Re-Inventing Japan Project “Consortium of International Human Resource Development for Disaster Resilient Countries – Based on the Experiences of Disaster Recovery” held a Faculty Development Symposium on March 10, 2013.

The Faculty Development Symposium was undertaken at the Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel in Bangkok for the purpose of clarifying the issues related to the collaborative educational program conducted in 2012 and of discussing the ideas for improving next year’s program from the viewpoints of both the faculty members and the students, based on the results of the collaborative coursework conducted by Kyoto University and ASEAN alliance universities in 2012. The participants from Kyoto University were the faculty members of the Graduate School of Engineering, Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Graduate School of Management, and Disaster Prevention Research Institute, while the participants from the ASEAN alliance universities were the faculty members of Asian Institute of Technology, Chulalongkorn University, Kasetsart University, Institute of Technology, Bandung, University of Malaya and Vietnam National University, Hanoi. In total, around 100 participants attended the symposium, including students who were scheduled to participate in the DRC Student Workshop held after the symposium.

1In the morning session, Prof. Hiroyasu Ohtsu, the Project Director, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, delivered a speech as the organizer, and subsequently Dr. Chitoshi Miki , Chief Adviser, AUN/SEED-NET, gave a welcoming speech as a guest speaker in Part 1.

The faculty members who took on the responsibility of acting as coordinators in the collaborative educational program as of 2012 presented the reports of their lectures, followed by three students from the ASEAN alliance universities who expressed their personal impressions of the program, and the results of the questionnaires on the 2012 DRC students were presented in Part 2.

In the afternoon session, young faculty members from the ASEAN alliance universities and Kyoto University who were involved in the collaborative lectures reported on the experiences they received through the coursework in Part 3.

Dr. Sucharit Koontanakulvong, Associate Professor of Chulalongkorn University, delivered the keynote speech under the theme of “Status and Prospect of Thailand Floor Planning and Study Issue” in Part 4.

2In Part 5, Prof. Ohtsu explained the plan for 2013 and presented an overview of the collaborative educational program which was followed by a panel discussion. A total of seven panelists from Kyoto University and the ASEAN alliance universities discussed future directions from their respective positions, and had active discussions and honest exchanges of opinions. In conclusion, Dr. Noppadol Phienwej, Associate Professor of Asian Institute of Technology gave a closing address, and the symposium completed with great success.

The symposium contributed much to the continuation of student exchanges and the improvement of the collaborative educational program.

For further details of the Re-Inventing Japan Project “Consortium of International Human Resource Development for Disaster Resilient Countries – Based on the Experiences of Disaster Recover”, see the following website http://www.drc.t.kyoto-u.ac.jp/

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