Tokyo Tech News

4th UK-Japan Engineering Education League Workshop 2016 held at Tokyo Tech

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Published: September 8, 2016

The 4th UK-Japan Engineering Education League (UKJEEL) workshop was held at the Tokyo Tech Ookayama Campus from August 5 to August 8. Approximately sixty faculty members and doctoral students from the UK, Europe, Asia, and the Americas came together to discuss exchange programs, engineering education, and research topics.

UKJEEL participants on Tokyo Tech Ookayama promenade

UKJEEL participants on Tokyo Tech Ookayama promenade

The workshop opened with introductory speeches from the workshop co-chairs, Dean Kikuo Kishimoto of Tokyo Tech and Professor Roderick Smith of Imperial College London. Tokyo Tech Professor Jeffrey Cross outlined separate programs for faculty and students.

Each student gave a three-minute shotgun presentation on his or her current research followed by an interactive poster session. Afterwards, students joined in group work addressing pressing issues relating to megacities. This culminated in five oral group presentations dealing with issues that ranged from energy through transport to resilience to climate change, which was attended by all delegates.

Student poster session
Student poster session

From twenty-two student poster presentations, the workshop selected four Best Poster Awards winners: Koichi Takeya of Tokyo Tech, Yuanbo Tang (Tony) of the University of Oxford, Tsuyoshi Nagasawa of Tokyo Tech, and Dittapoom Shinabuth of Tokyo Tech.

Meanwhile, faculty held a pair of round-table discussions on University Industrial Collaborations and Faculty/Student Mobilities. Participants addressed a variety of topics related to their own engineering programs and joint research. This faculty development event was organized under the Six Japanese Universities Human Assets Promotion Project for Innovative Education and Research (HAPPIER) headquartered at Tokyo Tech.

Discussion at faculty development session
Discussion at faculty development session

Co-UKJEEL Chair Prof. Roderick Smith of Imperial College London
Co-UKJEEL Chair Prof. Roderick Smith
of Imperial College London

At the weekend, UKJEEL participants traveled by bus to tour the Tomioka Silk Mill UNESCO World Heritage Site in Gunma Prefecture, as well as the Ichiban Gai Street in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, an open-air site where traditional Japanese merchant houses are well preserved. Throughout the day, students and faculty from abroad were able to immerse themselves in Japanese culture outside Tokyo and to learn about the history of Japan's modernization and industrialization. Both themes are deeply related to engineering and are foundational to this year's UKJEEL topic of megacities.

Historic Tomioka Silk Mill reeling and spinning plant

Historic Tomioka Silk Mill reeling and spinning plant

Opening of joint plenary lecture with MISW
Opening of joint plenary lecture with MISW

Students' final megacities group presentation
Students' final megacities group presentation

On the final day of the workshop, students and faculty met in a joint UKJEEL & Multidisciplinary International Student Workshop (MISW) plenary session. During lunch, faculty held a business meeting to discuss overall UKJEEL activity and offer initial thoughts on next year's conference to be held at the University of Glasgow early in September 2017.

Yuanbo Tang (Tony) of the University of Oxford accepting a Best Poster Award
Yuanbo Tang (Tony) of the University of Oxford accepting a Best Poster Award

For further information, please visit the Tokyo Tech Websiteouter for this year's conference or the official Facebook pageouter for all past and future UKJEEL workshops.

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