INTERNATIONAL VISITORS

We encourage visitors from around the world to come to our campus, share their knowledge and to strengthen friendships and cooperation between countries and across cultures. The range of visitors is wide and includes academics collaborating on research with AUT staff, academics on visiting lectureships or attending conferences on campus, overseas government officials who come for training or to establish collaborative projects, and business people who come to share their experiences.

Some of our recent visitors have included:

Google scientist Dr Mehren Sahami was an international speaker at the 2004 Pacific Rim Conference on Artificial Intelligence, hosted by AUT. Dr Sahami spoke to the conference attendees, most of whom were computer scientists, about how United States search engine company Google is using AI to solve problems on information retrieval and how to beat spammers. AI is being used to sift, organise and present relevant information to people searching the oceans of information on the World Wide Web.

Top computer scientists from throughout Asia, Australia and America flocked to the conference which was organised by Professor Albert Yeap, director of AUT's Institute for Information Technology Research.

Professor Don Gotterbarn was a visiting professor to the School of Computer and Information Sciences. Professor Gotternbarn, from East Tennessee State University in the United States, was chair of the taskforce which developed the Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice, which has been adopted in several countries including Australia.

His work in the US encompasses project management, systems testing and development as well as software engineering ethics. He has also run his own consulting firm which did work for the US and Saudi Arabian navies, among other clients. While at AUT he led a research programme looking at the use of impact statements to assess the impact on stakeholders from software development.

Mr Numyoot Songthanaptck, President of Rajamangala University of Technology in Thailand, visited AUT in March 2004 to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between our two institutions. Collaboration, staff and student exchanges and future cooperation were part of the agreement. His visit coincided with a training group of 20 staff from Rajamangala, who studied a course in international business, run by the Business Faculty.

The Right Honourable Michael Martin MP, Speaker of the House of Commons in the United Kingdom, is one of numerous overseas visitors to AUT's Centre for Refugee Education at Mangere. AUT runs the education side of the Refugee Reception Centre which has 130 refugees on the course at any one time. The programme, run by the School of Languages, covers English language skills, reading, writing and numeracy, computer assisted learning, career learning, New Zealand life styles, and work experience.

Michael Martin, whose constituency Glasgow has highest number of asylum seekers in Scotland, toured the centre and met with key staff on a recent visit to New Zealand. Centre manager Maria Hayward says she was interested to hear that the UK doesn't have similar education programmes attached to refugee centres, although there are numerous off-site language and orientation programmes. In fact Maria Hayward and Dr Pat Strauss, who are researching education programmes in refugee centres around the world in order to bench mark AUT have been unable to find any similar programmes so far. Prior to Michael Martin's trip, the Centre was visited by Scottish Minister of Education, the Honourable Peter Peacock, who is interested in setting up a similar programme in Scotland and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Dr Rudd Lubbers.

His Excellency Mr Nguyen Van An, President of the Vietnam National Assembly, and a delegation of more than 20 senior officials from Vietnam visited AUT recently. They met with Vietnamese students studying here, and were given an overview of AUT and our many years of involvement in Vietnam.

At AUT we welcome new initiatives and visitors. If you're interested in visiting AUT, please contact the Centre for International Development.