Yesterday my colleague Juan Antonio Cordero Fuertes, and I, were visiting the computer science department of Tokyo University. And, got a chance to visit their beautiful, urban, campus in all its fall splendor.
And, tomorrow, I will be back (this time alone, while Juan will visit other colleagues in Japan) to present Ecole Polytechnique to Todai students, notably options for interested students to come to visit us for a longer or shorter period.
TODAI (which is short for Tokyo Daigaku – literally “Tokyo University”) is an elite university in Japan. Ecole Polytechnique recently signed a partnership agreement with Todai – and that means student and faculty exchanges, joint teaching programs, and a encouragement to and facilitation of scientific collaborations, also. Given that I (and, it seems, my research group in general) throughly enjoy Japan, and have throughly enjoyed working with both Japanese colleagues and students, this is of course welcome, and I intend to make the most of it.
Juan and I had the honor of being received by Professors Kenjiro Taura and Reiji Suda, as well as assistant professor Suppakitpaisarn Vorapong and their international relations officer Kaori Sato, and have a lively and cordial discussion. Gaelle Le Goff from the international relations office at Ecole Polytechnique had, expertly as always, set up just about everything in advance, so that all I had to do was to concentrate on academic and scientific topics – colleagues like Gaelle are worth their weight in gold!
And, as luck would have it (and, this wasn’t planned at all), the day after our visit was a scheduled event presenting “international options” for their graduate students – so, I’was invited back to talk directly to their students, and to Q&A with those who might consider a shorter or longer stay at Ecole Polytechnique, for a research project, or for credit-giving courses.
Oh, and the poster on the window….that was from the Todai campus. I thought the moment of rebellion amazingly refreshing 😉