seminar on “Why does AI have a gender problem” by Prof. Pascale Fung

20 August 2019

ICT Seminar on “How to make machines empathetic” by Prof. Pascale Fung

20 August 2019

International Conference on Fisheries and Aquaculture 2019

22-23 August 2019

European Research Day 2019

23 August 2019

Seminar on “Scholarships for Postgraduate Education @ The University of Hong Kong”

27 August 2019

Training on “Elevate Your Research Discovery with Web of Science” and "Find High Impact Journals with JCR”

27 August 2019

Seminar on “Hydrometeorological Extremes and Tropical Cyclones” by Dr. Gabriele Villarini, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Iowa, USA

27 August 2019

Partnerships and Agreements (MoU/MoA)

National Food Institute (NFI), Thailand

1 August 2019

Chiang Mai University, Thailand

21 August 2019

Double Degree Program with University of Iowa, USA

27 August 2019

King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), Thailand

29 August 2019

Lawsgroup Charity Student Exchange Scholarship Program

Ms. Babita Sharma, a Master's student in the School of Management is the first recipient of the Lawsgroup Charity Student Exchange Scholarship program. She has been granted half of her expenses for an exchange program at Tsinghua University, China from September 2019 to January 2020.

Lawsgroup Charity is the third donor to support the Student Exchange Scholarship program for students from China at AIT exchanging to another country, or for the AIT Belt

and Road students exchanging to China.

What is Happening in September?

• Entrepreneurship and Innovation for a Sustainable Belt and Road Region

3-5 September 2019

• 100 Innovations and Entrepreneurs

27-28 September 2019

• Launch of Entrepreneurship Centre

27 September 2019

• BEST Ccamp: Business, Engineering, and Science Students Working Together

28-30 September 2019

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Credits

Editor: Bajinder Pal Singh bajinder@ait.ac.th

Photos:

Paitoon Tinnapong

Samphat Semathong

Contact: Office of Public Affairs opa@ait.ac.th