Liberal Arts Final Report best thesis winners present their work

Published: December 12, 2022

Bachelor's program students who completed their Liberal Arts Final Report in their third year of study in academic year 2021 and were selected as best thesis winners presented their work and experiences at an event held on Ookayama Campus on July 22. Sixteen of the thirty-six best thesis winners were present at the event. While this event began in 2019, the July 2022 gathering was the first in-person presentation session in three years due to restrictions caused by COVID-19.

Student Genki Fukasawa presenting his thoughts

The Liberal Art Final Report course is a required two-credit liberal arts course taken by all Tokyo Tech students in the fall of their third year of the bachelor’s degree program. The course culminates in a 5,000 to 10,000-word academic paper which highlights the knowledge and skills that each student has acquired in the liberal arts courses since they joined Tokyo Tech, and their vision for the future. The course also brings together the same groups of students that took the Tokyo Tech Visionary Project course together two-and-a-half years earlier, allowing students to reflect on and share their progress with fellow students.

During the course, students not only write a thesis, but also read each other's texts during peer review sessions, which help them refine each other’s writing through dialogue. Graduate-level students who have been officially certified as Graduate Student Assistants (GSAs) participate in the classes as GSA Reviewers to further assist students in writing their Liberal Arts Final Reports.

On the day of the presentations in July, more than 100 people including bachelor’s program students from all years of study, master’s students, faculty and staff, Tokyo Tech Alumni Association members, and representatives of the press joined to listen to the best thesis winners.

AY 2022 presentation program

July 22, 2022

5:30-5:40 p.m.	Greeting by Institute for Liberal Arts (ILA) Dean Taro Yamazaki
5:40-5:50 p.m.	Outline of Liberal Arts Final Report course by ILA Professor Tatsuya Yumiyama
5:50-7:40 p.m.	Presentations by best thesis winners
7:40-7:55 p.m.	Evaluation by Tokyo Tech President Kazuya Masu, Execution Vice President for Education Jun-ichi Imura
7:55-8:00 p.m.	Closing words by ILA Associate Dean Koichiro Mitsubori

To kick off the event, Institute for Liberal Arts (ILA) Dean Taro Yamazaki offered some opening words, highlighting the diversity of topics and abundance of individuality among the presenters. ILA Professor Tatsuya Yumiyama also offered a brief outline of the Liberal Arts Final Report course and some comments of his own.

Opening greeting from ILA Dean Yamazaki

ILA Prof. Yumiyama giving outline of Liberal Arts Final Report course

Presenters introducing themselves

The 16 student presenters at the event, now in their fourth year of the bachelor's program, spoke about areas such as pop culture, youth culture, historical awareness, literary criticism, interview-based discussions, mathematical approaches, and geographical exploration through the following presentations:

Dismantling the "Children above All Else" Concept
Takumi Okumura, Physics
Looking Back on the Heisei Era with Detective Conan: The Influence of Technological Development in the Heisei Era on the Works
Lisa Shiozawa, Computer Science
What Is Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering? The Real Voices of 71 Faculty Members and Students
Akiko Watanabe, Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering
Fatigue and Loneliness Mechanisms in Young Instagram Users, and How to Deal with Conditions
Kalilou Kissa Kashiwakura, Earth and Planetary Sciences
Cross-Cultural Understanding Based on Differences in Nuclear Awareness between Japanese and Americans
Tatsuya Shinoda, Life Science and Technology
Defending the Productivity Supremacy
Hidetoshi Mori, Earth and Planetary Sciences
Considering the Necessity of Proactively Educating Oneself from the Problems of Liberal Arts Education in Undergraduate Degree Programs at Tokyo Institute of Technology
Sho Kitagawa, Mechanical Engineering
Are Life's Simple Pleasures Enjoyable?
Shintaro Mitani, Life Science and Technology
What Mathematics Is Dreaming About
Shintaro Nakano, Physics
Possibilities in Sexuality and Life in Light "Confessions of a Mask"
Kan Sato, Earth and Planetary Sciences
Art from the Perspective of Appreciation and Production: The Act of Art Considered through My Works
Genki Fukasawa, Life Science and Technology
Learning a New Language
Sang-Eun Yeom, Chemistry
Half a Century of Change in Pop Idol Songs
Takumi Ueda, Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Relics in the Ookayama Area
Ryu Sato, Earth and Planetary Sciences
Contemplation on Science and Liberal Arts and Their Correlation
Jae Hyo Jang, Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering
Open Collaborations and Its Future
Yehuda Hamonangan Sidabutar, Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering

Snapshots from various presentations

Snapshots from Q&A sessions

Snapshots from various presentations and Q&A sessions

After the presentations, Tokyo Tech President Kazuya Masu and Executive Vice President for Education Jun-ichi Imura both shared their thoughts on the students' achievements. Masu noted that it was precisely the freedom of expression throughout the course that made it challenging. The students' experiences of developing their thesis from various angles will surely be useful in the future. "Examining multiple aspects of who you are during your bachelor's degree program will help you understand what you want, and the writing of this thesis will surely be an asset in your future research," Imura commented.

President Masu sharing his thoughts on presentations

EVP Imura offering his comments

Comments from presenters

I very much enjoyed the opportunity to learn about the tastes and interests of a variety of people I would not normally meet.
It was great to hear presentations on various topics. Giving my own presentation was also a very useful experience.
The diverse content presented was interesting. Thank you to the organizers for conducting this event in person.
I felt I wanted to talk a lot more. Perhaps I could have been more creative in my speaking style.

Comments from students in the audience

It was fascinating to see that each presenter had a different topic and background. I think the presentations were very useful in setting the theme for my own writing next year.
It was interesting to see people with different ways of thinking. I am writing my Liberal Arts Final Report this year, so this was very helpful.
There were a number of interesting aspects during this event. They deepened my desire to know more about the thesis, so this was very a positive experience.
Thank you to all the presenters for sharing their wonderful presentations. I very much appreciate that this was done in person. I would like to participate again next year.
I felt that many presenters had enjoyed writing their thesis. I got some great hints for next year's Liberal Arts Final Report. Thank you for this opportunity.
This was a great chance to experience a variety of topics and enrich my own thinking. Seeing senior students presenting their topics further increased my desire to concentrate on writing about the topics that interest me.

Comments from faculty and staff members

All of the presentations made me want to read the students' theses. It felt like all the participants really enjoyed working on this.
I really got a sense of the wide range of thinking styles of today's students.
The level of originality was so high!
The topics and contents were more varied and interesting than I had expected. I could genuinely feel the efforts of the supporting faculty members.
The topics were so diverse, and I felt that all the study was worthwhile. I was also impressed by the high level of these Tokyo Tech students — not just their level of thinking, but also their language skills and depth of interests.
There were many interesting presentations, and I particularly admired the careful preparations of the first presenter.
It certainly was fabulous. This course and presentation session always give me motivation as well as expansion of perspectives.
I am glad that we were able to hold this event in person. I could tell that each presenter had truly reflected on themselves and took on the challenge of expressing the result in words. The topics covered were diverse and very enjoyable.
I sensed that the level of liberal arts education at Tokyo Tech is high even though it is a science and technology university. Perhaps this event could be held on a larger scale.
This was extremely interesting. I could sense the importance of deeply researching and writing about the topics that one enjoys.
I can't express in words how happy I am that we were able to hold the presentations in person. Thank you very much for organizing this event.

Comments from media and other visitors

The students were truly outstanding. I would like to read some of their theses.
Very good presentations with a variety of titles and real diversity. Thank you very much for this opportunity after several years of restrictions. The explanations of the pair work during the course were also very interesting.
I only participated in the second half of the session, but I was truly surprised by the high level of composition, analysis, persuasiveness, and expression. I believe that assembling and explaining things from scratch is a great asset for these students in the future.
This was a form of embodiment of Tokyo Tech's efforts and what the students have learning so far, and therefore very meaningful. Thank you very much.

To wrap up the event, ILA Associate Dean for Education and International Affairs Koichiro Mitsubori offered his closing remarks. By training and acquiring writing abilities through the Liberal Arts Final Report, and by understanding the difficult of written expression, students will come to believe in the power of words, Mitsubori noted. He concluded by expressing his firm belief in the significance of the course and the liberal arts education being conducted at Tokyo Tech.

ILA Assoc. Dean Mitsubori offering closing comments

Unfortunately, in academic year 2022, some students who received the best thesis award were unable to attend these presentations due to difficult timing and other reasons. In academic year 2023, the organizers will review schedule and frequency of the presentations to ensure that more award winners are able to attend and present their unique ideas.

Commemorative photos of presenters

Institute for Liberal Arts
—Connecting Science and Technology with Society—
Information on Institute for Liberal Arts inaugurated in April 2016

Institute for Liberal Arts (ILA)

Schools, Departments, and Institute for Liberal Arts

Contact

Takeo Suzuki

Lecturer, Institute for Liberal Arts

Email t.suzuki@ila.titech.ac.jp