President’s Address at the Fall Entrance Ceremony 2008

Kenichi Iga
President, Tokyo Institute of Technology
(October 1, 2008)

It is my great pleasure to hold the 2008 Fall Entrance Ceremony of Tokyo Institute of Technology in presence of Executive Vice Presidents, Director-General, Deans of Graduate Schools, Directors of Research Laboratories, Auditors, Library Director and Executive Staff Members. On behalf of our Institute, I am delighted to welcome all of you who have been accepted to the Graduate Schools. I’d like to express my sincere respect to the family who has supported students until now. The total enrollment of the fall entrance is 314, of which 170 is for the master’s course, including 12 for the professional master’s course, and 144 for the doctoral course. I would also like to emphasize that 188 students are all from overseas.

I hope you are filled with a strong desire to acquire higher level of skills, broader knowledge and flexible capabilities through the utilization of what you learnt before. I am sure that Tokyo Institute of Technology will provide you with high-quality education and various research opportunities. I sincerely wish you to study eagerly on your own will and promote your self-discovery in a free atmosphere of our Institute.

Tokyo Institute of Technology, or Tokodai, is the largest science and technology university in Japan with a 127-year remarkable history. Established as a professional engineering school in 1881, it became Tokyo Higher Technical School in 1901, which was then located in Kuramae, Tokyo, and in 1929, it acquired the university status as “Tokyo Kogyo Daigaku” (Tokodai). Our Institute has always been a front runner and played a key role as a reliable leader in science and technology with the long tradition of “manufacturing: Monotukuri”. I am pleased to inform you that we will celebrate the 130th anniversary in 2011.

Given our long tradition of “manufacturing” and foreseeing our future, the mission of Tokyo Institute of Technology can be expressed as follows:
“A university, Tokyo Institute of Technology seeks for a role to contribute to civilization, peace and prosperity in the world, and aims at developing global human capabilities par excellence for pioneering research and education in science and technology including industrial and social management. To achieve this mission, we have an eye on educating students with high morality to acquire not only scientific expertise but also liberal arts and balanced knowledge of social sciences and humanities, while researching deeply from basics to practice by academic mastery. Through these activities, we wish to contribute to the global sustainability of rich nature and comfortable human life.”

As you are aware, Tokodai uses in English the word “institute” instead of “university”. The word “institute” means a kind of scientific, educational or social organization in general, but it also means the basic structure of society. Thus, Tokyo Institute of Technology has always contributed to our society, just as rich soil serves for agriculture, by cultivating solid base for the advancement of science and technology and fostering creative experts with the ability to integrate and unify diverse knowledge to respond to social requirements.

Tokyo Institute of Technology has six Graduate Schools: Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Bioscience and Biotechnology, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Information Science and Engineering, Decision Science and Technology, and Innovation Management. We also have four Research Laboratories in which specialized research is conducted with a strong sense of mission, including Chemical Resources Laboratory, Precision and Intelligence Laboratory, Materials and Structures Laboratory and Research Laboratory for Nuclear Reactors, and many other research and education centers. About 1,200 faculty members have conducted world-class research and led the global academic community.

We also emphasize diversity. Tokyo Institute of Technology provides you with various educational programs in which you can expand your horizon of knowledge across disciplines, particularly the Joint Education Course of the Four-University Alliance among Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Hitotsubashi University and our Institute. We have also launched joint inter-disciplinary programs with Keio University and Waseda University. In international collaboration, we have actively cooperated with overseas universities and institutions through the Center of Excellence (COE) programs, and the Joint Graduate Course Program with Tsinghua University in China has been successfully extended to doctoral programs.

Our alumni club "Kuramae Kogyokai" is one of our main strengths. Having over 90,000 graduates in the world, Tokyo Institute of Technology has greatly contributed to global industry. Our Institute is supported by a great number of excellent graduates who actively engage in various fields. As already mentioned, our Institute 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 Tokyo Tech Front (TTF) is now under construction and will be completed by next spring. I strongly expect this building will actually be a “front” runner to lead the whole “130th anniversary project”.

As our mission clearly states, Tokyo Institute of Technology aims to develop global human capabilities. I would like to ask each of you to grow up to be a noble person who has a deep feeling of sympathy for others in our atmosphere of freedom.

I would like to present you one message "world-first". Please challenge “world-first”. Even though it is small at first, it might grow up to be big a disruptive event.

Finally, I wish to express my hearty welcome again to all of you, and wish you great success in your challenges in Tokyo Institute of Technology. Thank you very much for your attention.