Activities of Education, Training and Research at Asian Institute of Technology
Shunji Murai, Lal Samarakoon and Kiyoshi Honda
Space Technology Applications and Research (STAR) Program
School of Environment, Resources and Development
Asian Institute of Technology
P.O. Box 4 Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand
E-mail : murai@ait.ac.th
Abstract
STAR Program, AIT has reformed and restructured the goals as well as curricuta to meet requirements and demands in computer, space and multi-media age. STAR Program has been reorganized with three components of education, training and research that feed back each other in not only academic development but also financial infrastructure.
This paper will introduce the organization and several successful results due to the restructuring.
Introduction
Since " Earth Summit" was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 with the new concept of "sustainable development", and Beijing Declaration" was announced at Ministerial Conference of UN/ESCAP on Space Technologies for Environmentally sound and Sustainable Development held in Bejing, China in September 1994, space technology including remote sensing, GIS, GPS space telecommunication etc. has become a key word of tool for environment and natural resources management in Asia and Pacific.
In this regards, a new name of STAR Program replaced the former name of "Natural Resources Program" at AIT in 1995 with a focus on space technology rather than application-oriented program. Taking into account the maximum use of benefit as graduate school of AIT, there components of education, training and research have been interactively organized for mutual benefit (see Figure1).
Figure 1 Three Components of STAR Program, AIT
Education for master and doctoral courses at STAR program is consisted of two field of study; Remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (RS & GIS) and computer Mapping Technology.
Star Program is fully equipped with PCs and UNIX stations as well as software for high quality computer laboratory sessions. The curricula have been also restructured with a target on computer-assisted teaching. Not only techniques to use the existing software but also capability of software development are now being strengthened in the courses.
Sort-term training course with a specific theme will be a bit contribution to scientists and engineers in Asia and Pacific who had not chance to study modern and advanced technology in geoinformatics. STAR Prgogram established GIS Application Center (GAC) with financial support of UNEP EAP-AP in 1995. Since then GAC has conducted not only fundamental courses on remote sensing and/or GIS, but also advanced courses with a specific theme such as watershed management, flood mitigation, land use planning etc. with UNIX workstations.
Recognizing that research is very poor and technical support to researchers is a key issue in developing countries, STAR Program has jointly established Asian Center for Research on Remote Sensing (ACRoRS) in 1997 with Asian Association on Remote Sensing (AARS) (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Organization of ACRoRS
