Global environmental leadership training held for Chinese and Malay students (4-22 November 2015)

From 4 through 22 November, the Graduate School of Engineering (GSE) hosted an "Education Program for Environmental Management Leader with Global Views" for interns from Tsinghua University (TU), China, and the University of Malaya (UM), Malaysia, on two different schedules.

The program for the TU students began on 4 November with the participation of two master's and four doctoral candidates, all of whom were enrolled in the Environmental Engineering Course at their university's Graduate School at Shenzhen. Their visit was coordinated by the Kyoto University-Tsinghua University Cooperative Research and Education Center for Environmental Technology (CRECET) in Shenzhen City, China.

Led by their course instructor Associate Professor Li Bing, the six students first visited Kyoto University's Tokyo Office to meet with members of the Consociation of CRECET. They then toured environmental facilities in neighboring prefectures -- Kazusa Clean Center in Kisarazu City, Chiba Prefecture, Shin-Misato Water Purification Plant in Misato City, Saitama Prefecture, and the Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (AIST) in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture -- to observe Japan's advanced water-treatment and waste-management technologies in action.

Afterwards, the group traveled to the Kinki region, visiting Kyoto University's Katsura Campus and Research Center for Environmental Quality Management (RCEQM) to take part in exchanges with local researchers, as well as Shimadzu Techno-Research, Inc and Hiyoshi Corporation to receive training in water quality analysis.

The students left Japan on the 17th, after paying courtesy visits the day before to GSE Dean Shinzaburo Ito and Professor Masao Kitano, Kyoto University's Executive Vice-President for Education, Information Infrastructure, and Evaluation.

They were the eighth group of TU interns to have trained at Kyoto University, while Tsinghua University has hosted similar programs for KU students four times, reflecting the solid student-exchange partnership between the two institutions.

In the meantime, the training for the University of Malaya students commenced on 9 November with two participants: Ms Tengku Nielam Baizura, a doctoral candidate, and Ms Haslina Solha Hassan, a master's candidate. The program was focused on facilitating the participants' global environmental leadership development by introducing them to new experiences -- interacting with KU students, participating in a symposium and seminars, and touring facilities in Japan. The activities included a series of discussions with students and faculty at RCEQM on the management of the Selangor River's watershed, held 13-18 November; field trips to two environmental facilities in Kyoto and a wastewater treatment facility on the island of Okishima on Lake Biwa, Shiga Prefecture; and participation in the 5th "Comprehensive Symposium of JSPS Asian Core Program", held 19-20 November at Kyoto University's ROHM Plaza.

The 11th and 12th were devoted to a "KU-TU-UM joint program", in which both TU and UM students took part, as did their counterparts from Kyoto. The program consisted of a study tour of local environmental facilities and a workshop organized and run by KU students.

The tour took place on 11 November with around 40 students and faculty from the three universities taking part. The sites visited were the Fish Waste Recycling Center "Osakana Eco Kan" and Aeon Mall in Gojo, where the participants observed and learned about waste separation procedures, and the Lake Biwa Canal and Keage Water Purification Plant in Kyoto City.

The "1st International Workshop on Environmental Issues for Young Students and Researchers by Young Students and Researchers" was also held on 12 November in Room 173 of the C1 Building, located in the C Cluster of the Katsura Campus. The participants numbered about 60, and included graduate students and junior faculty from Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia, as well as many undergraduates. Research presentations by two students each from the three countries were followed by animated discussion, leading to a greater common understanding of ongoing and forthcoming global environmental problems.