ISUZU Group Foundation (IGF) Thailand became one of the supporting members of TAIST - Tokyo Tech. (Thailand Advacned Institute of Sceince and Technology – Tokyo Institute of Technology) in January this year and the ceremony to celebrate the beginning of five-year cooperation was held at National Science and Technlogy Development Agency (NSTDA) on March 23, 2009 (Mon).

Mr. Hiroshi Nakagawa, Chairman of IGF, delivered speech to express his expectation for active cooperation and collaboration with Tokyo Tech, NSTDA and participating Thai universities for TAIST – Tokyo Tech.

Prof. Dr.Chitoshi Miki expressed his sincere thanks to IGF in his remarks and stressed that human resource development, which is essential part of TAIST Tokyo Tech activities, should be enhanced through long term planning, not by collecting of short term tasks.

Dr. Sakarindr Bhumiratana, Presidents of NSTDA, Mr. Prayoon Shiowattana, Vice President of NSTDA, and representatives from member institutions namely King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology, Kasetsart University and King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi were present at the event to welcome IGF to be one of collaborator of TAIST Tokyo Tech.

As of March 2009, supporting members of TAIST Tokyo Tech are 6 companies, namely Siam NISSAN Automobile, Fujikura Management Organization Thailand, Asahi Glass Co., Ltd., MITSUBISHI Electronic, AKEBONO Brake Industry Co., Ltd. and ISUZU Group Foundation.

* TAIST-Tokyo Tech is the joint graduate program under the cooperation among Tokyo Tech, NSTDA and leading Thai universities, aiming HRD center to foster personnel to contribute on R&D in Thai industrires as well as Asian region. The establishement of TAIST was in June 2007 when “Automotive Engineering (AE) program” started as the first program, followed by “Information and Communication Technology for Embedded System (ICT-ES) program” in June 2008. Other programs such as “Environmental Engineering program” and “Bioscience and Bioengineering program” are under preparation to be launched in following years.