KAIT hosted the 7th University of Technology Summit
On Saturday, Nov. 30th, 2024, KAIT hosted the “7th University of Technology Summit” which is comprised by nine private technological universities. Principals of all nine universities, faculty, students, business people, technical high schools, and many others participated in the event. The event was also broadcast online and viewers participated from all over the country.
The “University of Technology Summit” was established in March 2017 to share information on human and material resources of each university and to further vitalize science and engineering higher education through collaboration, with the mission as an engineering university to develop human resources to support an industrial nation and to cultivate individuals who can work in a global environment as common issues. Currently, nine universities, Aichi Institute of Technology, Osaka Institute of Technology, Kanagawa Institute of Technology, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tohoku Institute of Technology, Hiroshima Institute of Technology, Fukui University of Technology, Fukuoka Institute of Technology, and Hokkaido University of Science, in alphabetical order, are participating. They take turns to host this University of Technology summit annually.
At the 7th summit, we mainly aimed to find out how technical high schools and engineering universities can work together and what the future holds under the “Future of Technology High School and the Technological University” theme.
Following the opening address by Principal Kazumi Komiya of KAIT and a welcome address by guest of honor Sawada Kazuki, Director, Science and Technology Education Division, Higher Education Bureau, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Moriya Fumitoshi, President of the National Association of Technical High School Principals, gave a keynote speech titled “Current Status and Issues of Technical High Schools in Japan”. They introduced and reported the collaborative examples between each university and the technical high schools at the principals’ panel discussion.
Breakout sessions were divided into two themes. The theme A, “The Future of Technical Education,” featured presentations by current students who went from technical high schools to technical or engineering universities on their experiences, studies, and future plans. In the following discussion section, there were many opinions from students' perspectives on issues and improvement in technical high schools and universities. Theme B, “Quality Assurance in Industrial Education,” featured presentations and discussions on examples and achievements in industrial education from five educational institutions. It was an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of seamless learning through shared information between technical high schools and universities.
In addition, students from KAIT eSports, the official eSports club of KAIT, took the lead in organizing an eSports event at the “Civic eSports Hall” in the KAIT Town Building for the purpose of student exchange among the participating universities. After the opening ceremony, participants were divided into their respective categories and engaged in enthusiastic competition. The first-floor venue was the scene of heated battles between popular action games, which drew loud cheers from the audience. Meanwhile, a first-person shooter game was held on the second floor, where the audience was thrilled by the speedy and intelligent battle that took full advantage of strategy amidst the tense atmosphere of the glass-walled battle seats. After four hours of heated competition, the winners were awarded certificates at the closing ceremony by Professor, Shiokawa Shigeki advisor to the e-sports club and dean of students. After that, it was free time for the participants to get to know each other and enjoy socializing.
Panel discussion by principals of 9 universities
Panel discussion by principals of 9 universities
Discussion by students during breakout session A
Discussion by students during breakout session A
Professor Ayumi Koike, Department of Applied Chemistry and Biology, Faculty of Engineering, presenting KAIT’s education program for women in science and engineering at breakout session B
Principal Kazumi Komiya gives a summary a