At the Clock Tower Centennial Hall, a kick-off symposium for COI STREAM ("The Last 5X Innovation R&D Center for a Smart, Happy, and Resilient Society") was hosted by the COI Research Promotion Institution to show the goals and outline of the project. "COI STREAM" stands for the "Center of Innovation Science and Technology-based Radical Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program," which is operated jointly by MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) and JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency).
The symposium drew more than 200 participants from inside and outside the university, more than 100 of which also participated in a social gathering following the symposium where they enthusiastically mingled with each other.
The symposium was opened with an opening remark by President Hiroshi Matsumoto, followed by a speech from President Masao Furuyama (Kyoto Institute of Technology). Later, congratulatory speeches were given by Mr. Sadayuki Tsuchiya (Director-General at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology ) and Mr. Yuzuru Matsuda (adviser at Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd.), who were both present as honorable guests. Then an overview of the program was given and the leaders of the four project groups explained their work, respectively.
The goal of this COI project is to realize "a flexible and accommodating society" in which citizens remain proud of themselves while pursuing, as its members, new challenges with a sense of purpose throughout their lives. This will be accomplished with universities and industry sharing a vision regarding the structure of society that should be realized, collaborating in R&D across the boundaries of research fields (engineering, medicine, economics, psychology, social science, etc.) and industrial sectors (both vertically and horizontally), and ultimately returning the fruits of their efforts to society.
 President Matsumoto |  Mr. Tsuyoshi Nomura (project leader; managing director at Panasonic Corporation) |
 Social gathering | |
