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2020.12.16 Wed
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The 22nd OU-SJTU Academic Exchange Seminar held

On Friday, November 27, 2020, the 22 nd Academic Exchange Seminar between Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) and Osaka University was held. This academic exchange seminar with SJTU, one of OU’s Global Knowledge Partners, has been alternately held between the universities since 1995, but this year’s seminar was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the opening session hosted by Professor DAI Yanjun of STJU, OU Executive Vice President for Global Engagement KAWAHARA Genta and SJTU Vice President HUANG Zhen greeted attendees. In addition, video messages from ZHANG Yuping (Deputy Consul-General, Consulate-General of the People’s Republic of China in Osaka), as well as two individuals who played a huge part in the establishment of this seminar, OU Professor Emeritus MIYAMOTO Yoshinari and STJU Professor WU Yixiong, were shown.

Overviews were delivered by representatives in each of the 10 fields at the seminar, including materials and welding, information, nuclear physics, lasers, marine engineering, industrial biotechnology, history, combustion engineering, smart cities, and chemistry, the last of which was newly added for this seminar. Sectional meetings were held from November 27 through the beginning of December, at which attendees discussed progress of research exchange and future plans.

Opening Session (November 27)


Vice-Consul Zhang                               Professor Emeritus Miyamoto


Professor Wu


Vice President Huang


Executive Vice President Kawahara


Professor Kondo (Joining and Welding Research Institute)


Professor Shimojo (Cybermedia Center)


Professor Tsuchiya (Graduate School of Information Science and Technology)

Following the opening session, the Smart City Joint Workshop was held as a sectional meeting. Keynote lectures at the workshop included:

  • Smart City Measures in Osaka during COVID-19 Period - MORIYAMA Fumiko (Director, mart City Promotion Division, Osaka City ICT Strategy Office)
  • Practice and Thoughts on the Development of Smart City in Shanghai - LU Sen (Deputy Director of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economic and Informatization, Shanghai City)

Later, research presentations were held by researchers at both universities. Presentations from researchers at OU included:

  • E-Bike Sharing in Osaka - SASAKI Yuya (Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology)
  • Estimation of CO₂ emission reduction potential using energy-efficiency and renewable technologies from building sector - YAMAGUCHI Yohei (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Engineering)
  • Smart city and plastic waste policy in Japan - OKUBO Noriko (Professor, Graduate School of Law and Politics)

This year’s seminar was not held in person, but it still served as an important opportunity for the two universities to share information on their respective advancements in research exchange.

Smart City Joint Workshop (November 27)


Ms. Moriyama


Assistant Professor Sasaki


Professor Yamaguchi

(Top left: Professor Dai)

At the 1 st Student Forum on Saturday, November 28, which was facilitated by students, four students each from both universities made presentations on their student life, research activity, and volunteer activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the OU student presentations, presided over by KAWACHI Yasuhiro (4th year, School of Foreign Studies), the following four students made presentations:

  • A different student life as before under COVID-19 pandemic -- YAMADA Yuki (1 st year, master’s program, Graduate School of Engineering)
  • SARS-CoV-2-VLP Vaccine -- HOKIMOTO Tatsuya (4 th year, School of Engineering)
  • The life of Chinese students in Japan under Covid-19 -- JIN Yaoan (1 st year, doctoral program, Graduate School of Engineering)
  • Communication with students of SJTU -- NISHITANI Arisa (2 nd year, School of Foreign Studies)

While some STJU students gave presentations in Japanese, some OU students gave presentations in Chinese. There were presentations on timely topics, such as public health and vaccines. These efforts made the student forum a deeply meaningful event in promoting future student exchange.

Student Forum (November 28)


(Back row) Mr. Yamada, Mr. Hokimoto, Mr. Jin
(From row) Mr. Kawachi, Ms. Nishitani

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