Lecture series for Junior and Senior High Schools: Tokushima Prefectural Joto High School

On 18 July 2024, 285 first-year high school students attended the lecture.

The students, who were initially nervous about attending a lecture by a professor from the University of Tokyo whom they would not normally meet, became fascinated by his research and story of the Faculty of Engineering, UTokyo.

They participated in the lecture seriously, and eagerly took notes from the slides introducing the Faculty of Engineering and expressed comments, including “I realised how important AI studies are for society” and “I would like to do research on wooden architecture”. The participating students felt familiar with research at the Faculty of Engineering.

We have also received comments such as “I also became acquainted with faculty members from Tokushima Prefecture who are active at the University of Tokyo, which inspired me to do my best” and “Dean Kato's words about ‘working hard for society’ gave me courage. I had thought the University of Tokyo was on a different level for me, but now I'd like to aim for it”. High school teachers expressed their gratitude to Dean Kato, saying that his lecture greatly increased the number of students who were motivated to study for the university entrance examinations and were more willing to take on challenges.

Midori Aoki (Metaverse School of Engineering)