In the January edition of the SDM News, I reported that Japan had lost out to Korea in an international bid to build a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In the early February, we learned that a Japanese group also lost to Russia in an international bid to build a nuclear power plant in Viet Nam. These repeated failures appear to have motivated the government to take action. If we are to solve the problems confronting us, it is urgent that we train people who are capable of acting on the international stage, and that is one the main focuses here at the SDM graduate school. It is not enough to be an expert in your field. You have to bring the entire package, which means having negotiation skills and also spending years building up networks of friends and sources of information. Our objective at the SDM graduate school is to develop people who are capable of functioning overseas. Since our inception in April 2008, we have pursued ties with MIT and Stanford University in the United States that have resulted in the Active Learning Program Sequence (ALPS) and other initiatives. We are also deepening our relationships with Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH). We look forward to the advice and guidance of the companies and enterprises that so generously support the SDM graduate school.
Yoshiaki Ohkami
Director, SDM Research Institute
Dean, Graduate School of System Design and Management