AIT Campus Bulletin

In this issue:

A. Announcements 

B. Events 

C. Classifieds (jobs)

A. Announcements 

1) Follow up Updates from the AIT COVID-19 Task Force

Email from the Director, Office of Academic Administration on 9 April 2021

Dear Members of the AIT Family,

Further to the 7 April message from the AIT COVID-19 Task Force, and considering the worrisome continued rise in COVID-19 cases:

1.  While the official holidays at AIT are only 13 and 14 April next week, AIT will be moving to a Work-From-Home basis for non-mission-essential employees, and classes will be placed Online starting on Saturday, 10 April, for the remainder of April 2021.  There will be no more face-to-face classes for the rest of this semester.  Arrangements for final exams will be made by the faculty.  This policy is to minimize contact during this tense period, and we strongly urge you not to use this period to undertake any long travel away from home.  In fact, for those who live on campus, we urge you to stay on campus as much as possible without venturing outside AIT.

2.  All activities and gatherings planned and previously approved, from Saturday, 10 April for the remainder of April 2021, are also cancelled.  Our apologies as we know that many had spent time preparing and anticipating these events.  But it is prudent to do so, for the sake of the entire AIT community.

3.  Additional Updates

(a)  Vaccine Certification for Quarantine – In our 2 April communication we had provided an update on “Revised Quarantine Periods” and mentioned that travelers with a valid COVID-19 vaccine certificate and traveling from countries with no COVID-19 variant strains will be eligible to 7 days of quarantine.  We had also indicated that travelers must present their vaccine certificate (an original paper or a printout of an online vaccine certificate) to the International Port Health Control at the port of arrival.  

We would like to stress the importance, before overseas staff or students travel to Thailand, of obtaining the Thai Embassy or Consulate endorsement of this vaccine certificate, and it MUST be translated (with certification stamp) into English, with the quarantine period specified, if the Thai Embassy or Consulate in your country has this provision.  Notwithstanding this, travelers must present the vaccine certificate upon arriving in Thailand and if the quarantine period has not been specified by the Thai Embassy or Consulate, the number of days will accordingly be determined by the Health Control officers at the airport.  The AIT OQ will follow the number of days of quarantine approved by the relevant Thai authorities. 

(b)  Spouses of AIT students and employees to be allowed in AIT OQ – According to the current earlier policy, AIT Employees at Level VII or lower are allowed to stay in the AIT OQ for Phase 1, while dependents have so far not been allowed.  It has been decided that in addition to students and AIT Employees at Level VII or lower, spouses of these AIT students and eligible employees are NOW ALLOWED to stay in the AIT OQ.  However, they will need to undergo their OQ in separate non-air conditioned single-toilet non-smoking rooms, and not in adjoining units.

This new wave of COVID-19 infections is quite serious and presents high risks to those who are not vigilant.  AIT takes strict measures to protect our community, and all of us now need to be very vigilant and cooperative to keep our community and our campus safe during this new wave.  We urge you to continue to maintain a high level of safety and hygiene measures, like regularly washing your hands, wearing masks in public places and when in the company of people, maintaining social distancing, avoiding large crowds, and please visit the AIT Medical Center if you feel unwell.  We thank you for your cooperation.

Please take care and stay safe especially during the upcoming Songkran Holidays!

AIT COVID-19 Task Force

 

2) The Facebook Live on Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL)

Date: Thursday, 19th April 2021

Time: 15.00 - 16.00 hours (Thailand time)

For registration: Please visit our website https://extension.ait.ac.th/course/1166

 

 

3) Launch of GO4SDGs in Asia and the Pacific

Dear AIT Community,

We are pleased to invite you to the Global Opportunities for SDGs (GO4SDGs) Regional Launch in Asia and the Pacific: Resource Efficiency and Sustainable Consumption and Production for an Inclusive and Resilient Recovery on Wednesday 21 April 2021 at 14:00-17:00 Bangkok Time GMT+7 (Virtual).

The objectives of this Online Regional launch are as follows: 

Present the initiative “Global Opportunities for SDGs” (GO4SDGs) including its menu of services, capacity building activities and the regional activities and roadmap.

Promote dialogue about the importance and co-benefits of resource efficiency -including sustainable consumption and circularity- in the region for climate ambition and to achieve an inclusive and resilient economic recovery post-pandemic COVID-19.

Identify synergies and build cooperation with other relevant regional initiatives and partners, such as ESCAP, SWITCH Asia, PAGE, among others, to have a more coherent delivery and create a bigger impact.

The launch event will have interesting panels:

High-level launching panel “Resource Efficiency and Sustainable Consumption and Production for an Inclusive and Resilient Recovery”, with the participation of Dechen Tsering, Regional Director, UNEP-ROAP; Kaveh Zahedi, Deputy Executive Secretary, Sustainable Development, ESCAP, a representative from Germany BMU and with Janez Potocnik, Co-Chair of the International Resource Panel and Partner at SYSTEMIQ, as a keynote speaker.

The second panel will look at “Advancing Innovation and Circularity for SMEs” with the participation of Mirko Zurker, Head of SEED Asia, Co-Lead Policy, Adi R. Nugroho, CEO & Co-Founder, Mycotech, Indonesia, and Helen Burdett, Lead, Circular Economy Innovation, World Economic Forum.

Please register using the following link:

https://forms.gle/iJZqPQqCWS361NcJ9

We encourage you to share this invitation with colleagues who may be interested in participating.

 

4) Meet the Expert by Engr. Antonino Clodoaldo Santos Aligaen

Dear AIT Community,

We are pleased to invite you to the Meet the Expert by Engr. Antonino Clodoaldo Santos Aligaen, Head - Project Execution Group, Ortigas Land Inc. on 22nd April 2021 (14:00 hrs Bangkok time).

Topic - Construction Project Management during the Pandemic - Don't Work Hard.. Work Smart !

About the Speaker

Engr. Antonino Clodoaldo Santos Aligaen is a licensed Civil Engineer with a Master’s Degree in Construction Engineering and Management from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), and a Diploma in Urban and Regional Planning from University of the Philippines. Engr. Aligaen has over 35 years of experience in construction project management, 14 years of which was a Project Director handling hospitality projects with the biggest real estate developer in the Philippines – Ayala Land, Inc., and currently handling concurrent projects with a combined construction value of over US$ 800M.

To join, please register here:

bit.ly/39OPo1w

 

 

Training Courses/ Conferences/ Workshops

1) Online Professional Development Course on: Managing Organization change: Integrating Agile for Transformation (Batch 1 )

Online Professional Development Course on: Managing Organization change: Integrating Agile for Transformation (Batch 1 )

Date : 08 - 25 May 2021

https://extension.ait.ac.th/course/1158

 

2) Online training course on "Connect Learning with Monitoring and Evaluation: A Strategy for Project M&E in Current COVID-19 Pandemic"

Date: 10 - 28 May 2021
Time: 14:00 - 16:00 hrs. (Bangkok time)
Learn from practitioners on how to develop M & E pathways that foster measurement of results and respond to current changes of M&E contexts. Broadening perspectives for innovative ways to develop tools and reporting mechanisms that help to make decisions for project implementation. 

Aims of the program

Enhance practical knowledge and scope for M&E approach and practices during COVID-19.
Be acquainted with appropriate research design and data collection tools.

Apply M &E concept to create information sharing and reporting strategies.

For more information and registration pls. visit https://extension.ait.ac.th/course/1127

 

3) 2nd International  Symposium on Disaster Resilience and Sustainable Development (DRSD) 

We are happy to announce the "2nd International Symposium on Disaster Resilience and Sustainable Development” from 24 -25 June 2021 scheduled to be held at Asian Institute of Technology, THAILAND (In-person and Virtual) [www.disaster-sustainability.org]. The “2nd International Symposium on Disaster Resilience and Sustainable Development” organized by the Asian Institute of Technology brings together discussion on various dimensions of higher education systems in the Asia-Pacific region with a focus on Disaster Risk Reduction and Sustainable Development. The International Symposium will focus on various dimensions of existing and future risk scenarios and concerted efforts of the scientific communities to find new adaptation methods. 

The international symposium will be organized from 24 -25 June 2021 in hybrid mode. The program will include keynote speeches, panel discussions, technical sessions, poster presentations, and academic exhibitions. The Symposium is one of the initiatives of ProSPER.Net project “Disaster Education for integrating SFDRR and SDG in Asia” lead by the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand along with the partner universities in the Asia Pacific Region. 

The symposium will also provide an opportunity to develop a Higher Educational Institution Platform on DRR to address the cross-cutting issues on Disaster Resilience and Sustainable Development and also understanding regional challenges that result from complex problems generated by natural hazards and human-induced threats.

On behalf of Organising Committee DRSD-2021, I would like to invite your valuable participation and interaction with Global Resilience and Sustainability Experts. 

CALL for ABSTRACT is open 

We will encourage you to circulate the announcement to your scientific and professional network.