2024 Spring Entrance Ceremony for bachelor's program students

Good morning, everyone.

The Tokyo Tech community is pleased to welcome students, parents, family members, staff, and friends to the 2024 Spring Entrance Ceremony for bachelor's program students. We are here to celebrate all the new students joining us today. You have worked hard to come this far under challenging circumstances, and you should be proud of your achievements. Let us also acknowledge your guardians and families, and express our gratitude for the time and effort they have dedicated to your lives.

On this special day, we welcome warmly the 1,163 students entering the bachelor's degree program, including the transfer students joining us from other institutions. I am sure all of you have been waiting eagerly for this day to come, and finally, it is here. Congratulations, and thank you for adding another special page to the 143-year history of the Institute.

New students of Tokyo Tech: I want to assure you that, starting from today, you are all part of a diverse, inclusive community. We are all here to support you, regardless of the path that has brought you here. Despite the difficult challenges that the world has faced in recent years, Tokyo Tech has remained firmly on its path of enhancing learning opportunities for its students while creating new value that addresses the constantly changing global environment.

Just over a year ago, the Institute established the Center of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence to expand DS and AI training to all Tokyo Tech students, ensuring that you can utilize these skills in a rapidly accelerating digital information society while connecting with fellow students from other specializations. Tokyo Tech has also consolidated its energy research efforts to form the Laboratory for Zero-Carbon Energy, which focuses on research and development of non-fossil energy sources and usage systems, and incorporates its findings in the Institute's courses. And Hisao & Hiroko Taki Plaza, the student exchange hub near the Main Gate on Ookayama Campus, welcomes you right from the start to join any number of student-led activities or to pursue your own initiatives.

Without a doubt, however, the most exciting development is yet to come. Tokyo Tech will join forces with its long-term partner, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, to form a completely new university, named Institute of Science Tokyo, or Tokyo Kagaku Daigaku, in October. This integration will unite many of you ― the budding leaders who have chosen science and technology as your path ― with the brightest minds in the medical, nursing, and dental sciences, encouraging a convergence of fields that will create state-of-the-art innovations, heightened societal impact, and most importantly, increased collaborations and possibilities for all of you to explore.

This move to unify current and future experts from various fields will put you at the compelling crossroads of science and engineering, informatics, medicine, nursing, and dentistry. It will also open more doors into the liberal arts, humanities, and social sciences, and encourage enterprising approaches in a stimulating interdisciplinary environment. I hope that you can all actively build an open, new culture at Institute of Science Tokyo.

As we prepare for this change, however, we want to ensure that all new students have access to the best that Tokyo Tech has to offer, and no one is left behind. Many of you may still feel uncertain about the path you want to pursue. Fear not. Tokyo Tech offers a variety of first-year courses that will help you carve out your own vision for the future. One of these is the Frontiers of Science and Technology course, which utilizes expertise from all of Tokyo Tech's six Schools to broaden your perspective and demonstrate how individual science and engineering achievements are connected to society. The course also features lectures by globally leading scientists and engineers such as Dr. Hideki Shirakawa, a Tokyo Tech alumnus who received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2000 for the discovery and development of electrically conductive polymers.

Whatever you decide to do here, you can be certain of two things: Firstly, that the Institute will provide you with challenges and opportunities to create openly. And secondly, that our dedicated faculty, staff, and students are here to assist you. The Tokyo Tech community is constantly devising pathways and support systems for new students with increasingly diverse backgrounds, abilities, needs, and interests. We aim for an environment where each one of you is valued, provided equal access to the riches of academia, and openly welcomed in all of our activities.

Finally, I want to draw your attention to the centennial flags and the Tokyo Tech Seal behind me. These flags were presented to the Institute by the Tokyo Tech Alumni Association, or Kuramae Kogyokai, to commemorate Tokyo Tech's 100th anniversary. One represents the search for truth and reason, the other signifies advancement of technology. As the Institute looks towards exciting new challenges and opportunities, the alumni association is also here to engage with you as you begin to expand your networks and perspectives.

The Tokyo Tech Seal, the swallow by the window, symbolizes the Institute as a hub of technical innovation from which the windows of the world open up to its members. You are now peering in this window, perhaps seeking new experiences, knowledge, and guidance. I am confident that we will provide these to you. So don't hold back. Begin your active Tokyo Tech journey from today and take full advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead of you.

New students of Tokyo Tech: I encourage you to embrace any challenges that come your way. I encourage you to become creators of a better future!

Once again, congratulations.

April 3, 2024
Kazuya Masu
President, Tokyo Tech