On 22 January 2025, a lecture was held for first-year high school and third-year junior high school students. It was attended in person by the first-year high school students, while the third-year junior high school students joined in remotely from their classrooms.
The students listened attentively as Dean Kato shared stories about his school days, the contents of his research, and the field of engineering in general; they were all busy taking notes. We received comments such as: "I learned a lot and was inspired by Dean Kato's lecture. I want to go to the University of Tokyo to expand my unlimited potential", "Recently I've been feeling really depressed because everything I've tried has failed. But I've found new inspiration after hearing Dean Kato talk about the difficulties he faced as a student and the importance of facing up to our challenges. Even though I may continue to make some mistakes, I now feel I am able to move forward", and "I thought engineering was just mechanical engineering, so I was thrilled to learn about a course of study that allows us to interact with each other, regardless of our fields of study, and to contribute to society!".
The lecture really inspired us to keep pushing ourselves and taking on new challenges in the future.
Midori Aoki (Metaverse School of Engineering)