On December 12, 2012, Kizuna Bond Project with 50 college students from the Philippines was held at Tohoku Institute of Technology (T.I.T.).
The theme was “What T.I.T. Can Do toward the Reconstruction for the North-Eastern Japan after the Tohoku Earthquake”. The workshop started with the opening address and presentation by Dr. Sawada, the president of T.I.T., followed by the presentation “What We Can Do Toward A Disaster Reconstruction” by Dr. Ishikawa, the vice president. After that, T.I.T. students gave three presentations on cultural events in Sendai, students’ project to support people living in temporary housing and “Tsumikimetto”, multi-function toy against disaster. All of them were enriched with great information. I was impressed by the students from the Philippines who listened eagerly to those presentations, asked specific questions and made interesting comments to the presenters although they were from different colleges and had different majors. After their thank-you speech both in Japanese and English, they performed dances and songs for us. After having lunch with T.I.T. students, they walked on the campus and visited three facilities for projects of earthquake-resistant structures, disaster-assistance robot and measurement of radiation.
This project indeed was a great opportunity for all the participants to understand more about the disaster and deepen the friendship between the Philippines and Japan, so I would like to thank everyone who was involved in this program.

Mika Miyasone
Department of Management and Communication/
International Exchange Committee

News about the students who visited Japan for Kizuna Bond Project was broadcasted at least three times by ABS-CBN News, one of the biggest TV stations in the Philippines. Although it is in the local language, it covers the exchange program held in our campus.
Please click below to watch the news uploaded on YouTube:

Young Pinoys visit tsunami victims in Japan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRdQZ-gaDlE

Pinoys in Japan pick up pieces after 2011 quake
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeV4-7x2bM8

We recently announced that NHK TV broadcast a special program, “For the reconstruction of my homeland: the hopes of a Haitian foreign student,” about
Gerard Jimmy Paraison, a foreign 1st year Ph.D. student from the Republic of Haiti studying radio communication at our university. This program is now available for viewing on NHK’s website for a limited time, so please check it out if you missed the broadcast on BS1’s “World Wave Tonight.”
The program can be accessed at the following link:
http://www.nhk.or.jp/worldwave/newscafe/index.html
The staff of NHK press bureau’s international division learned of Paraison, who was in Sendai during the Great East Japan Earthquake, when he was invited to a lunch with the President of the Republic of Haiti while they were covering the President’s visit to Japan. They recorded the program on Paraison on December 6th and 7th in Tokyo and Sendai.
The program covers the continued disaster conditions from the earthquake in Haiti, where the domestic infrastructure has hardly recovered, and the difficulties faced in reconstruction, as well as Paraison’s research under Professor Eisuke Kudoh of our Graduate Department of Information and Communication Engineering on networks useful in disaster situations.

On December 3, 2012, our Department of Engineering entered into a research and exchange agreement with the College of Electrical Engineering of Korea University.
The agreement was signed at Korea University by Chair Seon Wook Kim of their Department of Electrical Engineering and the Dean of our School of Engineering, Dr. Naoshi Uesugi. Also in attendance were Chair Naoki Honda of our Department of Electronics and Intelligent Systems and Korea University’s Dean of the College of Engineering, Dr. Su-Won Chae, Vice-Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Dr. Sang Bin Lee, and Professor Department of Electrical Engineering, Dr. Jong-Ok Kim.
Founded in 1905, Korea University is one of the major universities in South Korea, with approximately 34,000 students currently enrolled. The School of Engineering has 1,100 undergraduates and 160 graduate students enrolled, and a faculty of approximately 60 professors. The Department of Electrical Engineering has a wide variety of research areas in Electricity, Communications, and Electronics, corresponding with our Departments of Electronics and Intelligent Systems, Information and Communications Engineering, and Environment and Energy. Some of their courses are carried out in English, and they actively engage in collaboration with industry, including Samsung, LG, and the Hyundai Group.
Korea University hopes for excellent interaction with our students and our faculty, and we all look forward to active and productive exchange among the students and in research activities.

Fifteen short-term exchange students from Tonji University in Shangai, China, attended the “International Workshop on Safe and Sound City Development Lessons Learned from the Great East Japan Earthquake” held February 15-29, 2012 at Tohoku Institute of Technology.

They visited the Sendai City Hall and Miyagi Prefectural Office to learn about the post-earthquake recovery efforts and viewed the area around the Sendai Airport where all of the buildings had been swept away by a 3-meter tsunami wave. They also heard from the priest at the Zuiganji temple in Matsushima about their experience serving as an evacuation shelter and were shown the restoration work being done on the main shrine of the temple.

The student leader of the Tonji University group, Ms. Lian Qiong, wrote the following words of encouragement in her report on the visit. “Throughout the city in Sendai, signs bearing slogans like ‘Don’t give up, Tohoku!’ and ‘We won’t be beat!’ can be seen. I was moved to see people working so hard. The air in Sendai is clean and the food is fresh and delicious. We can study with peace of mind knowing the radiation levels are low enough to not affect our health.”

Many other exchange students, including Mr. Wang Guan and Ms. Han Mengxuan, wrote “Don’t give up, Tohoku! Don’t give up, Japan!” in their reports. After returning to China, another exchange student, Mr. Qu Guanhi, collected donations with fellow students at Tonji University to contribute to the recovery efforts from the Great East Japan Earthquake. The leader of the short-term exchange student group from Tohoku Institute of Technology that studied at Tongji University, then first-year Architecture student Kamiya Souichiro, accepted these donations on behalf of our school. The following is the letter he received from Mr. Qu.

Dear Friends at the Tohoku Institute of Technology,
As a result of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, many precious lives were lost and the Tohoku region experienced great destruction. It broke my heart to see the news of the disaster. Wanting to help in some way, 40 classmates and I collected donations.

When we attended the International Workshop on Safe and Sound City Development, we were able to witness the state of the reconstruction. We pray that very soon you can live in safety.

Qu Guanhi
Department of Japanese Language, Tongji University

Upon the expiration of the 3-year school exchange agreement between Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan, and Tokoku Institute of Technology dated June 8, 2009, the presidents of both Universities have signed a renewal agreement that will extend the term for 5 years from June, 2012 until 2017.

Each year a few students from Tohoku Institute of Technology are sent to Chung Yuan Christian University for two months from October to November to receive instruction for an “Architectural Design” graduation thesis. Applications are being accepted for this academic year as well.

We look forward to more student exchanges like these in the future, as well as increased research exchanges among educators.