TJU Rector Dr. Bekir Sami Yilbas Visits Tokyo Tech Campuses

On June 2 and 3, a group of visitors led by Dr. Bekir Sami Yilbas, Rector (President) and professor of Turkish-Japanese Science and Technology University (TJU), toured Tokyo Tech campuses.

On the firstday, they visited Suzukakedai Campus, a campus located on the outskirts of Tokyo. After a briefing about the Tokyo Tech Open Innovation Platform and management of industry liaison and collaborative research, provided by the platform's associate director, Yoichi Oshima, the group visited the Research Center for All-Solid-State Battery, guided by the center's director, Ryoji Kanno (Institute Professor at Tokyo Tech Institute of Innovative Research). The Research Center for All-Solid-State Battery was founded in April 2021 with a focus on materials and technologies and industry-academia-government collaborations. The center aims to take a leading role in research in materials chemistry, solid state chemistry, and electrochemistry, widely covering everything from the basics to social implementation of solid-state batteries. Assistant Professor Aleksey Vadimovich Shegay, who is a co-researcher of Associate Professor Daiki Sato at the Laboratory for Materials and Structures of the Institute of Innovative Research, brought the visitors to the 20-story J2 Building to look at a seismic isolator.

The visitors also spent a while exchanging opinions with Professor Yoshihiro Miyake, Dean of the Tokyo Tech's Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, which used to serve for more than 40 years as an independent graduate school without an undergraduate division. The TJU is slated to launch in 2023 as a research-focused university with prominent researchers and postgraduate students. The visitors were keen to ask questions regarding the knowledge and experience gained at the unique Japanese graduate school. Professor Hiroaki Yamanaka (Department of Architecture and Building Engineering, School of Environment and Society) also talked about the "Japan-Turkey Cooperative Education Program on Resilience Engineering for Energy and Urban Systems", a collaboration in which he is involved along with Istanbul Technical University, Middle East Technical University, and Boğaziçi University – top Turkish universities – as well as the University of Tokyo and Tokyo Tech. Prof. Yamanaka also referred to recent topics such as remote lectures between Japan and Turkey on seismic engineering, and a seismic activity-related project with Turkey. The visitors and Prof. Yamanaka also exchanged opinions.

On the second day, the visitors met Tokyo Tech President Kazuya Masu, Provost and Executive Vice President for Institute Strategy Isao Satoh, and Vice President for International Affairs Nobuhiro Hayashi on Ookayama Campus. President Masu gave a brief overview of Tokyo Tech, and Rector Yilbas said he looks forward to international collaboration between TJU and Tokyo Tech. Rector Yilbas expressed his hopes and affirmed his commitment to heading a university expected to be a world-class advanced research institution. The two presidents talked in a relaxed mood and exchanged souvenirs at the end of the meeting.

Then the group moved to the wooden deck area and watched a demonstration of 5G research, performed by Professor Kei Sakaguchi, the Director of Tokyo Tech Academy for Super Smart Society. Two Tokyo Tech international students from Turkey also joined. Professor Toshio Endo of the Tokyo Tech Global Scientific Information and Computing Center (Advanced Computing Research Division) gave a lecture on Tokyo Tech's supercomputer TSUBAME 3.0, then the group visited the machine room. After lunch, the visitors exchanged opinions with Provost Isao Satoh, Professor Kotaro Inoue (Dean, School of Engineering) and Professor Naoto Sekimura (Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo). And their busy two-day tour ended.