ELCAS students present at nationwide GSC conference (18-19 September 2016)

On 18 and 19 September, high school students enrolled in the advanced courses of ELCAS ("Experienced-based Learning Course for Advanced Science"), a Kyoto University-run "Global Science Campus" program aimed at producing "outstanding intellectuals" equipped with both advanced scientific knowledge and creativity, took part in this year's nationwide GSC conference held in Tokyo. Organized by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), the event annually brings together representatives of the country's 14 GSC programs to present their research projects. Participating from ELCAS in the 2016 conference were six students involved in five projects.

Day one was devoted to poster presentations. The students appeared somewhat nervous -- perhaps because of the unfamiliar environment -- but enthusiastically presented their projects to a panel of judges and actively engaged in discussions with peers from other programs.

On day two, the participants attended academic seminars, given on six topics, listening to lectures as well as taking part in group work and debate sessions.

The event concluded with announcements of presentation awards, conferred on 16 students -- including two from ELCAS (see below) -- selected from among the participating 53 teams.

Award-winning ELCAS student projects

Io Hasebe, "Spectroscopic study of the photoinduced oxidation of rubrene thin films"

Instructor:

• Kazuya Watanabe, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University

Assistant instructors:

• Kazuto Yamada, second-year doctoral student, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University
• Shota Takahashi, second-year master's student, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University

Sana Yasuda, "Particle-based simulation of sand column collapse"

Instructors:

• Akira Murakami, Professor, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University
• Kazunori Fujisawa, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University
• Yutaka Fukumoto, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nagaoka University of Technology

Related links

• About Kyoto University's ELCAS program
  http://www.elcas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ (in Japanese)

• About JST's Global Science Campus initiative
  http://www.jst.go.jp/cpse/gsc/ (in Japanese)