Guest speaker : Prof. Krishna Kumar

Guest speaker : Prof. Krishna Kumar

Respected President, Vice President, Distinguished faculty and Ladies and Gentlemen.

Today is a memorable day for the foreign researchers in the annals of Tokyo Institute of Technology. It is a thanks giving occasion to TIT which welcomed us. We are a privileged few to have the opportunity to come to Japan and participate in the research activities of Tokyo Institute of Technology. This would not have been possible without the generous support of Japanese Government in general and Tokyo Institute of Technology in particular. Personally I am happy to be a part of the Centre of Excellence Program at TIT.

When the teachers support team asked me to give a short speech on this occasion, I graciously conceded to their request, because, I am a teacher first then only a researcher. When I look back at the past during the time when I graduated, the education scenario was entirely different from the present. At that time the prime motive of education is knowledge seeking and equip one self with good knowledge of language both in communication as well as written and those who possessed were called well read.

In the past two decades there is revolution and sea of change in the attitude of academicians and the government on the establishment of centers of higher learning and technology. Now these centers of higher learning are established on the basis of inextricably on three major issues or dimension.

The first dimension is the societal needs and to address the problem faced by man kind all over the world. Societal demands on these institutes becoming complex and diversified and solutions are required at the earliest. Some of the problems faced to-day are the Energy crisis, mitigation of suffering from natural calamity like earth quake and Tsunami and save the future generation from the killer disease AIDS. To the top of all is the threat from Terrorists.

Since these are the problems faced by the society at large, solutions cannot be found by any country in isolation and hence international participation is the need of the hour.

The second dimension to the establishment of centers of higher learning is catering to the requirement of the Industry. Industry dictates their requirement of man power in the competitive environment and courses are structured to meet the needs of the industry. The third dimension is the demand from student community on their employability. The students are eager whether after graduation they stand a good chance in the employment scenario.

Very few institutes in the world cater to the needs of these three dimensions and Tokyo Institute of Technology is the foremost among them. TIT has been successful in the creation of highly talented human resource endowed with international leadership. This is primarily due to its internationally reputed faculty, its infrastructure on research resource and above all public relations about research activities. Some of the activities of TIT for societal needs are

  • Buildings to withstand natural disaster. Development of long life sustainable building structure
  • Energy demands in local area using the concept of CANDLE.
  • Extraction of essential characters of disasters like earthquakes, tsunami, typhoons. Development of Geographic Information system (GIS).

Well, TIT has provides us food to our mind and satisfied our hunger for knowledge. But for the mind and body to work in tandem, we require warmth, affection and above all concern for the fellow human being. I am deeply touched and over whelmed by the politeness and kindness of Japanese in each and every matter. This makes us feel socially comfortable and in fact I often forget that I am in Japan. I assure you Sir, when we reach our country we will not only be ambassadors of knowledge, but also carry forward Japanese culture and politeness.

Let the land of rising sun continue to nourish high technology and we the foreign researchers will also shoulder your responsibility to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity to mankind.

Thank you.

Visiting Professor, Research Laboratory for Nuclear Reactors
Senior Scientific Officer, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research

Prof. Krishna Kumar

Respected President, Vice President, Distinguished faculty and Ladies and Gentlemen.
Today is a memorable day for the foreign researchers in the annals of Tokyo Institute of Technology. It is a thanks giving occasion to TIT which welcomed us. We are a privileged few to have the opportunity to come to Japan and participate in the research activities of Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Tokyo Tech President Kenichi Iga's Speech

Tokyo Tech President Kenichi Iga's Speech

Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my great pleasure to invite all of you this evening for the International Exchange Party. I believe that this event will provide a good opportunity to get to know with each other. I am delighted to welcome international researchers and families visiting Tokyo Institute of Technology, or we say "Tokodai".

Before I begin some speech, I would like to express my sympathy to the people who suffered the big earthquake in China, the large cyclone in Myanmar, and the recent earthquake in Tohoku, Japan.

Tokodai is one of the premier universities of science and technology in Japan with remarkable history since it was established as the first professional engineering school in 1881. We have been always a front runner and played a key role in the advancement of science and technology. Since the reorganisation as a national university corporation in 2004, we have been eager to contribute to our country as well as the international community by proving distinct education and research through governmental and industrial projects. Let me explain briefly.

Firstly, we ran 12 projects of the 21st Century Center of Excellence, or COE, Program by Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology, the MEXT. We made the research centers at the highest world level with these projects. In order to strengthen graduate research after the 21st Century COE, we obtained 5 projects for the Global COE Program by the MEXT in 2007 and 3 teams this year. In addition, we established the Integrated Research Institute with the Super COE Program in 2005 to reorganise the research centers into a flexible body which can promptly respond to changing needs in society.

Allow me to say a few words on research excellence, I believe that research should be "disruptive" in some way. The disruptive technology can disrupt the inertia of conventional view. It should be based upon real originality and creativity. At the same time, we also have to be aware of what our society expects now and in the future.

Actually, I have engaged in research at Tokodai for a vertical cavity surface-emitting semiconductor laser so-called VCSEL. It has passed 30 years since I made this invention in 1977. It has been applied to Giga-bit Ethernet, laser printers, laser mouse and optical inter-connect of supercomputers as well as possibly mobile phones in the three decades. My research has brought some benefit to industry, but it resulted from a very basic research, which will bring a technological breakthrough for a better industrial use. We need a good balance between basic research and technological applications.

To conclude my speech, I wish you all the best for your research at Tokodai.

Thank you very much for your attention.

The President of Tokyo Institute of Technology

IGA Kenichi

Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my great pleasure to invite all of you this evening for the International Exchange Party. I believe that this event will provide a good opportunity to get to know with each other. I am delighted to welcome international researchers and families visiting Tokyo Institute of Technology, or we say "Tokodai".

Diem Phuong Nguyen

Diem Phuong Nguyen

Origin: Vietnam
Program: JAICA Researcher
Research Focus: Chemical Engineering

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Juan Manuel Garcia-Islas

Juan Manuel Garcia-Islas

Origin: Mexico

Program: Visiting Researcher

Research Focus: Mathematical Physics

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Joseph Loly

Joseph Loly

Origin: India

Program: JSPS Post-Doctoral Fellow

Research Focus: Magnetic materials.

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Dinh Viet NGUYEN

Dinh Viet NGUYEN

Origin: Vietnam
Program: Ph.D. Visiting researcher
Research Focus: Chemical Engineering

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Alizee Bertand

Alizee Bertand

Origin: France
Program: Internship
Research Focus: Single-electron Transistors, nanoelectronics

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Annsi Smedlund

Annsi Smedlund

Origin: Finland
Program: Research Associate
Research Focus: Service Management

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Elaiyraju Srinvasan

Elaiyraju Srinvasan

Origin: India
Program: Researcher
Research Focus: Mechanical Engineering

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Jerome Petit

Jerome Petit

Origin: France
Program: JSPS Post-Doctoral Fellow
Research Focus: Mathematics

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Liwei Wang

Liwei Wang

Origin: China
Program: COE Researcher
Research Focus: Artificial Intelligence

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Amar Prasad Yadav

Amar Prasad Yadav

Origin: Nepal
Program: Researcher
Research Focus: Fuel cells

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Claire Utton

Claire Utton

Origin: England
Program: JSPS Fellow
Research Focus: Nuclear waste

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Prof. Nelson Max

Prof. Nelson Max

Origin: America
Program: Sabbatical Visiting Professor
Research Focus: Computer Graphics

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