Activity Report of Open Application Course vol.7
Short-term Training Program to Learn Setting Up a Smart-infrastructure, New Energy Sources, and Sustainable Environment
Report from Hiroshima University
With the support of the Sakura Science Exchange Program, we implemented a “Short-term Training Program to Learn Setting Up a Smart-infrastructure, New Energy Sources, and Sustainable Environment” (June 24, 2019 - June 30, 2019) to which we invited 15 students from 4 universities in India (Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai, Birla Institute of Technology & Science Pilani and Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology Shibpur). Hiroshima University wants to build mutual understanding and a collaborative relationship between Japanese and Indian students who will be saddled with the responsibility of conducting future scientific and technical research, to prime them to advance on to our graduate school by having them learn about our education and research and to build a foundation that leads to collaborative education and research between our university in the future and those four universities in India.
The students visited the environmentally smart materials research center and 10 research rooms such as the biological systems, robotics rooms and others. They took special lectures and had a look around the laboratories there. The students were extremely interested, and actively asked questions and often offered their own opinions.
This program allowed the students to visit four corporations to learn about Japan’s infrastructure technologies, and the implementation of leading technologies. The students were given a direct explanation by a working-level expert at NEXCO Nishi Nihon regarding Japan’s highway management and technical development, and safety management of Japan’s highways. At the MAZDA Museum, the students observed the actual manufacturing processes and heard explanations regarding technical development. The students heard an explanation about an activity that connects leading research and technical needs to local corporations and commercial ventures from the experts at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Chugoku while observing actual products that were commercialized. At the Energia Economic and Technical Research Institute of Chugoku Electric Power Co., INC., the students were given a lecture on technical development that is conducted together with Hiroshima University. The students were able to deepen their knowledge about how we carry out industry-academia collaboration in Japan through their visits.
Experience an operation to recharge an electric vehicle.
Hiroshima Peace Study brought the students to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and the Atomic Bomb Dome with and gave them the opportunity to consider the misery caused by an atomic weapon and the importance of peace by listening to a talk given by a local resident who volunteers as a guide. Also, as a cultural experience of Hiroshima, the students visited Itsukushima Shrine which is a world heritage site in Hiroshima and enjoyed a world view of Miyajima, such as the “Floating” Torii, Nakamise and deers. In addition, students from Hiroshima University played an active role as guides during this training program.
At the results report session on the last day of the training, the students summarized the research and visits that gave them the greatest impressions during the program and made some presentations about how they planned to utilize those experiences in their own future research activities.
We were able to implement the same program with the support from Sakura Science Exchange Program in 2018 as well. One of the participants at that time is participating in the internship program at Hiroshima University and the program is developing to further research exchanges. We also had many questions from the participants this time about Hiroshima University’s internship and advancing on to our graduate school. We anticipate this to play a role as a program that leads further interactions.
