Editor’s note: Leo was the graduate of School of Automotive Engineering in 2020, he was keen to participate in international activities and was once the head of the student international club under the international affairs department. Now Leo is studying in King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand, majoring in automotive and advanced traffic engineering. In this article, Leo is going to introduces how he applied step by step to become a post-graduate student in a famous Thai university and finally studied in Thailand on the platform of attending international activities.

1.    How did I get the opportunity to go to Thailand for graduate study?

In 2018, I was very honored to participate in the First International Automotive Engineering Summer School of Pujiang Institute. More than 30 professors and students participated in this summer school from China, Germany, Japan, Thailand, and Myanmar. Under the leadership of Vice President Dr. Jochen Amrehn and International Affairs Department, we had the 15-day journey of exchange and learning. All exchange students were divided into different groups to work with their parterners from different countries. We conducted a two-week metalworking practice training. The picture below is a photo of the internship.

Metalwork Internship

After two-week training, we had overcome the language barriers and finally completed the task and presentation. The works of our group were the flags of various countries made through sheet metal cutting, welding, and spray painting. In the picture below, each student is holding the flag of his/her country.

Summer School Achievement Show

During the summer school, we helped each other in study and made our extracurricular life more colorful. We had visited the historical sites of Nanjing, watched the pandas and tasted traditional Chinese food.

Enjoy the Chinese Food

By 15-day study, I learned a lot about related research topics in the automotive field and made friends with students from different countries. Because of my active performance in previous activities, Vice President Jochen and other professors were very impressed on me. In May 2019, I was fortunate to receive an invitation letter from a Thai professor (Preechar Krain), which invited me to the National Science and Technology Development Center of Thailand (NSTDA) for months of study as an exchange student. These two months of research have reopened my understanding of vehicle engineering and benefited me a lot.

After the course, I took the pre-course examination of TAIST Tokyo Tech's vehicle engineering project and achieved good results; after that, I successfully passed the interview of the project and received the admission letter of a master degree. So now, I am studying at King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, major on Automotive and Advanced Transportation Engineering (International Master's Program).

2.    My experiences in Thailand

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, I had my first semester in China with online courses. In the second semester (October, 2020), I successfully arrived in Thailand. In addition to my daily courses, related experiments were also supposed to be conducted in the KMITL laboratory every day. The picture below is taken to show one of the experiments in the laboratory of our university.

Lab of Chassis Dynamoneter Experiment in KMITL

After two months of training, I successfully became an assistant teacher. The picture below shows my job to train a group of KMITL undergraduates how to assemble a single-cylinder engine.

Engine Equipment Training

In addition to daily study and experiments, the Thai professors and friends I met before were also very enthusiastic about leading me to experience the traditional Thai culture in my spare time.

In Ayutthaya

Hang out with friends

Opportunities will not come up all the time. To seize opportunities not only require you to have a positive attitude but also to pave the way in advance, like to strengthen your English speaking skills, communication skills, and acquire more about cultural differences. When staying with international friends, you don't have to be shamed of talking. The more you communicate, the better your relationship will be. Last but not least, I prepare the most touching sentence for you: Opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared; luck is part of strength!