On September 4th, NAIST welcomed 43 high school students and 8 supervising teachers from Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Nara Woman’s University Secondary School as part of the “SAKURA Exchange Program in Science” supported by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).

Nara Woman’s University Secondary School has been taking part in this three-year program as a receiving institute since 2016, welcoming high school students from Asian countries to enhance exchanges between Asia and Japan and to raise their interest towards the leading science and technologies at universities, research institutes and private companies in Japan. As part of their activities in the area, the high school group visited NAIST to become familiar with our state-of-the-art research facilities.

Director Tsutomu Hashida and International Activities Coordinator Junko Iwatsuki of the Division for Global Education, along with staff from the PR offices first welcomed the group. This was then followed by a comprehensive presentation given by Iwatsuki, which introduced NAIST’s research and education programs, academic and financial student support, and highlights of our international network and its achievements.

Following this, the students divided into three groups and visited each graduate school to experience first-hand how research and education are conducted at NAIST. They attentively listened to the explanations of the cutting-edge research performed in our graduate schools: Demonstrations given by NAIST’s doctoral students covered topics such as virtual reality using computer graphic displays, the various ways plant secondary metabolism is produced; and simulating chemical reaction catalysts through the application of a super computer. The program was concluded successfully with eager students staying after the demonstrations to ask many questions.