President Sakaki attended a Commemoration ceremony at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)
14 Oct 2011
On the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Materials Science and Engineering Department and of the Electrical & Electronic Engineering Department at USM, with which Toyohashi University of Technology (TUT) had signed an agreement for academic exchange, President Sakaki visited Malaysia for a period from September 12 to 15 and attended at ceremony at USM to mark the occasion. With various overseas guests, the successive Deans, Faculty members and university students in attendance, the ceremony was a grand celebration that looked back at the history of USM and looked forward to further development in the future.
On the day after the ceremony, a Joint Workshop between USM-TUT entitled 'Towards Enhanced Partnership' was held. Three professors from TUT (Professor Umemoto, No. 1 Course, Professor Sawada, No. 2 Course, and Professor Itsuno, No. 4 Course) and four professors from USM gave presentations covering their latest research. After the presentation, poster sessions were held, at which eight poster-presentations from TUT and 21 presentations from USM were presented. Various young researchers and post-graduate students visited the session.
President Sakaki also visited the University of Technology Malaysia (UTM), which is another Malaysian university with which TUT had signed an agreement for academic exchange. He talked with the Vice president of UTM, who is in charge of educational program, concerning the short program, the exchange of students, and exchange of research ideas.
The current number of alumni who have graduated from TUT and live in Malaysia has now reached about 180 persons. On this occasion, alumni reunions were held in both Penang and Kuala Lumpur.
A total of 60 alumni participated in the reunions and enjoyed renewing old friendships. Many of the graduates from TUT are now working at Japanese corporations in Malaysia. Quoting words from a book written by Mrs. Masako Kuriyama, the wife of the Japanese Ambassador to Malaysia, 'The Charm of Malaysia--a country whose people have warm hearts', President Sakaki sent the following words to the alumni who work as excellent engineers in Malaysian society utilizing knowledge and practical skills that they obtained at TUT:
"As a multi-ethnic country, Malaysia accepts different histories and cultures and the people are warm hearted. I am pleased to see that you still think of TUT with a warm heart, even though it has been a long time since you left the University."
25% of the total number of registered foreign students at TUT are from Malaysia, and this is the largest share among a total of about 200 foreign students who are registered. Furthermore, UTM has been supporting competent young researchers as a host university for AUN/SEED-Net in the field of materials engineering. TUT also accepts many researchers as a part of this program.
It is expected that cooperation between the universities in Malaysia and our University will be further enhanced by this visit from President Sakaki.