AUN/SEED-Net called for planning of the network’s future at the 16th Steering Committee Meeting and Year 2009 Annual Meeting on November 6, 2009 held in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The meeting gathered 57 participants from 19 member institutions in ASEAN, Japanese Supporting University Consortium (JSUC), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), ASEAN University Network Secretariat, and AUN/SEED-Net Secretariat. Presiding at the opening ceremony were Prof. Dr. Tran Ngoc Thang, Former Vice Minister of Science and Technology and Former President of Hanoi University of Technology, Dr. Nguyen Thi Le Huong, Deputy Director-General of Undergraduate and Postgraduate Department, Ministry of Education and Training, and Prof. Dr. Pham Hoang Luong, Vice President of Hanoi University of Technology.

Since 2008 the AUN/SEED-Net Project has pushed into action several activities laid out in the plan of the second phase, which covers five years from March 2008 to March 2013. Most activities have moved as planned, with the aim to establish a sustainable framework of the network to develop human resources contributing to ASEAN development – the academic societies that enhance standard of engineering graduate programs, cooperate in research for common issues of the region, and launch a research journal of the network. The Project’s second phase will reach its midterm in September 2010, when the Mid-term Evaluation will be conducted by missions from JICA, ASEAN Member Countries, and AUN/SEED-Net Secretariat.

Despite three more years to go, the AUN/SEED-Net Secretariat started to call for planning of the network’s future after March 2013 because it would need much time to prepare for necessary groundwork. The 20-year plan of the network (March 2003 – March 2023) was presented to request careful deliberation from all of the AUN/SEED-Net stakeholders, who would need to decide on future steps of the network by the next year. According to the 20-year plan, ultimately the foundation of an international education and research institution was anticipated to offer academic programs and activities for solving ASEAN development issues under the ASEAN-Japan partnership.

Dr. Pinyo Meechumna

Becoming a network member since 2003, Dr. Pinyo Meechumna, Head of Mining Department, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, has maximized the use of the AUN/SEED-Net network to greater benefits for his department especially in term of academic cooperation with other ASEAN and Japanese universities. Today SEED-Net News interviews him about benefits received from the AUN/SEED-Net network, current and planned collaborations, as well as his expectation of the network.

Can you tell us how the relationship between your department and other universities in ASEAN and Japan evolved?
Geological engineering actually involves many fields in different departments, such as civil engineering, rural engineering, petroleum and geology, and mining. In Chulalongkorn, geological engineering is associated with Mining Engineering – my department. Before joining AUN/SEED-Net, my department rarely had collaboration with other universities in ASEAN or even Japan. When AUN/SEED-Net approached, we joined field-wise seminars and started to know other professors and researchers in the related fields. We got to know each other’s area of interest, visited each other, and began to work together until now.

From that point, your department has developed relationship and collaboration with other universities in the network. Can you give us some samples of the collaborations derived from AUN/SEED-Net?
Our collaborations with Japanese universities are apparent examples. We have the university-level MOU with Kyushu University and will sign the faculty-level MOU with Hokkaido University soon. Since 2003 Kyushu University has annually offered internship scholarships to our students. Four students showing impressive research skills during the internship have been awarded scholarships from Japanese and Thai governments to pursue PhD at Kyushu University, Hokkaido University, the University of Tokyo, and Tohoku University. On the other hand, every year Kyushu University and Hokkaido University send their students for two-week internship in Thailand arranged by Chulalongkorn’s Mining Department. In this internship program the hosting university supports all local arrangements while the sending university only pays for air tickets. Besides, we plan to establish a double degree program or a sandwich program in master’s level among the three universities in the future. However, there are some bureaucratic problems in the system to be solved and some details to be worked on.

So, it can be said that both sides – Japanese universities and your department – have been benefited directly from AUN/SEED-Net.
That is true, particularly in academic exchange and cooperation. For Japanese universities, they can utilize the AUN/SEED-Net network as a channel to recruit more foreign students from ASEAN, which is in line with the Japanese Government’s policy of educational internationalization. For my department, although we neither accept foreign students from AUN/SEED-Net nor send our students, we can create and tighten the relationship with other universities through AUN/SEED-Net programs such as field-wise seminars, conferences and short-term visits. This leads to more cooperation even beyond the AUN/SEED-Net scheme. For instance, a short-term visit to Japan in 2007 inspired the idea to hold the Conference on Earth Science Technology to be a venue for publicizing students and lecturers’ researches, with Kyushu University as the first host. The conference went on successfully and has been continued annually, with Chulalongkorn University as the host in 2008 and Hokkaido University as the host in 2009. The conference may involve other universities in Thailand later.

Dr. Pinyo with Japanese and ASEAN experts in the field

Dr. Pinyo hosting the 1st AUN/SEED-Net Regional Workshop in Geological Engineering field

The relationship between your department and the Japanese universities has advanced so fast. How about the relationship with ASEAN member institutions?
My department has tried to develop relationship with other ASEAN member institutions. Recently we heard from our colleague from National University of Laos (NUOL) that the university would need assistance from other network members to establish Mining Engineering Department. In this regard, my department would like to support academic assistance as well as finding external funding for NUOL. I also talked to colleagues from other universities about a possibility to set off an exchange or internship program in ASEAN, and the most possible partner now is Universiti Sains Malaysia.

As a member of the geological engineering group of the AUN/SEED-Net network, what do you expect of the network in the near future?
From now on we need to think of ASEAN as one community without boundary. Thus, I wish our network could establish “School on the Move” or a move-around-ASEAN course which allows students to move around the region studying and researching in different member institutions, exploring many field sites, and learning diverse cultures, like the Europe’s Erasmus Mundus program. After graduation these students will be able to work anywhere in the region with comprehensive skills and understanding. I believe this kind of course will suit the wider, globalized labor market and accommodate the foundation of the ASEAN community.

In spite of being non-host department, the Mining Department of Chulalongkorn University led by Dr. Pinyo Meechumna has found the most utility of the AUN/SEED-Net network through several supporting programs and has extended the collaborations even beyond the designed scheme. Evidently and notably, the AUN/SEED-Net network helps the department develop academic relationship with other universities, fostering many more exchange programs and activities. SEED-Net News wishes to thank Dr. Pinyo Meechumna for his motivating interview and hopes it will inspire other network members to get the best out of the network as he does.

Environmental Engineering field hosted by University of the Philippines-Diliman (UP) has recently added two new Collaborative Research umbrellas. They are “Soil and Groundwater Contamination” and “Environmental Management System”.

The addition was decided at the 2nd AUN/SEED-Net Regional Conference in Environmental Engineering, organized by Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) during November 2-3, 2009. The conference was held back to back with the International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure and Built Environment in Developing Countries (SIBE) 2009. Together both events attracted a big crowd of 341 participants from 26 countries, and as many as 180 papers together with 36 posters were presented in eight parallel sessions.

The next conference will be held jointly with the AUN/SEED-Net 3rd ASEAN Civil Engineering Conference by UP as the ICE Centennial International Symposium on November 18-19, 2010 in Manila, the Philippines.

The 2nd Regional Conference in Manufacturing Engineering was organized by Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) during December 7-8, 2009 in Bandung, Indonesia. Around 60 participants participated in the conference including Japanese professors, Member Institution delegates, AUN/SEED-Net alumni and current students, faculty staff and students of ITB and local universities, as well as representatives of private companies e.g. Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indonesia and PT Insera Sena. A total of 36 academic papers were presented in three parallel sessions.

At the discussion session, the delegates from Member Institutions shared their opinions and suggestions to help promote graduate programs at University of Malaya (UM), the host of Manufacturing Engineering. About academic journal in this field, UM will consider to incorporate AUN/SEED-Net network members into the editorial board of the existing journal, and will also open a chance for junior researchers to publish research reports without refereeing.

The next conference will be held by UM in Malaysia, tentatively in December 2010.

The 2nd Regional Conference in Electrical & Electronics Engineering (EEE) titled “The 2009 ASEAN Symposium on Power and Energy Systems (ASPES2009)” was held by Chulalongkorn University (CU) on September 28-29, 2009 in Hua Hin, Thailand. The conference drew more than 50 participants from various organizations inside and outside AUN/SEED-Net network, including the government sector e.g. Energy Policy and Planning Office, Ministry of Energy, Thailand Energy Regulatory Commission, and Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) as well as the private sector e.g. Bangkok Solar Company.

There were six keynote speakers, among which were Mr. Takeshi Taneichi, Executive Advisor of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the President of the Consortium for Electric Power Technology of Japan, and Prof. Dr. Direk Lavansiri, Thailand Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman. From this conference, the Executive Advisor of TEPCO became well aware of AUN/SEED-Net and would like to invite Japanese companies in the conference-hosting country to join future events as well as inviting the Member Institutions to meetings in Japan.

At the discussion, CU as the host of EEE field informed that CU team would conduct promotional trips and open houses in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam and CU would like to make teleinterview of candidates as well as online proceedings. The conference ended with a technical visit to the solar power plant.

The next regional conference in this field would be organized by University of the Philippines-Diliman (UP) in September 2010.

The 2nd Regional Conference in Chemical Engineering, titled “Chemical Engineering for Sustainable Development and Collaboration in the ASEAN Region” was arranged by Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT) on October 23-24, 2009 with attendance of 78 participants. On the first day, three Japanese keynote speakers gave interesting lectures on different chemical engineering-related topics while the parallel sections were divided into three groups with 29 oral paper presentations and 18 poster presentations. The number of abstracts printed in proceedings reached 90 while the number of journal papers was 64.

From discussion session, some participants requested updates of comprehensive information of alumni, Collaborative Research projects, publications, and shared facilities. De La Salle University (DLSU) as the host of the field agreed to periodically gather research list in the field from each Member Institution and to make a checklist of activities with responsible persons to be updated by the Member Institutions at every regional conference as a way to monitor progress of the activities and decide on proper moves.

The next conference will be hosted by DLSU tentatively in November 2010.