Prof. Rajapakse entertained ideas for partnership with the Asian
Institute of Technology (AIT) while meeting with senior AIT officials
on 18 August 2011. He was welcomed back to the campus by Professor
Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, Vice President for Resources and Development,
who was also a former professor of the Canadian academic. Later, Prof.
Rajapakse was escorted by Prof. Joydeep Dutta, Vice President for
Academic Affairs on a tour of AIT’s Center of Excellence in
Nanotechnology.
Topping the dean’s list of interest were Master’s level student
exchange programs in the fields of Computer Science, Mechatronics,
Energy, and Environmental Engineering. Prof. Rajapakse indicated
specific interest in the development of a Master’s dual degree program
with AIT in Energy.
He also mentioned the possibility of similar exchanges and exposure
visits in the field of Nanotechnology. SFU is the site of an
applications- and science-driven research centre called 4d Labs which
conducts nanotechnology fabrications work, he explained.
Prof. Rajapakse currently oversees 104 faculty members within the
Faculty of Applied Science, which has an enrollment of 2,000
undergraduate and 450 graduate-level engineering students.
The award-winning scholar introduced SFU as Canada’s number one ranked
comprehensive university. He said SFU currently operates three campuses
in the Greater Vancouver metropolitan area and has 30,000 total
students, including 5,000 graduate students within 8 faculties. The
university conducts a significant degree of research and offers a wide
range of programs at undergraduate and graduate levels, including
professional degrees, he said.
He also outlined some of SFU’s recent successes, such as its rapidly
expanding suburban campus in Surrey, its downtown Vancouver campus
catering to business students, its mushrooming internationality, in
particular its high demand for admission from Asian students, and its
dual degree program with Zhejian University in Hangzhou, China.
During his visit, Prof. Rajapakse also met with Prof. Joydeep Dutta,
Vice President for Academic Affairs; Dr. Nitin Afzulpurkar, Dean,
School of Engineering and Technology (SET); Dr. Nitin Tripathi of SET;
Dr. Anil Kumar Anal of the School of Environment, Resouces and
Development (SERD); Dr. Pritam K. Shrestha, Head-ERCO, and Ms. Wannapa
Pliansri, RTG Relations Coordinator.
