President attends AEARU 41st BOD Meeting and 23rd AGM

President Yoshinao Mishima and Vice President for International Affairs Hidetoshi Sekiguchi attended the 41st Board of Directors (BOD) meeting and 23rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Association of East Asian Research Universities (AEARU) at the University of Tsukuba on September 23 and 24, 2017.

Representatives present at the BOD meeting included those of Seoul National University, the University of Tsukuba, Nanjing University, Peking University, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, National Taiwan University, and Tokyo Tech. Topics for the BOD and AGM meetings ranged from previously conducted AEARU activities and those proposed and approved for the upcoming term to the selection of next term's (2018-19) chair and vice-chair from the University of Tsukuba and National Taiwan University respectively. The 42nd BOD is scheduled for next spring at the University of Science and Technology of China.

At the AGM, researchers of AEARU member universities gave presentations focusing on big data. Among them, Professor Sang Kyun Cha spoke of the establishment of the Big Data Institute of Seoul National University, of which he is founding director, emphasizing their interdisciplinary research and training. Computer science researchers of National Taiwan University, Nanjing University, and Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology also gave presentations centered on the theme of "Big Data and Machine Learning Application."

The two-day gathering ended with a lab tour highlighting research at the University of Tsukuba and a visit to the International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine and Empowerment Studio.

AEARU was established in 1996 to provide a forum for exchange between East Asia's leading research-oriented universities and other universities in the region. Tokyo Tech has been a member university of AEARU since its establishment and a member of the board since 2016.

• AEARU | Exchange Initiatives | Global Global
• AEARU (The Association of East Asian Research Universities)