平成22年9月学位記授与式

President’s Address at the Fall Graduation Ceremony

学長　伊賀　健一

9月卒業・修了の学位記授与式が9月27日（月）10：00～11：00に東工大蔵前会館1階くらまえホールにて開催されました。本稿は英語で行われた講話の全文です。

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 2010 Fall Graduation Ceremony of Tokyo Institute of Technology in presence of Academic and Executive Staff Members. I am delighted to express my sincere congratulations on your successful completion of the courses in the Undergraduate and Graduate Schools. On this occasion, doctoral degrees have been conferred on 76 students, master’s degrees on 144 students, professional master’s degrees on 11 students and bachelor’s degrees on 37 students. In total, 12,630 doctoral degrees, 41,302 master’s degrees and 138 professional master’s degrees have been conferred since 1955, and 54,499 bachelor’s degrees have been conferred since 1929.
The mission of Tokyo Institute of Technology, or Tokodai, is to cultivate solid base for the advancement of science and technology and to foster creative experts with the ability to integrate and unify diverse knowledge to respond to social needs.
Our Institute is highly appreciated by the international community. In the World University Rankings published by QS in 2010, our Institute is rated 60th in the overall ranking and 4th among Japanese universities, and in technology and engineering, rated 23rd overall and 3rd in Japan.

Now I would like to introduce some of the remarkable recent activities of our Institute.

In research, nine projects of our Institute have been selected for the Global Center of Excellence (COE) Program. Associated with these COE programs, unique and outstanding research projects and reforms in doctoral programs have been actively promoted. The most notable project in information technology is the progress of “TSUBAME”, one of the fastest-class supercomputers in Japan, which will be further improved from this October.

In international collaboration, the International Graduate Program has been launched and more than 100 overseas students have been accepted to this course every academic year. Secondly, the Joint Graduate Course Program with Tsinghua University in China has been successfully extended to doctoral programs. We have also promoted the cooperation with university courses in Thailand and the Philippines.

Last year, we have formulated “Vision 2009”: A Vision for the Future of Tokyo Institute of Technology, focusing on the next ten years, with a view to enabling the Institute to fulfill this mission over the long term and contribute to ongoing world development in the midst of the unprecedented difficulties facing humankind. “Vision 2009” clarifies the “shape” of the Institute we aspire to, and comprises guidelines for achieving our long-term goal: to realize a truly world-class science and engineering university.

Tokodai regards nurturing “knowledgeable, skilled, ambitious, peace-minded and harmony-seeking scientific creators of the times” to be its primary objective. We will endeavor to enhance the Institute’s overall standing from a global perspective, to contribute to society, and to create new values. We will respect freedom and diversity, pursue fairness, and strive to engender the trust of the world.

The development of university depends a lot on human resources. Our close alumni network centered on Kuramae Kogyokai is one of our main strengths. Having over 90,000 graduates in the world, Tokodai has greatly contributed to global industry. Our Institute is supported by a great number of excellent graduates who actively engage in various fields. For example, the current Prime Minister Mr. Naoto Kan, the former CEO of Hitachi Mr. Shoyama, President of NEC Mr. Endo, President of Nintendo Mr. Iwata are our graduates.

Established as a professional engineering school in 1881, Tokyo Institute of Technology will celebrate the 130th anniversary in 2011. It will be a great opportunity for us to demonstrate our strength to society, industry and the international community through various exciting projects. As a joint project with Kuramae Kogyokai, a new building called Tokodai-Kuramae Kaikan was constructed and opened last year. I strongly expect this building will lead the whole “130th anniversary project”, or “Tokodai 130”.

We are considering three innovative challenges in Education, Research and Contribution. I do strongly hope that you could watch the future progress of our Institute through this “Tokodai 130” event as one of the graduates.

Finally, I wish to reiterate my hearty congratulations to all of you, and wish you great success in your future endeavors.

Thank you very much for your attention.