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Wichai Sankhachandrananda is a former professor at the Faculty of Engineering at Chulalongkorn University (CU) and the first Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC) who has always dedicated and contributed to the education of electrical engineering.
Early life[edit]
Wichai Sankhachandrananda was born on 11 September 1927 at the Dan Khun Thot, Nakhon Ratchasima Province. His father is Chuen Sankhachandrananda, a government officer of Ministry of Education. His father is originally from Pak Thong Chai district. His mother is Tubb Sankhachandrananda who is from Korat (Nakorn Ratchasima Province). Wichai was born in a family of 6 brothers and sisters.
- Cherdchai Sankhachandrananda, former Superintendent of Police, East Provinces (deceased).
- Wichien Sankhachandrananda, former army officers, maps (deceased).
- Wichai Sankhachandrananda
- Bunsong Sophon, former teacher at Khon Kaen Wittayayon School.
- Sermsakdi Sankhachandrananda, former Rear Admiral of Marine Navy officer.
- Prasert Sankhachandrananda (deceased).
Chuen Sankhachandrananda was a son of Iam Sankhachandrananda who was born on a family of 3 brothers.
- Iam Sankhachandrananda
- Khun Rath Sankhachandrananda
- Tho Sankhachandrananda
The last name "Sankhachandrananda" was given by King Rama VI to Tho who was served as lieutenant in military on the 5th Regimental on November 7th, 1915 and was romanised as "Sankhachandrananda".
Education[edit]
At the age of 7, Wichai Sankhachandrananda studied in elementary school at the local school district in which his father served in Dan Khun Thot. But in a few months he had moved to study in the city of Korat with his brother. At that time, he attended a school which was a model school called “Demonstration School”, which will have until 8th grade in secondary school. It was different from the regular local school which only have until 4th grade in primary school. The school is now Ratchasima Witthayalai School. He finished 4th grade in secondary school in 1941, in which time the Pacific War (Greater East Asia War) had started.
Before that, his father had moved to Saraburi Province to work at a education department. Following his father, Wichai had continued his 5th grade in secondary school at local district male school (Sahai Chai School) which now called Saraburiwitthayakhom School.
After completing the 5th grade in secondary school in 1942, Wichai had moved to Bangkok, following his brother and enrolled in Trimitwitthayalai School in 6th grade. He can managed to get to be in ranked #1 in many routine monthly exams. And that had made an impression to many teachers and classmates especially when he was from an outside province (province outside Bangkok). Before the final exam for 6th grade, there were heavy bombing inside Bangkok and the Ministry of Education had decided to close all schools in Bangkok. The students who had fully attended the class were certified without taking any exams. Wichai was one of those students and they were called Mor-Hock Tojo. After the completetion of the 6th grade in secondary school, Wichai had returned to Saraburi Province.
The family of Wichai was a family of low level government workers who did not have a lot of income. And that was the main reason that he wanted to get in to the Cadet School since it costed less and also there was allowances while attending the school. Wichai applied for the school and passed the written exam but failed the physical exam because he was diagnosed with nearsightedness.
Since he could not get in the Cadet School, he had decided to enroll in Triam Chula School (Triam Udom Suksa School) in pre-engineering faculty and he passed and got accepted. After the school started for a couple of months, there was again a heavy bombing in Bangkok and all the schools were closed. All the students were scattered to a different school outside the capital city. Wichai has moved with Triam Chula school to "Ayutthaya Witayalai" school and living with a friend in the beginning. Later, Triam Chula School had built dormitories called "Putthaisawan Dormitory" near Putthaisawan Tample. He moved here. After that, it was an announced that the school in Bangkok had reopened and students could return back to Bangkok. Some of the students had decided to stay in Ayutthaya but Professor Wichai decided to move back to Bangkok again.
After moving back to the Triam Chula School in Bangkok, he has to move again to Suansunandha School since they had larger and more stable bunkers. And when the bombing had get lighter, he had come back to Triam Chula School again. After that, the bombing had get even heavier and the announcement was to close all schools again and this time it was for a long period of time until the war was over. Then, the schools would be reopened again.
During the period of school closure, the military police school had established and it accepted the students in 1st– 2nd grade in secondary school for military police sergeant and accepted the students of university for military police lieutenant and when graduated would be decorated with the proper rank. Professor Wichai did not apply for this school, instead he had decided to go back to Saraburi Province.
When the school were closed indefinitely, most students, not to waste any time, were looking for job within their skills and abilities. Professor Wichai were among those students. He applied for a clerk position in the department of education in the city of Saraburi province. Even though, he did not know how to use typewriter, he had practiced it until he could use it fluently just like other clerks.
After the War[edit]
After the Pacific War has ended in 1945, Wichai had took a leave for 3 months and then had decided to resign from the clerk position. He moved to Bangkok. He enrolled in a cram study near Saparn-leaung to get ready for the final exam for 1st year pre-engineering. In that year, the school allowed the students who were in 1st year taking exam for 2nd year without going through classes. Wichai had passed the 2nd year exam and got accepted as an engineering student of Chulalongkorn University in 1946 academic year.
After the schools and universities were closed for almost two years, the university started on first Monday of June 1946. But not for long before they would be closed again. This time, even though it was only for a week and could not be compared with the long closure during the war, the cause was a lot more significant. It was the passing of King Rama VIII on June 9, 1946.
In those days, the Faculty of Engineering at the Chulalongkorn University only had 5 branches: mechanical, civil, electrical, mining and industrial. In that academic year, the industrial engineering was canceled because the lack of jobs due to the severe damage to the industry during the war.
Engineering students would need to select the specialty when they were in the 4rd year (senior) of college. Professor Wichai had selected electrical engineering and graduated with second-class honors in 1949 academic year. There are some successful and famous people who graduated from the same class of 1949, for example, Chow Na Silawan (privy council), Niwat Daranant, Pirodh Ferngthura, Paron Isarasena (former presidentiof the Siam Cement Public Company Limited of SCG), Pravit Ruyaporn (former secretary of Department of National Energy), Artorn Patumsuit (Minister of Department of Development) and so on.
Early career[edit]
After graduating in Electrical Engineering from Chulalongkorn University in 1950, Thailand's economy after the war at the time was not considered good. Most of the business and industry were not operated in full capacity, resulting in the lack of job availability. For that reason and the desire to be in the military, Wichai had decided to join the Thai Air Force military. Form the previous procedure, a person who graduate from a college, would have to be a private and trained for combat and serve as a Sergeant for 6 months before he could get promoted to a pre-pilot officer. For Wichai, he was sent to Sergeant Air Force School for over a month and then was called back to the Communication Department Base. But in the modern procedure, a person who graduated from a college, does not need to get trained for combat, he could just wait for an order to be promoted to pre-pilot officer.
Wichai would have thought reaching the dream goal of joining military, would bring the satisfactory and happiness but after serving in the Air Force military just over a year, he realized that he was not happy with the duty that he was assigned. He decided to resign from the force. At the same time, the Engineering Faculty of Chulalongkorn University were in need of instructors especially in electrical engineering which was the field that Professor Wichai has the degree on. He applied and got hired for a full time instructor in 1952 and started to teach 3rd year (Junior) electrical engineering students.
In the beginning of teaching career in the young age which only 3-4 years apart from the students did not go smoothly since the students did not have confidence that Professor Wichai would have enough knowledge to teach them. Oftentimes, he had been tested with all kind of questions but those questions and pressure were the motivation that pushed Wichai to study even harder and become the master of the subject and was able to transfer that knowledge to the students and finally got accepted from those students.
Accident[edit]
While Wichai was happy with the career and everything seemed to be perfect, the Department of Civil, under Luang Burakum Kowit as the general director, had a project to lay the power line from cement factory in Tha-Ruer district, Ayutthaya province to supply the power for Lopburi province in place of the existing power plant which the contract will be expired soon. The power plant in the cement factory would normally generate the power for the factory during the day. When it needed to generate the power for Lopburi province, it would have to run at night also. When the project was completed, Lopburi province would have power 24 hours a day. The general director of department of Civil had assigned the project to the Electricity Authority.
A part-time lecturer under the power manager this event. And due to the shortage of skilled labor after the war, bringing electricity to help students work part.
When the project was completed, the part-time lecturer who worked for Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) had invited the students involved in the project to visit the site. The schedule was set for January 27th, 1954. It was Saturday. All the faculty staffs gathered in the morning at Chulalongkorn University and would be picked up by MEA's staffs. There were 13 people including the driver in the car which Professor Wichai was in. Before leaving the university, one of MEA's engineers that came in the car had decided to drive and just left the confused driver sat in a passenger seat.
The group had left Chulalongkorn University in Chevrolet Canopy heading to Lopburi province on Pahonyothin Road but did not make it to the destination. When getting to Nongchik district, city of Nongkare, Saraburi Province, the car which Professor Wichai was in had involved in an accident with the incoming car since street was still a 2 way street. The car had lost balance (spin) and Wichai was thrown out of the car and ended up on the side of the road. The car was also overturned and ended up on the side of the road as well.
This accident had killed one person, three people were wounded and taken to hospital: Wichai Sankhachandrananda, Wilas Uthaichai (3rd year student; former director of Numpong dam in Khon Kaen province), and Pho Aemjit (3rd year student; former deputy governor of the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA)).
The three injured were sent to a hospital in Saraburi Province and stayed there for 2 days before they were transferred to Siriraj hospital in Bangkok. After the two students had recovered and sent home, Wichai were still recovering and stayed in the hospital.
Three months had passed and Wichai was still recovering in the hospital and could not work, most of the money was gone with all the medical bills and living expenses plus the income had stopped, so he was broke. With all this critical time, there was still a good thing happened. The head engineer who drove the car and students who were just graduated that year and worked in the Electricity Authority had set up a fund raising for over 700 baht a month by putting 50 baht each to help with the expenses during that time.
Wichai had stayed in the hospital for 14 months. After he was dismissed from the hospital, he had gone back to teach at Chulalongkorn University but this time it was different. He could not stand on his own legs anymore.
New life[edit]
In the result of the accident, he is paralyzed from the waist down. In the beginning of the career, he used the metal braced on the legs and used crutchesto help himself mobilized but it was not easy and he would fall easily.
During that time, there was no wheelchair sold in Thailand. It needed to be imported and quite expensive. Professor Wichai would use a regular chair and put wheels on it. Since the chair was made of wood with no cushion, his body has developed pressure ulcer (bedsore) which is still be treated until now. Later on a wheelchair was ordered from the United States and imported by a student who continued his study in the US.
Not long before that, Chulalongkorn University was offering the Master’s Degree of Electrical Engineering program. Professor Wichai had also enrolled in the program by using the free time after teaching. He could only enroll for half of the classes for each semester and that was the reason why it took him longer to graduate for this 2 years program. He finally graduated with a Master’s Science in Electrical Engineering degree after 4 years of studying.
Portfolio and academic standing[edit]
Wichai Sankhachandrananda had been around in the academy for a long time to witness many changes in the rules and regulations.
In one period of time, any academic candidates would get promoted to an assistant professor, an associate professor or a professor by the pay grade which mainly depended on the years of service. Professor Wichai himself once had been promoted to an Assistant Professor by this rule.
Later on, the rules had changed, the system was not counting the years of service as a factor for promotion anymore. Instead, it would consider mainly on academic researches. Professor Wichai has submitted a paper on "the using of topology analyzing a linear electrical circuit" and got approved. He had been promoted to an Associate Professor.
Later on, more professors who had earned their degree from foreign country were hired to teach in the university. Wichai would have to give some of the classes to them and finally he had only one class left which is electrical engineering mathematics. But he was not the only one who teaching the class. The students were divided in groups and some of the groups would have a different professor for the same class. That was why some of students graduated from the university were never taking classes with Wichai.
During that time, there was one professor who used to work for Electrical Authority and very intelligent. He had helped reconstructed Wat Leap power plant which was completely destroyed during the war to be able to generate the power again. This professor had appliedand received government scholarship to study in a foreign country and graduated in PhD in engineering specialize in Feedback Control. After his return to Thailand, the government assigned him as a full time professor at Chulalongkorn University. He gave Wichai the Feedback Control textbook in English to study and teach on the subject. And he himself would take the Transmission and Distribution textbook from Wichai and would teach the class for Professor Wichai. Since his previous work had shown that he was very talented, MEA wanted and has asked him to work for the Authority and the Faculty had agreed with the request. At the end Wichai would have to teach one more class which the Feedback Control subject.
Feedback Control was the subject that Wichai had never studied before, so he had to study hard and did a lot of research to be able to teach students. Even that, the head of the faculty still not entirely trusted him. Many times, when there were new professors with the Master’s degree in Feedback Control, the dean would assign the subject to them to teach.
Wichai had come up with an idea to write his own textbook during the free time. He successfully published his own textbook with the help of the students finding the publisher. Thai Wattana Panish Publishing campany had agreed to publish the textbook in 1977 because it was a new subject, Linear Control System Engineering, and had never been published before.
Wichai had been using the textbook in the class for a certain period of time. It was long enough that he would normally be promoted to a professor but nothing had happened. Until one day, an officer from the university’s registration department came up to him with the textbook and a form to promote him to a professor. It was a mysterious to Wichai until these days on who was behind these process. Two years after the documents had been submitted, Wichai was promoted to professor in 1980, and it was the same time that Mongkol Dejnakarintra was promoted.
UTCC Engineering Faculty[edit]
Wichai Sankhachandrananda retired from the engineering faculty of Chulalongkorn University in 1987.
The work of Wichai after the retirement was still revolving around academy. He started to teach at the engineering faculty of the Rajamangala University of Technology Krungthep (Bangkok) in Engineering Mathematics and Feedback Control subjects for many years. In 1990, Wichai was offered by Supachai Tungwongsanti (at that time, he was a Board of Director of the Thai Chamber of Commerce and Professor Yuk Na Talang was a President of the Thai Chamber of Commerce) the Dean of Engineering Faculty of the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce. The Faculty was established in 1990 and Wichai was the first Dean starting in 1991.
One year after accepting the position at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, in 1992, there were urgent issues which needed to be resolved. The workshop building for engineering students was not built and until the day the school started, there was no solution. During the same time, some of professors had suddenly decided to resign in the last minute, resulting in no professor to teach in some subjects for 2nd and 3rd year students.
Wichai had lead the engineering faculty through the crisis with the help of the former students from Chulalongkorn University and Kasetsart University by sending the 3rd year students (the first generation) to take classes off the campus and using professors outside the university to tech some classes. Some of those subjects were Electromagnetic Field class with Mongkhon Dejnakarintra (Academy); Electronics II class with Kothom Areya, Passive and Active Network class with Suriyan Thisayathiskhom, and sending the students to do Electrical Machine Workshop and Technical Practice at Kasetsart University. Wichai had also invited many respected professors as a part-time professor such as Surasak Thongthumachati, Samai JaiInn (navy commander), Thanin Intarajinda (navy commander), Suwit Ponetussathan (navy lieutenant), Pituck Niyaso (lieutenant), Poonporn Saengbangpla, Khean Intarasuwan, Sawai Thanepanichsakul, Kowit Suraphan, Chaiyong Wongwuthikumjorn, Somporn Meungkum, Wiwat Kulawongwit and Pornthep Korwattanamonkol.
The contract had ended after 4 years but Wichai still being around the university as a special professor, a consultant professor and a part-time professor respectively until now (2017).
Academic Research[edit]
- The use of topology to analyze Linear Electrical Circuit
- L.Q.G. Stochastic Optimal Estimation and Control
- Utilization of Transistor Circuits
- General Consideration of State Variable Approach to Electrical Circuits
- Analog Study of Relay Type Servo
Text Books[edit]
- Linear Control System Engineering
- The Calculation with Basic Language
- Electrical Engineering Mathematics
- Electromechanical Control with Power Electronics I
- Electromechanical Control with Power Electronics II
- Fuzzy Engineering
- Fuzzy Subset and fuzzy Logic
- Neural Engineering
- Neural Network
- Digi_Thai_Chap
- ระบบ-อนาล็อก-ดิจิตอล