Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), known for its science and technology programmes, aims to use Bangkok as a springboard to build an Asean talent pool through collaboration with King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL).
The university, 24th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, launched its master's and PhD programmes in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the newly established CMKL University in Lat Krabang district of Bangkok in August. Graduates will receive degrees from the US university. The campus will be fully operational next year.
Master's degree students at CMKL will spend one year in Pittsburgh before returning to complete another year of research projects with industries in Thailand. PhD students will spend three years in the US and two years on research. Scholarship opportunities are being offered by leading companies such as Thai Beverage and Betagro.
"The programmes will be the same as the programmes at Carnegie Mellon and the students who graduate from these programmes will get a CMU degree," Supan Tungjitkusolmun, the president of CMKL University, told Asia Focus.
The school also plans to open facilities in a central business district of Bangkok in order to be closer to prospective partners, government agencies and students.
Prof Hyong Kim, the programme director for Carnegie Mellon-KMITL, said that in his 20 years with CMU in the United States, he had seen students from all over the world but several Thai PhD students caught his attention.
"I find Thai students to be excellent. I mean they are really good and that will be good for us," he said.
Dr Supan Tungjitkusolmun (left), president of CMKL University, and Prof Hyong Kim, programme director for Carnegie Mellon-KMITL, discuss Thai-US collaboration.
CMU also has campuses in Australia, Portugal and Rwanda and now hopes to build a strong relationship with Thailand, he said. "But the bottom line is that we want to get the smartest students we can get and I think Thailand, along with Asean, has an excellent student pool here."
One of the programmes that CMU started in Africa a decade ago has yielded more than 40 startup businesses, and that provides an idea of what it hopes to achieve in Asia.
CMKL, according to Mr Kim, does not limit admission to Thai students only, as it wants to be a hub for the entire region.
CMU also works with universities in Japan to offer master's degrees but it is looking to make Thailand "the centre in Asia" for the programme, he added.
"These programmes in Thailand will be integrated and not only for the students," said Mr Kim. "We are aiming to change the culture of education here, where faculty from CMKL will come to CMU and spend time there to understand the culture before shifting it back here."
Dr Supan said the partnership with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the CMU College of Engineering means that innovations and expertise from the US school can be directly transferred to students in Thailand.
"A lot of new technologies that we hear about today such as blockchain, AI, robotics, autonomous vehicles and cybersecurity are coming out of ECE, so the students who come to join us at CMKL will be able to receive all the knowledge of this whole domain of electrical and computer engineering, not just the software," he said.
CMKL aims to attract 10 PhD students and 30 master's students within the first year. CMU normally takes in only 40 PhD students from thousands of applicants a year, but it will "pay more attention" to students from CMKL, said Mr Kim.
"CMKL students could have an edge here and we do want to make it work, but we are not going to lower any of our standards," he said.
The culture that CMU wants to instill at CMKL is that out-of-classroom experience and awareness of what is going on in the world are as important as being book-smart. This is one of the reasons for the partnership with companies such as ThaiBev and Betagro.
"You can read about it but if you do not know what is going on out there and what is impacting the world, then it is not going to work out for you," said Mr Kim, stressing the importance of internship and work experience. "That is why we have a bunch of projects with companies.
"Those kinds of things are very important as we do not want some guy who just knows how to take tests. That's not the guy who is going to change the world for the better as he cannot have innovative thinking."
Dr Supan said students with working experience from internships tend to look at real problems and start to think differently instead of simply consulting textbooks, which is an outlook that KMITL has always tried to encourage.
"A lot of courses are project-based where students will be faced with scenarios -- for example, to design a microprocessor -- but they will be the ones who set the goal," Mr Kim said of the approach at CMU, which will be replicated in Thailand.
For example, the goal could to create the fastest possible processor, or one that consumes the least power, but it must be built before the end of the semester. Such projects sometimes lead to the formation of startup businesses because students see that what they are creating could be commercially viable.
"The partnership with private companies then allows the students to actually see their product being used by a real production system and that's the amazing value you will gain," he added.
CMKL also intends to stress the training of future leaders because if you can train a leader, he or she will become a "multiplier" who will be able to train others, Mr Kim said.
And while some Asian students worry about living in the United States in light of an upturn in race-based incidents and even hate crimes, Mr Kim said this was not a problem at major universities because of the diverse populations they serve.
"We are attracting the best in the world and that hasn't changed and it is not going to change because there is no policy that sets us against that flow [of admissions from around the world]. Whatever you hear, is not real to me," he said.
Pittsburgh itself has been transformed in recent years from a fading "Rust Belt" city once dominated by heavy industry to a dynamic technology and medical hub.
"Uber, for instance, is developing autonomous driving in Pittsburgh while Google and Apple also have a presence in the city and some of them are on campus at CMU to attract the students there," Mr Kim said.