It is a pleasure to welcome you to the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) for the 8th Asian Engineering Deans’ Summitin2018. We are proud to be hosting this Summit meeting with the University of Tokyo on May 21-23 of this year.
The year 2018 is a very important milestone for Tokyo Tech as the new President Professor Masu will come into office in April for a four year term as the successor of President Mishima, who launched the reformation of the educational system at Tokyo Tech two years ago. We are taking this new system approach to completion with the spirit ‘We see an alternate future’ that values diversity. In line with this spirit, we are very pleased to invite Deans of Engineering and representatives to this auspicious occasion and to explore further improvements as well as potential collaborations in engineering education.
Up to now, the value of universities has fluctuated many times depending upon changing social demands and the global environment, which has also produced a variety of new engineering education programs in addition to traditional discipline based programs. As ever, the theme of engineering education is at forefront with advances in Artificial Intelligence and educational technology, we warmly welcome presentations on the meeting theme: Diversification of Engineering Education Programs –Today and the Future. This title covers a very wide range of spectrum including double degree programs, global education programs, student mobility programs/virtual exchanges, cross-cultural interaction programs, educational technology, active learning, project/problem based learning, entrepreneurship programs, internship programs, research based educational programs through industrial collaboration and so on. We would like to share best practices and future plans to further improve the quality of engineering education in each university and in the region.
May I wish you safe travel to and a very productive stay in Tokyo. I look forward to exchanging ideas with all participants and enhancing the solid foundations of our collaboration. At the same time, May is the most comfortable and beautiful time of year to visit due to the mild temperatures and the new green leaves in Japan. Please enjoy your stay in and around Tokyo.
Professor Yuji Wada1 and Professor Tatsuya Okubo2
Chairpersons of the 2018 Asian Engineering Deans’ Summit Organizing Committee
1 Dean, School of Materials and Chemical Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology 2 Dean, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo