Open Campus in Uji 2015 held (24-25 October 2015)

The 2015 Open Campus in Uji was held on 24 and 25 October. Now in its ninth year, this annual autumn event is aimed at publicizing the kinds of research that are being conducted on the Uji Campus, promoting awareness of the university's research activities, and helping to make science interesting to a wider audience. Under the theme "Opening Up the Door　to Science, Starting from Uji", the 2015 Open Campus offered a broad range of programs, including a number of open laboratory events, inspiring participants to take an interest in science.

The following special lectures were delivered at Kihada Hall, Uji Obaku Plaza: "Radio Science Opens Up the Door to Sustainable Humanosphere -- Space Solar Power Generation Systems and Wireless Transmission" by Professor Naoki Shinohara of the Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere (RISH); "In the Beginning Was Light ­-- Science of Light Energy Toward Practical Application" by Professor Kazunari Matsuda of the Institute of Advanced Energy, and "New Strategy for Disaster Prevention in the Age of a Shrinking Population -- Scientific Research on Post-disaster Reconstruction" by Professor Norio Maki of the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI).

On 23 October, as a preliminary event, a public symposium was hosted by the Graduate School of Engineering. Public lectures were also held by DPRI on 24 October, and by the Institute for Chemical Research and by RISH on the 25th.

In the open laboratory events, a number of research and experimental facilities that are normally closed to the public were opened, and various fields of cutting-edge technologies were introduced to the participants through the programs hosted by individual laboratories, such as "Observing Disasters Taking Place Inside Living Spaces", which reproduced and presented the situation of a living space during and after earthquakes, and "Rainbow-colored World Created by High-intensity Laser", which showed the high-intensity laser facility that controls laser beams and produces a beam with a power of one trillion watts.

With an array of programs designed to be accessible and enjoyable for everyone, these open campus events in Uji have been attracting an increasing number of participants year on year. Over the course of the two-day event for 2015, the Uji Campus and the Ujigawa Open Laboratories attracted more than 3,900 participants, who enjoyed a taste of cutting-edge science at first hand.