On Monday, September 26, 2016, a graduation ceremony was held in the Training Hall on the 1st floor of Interdisciplinary Frontier Research Complex No.2.
President Ogasawara presented degrees to each graduate and gave the congratulatory speech to the 37 graduates.

After the ceremony, the commemorative photograph was taken and the graduates enjoyed the graduation ceremony with the president, executive directors and their supervising professors.

*Number of Graduates in September

【Master's Graduates】
Information Science 10
Biological Sciences 7
Materials Science 1

【Doctoral Graduates】
Information Science 17
Biological Sciences 6
Materials Science 2

【Graduates who completed the Doctoral program by submitting the dissertation】
Information Sciences 1

Total 44

　

Congratulatory Remarks to Graduating Students

I would like to offer my heartfelt congratulations to the 18 master's and 26 doctoral students who have been awarded degrees today.

While 11 of the master's students graduating today will continue on to doctoral programs to pursue further studies, the majority of you will begin new, independent lives as researchers, engineers, or professionals with the degrees conferred today.

Currently science and technology is in a revolutionary era and changes are occurring around the world.We must reform the current model of societal development to address imminent global issues, such as global resource and energy scarcity and global climate change, in a manner compatible with human activities, thereby achieving sustainable development of our society. The answers and innovations for this are expected to come forth from these revolutions in science and technology.

Especially trends in ICT (Information and Communication Technology) technology are rapidly changing. When the master's course graduates today entered NAIST the keyword was 'Big Data', but now it is the 'Internet of Things' and 'AI'. We can also see the prospects of a 'Super Smart Society' which integrates the 'cyber world' and the 'real world' through networks connecting everything around us to effectively and thoroughly respond to the various needs of society in offering the necessary materials or services to the necessary people at the necessary time in the necessary amount. Through the development of ICT in various societal infrastructures, it is possible that new societal systems will emerge.

ICT is becoming a driving force for further advancement of science and technology. Data-driven science has become a new paradigm in the field of life sciences, and the principles of informatics are being applied to the field of materials science in materials informatics.For example, research results have been released that, using AI technology, we can rapidly achieve information concerning patients medical conditions and treatment from immense amounts of data being collected concerning the diverse genome sequences related to human disease and health.It is necessary for this technology to be spread to other countries with different variety of genome diversity.

I hope you will be at the forefront of the creation and application of new areas of science and technology, responding flexibly to the developments in science and technology to be able to continually explore new developments and fields.

The convergence of fundamental research and application of its results to society is also important. I hope both those who are orientated on basic research and those who pursue the development, application and promotion of technology to solve various issues from the perspective of societal developments will continue to focus on new developments in basic science and technology.

So... let me ask all of you. What can you do to contribute to such social innovation? In this regard, I'd like to you all pay special attention to the following part of a report published by a committee of MEXT:

"In the current era of rapidly expanding frontiers of knowledge, it is of utmost importance for researchers to challenge themselves to cultivate new knowledge based on their own knowledge, creativity and research skills,and it is vital for researchers to keep in mind and clarify the significance of their own research subjects (spirit of challenge).To cultivate new knowledge, of course, it is necessary to place a high value on diversity and knowledge of traditional research fields. In addition, in the current era, you must maintain a broader, comprehensive view to avoid compartmentalized knowledge (well-roundedness).You are also faced with demands to produce new academic domains through cooperation and collaboration with researchers from various fields and a broad range of domestic and foreign counterparts (multi-disciplinary). Furthermore, through discussion and verification within the global science community, you must strive to obtain global recognition of your research excellence by proposing new research frameworks, thus contributing beyond national borders (global perspective).

During your years at NAIST, you have not only gained academic expertise but also, through your thesis research, developed the ability to identify problems, explore and implement solutions to these problems, evaluate the outcomes, and write academic papers on the outcomes though discussions with people having various viewpoints. I am confident that such experiences at NAIST, along with the network you have establish here, assure you creative and fruitful lives.

NAIST's roles do not end with us sending you out into society. Rather, NAIST faculty considers building sustainable relationships with the alumni so that each and all of you will be able to continue your creative lives in an ever-changing community of science and technology as an important role.

Of the graduates today, there are 29 international students with us. I hope that all of the graduates will expand their network globally to work together towards solving the problems facing the world today.

In concluding my message, I would like to congratulate you all again. We look forward to your future success, and we will continue to support your future endeavors.

　

Naotake Ogasawara President
Nara Institute of Science and Technology ,September 26, 2016