UT-MIT International Lectures: Introduction to Materials Engineering

The University of Tokyo’s College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Materials Engineering, School of Engineering, in coordination with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers “The University of Tokyo – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (UT-MIT) International Lectures: Introduction to Materials Engineering”.

Since the start of the joint lecture program in 2009, students and faculty members of both institutions have been visiting each other (MIT students’ visit to UT in May and UT students’ visit to MIT in September) to promote academic exchanges through the program.

Each year, during the visits by MIT students, the “UT-MIT International Joint Symposium” is held. In this symposium, students in groups (1 group: 3-5 students) give presentations on various themes related to current engineering trends, based on the results of the students’ independent studies of the subject. The students from both universities collaborate on the common themes through online group discussions prior to the symposium.

This year, the 6^th symposium was held on May 23^rd from 9:30 to 16:00 at the UT Hongo Campus. 19 undergraduate students and 1 graduate student (TA) from MIT participated along with Professor L.C. Kimerling. From UT, 12 undergraduate students from the College of Arts and Sciences, 3 teaching and administrative staff members, and 6 graduate students including TAs and students registered in the previous years participated. After a greeting from Professor Kazumi Wada, Department of Materials Engineering, 4 student groups from UT and 7 groups from MIT carried out presentations. Each presentation was allotted 25 minutes and they were followed by lively discussions. “It proved to be a very meaningful symposium”- Professor Kimerling provided a recap of the symposium at the end of the meeting.

Since 2010, UT students have been visiting MIT at the beginning of MIT’s fall semester and, with formal permission from MIT, attending lectures together with the MIT students. This year, 9 students, 1 graduate student (TA) and 2 staff members visited MIT from September 19^th to September 25^th . They attended four lectures during their visit and toured both MIT and nearby Harvard. Having a happy reunion with the MIT students who came to Japan in May for the symposium helped further deepen academic and cultural exchanges. Students shared the impression that the visits were very meaningful.

The cross-cultural experience of visiting USA is exciting, and it gives the students a new sense of encouragement for their studies and research as well as hope and inspiration for the future.

October, 2015
The University of Tokyo, School of Engineering
Department of Materials Engineering
Professor Kazumi Wada