Signing a partnership agreement with TU Delft TPM: Ceremony attended by Minister Plasterk of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

SDM Dean Ohkami welcomes Minister Plasterk

Thanks to the generous support of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Japan, the SDM was able to sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the TU Delft TPM for personnel exchange and joint research between the two institutions. On October 26, we held a signing ceremony in the CDF Room of the Collaboration Complex with a guest, Minister of Education, Culture and Science Dr. Ronald Plasterk of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, who visited Japan at the time. That same day, the Graduate School of Media Design (KMD) signed an MoA with the Department of Industrial Design of the Eindhoven University of Technology, another Dutch institution. 

Minister Plasterk uses the seamless positioning system

Also in attendance at the signing ceremony were President Atsushi Seike and Vice President Toshiaki Makabe. In his remarks, President Seike noted, "Keio University was founded in 1858 by Yukichi Fukuzawa as a means to bring Dutch Studies to Edo. This year marks the 400th anniversary since Tokugawa Shogunate first issued the trade license to the Netherlands, which established trade relations between the two countries. We have indeed enjoyed a very long friendship. I hope that the two collaboration agreements that we have signed today will provide further impetus and depth to our relationship." Prior to the signing ceremony, Minister Plasterk toured the SDM and viewed the on going research. The SDM provided demonstrations of "visualization of earthquake data using network-immersed virtual environments" (Professor Tetsuro Ogi), "indoor and outdoor positioning information systems using space technology" (Associate Professor Naohiko Kotake), and a "next-generation three-dimensional displays without glasses" (Hiroaki Daigo, doctoral student).

The SDM and the TPM have already begun an exchange of three masters students each, and under the new partnership agreement look forward to more joint research projects as well.

TU Delft TPM
http://tbm.home.tudelft.nl/en/