On December 18, 2020 at Huai Hong Khrai Royal Development Study Center, Doi Saket, Chiang Mai Province – Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University in collaboration with the Huai Hong Krai Royal Development Study Center had an opening ceremony of the Chula Engineering Journey Project | Learn Do Share for the fiscal year 2021. Professor Supot Techavorasinskul, D.Eng., Dean of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University presided over the inauguration of the project and Mr. Jirachat Suetrakul, Sheriff of Doi Saket District, attended the event. After that, the executive members and personnel of the Faculty of Engineering received lectures and participated in a site visit under the topic “Three Afforestation, Four Benefits” presented by Mr. Rapeepon Tubtimthong, senior lecturer at the Huai Hong Khrai Royal Development Study Center in order to explore how local people use and conserve abundant forest resources. In addition, the Faculty members also attended a workshop under the topic “Local Herbs and Vegetables Processing (Chiang Da vegetable)” presented by Ms. Ubonwan Sunanthasilp, lecturer at Huai Hong Khrai Royal Development Study Center.

#ChulaEngineering #InnovationTowardSustainability

On December 15, 2020, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University led by Professor Supot Techavorasinskul, D.Eng., Dean of Engineering, along with the executive members and personnel of the Faculty of Engineering have delivered donations such as clothing, winter wear, school supplies, medicines and medical supplies, etc. to assist those in need in the rural areas. In this regard, Faculty of Engineering cooperated with the other 2 local donation projects which are the Sharing Kindness to the Mountains project and the donation project to help the children of the mountains to be the medium of forwarding these items to the communities living in rural areas on the mountains in Chiang Mai.

#ChulaEngineering #InnovationTowardSustainability

The One Day Tour | Learn Day Share held by Office of International Affairs, Faculty of Engineering, on November 14, 2020, was the event that aimed to cultivate public consciousness and develop understanding about sustainable living. There were altogether 25 international students and Thai students and staffs who joined this event.

The three activities of this event took place at Bangnamphueng Homestay, a community enterprise which hold on to the idea of sufficiency economy from King Rama IX. The first activity was the making of tie dye tote bag from natural color. This dye color is extracted from the coat of Nipa palm fruit which commonly grow around this area. People in Bangnamphueng community try to make use of Nipa palm by using the fruits to cook food, the leaves to create container, and the fruit coats to make dye color. The second activity was the cooking of Khanom Thuai, an easy cooking Thai dessert. This dessert requires a few ingredients and the recipe is simple enough for everyone to cook at home by themselves. The last activity of this event was a water treatment to improve the community area by using EM made from organic waste within the community.

On August 4, 2020, Chula Engineering together with Huawei Technology (Thailand) Co., Ltd. signed a memorandum of understanding on research support and development of engineering innovation through 5G, AI, and Cloud technology. This collaboration aims to support research activities and develop engineering innovation of Chula Engineering which drives Thailand forward to digital transformation. Since Chula Engineering has been conducting R&D programs on the robotic system, automatic control system, and virtual reality system, through this five-year MOU, the integrated technology of 5G, Cloud, and AI from Huawei will help strengthen the potential and efficiency of engineering inventions to have a better remote control system and processor. Over the past year, Chula Engineering and Huawei Technology (Thailand) Co., Ltd. have been working together to exchange technological knowledge through seminars and workshops led by world-class technology and solutions experts who share their experience and expertise exclusively with faculty members, students as well as researchers.

During June 5-11, 2019, four Chula Engineering faculty members, including Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anat Ruangrassamee (Department of Civil Engineering), Asst. Prof. Dr. Chatpan Chintanapakdee (Department of Civil Engineering), Dr. Piyatida Ruangrassamee (Department of Water Resources Engineering), and Dr. Natt Leelawat (Department of Industrial Engineering), gave lectures in the Risk and Disaster Management Program of Graduate School, Chulalongkorn University’s co-organized workshop, “the 2nd PREEMPTIVE Advanced Studies Institute: Thailand”. It is the series of the multidisciplinary workshop supported by the US National Science Foundation.

The theme of the workshop was about tsunami disaster. The participants are the graduate and undergraduate students from USA and Thailand, including Chulalongkorn University, Kasem Bundit University, The University of Connecticut, Southern California University, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Georgia Institute of Technology, Howard University, University of Rhode Island, etc.

The first day of the event was done at Kasem Bundit University, Bangkok. Four faculty members of Chula Engineering gave lectures on the Day1.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Chatpan Chintanapakdee gave a lecture on “Earthquake Disaster and Preparedness in Thailand.” Assoc. Prof. Dr. Anat Ruangrassamee gave a lecture on “Tsunami Disaster and Mitigation.” Dr. Natt Leelawat presented “Disaster Management.” Lastly, Dr. Piyatida Ruangrassamee presented “Flood and Water Security.”

The goal of this workshop is to practice preparing the research proposal between Thai and US students. The participants also went to Phuket to visit the real sites in order to observe the current situation. They visited the sites such as Tsunami Memorial Monument, Evacuation Shelter, T. 813 Monument, and Tsunami Memorial Museum at Phang Nha Province.

The group then came back to Bangkok and continued their discussion using the iScale Classroom at Chula Engineering to do group brainstorm and propose new tsunami risk reduction project to the faculty members from Thailand and the USA.

It has been a great work and experience from both Thailand and the USA to apply different background and knowledge and came out with a new idea.

The Project on Regional Resilience Enhancement through Establishment of Area-BCM at Industry Complexes in Thailand

Photo: JCC members and participants

On May 31, 2019, at 13:00, the SATREP’s the Project on Regional Resilience Enhancement through Establishment of Area-BCM at Industry Complexes in Thailand organized the second Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) meeting at Mandarin C Meeting Room, Mandarin Hotel Bangkok. There were representatives from the related organizations including the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Japan Science and Technology (JST), Nagoya Institute of Technology (NIT), International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM), National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED), and Keio University from Japan; Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM), Department of Industrial Works (DIW), Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning Rojana Industrial Park, Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand), Royal Irrigation Department (RID), Thai Meteorological Department (TMD), Department of Provincial Administration (DOPA), Thai Industrial Standards Institute (TISI), National Statistical Office (NSO), Hydro Informatics Institute (HII), Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), Ayutthaya Rajabhat University, etc.; as well as faculties and institutes of Chulalongkorn University including Faculty of Engineering, College of Populations Studies, Transportation Institute, Faculty of Architecture, and the Risk and Disaster Management Program of Graduate School.

Dr. Natt Leelawat from the Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering; and the Risk and Disaster Management Program, was a Master of Ceremony of the meeting. The meeting was started with an opening remark by Prof. Dr. Kiat Ruxrungtham (Vice President for Research and Innovation of Chulalongkorn University). After that, Mr. Takeuchi Kazuo (Senior Representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency: JICA) also gave an opening remark.

Then, Asst. Prof. Dr. Ruttiya Bhula-Or (College of Population Studies), as a Project Manager and Technical Coordinator, reported the implementation structure to the participants.

The next session started with the overall summary of the project by Prof. Watanabe Kenji. And it was followed by each item’s progress report. Dr. Nakasu Tadashi (College of Population Studies) presented the progress report of Item 0 (Community Survey). Asst. Prof. Dr. Anurak Sriariyawat (Faculty of Engineering) and Dr. Miyamoto Mamoru (ICHARM) presented the progress report of Item 1 (Hazard Analysis).

After the coffee break, Dr. Kamimera Hideyuki (NIED) and Ms. Tobishima Yoriko (Nagoya Institute of Technology) presented the progress report of Item 2 (Business Impact Analysis), And lastly, Asst. Prof. Dr. Kodaka Akira and Dr. Natt Leelawat presented the progress report of Item 3 (Area-BCM).

Then, Dr. Natt Leelawat, as a Project Manager, introduced the Disaster and Risk Management Information Systems (DRMIS) Research Group as an input summary from Thai side while Assoc. Prof. Ino Eri presented the input summary and plan from Japanese side.

The Q&A and suggestion session was opened to all participants. There were many participants asked many question and provided many good suggestions. This session was run using both Thai and English languages.

After that, Mr. Miura Yoshiaki, JICA Project Coordinator, mentioned the draft minutes of meetings. There were many fruitful discussion and comments along the meeting. Finally, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vipan Prachuabmoh (Dean of College of Population Studies) gave a closing remark to close the 2nd JCC meeting.

The meeting was successful. The JCC members are looking forward to the involvement of all participated organizations.

(Written by Dr. Natt Leelawat)

Contact:
Dr. Tadashi Nakasu
College of Population Studies, Chulalongkorn University
Email: tadashi.nakasu@gmail.com

Assistant Professor Dr. Ruttiya Bhula-Or
College of Population Studies, Chulalongkorn University
Email: ruttiya.b@chula.ac.th

Dr. Natt Leelawat
Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University,
Email: natt.l@chula.ac.th