Thailand has its ambition to become a “Detroit of Asia” for automotive industry, as well as a “Silicon Valley” for electronics. These dreams are being steered to reality as indicated by the fact that we have been among the top exporters of automobile and the number-one exporter of hard disk drive of the world. The leading role of Thailand in ASEAN economic community has also been focused in the areas of petrochemical as well as oil and gas exploration and production. In wider aspect on the global concerns, new devices to produce energy such as fuel cells, battery and other electrochemical devices have been extensively researched. The same tendency is also true for nanotechnology. One example is the research on new nano metals which are widely used in hygienic application.

To move these technologies forwards, people might think that it is the solely role of mechanical engineers to run automotive industry, electrical engineers for electronics, chemical engineers for petroleum and petrochemical industries, or scientists for the research in new power sources and nanotechnology. This is partially true but needed a more proper aspect. It is the fact that all industries require multidisciplinary knowledge to run their business. And at the deepest foundation of those technologies, everything is constructed by materials. Materials engineering thus unequivocally plays a critical role on driving our today and tomorrow technologies.

The study in metals, or metallurgical engineering, is considered as one of the oldest arts but also as one of the youngest sciences. For example, in the development of eco car, many efforts have been made to produce lighter weight with higher strength or more durable metals. The active research in this field has been carried out at KMUTNB, such as to produce a high strength dual-phase steel or a more durable exhaust manifold for the eco car. A comprehensive approach to design automotive parts using mechanical metallurgy together with computer simulation is uniquely presented in materials engineering program. Furthermore, concerning the search of new sources of energy production, development of fuel cells has been actively carried out around the world. In this work, the promising metals to be used in fuel cells have been widely studied. Development of new coating process for the metallic component used in fuel cells has been conducted by our faculties and students in collaboration with a world renowned European university situated in the French-Alpes, I’institut Polytechnique de Grenoble (Grenoble Institute of Technology), which is ranked in 2012 as the best university in materials science of the French university by QS World University Ranking. Now our department has an agreement with the University of Grenoble to co-supervise a doctoral thesis in order to grant the double degrees, one from KMUTNB and another one from the University of Grenoble.

Furthermore for the hard disk drive industry, projects of students in production technology were carried out with the companies, such as Western Digital (Thailand) and Seagate Technology (Thailand), to improve efficiency of the process as well as to reduce waste in the assembly line of a part of hard drive. Expertise in materials and their processing in relation with managerial engineering skill are important to produce the optimum production line. These studying aspects are uniquely given in our materials engineering program.

As for petroleum and petrochemical industries, it is the duty of materials engineers with solid knowledge in corrosion and failure analysis to design the plant or pipe line system in order to combat corrosion and degradation of materials. KMUTNB has received the transfer of those knowledges from our partners in Europe, for example from the former President of the University of Applied Science Rosenheim, Germany, in transferring the expertise in the failure analysis of metals. In the industry of gas and oil exploration and production, relationship between KMUTNB and the prominent oil and gas production companies, TOTAL of France and PTTEP of Thailand, has been established with a donation of 26 million baht to KMUTNB in the recent years. This is to set up a corrosion inhibitor testing laboratory, which is the only laboratory of its kind existing in Thailand, by the team comprising of the Thai-French Innovation Institute and the faculty staffs of the engineering faculty of KMUTNB. Thanks to the expertise we have gained from this collaboration, the KMUTNB were invited by the intuitions in ASEAN country to transfer our knowledge for the lecturers in university and engineers in the oil company in Indonesia. For the petrochemical industries, our faculty staffs and students have a success story in re-engineering metallic part used in the SCG company to increase its lifetime. KMUTNB also has a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with IRPC of the PTT group for the collaboration in teaching and research.

The previous paragraphs might well reflex a long educational tradition of KMUTNB, formerly a Thai-German technical school, in cultivating engineers in a European, particularly German and French, style in order to produce a hand-on engineer with smart mind and character. KMUTNB has the faculty staffs graduated from leading universities around the world: Europe, America, Asia and Australia. We also have facilities to strengthen the practicing skill of our students. Not only equipments, we have collaboration with the prestigious institutions worldwide such as I’institut Polytechnique de Grenoble of France previously mentioned. The KMUTNB Engineering faculty also has collaboration with some other leading universities in Asia and ASEAN, such as a Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) of Korea which is ranked in 2012 as the top ten of the best universities in engineering in Asia, Kyushu Institute of Technology of Japan, and University of Tunku Abdul Rahman of Malaysia.

Focusing on the department of Materials and Production Technology Engineering, our department has been established in 1978 to deliver a degree in production technology, and later a degree in materials engineering which has been started since a decade. We has also played the active role in the metallurgical community in Thailand as in the year 2012 we are the host for the Thailand metallurgy conference with participations of the people from academics and metal industries around Thailand and abroad. Nowadays we offer the degrees in materials engineering in all three levels: bachelor, master and doctoral degrees. As a matter of success, our students and graduates have gained experience in the internship and working towards their professional career in the prominent companies such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Samsung Electronics, Minibae, Maktec, PTTEP, IRPC, Thai Parkerizing, POSCO Thainox, Thai Tokhen Thermo, SSI, Bangkok Glass, and Michelin.

For the year 2013, we commence the bilingual program in bachelor degree in materials engineering emphasising in metals. This is an innovative program for the coming future of the ASEAN economic community when the communication skill in English of engineer becomes prominent. This program is the first and only program of its kind in Thailand and will offer our students the solid future as materials engineer to work in major industries, e.g. automotive, electronic, petroleum, petrochemical, and metal industries. It will also give our graduates the competent English proficiency to pursue their careers in ASEAN as well as global industrial/business communities.