Sep 24 2019

Faculty of Engineering, Niigata University conducted a short-term exchange program for 12 days from Tuesday, August 20 to Saturday, August 31 as a part of the Inter-University Exchange Project "Co-creative Dormitory-type Group-work for SciTech Students in Japan and Mekong Countries with Regional Collaboration" (G-DORM).

In this exchange program, SciTech students from Niigata University and four universities in the Mekong region, Royal University of Phnom Penh (Cambodia), National University of Laos (Laos), Chulalongkorn University (Thailand) and Hanoi University of Science and Technology (Vietnam) form cross-academic year, cross-disciplinary and multinational teams, and conduct mainly group work (GW) in short-term (about 10 days), medium-term (2 months) and long-term (6 to 12 months) courses in order to foster global SciTech leaders capable of solving regional vitalization issues from an integrative standpoint. Through global project-based learning (PBL) in GW internships collaborated with Niigata regional companies which possess international development capabilities, the program aims to nurture practical, globally-minded individuals who can combine an industry-academia approach to regional collaboration, multi-disciplinary thinking, an international mindset, leadership, and insight into the consistent process of industrial change.

This Short-term Exchange Program involved GW internships collaborated with Tsubamate, a public interest incorporated association, which works on industrial promotion with the Tsubame City. The GW internships were conducted with 6 companies in Tsubame area to solve the issues provided by each company, and 6 groups which consisted of 17 students from the partner universities in the Mekong region and 11 students from Niigata University tackled the issues as group work.

Visit to Tsubamesanjo Regional Industries Promotion Center

Activity in GW internship

On Friday, August 30, at the Large Conference Room of the Faculty of Engineering, the Forum on Global SciTech Education through Industry-Academia Collaboration was held along with faculty development, inviting five faculty members from four universities in the Mekong region and the executive vice president for the international relations of Niigata University. In each presentation, students explained the characteristics of accepting enterprises based on the strength of industrial clusters and the international development capabilities in the Tsubame area. They also proposed their ideas on how to solve the provided issues and accelerate the usage of IT in businesses. With a total of 59 participants inside and outside the university, including visitors from businesses that accepted interns and the Third-Party Advisory Board of this project, we had a fruitful question and answer session.

Joint presentation in Tsubame

Presentation by a student group

Faculty members who participated commented, "I evaluated the work of the students who have understood corporate issues in a short period and prepared presentations for solving the issues" and "I hope the students will make good use of the versatile abilities in communication and teamwork that they learned in this active learning in their future studies and employment." Many of the students who participated thought that improving communication skills was the most significant change (important learning) for them when they compared before and after the internship. Some students showed their intention to use these useful experience as a stepping stone to participate in a longer program in the future.

Last, but not least, we would like to express our sincere appreciation to the Tsubamate as well as administrative agencies and enterprises in Tsubame city for their great support and cooperation in implementing our short-term program.