President Tsunoyama's Visit to Stanford University
President Tsunoyama and Director Iwase of the Center for Strategy of International Programs visited Stanford University,
California, USA, on March 10. They had talks with Department Chair Jennifer Widom of the Computer Science Department and exchanged opinions
with researchers at "Bio-X," a Stanford research center for interdisciplinary research.
Exchanges between Stanford and the University of Aizu have been implemented among medical engineering researchers at both universities,
and Stanford has accepted students from Aizu for short-term study programs. President Tsunoyama introduced the details of the University's
international environments such as English-based education and its high percentage of non-Japanese faculty members, which are rare
in Japanese universities. Department Chair Widom gained a basic understanding of the University and expressed an interest to actively
encourage Stanford students and researchers interested in Japan to visit the University.
After the talks with Department Chair Widom, they visited "Bio-X." This center was established for interdisciplinary
research in the areas of biomedicine, biosciences and bioengineering. For the University, which will start operations for the Research Center
for Advanced Information Science and Technology (CAIST) in April, it was a great opportunity to ask researchers at "Bio-X"
for its management system to be used as reference by CAIST. It was also confirmed that advice and exchanges of views on research
to be conducted at CAIST would be carried out.
Stanford University is well-known as one of the world's top universities in the computer field and is also famous for producing founders
of world leading IT-related companies such as Yahoo and Google. It is located in the Silicon Valley. This environment
makes it possible to conduct cooperative works with companies and start up ventures easily, and Stanford's case of its close
relationships built with outside industry has been accepted as a successful example of industry-university cooperation.
The University of Aizu also aims to foster young human resources who have both entrepreneurship and highly-developed skills
to play an important role in society. Further development of mutual exchange between the universities is expected to help
the University in this regard.
 Talks with Department Chair Widom |
 Exchange of opinions with "Bio-X" researchers |