SFC EXPO to be Held on Saturday, November 25 and Sunday, November 26! | Tomohiro Ichinose, Dean of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies
2023.09.19
We are past the middle of September, and this week we have the graduation ceremony on the 20th and the entrance ceremony on the 22nd. The long vacation is over, and students are returning to campus. And in two months, we will finally have the first-ever "SFC EXPO." Perhaps even SFC students are in a situation where they are thinking, "Huh? What's that?" SFC has traditionally held the SFC Open Research Forum (ORF) in late November. It used to be held in central Tokyo, such as at Tokyo Midtown, but with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it shifted online. Then, last year , it returned to campus for the first time in a while. The ORF is an event that brings together all of SFC's research outcomes.
However, this year, the ORF is not at the forefront, and instead we have an unfamiliar event called the "SFC EXPO." This is an initiative to bundle together events that SFC has held for the public, such as the Open Campus, the Keio SFC Academic Society Conference, and the Fujisawa Citizen's Lecture Series, along with the ORF, and hold them all at once. As a research presentation event, the original target audience for the ORF was companies and experts interested in the research being conducted at SFC. However, as the ORF continued over the years, high school students considering applying to SFC came to make up a large portion of the attendees. In response, we have planned sessions for high school students, but faculty and staff raised the question of whether this was something the ORF should be doing. The idea behind the SFC EXPO is, "Well then, let's just combine everything." Incidentally, this name was decided by a vote after being solicited from students, faculty, and staff.
So, while this is our first attempt this year, if you come to the SFC EXPO, you should be able to understand everything about SFC. You will not only learn about SFC but also about the Endo and Goshomi districts of Fujisawa City, where the campus is located. Although the website is already public, the content is not yet fully prepared. With so many events happening at once, just managing the logistics for each is a major task. However, there is no doubt that this will be the largest exposition involving all three of SFC's undergraduate faculties and two graduate schools, so I hope you will take the time to visit our campus on these two days.
Finally, the terms of most of the SFC "Okashira" (heads) who have appeared in this Okashira Nikki will end at the end of September. For me, these two years have passed in the blink of an eye. I have no idea who is reading this Okashira Nikki, but all of us writers, myself included, have agonized over what to write each time. From October, the lineup of the Okashira will change slightly, but this Okashira Nikki is scheduled to continue. I hope for your continued readership.