King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang


King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang is a research and educational institution in Thailand. It is situated in Lat Krabang District, Bangkok approximately 30 km east of the city center. The university consists of seven faculties: engineering, architecture, agricultural technology, science, industrial education, agricultural industry, information technology, and liberal arts.

History

KMITL was founded in 1960 in Nonthaburi province as a telecommunications training center under the technical support of the Japanese government; the center was later named the Nonthaburi Institute of Telecommunications. After moving to a new location at Lat Krabang near Suvarnabhumi Airport, the campus became King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang.
Engineering began at KMITL in 1960 with a course on telecommunications engineering.
Since a technical cooperation agreement was reached between the Japanese and Thai governments in 1960 to establish a telecommunications training center in Thailand, Japan has continued the cooperation over the course of 40 years. The telecommunications training center became a three-year specialty college in 1964, and then in 1971 joined two other colleges and rose to the ranks of an institute of technology. Part of the school moved to the Ladkrabang campus, and architecture, industrial education/science, and agricultural technology departments were established.
On the Japanese side, Tokai University, Tokyo Institute of Technology and University of Electro-Communications concluded academic exchange agreements with the school and assisted with such things as the expansion of the university, human resource development and research promotion as part of second phase and third phase “Project-type Technical Cooperation” projects. A Japanese corporation funded scholarship system was established, as well as practical factory-based training, a construction scholarship system, etc. Thus, actual cooperation activities involving linkages with industry as well as things like the start of an invitation program to the Institute for Posts and Telecommunications Policy and a human resource exchange with a public institution were promoted.
In 1982 KMITL launched the nation's first doctoral degree in electrical engineering and awarded a doctorate in electrical engineering to Dr. Chom Kimpan, who also earned the first Doctor of Engineering granted by a Thai university.
Through the “Partners Project”, using a satellite launched by Japan, there were joint experiments in applied technology.
Besides this, as using the developed skills and facilities for the benefit of other developing countries, JICA has been active in supporting KMITL in organizing “third-country training” in information technology, dispatched KMITL professors to the engineering department of National University of Laos and supported KMITL’s acceptance of research students from universities in Laos.
More recently KMITL has partnered with Thailand Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, a joint effort among Tokyo Institute of Technology, Thailand National Science and Technology Development Agency, KMITL and SIIT to offer international master's degree in Automotive Engineering. From its inception, KMITL has grown to include seven faculties and affiliated research centers.
At present, KMITL has been recognized as one of the science and technology universities in Thailand. This could be because of Japan’s long-term and ongoing assistance; comprehensive assistance to the university, industry and each level of government; the significant influence of early graduates of study abroad programs in Japan. In the future, one can expect continued development through KMITL’s participation in the Southeast Asia Engineering Education Network and strengthening of links with other higher education institutions.
In 2017, Carnegie Mellon University set up a joint institute with KMITL with the support of the Office of the Higher Education Commission. This was named CMKL University and first opened for student admissions in the 2018 academic year.

Faculties and departments

Research Center for Communication and Information Technology ([ReCCIT])

The KMITL Research Center for Communication and Information Technology project is the fourth “project-type technical cooperation” project implemented at KMITL and has as its goals strengthening the center’s research and development capacity and the graduate school program.
The implementing partner organizations are the Ministry of University Affairs, KMITL, and a Japan-based advisory committee has been established. Through the dispatch of experts in information technology, technical training of overseas participants, provision of research and educational equipment, the goals of the project are being pursued:
Through these research facilities, KMITL maintains creative partnerships with government and private industry.

Industry/University Cooperative Research Center in Data Storage Technology and Applications

The I/UCRC in Data Storage Technology and Applications or iDSTA is formed under partnership between KMITL and NECTEC under the Thailand's Hard Disk Drive Competitiveness Enhancement Program. The aim is to increase research and development activities in this area and to enhance cooperation among researchers and between the researchers and the HDD industry in Thailand.