On December 5, Tokyo Tech hosted on its Ookayama Campus an international panel to evaluate the TKT CAMPUS Asia Program.

Evaluation panel members:

・ Professor Delin Qu, Tsinghua University
・ Professor Toshio Nakamura, Stony Brook University
・ Professor Shinnosuke Obi, Keio University
・ Professor Hiroshi Mizuta, University of Southampton / Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
・ Dr. Hyunkwon Ha, CEO, Furuya Metal Korea Co., LTD.

Panel members (from left): Professor Nakamura, Professor Qu, Professor Obi, Professor Mizuta, Dr. Ha

The panel has been held every year since 2013, and with this is the final year of the project, project leaders from partner universities also participated and shared presentations on their respective achievements through the CAMPUS Asia Program.

Consortium project leaders:

・ Professor Jung Kim, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
・ Professor Xin-Hui Xing, Tsinghua University
・ Professor Masahiko Hara, Tokyo Institute of Technology

TKT CAMPUS Asia Consortium Project Leaders (from left): Professor Xing,
Professor Kim, Professor Hara

After the presentations, panel members and project leaders discussed Best Practices and exchanged ideas regarding improvements. During the wrap-up, evaluation panel members offered the following advice.

・ A trilateral program among the three countries has significance and should be continued in some form even after the current project is concluded.
・ So that students will participate in the program aiming to achieve concrete results in the lab, it is important both to clarify the value of participating in the program, such as the possibility of publishing a paper, and to provide more complete information about each lab's activities on the website.
・ A sustainable program should be created that will appeal to students even if they must pay participation fees.
・ It may be effective to separate the activities of undergraduates and graduates.
・ Tokyo Tech should actively promote programs like this to companies with which it has strong relationships.

Evaluation Panel

A get-together of CAMPUS Asia and TiROP students was held on the Ookayama Campus on the afternoon of November 20.

A total of 16 students from both programs, including international students, outbound students and tutors, enjoyed getting to know each other while playing "Pictionary," a guessing game in which players try to identify specific words based on their teammates' drawings.

Tokyo Tech students participated in hopes of returning the hospitality they received during their stays at Tokyo Tech partner universities overseas. We hope that during their stays, inbound CAMPUS Asia and TiROP students can make as many friends as possible and enjoy their life at Tokyo Tech.

On a final note, we would like to thank Mr. Tatsuno, Mr. Tsuchimoto and Mr. Usui who planned the gathering.

On November 20, a career development seminar by Professor Masahiko Hara, project leader of the TKT CAMPUS Asia Program, was held at the Ookayama Campus. Not only CAMPUS Asia students from KAIST and Tsinghua University now studying at Tokyo Tech, but also their tutors and Tokyo Tech students who have previously participated in the outbound program, attended the seminar.

Professor Hara explained how literacies and competencies vary in each stage of one's life after graduating from university, and described in concrete terms what competencies are based on his own experience. Furthermore, he introduced the Four C's, or core skills, for the 21^st Century: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.

The application for the 2016 KAIST CAMPUS Asia spring semester program is officially open!

Please visit How to Apply.

Of the total 10 CAMPUS Asia programs adopted for MEXT funding under the "Re-Inventing Japan Project," three -- those implemented by Tokyo Tech and Kyushu University and a program implemented jointly by Nagoya University and Tohoku University -- are focused on exchanges in science and engineering fields. On October 16, 2015, Tokyo Tech hosted on its Ookayama Campus a joint reporting session for CAMPUS Asia project leaders and administrative staff from each of those universities. A professor and a CAMPUS Asia program coordinator from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) also joined the session. Participants shared information on their respective CAMPUS Asia program activities in the final year of MEXT's funding for the project. Ms. Yuka Kubozono from National Institution for Academic Degrees and University Evaluation (NIAD-UE) observed the meeting.

The session was very informative for all involved. Participants were able not only to learn more about the activities of each program but also to discuss objectively topics such as maintenance of program quality across institutions and possible future directions for the exchanges.

Participants:

Kyushu University: Prof. Tetsuo Tanabe, Prof. Dong Wang
Nagoya University: Prof. Takahiro Seki, Ms. Ayako Kimata
Tohoku University: Prof. Akihiro Morita
KAIST: Prof. Jung Kim, Ms. Hyeyoung Lee
Tokyo Tech: Prof. Masahiko Hara, Prof. Kana Nishino, Mr. Kazuyoshi Sakamoto, Ms. Hiroko Shimada, Ms. Yukie Watanabe

Reference:

Kyushu University CAMPUS Asia EEST
Nagoya University CAMPUS Asia
Tohoku University CAMPUS Asia Project

On October 16, 2015, a seminar titled "Career Development & Planning in a Freezing World" by Professor Jung Kim from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at KAIST was hosted by TKT CAMPUS Asia at the Ookayama Campus.

Total 6 Korean students from KAIST who are enrolled in Tokyo Tech attended, including the CAMPUS Asia Program participants.

Student presentations of 2015 Summer Program are uploaded below:

http://www.ipo.titech.ac.jp/campusasia/intl_students/presentations/2015.html

CAMPUS Asia Summer Program 2015 academic tours

Students participating in the TKT CAMPUS Asia Summer Program 2015 were again given the opportunity to join academic tours on August 3, 4, and 10.

Tours to the following sites were conducted:

・ August 3: RIKEN Wako Branch

・ August 4: SONY Square

・ August 10: Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Tsukuba Space Center

TKT CAMPUS Asia is a student exchange program between Tokyo Tech, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Korea, and Tsinghua University in China. It is supported by the "Re-Inventing Japan Project" of Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).

This year, CAMPUS Asia students and their Tokyo Tech tutors were accompanied on the tours by students who previously studied at KAIST or Tsinghua University, and students from other exchange programs, including the Tokyo Institute of Technology International Research Opportunities Program (TiROP), the Asia-Oceania Top University League in Engineering (AOTULE) and the Tokyo Tech-Tsinghua University Joint Graduate Program.

A Rakugo Performance was included in the TiROP / TKT CAMPUS Asia Summer Program 2015, marking the fourth time the cultural event was offered to international students and the Tokyo Tech community.

Rakugo is a traditional　verbal performance art dating back to the Edo period, some 300 years ago. A single performer sits in the middle of the stage, and performs by himself the dialogue of various characters and stories. The "raku" in Rakugo means "punchline," and "go" means "story," so Rakugo is "a story with a punch line." This year, the theme was "Rakugo as the art of imagination." Though a Rakugo performer does not use special tools and does not explain very much, he expresses a wide range of emotions with only minimal props and movements.

Shinoharu Tatekawa, a disciple of Shinosuke Tatekawa, one of the most famous Rakugo artists in Japan, gave the performance, as in previous years. After Shinoharu explained the basis of Rakugo, he performed the well-known classic story Jugemu. Jugemu is the story of a boy with an extraordinarily long name. Next, Shinoharu performed the classic story Chiri Tote Chin. Two men appear in this story, and they try to cheat a man who is pretending to know everything. The two use rotten Tofu (bean curd) and tell him it is "very special food from Taiwan called chiri tote chin." Can you imagine what happened when that man ate chiri tote chin?

After those two funny classic stories, Shinoharu performed his original story The Important Thing. This is the story of grandfather and his grandson. The grandfather loved to tell proverbial phrases to support his funny little lies to his grandson. Years after their funny conversation, the grown-up grandson remembers the most important thing his grandfather told him. The kind of story is called "Ninjo-banashi", or an emotional-styled story. Shinoharu once said "I tried classic funny stories in English, and many foreign audiences enjoyed them. However, I'm not sure whether this kind of original emotional story will be welcomed by them."

He had nothing to fear. The audience member were so moved, some of them were almost crying, including me!

After three stories, we had a Q&A session. Shinoharu performed one more short story to explain the range of Rakugo.

Now, let me introduce audience members' voices to conclude this report.

Honestly speaking, before watching the Rakugo show, I didn't expect this kind of traditional Japanese performance would still be so attractive to modern people, even people from different culture background. But it turned out that I really enjoyed myself during the show and kind of fell in love with Rakugo. The reason for the popularity of Rakugo, as the performer said, might be that Rakugo touches the common life of common people. The stories can be shared by people of all ages and all nationalities, and can bring laughter and warmness to the audience. In that sense, Rakugo is like a cup of tea to me. It's not as strong as alcohol, or as sharp as soda, but it can provide the long, nice aftertaste. （Yangzi from Tsinghua University）

Today was the first time I heard the word Rakugo -- actually the second after I was told there would have been a Rakugo performance -- but I'm sure it won't be the last one! It was a very enriching experience: I've done theatre and improvisation myself, but seeing how one person alone and kneeling can make you imagine scenes with several people and with jumps in time, that is simply great. It's an amazing art and it is a unique opportunity to see it performed in English. Highly recommended, in the worstcase, you will still laugh a lot at the jokes included in the stories!

（Elena from Chalmers University of Technology）

　The Rakugo Performance helped highlight the cultural similarities between Japan and the West, showing that all cultures can laugh and learn the same way. I was very impressed by the skill of the performer, and his ability to adapt to his audience. It is clear that his years of training and study have paid off. I especially liked his extra story about the driving monkey! Rakugo is an experience in Japanese culture that everyone should try.

(Brad from Carnegie Mellon University)

I sincerely hope we will have another opportunity to welcome Shinoharu Tatekawa to Tokyo Tech!

By Kana Nishino, Associate Professor, International Office

A Special Lecture on "Technology of Tomorrow" was held on July 22 as part of the TKT CAMPUS Asia Summer Program. Conducted in cooperation with Tsinghua University and Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), TKT CAMPUS Asia is a research-oriented program funded through the "Re-inventing Japan Project," a mobility scheme under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).

Tokyo Tech students and international exchange students, including CAMPUS Asia students from KAIST and Tsinghua University, and students from Nagoya University and Kyushu University participated in the event as presentation speakers.

The students made presentations in English on how research in their fields can be practically applied to solve problems and contribute to making their cities more livable, specifically in terms of environment and energy, transportation, information technology, housing and life and entertainment.

Students introduced appealing ideas such as using Nano technology to create small sensors able to diagnose a virus, using auto pilot systems to solve traffic jams during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and using IT to promote sustainability.

Guest lecturer Patrick Harlan of the Center for Liberal Arts commented on each student's presentation and facilitated an active discussion between panelists and audience members following the presentations. The audience included those attending the event at the Tokyo Tech Lecture Theatre as well as students connected to the proceedings via video conference at Nagoya University, Kyushu University and Tohoku University.

Harlan closed the lecture by encouraging students to continue pursuing the spirit of academic inquiry.

On July 16, 35 high school students from China visited Tokyo Tech as part of the "Sakura Exchange Program in Science" promoted by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).

In small groups, the students exchanged opinions on designated topics with students from Tokyo Tech, KAIST, and Tsinghua University who are participating in the TKT CAMPUS Asia program. After the discussions, the high school students in each group made presentations.

Cultural differences between your home country and Japan

Students mentioned that there appeared to be more convenience stores, hospitals and dentists in Japan than in China. In addition, they noted the various kinds of sweets available in Japan. In terms of interpersonal relationships, the high school students mentioned that Japanese people respect each other and often smile. In China, people usually shake hands, whereas in Japan, they bow in greeting.

What impressed or surprised you most in Japan

Students noticed that streets and rivers are clean, and the trains run on time. In addition, Japanese wait at red lights. While the high school students were impressed that plastic shopping bags were free of charge, they were surprised at the expense when taking a taxi ride, getting a haircut, and buying fruits and vegetables.

Products, techniques or services that do not exist in Japan but exist in your home country

Students mentioned that shopping malls close earlier in Japan, and hot drinks and rental bicycles appear less available than in their home countries.

After the wrap-up by Prof. Masahiko Hara, a group photo was taken.

On July 2, the 2015 TKT CAMPUS Asia Summer Program Opening Ceremony was held on the Ookayama Campus. Tokyo Tech is hosting 9 CAMPUS Asia students from KAIST and Tsinghua this summer.

Professor Maruyama, Tokyo Tech's Executive Vice President for Education and International Affairs, gave a thought-provoking speech to open the ceremony. He used his own experience as a postdoctoral fellow at MIT as an example to encourage the participants to make the most of their stay in Japan. His speech was followed by Prof. Masahiko Hara, the Project Leader of TKT CAMPUS Asia.

The ceremony ended with self-introductions from all the 9 participants as well as introduction of their assigned academic advisors and tutors. The CAMPUS Asia Summer Program is running throughout the summer until August 21 when the Closing Ceremony is scheduled to be held.

This is the fourth time we invite Mr. Shinoharu Tatekawa to perform Rakugo Performance at Tokyo Tech on Aug. 5, 2015, 17:00~18:30.

You can read last year's news below:
http://www.ipo.titech.ac.jp/campusasia/news/2014/

Shinoharu is the third disciple of Shinosuke Tatekawa, one of the most famous Rakugo artists in Japan.

After graduating from Yale University, Shinoharu worked at Mitsui & Co., where he saw Rakugo performed for the first time when he was 25 years old.

He will perform both a classic and original Rakugo story this time.
We will also have time for Q&A after the performance. Please join us and enjoy Rakugo!

Entrance free, No registration needed for participants

Date & Time: August 5th, Wednesday, 17:00 - 18:30
Venue: Room H-111, Main Bldg., Ookayama Campus

For inquiries： campusasia@jim.titech.ac.jp

We are happy to announce that TKT CAMPUS Asia Consortium will host a special lecture, "Technology of Tomorrow" -Envisioning Urban Lifestyle and Cities of the Future- on July 22.

In this lecture, students from Asia, the US, Europe, and Japan will make presentations on how solving actual problems in the context of their research fields could contribute to making their cities more livable, specifically in terms of environment & energy, transportation, information technology, housing & life and entertainment.

Lecturer Patrick Harlan from the Center for Liberal Arts will give comments on each student's presentation, generate feedback from other students, and encourage active discussion among the audience.

All international students enrolled in Tokyo Tech are welcome to attend the lecture. We hope that you will enjoy the discussion and interaction with other Tokyo Tech students and exchange students from around the world.

The details for the lecture are as follows:

"Technology of Tomorrow" -Envisioning Urban Life Style and Cities of the Future-

○Date: July 22, 2015
○Time: 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. (registration starts at 2:30 p.m.)
○Tokyo Tech Lecture Theatre (W531)
○Lecturer: Patrick Harlan
○Language: English
○Registration: Please reply to cass.events@jim.titech.ac.jp by email with your name and affiliation, title the subject as "Special Lecture 7/22".

To look at our new TKT CAMPUS Asia concept book, click the picture below:

On January 26, 2015, a seminar titled "Career Development & Planning in a Freezing World" by Professor Jung Kim from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at KAIST was hosted by TKT CAMPUS Asia at the Ookayama Campus.

The seminar was attended, among others, by 15 Korean students from KAIST who are enrolled in Tokyo Tech under the CAMPUS Asia Program. First, Prof. Kim introduced how he had developed his own career up to present. Then, students took turns explaining their background and motivation for studying at Tokyo Tech.

Prof. Kim provided three competencies that Korean companies look for in students who have studied in Japan: Japanese proficiency, professional expertise, and survival skills.　In addition, he indicated that the following eight attributes would become advantages as their careers progress: an extensive range of knowledge, planning skills, communication skills, sociability, a good sense of mathematics, effective time management, good health and hobbies, and personal connections.

Korean male students showed great concern regarding the impact of the military service on the development of their careers. It was impressive to see so many students listening intently to the professor's experiences and taking notes.

Prof. Kim concluded his seminar by emphasizing to students the importance of setting a goal in their own lives rather than just planning their careers.