International Training | Hideyuki Tokuda (Dean of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies)

2008.09.19

From early to late August, after the spring semester academic schedule had mostly concluded, I participated with students and faculty members in an international workshop held overseas and an inspection tour of residential programs at American universities.

The first was an international workshop with people from ubiquitous computing (UbiComp) related projects at universities in Finland and Germany, along with Japanese researchers. Thanks to students in the Doctoral Programs at a Finnish university actively undertaking long-term stays at Japanese universities, and a collaborative research project between our group and researchers from a German university, we ended up holding the workshop this time at the University of Oulu. Despite it being summer, Oulu was so cold that the high temperature was only 16°C, but we were able to have a very productive exchange of ideas. Still, I was surprised to see the young Finnish researchers chugging beer as if it were water at the workshop dinner.

The second was a workshop in the city of Pori, south of Oulu, with people from the business school at Tampere University of Technology in Finland and from companies that are developing UbiComp for business. This was based on the exchange between the groups of Professor Hannu Jaakkola of Tampere University and Professor Yasushi Kiyoiki of SFC. We were able to discuss a wide range of topics, including a graduate-level exchange program with SFC and plans for commercializing UbiComp applications that are being developed in Finland. A newspaper reporter from the local city of Pori came to cover the event, and I ended up being interviewed. The reporter asked questions like, "Is it possible to harmonize society and UbiComp technology?" and "Can it truly enrich people's lives?" and an article about the interview was published in the paper the very next day. After the workshop, we were invited to the Pori mayor's summer cottage and had the opportunity to join our Finnish counterparts in the sauna, literally baring all to get to know each other on a deeper level. Still, it is truly amazing that a country with a total population less than half that of Yokohama City has so many internationally successful companies, starting with Nokia. Could it be because of their excellent education system?

The third event was a workshop in Taiwan, hosted by National Taiwan University. It was held in the form of a research presentation session, bringing together undergraduate and graduate students not only from Keio University but also from the University of Tokyo, Waseda University, and Tokyo Denki University. As it happened, Prof. E. A. Lee, the Chair of EECS at UC Berkeley, was also at the venue, so I had the chance to speak with him not only about the Asian students' research topics but also about their presentation styles. He commented that the presentations themselves were not too bad. However, when it came to the Q&A session, there were a few who struggled to respond smoothly. Of course, some students were presenting in English for the first time, but I hope they keenly realized how important it is to be able to understand questions in real time and provide appropriate responses. I hope that these young researchers will transcend national borders and build networks within Asia.

The fourth was an inspection tour and retreat this summer with members of the SFC Miraisozojuku (Institute for Designing the Future) planning group to study residential education and new educational and research environments at major US universities. We exchanged opinions with people from Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, MIT, Harvard University, and the University of Virginia about their philosophies, educational content, administrative structures, the architecture of dormitories and educational research buildings, and their responses during summer vacation and emergencies. In the United States, where it is common for universities to have adopted residential education for all first-year undergraduate students since their founding, various staff and systems have been established, such as the Freshman Dean's office, Fellows, Staff, and Residential Assistants. In addition to classroom education, they had incorporated the utmost ingenuity into the holistic education of their students through residential programs, aiming to cultivate intellectual curiosity for academics, nurture leadership, and provide experience in community building.

Through these international workshops and inspection tours, this was truly a summer of great learning. It has renewed my determination to strive to make such international training opportunities available not just to some students, but to all students at SFC.

(Date Published: 2008/09/19)