Visit of African Post-Graduate Students from Kobe Institution of Computing

On the 27th of July in 2016, 12 African students and 3 faculty staffs who belong to Kobe Institution of Computing visited Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST). The graduate students came from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mozambique, as government-sponsored foreign students by JICA, and they are challenging social problems using ICT. Many of them have work experiences, and they also have a high awareness on social problems in Africa. After returning to their own countries, they will become entrepreneurs.

Following the explanation of a RCAST overview by Professor Hisashi Nakamura (Vice director), the students visited Morikawa laboratory, which envisions a future industrial, economical and social structure by developing information and communication technologies as a basis of data-driven economy. The lab members presented their researches including wireless sensor networks (IoT platform) and social implementation of IoT such as agriculture, structural monitoring, wind power generation, and so on. The African students asked many questions lively at both the explanation of RCAST overview and the visit of Morikawa laboratory. As they were very excited especially at the Morikawa laboratory, they stayed longer than the original schedule. Also, their positive attitudes and good questions gave the students of Morikawa laboratory a great stimulus.

Those students from Africa are expected to play roles of bridges between their countries and Japan in future business. We hope that this RCAST tour became a good opportunity for them to think about the cooperation with academic fields.