Bangkok--9 Jan--Asian Institute of Technology
Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) was host to another Internet luminary on 17 December 2014 when Steven Huter, Director, Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC), University of Oregon, visited the Institute to oversee the handover of 250 wifi access points.
NSRC, which had donated 250 wifi access points to AIT immediately after the 2011 Thailand flood, added yet another gift of 250 more wifi access points to help augment AIT’s network. The total NSRC donation to AIT now touches USD 100,000.
Visiting AIT for the first time after the flood, he was greeted by Prof. Kanchana Kanchanasut, AIT’s Vice President for Research, who preceded Steven Huter’s induction to the Internet Hall of Fame by an year. While Steven was inducted in the Internet Hall of Fame this year (2014), Prof. Kanchana achieved that august status in 2013.
“It is heartening to see AIT rebounding after the flood,” Steven remarked, who last visited the campus in 2008. He shared his moments of anxiety when he saw photographs of AIT’s flooded campus for the first time. “Our immediate task was to help AIT restore its connectivity,” he remarked. Coordinating with Prof. Kanchana and her staff including Mr. Viraphan Samadi, Training Manager, intERLab, Steven’s team shipped 250 wifi access points to AIT.
The restoration of internet connectivity at AIT was the subject of an email that the NSRC team received from the AIT Student Union President. “It was one of the finest emails that I have received,” Steven narrated to an audience comprising of the AIT President Prof. Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, Prof. Kanchana, Prof. Kazuo Yamamoto, Vice President for Resource Development, Dr. Gabrielle Groves, Head, External Relations and Communications Office (ERCO), and Mr. Viraphan.
Prof. Worsak thanked NSRC and Steven Huter for their support to AIT, as he elaborated on how the AIT library was being modernized. Steven mentioned the “Digital Scholarship Center” at the University of Oregon, which is used by students and faculty to create digital content. All thesis are archived at this Center, which has also taken the lead in archiving history and artwork of the native Americans, Steven added. The Digital Scholarship Center also allows students to create their own digital portfolio thereby enhancing their learning experience. He expressed the possibility of Oregon’s Digital Scholarship Center sharing insights its experience to help the modernization of the AIT Library.
NSRC, which based at the University of Oregon, was established in 1992 to provide technical assistance to organizations setting up computer networks in developing areas for collaborative research, education and international partnerships. The NSRC is partially funded by grant from the International Research Network Connections (IRNC) program of the National Science Foundation and Google, with additional contributions from dozens of public and private organizations.
Photo caption: From left are Prof. Kazuo Yamamoto, Prof. Kanchana Kanchanasut, AIT President Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, Mr. Steven Huter, Mr. Viraphan Samadi, Dr. Gregory L. F. Chiu, and Dr. Gabrielle Groves.