▎GLOBAL OUTLOOK
Joint Conference with UTokyo on Sustainability Following the Lecture by UTokyo President Teruo Fujii
Teruo Fujii, President of TokyoU, was invited to give a speech as part of the NTU Royal Palm Lecture Series on “Transcending Boundaries: from Underwater Robotics to Molecular Computing.”
The 2023 NTU-UTokyo Joint Conference took place in last December, with scholars from both universities uniting under the theme “Towards a Sustainable Future Challenges and Resilience.” The conference featured an opening ceremony and plenary session, followed by 18 parallel sessions over two days. President Wen-Chang Chen of NTU and President Teruo Fujii of UTokyo both spoke at the opening ceremony, looking back on twenty years of strategic partnership and reaffirming mutual goals to advance research, education, and society. The plenary session included an International Collaboration Panel in which four panelists shared their experiences spearheading international research collaborations.
Over 350 faculty members and students from both universities joined the parallel sessions, discussing the latest research trends across fields and engaging in interdisciplinary collaboration focused on sustainability. Topics included veterinary medicine, agriculture and environmental sciences, medicine and public health, engineering and material sciences, and humanities and social sciences.
This year marks the 7th Joint Conference between UTokyo and NTU. By bringing together researchers from different disciplines and highlighting common goals, the conference generated robust discussions and sparked innovative ideas for further research collaborations between the two universities.
In the meantime, President Teruo Fujii was also invited to deliver a speech of the NTU Royal Palm Lecture Series. President Fujii, an internationally renowned scholar of engineering, gave a lecture titled “Transcending Boundaries: from Underwater Robotics to Molecular Computing.” In his speech, President Fujii introduced the underwater autonomous monitoring robot project he has led in recent years, explaining how the instrument designs, measurement system, etc. are planned to meet sustainable development goals and coordinate with future university courses. In addition, he spoke about his academic experience, the reason for choosing the field of engineering, as well as explaining in detail the research projects he has involved in during his academic years.
President Teruo Fujii believes that in the face of multiple complex and unknown challenges such as environmental changes, biological resources and social relations, everyone needs to have the ability to ask precise questions. In order to solve the problems raised by the public, in addition to communicating and cooperating with the outside world, it is key for universities to think further about their positioning and future development.
NTU and the University of Tokyo have been in collaboration for nearly 20 years. The joint conference was launched in 2015, and last year marked the 7th edition. The long-term collaboration has not only opened up diverse exchanges between the two universities but also promoted academic progress in East Asia.
Teruo Fujii, President of TokyoU (right), answered questions from faculty and students after his speech. President Fujii patiently answered questions from marine expertise to campus governance, while NTU President Wen-Chang Chen served as the host (left).
President Fujii encouraged NTU students not to fear unfamiliar or exploring unknown fields, but to have the courage to step out of their comfort zone, make use of their knowledge in new fields, and “enjoy the unknown.”
