This past Wednesday, September 17, we had the pleasure of welcoming third-year students from Ikuei Nishi Junior High School in Nara to our Kyoto Uzumasa Campus for a taste of engineering.
The day kicked off with a talk from our Vice President, Dr. Tabata. After the students got a feel for university life with a campus tour and lunch in our cafeteria, they dove into a “Mini Capstone Project Experience.”
A “capstone” is the final stone placed on top of a pyramid. In our Faculty of Engineering, third and fourth-year students undertake a “Capstone Project” as the culmination of their studies. In these practical projects, teams of five work to solve real-world problems presented by companies in Japan and from around the world.
The Ikuei Nishi students had the opportunity to experience a “Mini Capstone Project,” which we specially designed for them based on our full-scale program. They chose from eight different themes, selecting whichever one sparked their interest the most, and experienced the excitement of engineering.
Here in the Faculty of Engineering, all of our classes are conducted in English. It was fantastic to see the students listening so intently to the lectures given in English by our international faculty during the Mini Capstone. I was particularly impressed by how eagerly they interacted with our own international students, communicating confidently and without hesitation in a global setting.
Our goal in the Faculty of Engineering is to nurture engineers who can make their mark anywhere in the world. We are committed to continuing our work with other educational institutions to help cultivate the next generation of engineers and researchers who will lead Japan’s future.