Events & Conferences

Report of the 8th International Summer Symposium

Date: 29 July 2006
Venue: Nagoya University

The Eighth International Summer Symposium organised by the International Activities Committee of JSCE (Chair: Prof. Osamu Takahashi, President of Nippon Koei Co., Ltd.) was held at Nagoya University, Nagoya, on 29 July, 2006. The Summer Symposium is held annually so as to provide an opportunity to exchange information and ideas concerned with various aspects of civil engineering among international students and engineers, including Japanese. The objective of the symposium is also to promote international exchange and mutual understanding between international communities and Japanese students and engineers. The Summer Symposium started in 1999 and has had a high reputation as a valuable opportunity for exchanges among students and engineers in English. The Eighth Summer Symposium was supported by the International Scientific Exchange Fund, JSCE.

The number of attendants of the symposium was 121(international students/engineers: 70; Japanese students/engineers: 51). An invited lecture title ?gThe Professional Way after Graduation?h was given by Professor Ma Zhiliang from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. Professor Ma graduated from Nagoya University in 1992. He went back to China in 1993 and became a full professor in 2003. His lecture from the standpoint of a former international student was very profitable for current international students. This year?fs keynote lecture was given by Prof. Yoshitsugu Hayashi, Dean, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, titled ?gHow to Redesign the Cities for the Future Aging Society in Consideration of Economic Development, Urbanisation and Automobilisation?h. Such a lecture on the future city planning served as a reference very much for the international students from developing countries.

Moreover, there were a total of 86 technical presentations from 7 areas in civil engineering (i.e., I. Structural Mechanics and Earthquake Engineering: 14; II. Hydraulic, Coastal and Environmental Engineering: 14; III. Geotechnical Engineering: 19; IV. Infrastructure Planning and Management: 12; V. Materials, Concrete Structures and Pavements: 14; VI. Construction Management and Engineering: 6; VII. Environmental Systems and Engineering: 8).

The symposium was brought to a close with the Get-Acquainted Reception where there were lively exchanges between the participants. The "Certificate of Excellence" was awarded, during this reception, to 16 speakers for their outstanding papers and presentations. The award winners are: Rabin Tuladhar(Saitama University)/Nobuyuki Matsui(Nagoya University)/Aziz Khakimov(Saitama University)/S. Priyantha Ranjan(Tohoku University)/N.A.K. Nandasena(Saitama University)/Tomoaki Nakamura(Nagoya University)/Obaid Hassan Qureshi(The University of Tokyo)/Katsuhiro Kameyama(Nishimatsu Construction Co. Ltd.)/H.M. Shahin(Nagoya Institute of Technology)/Giancarlo Flores(Kyoto University)/Kayitha Ravinder(Tohoku University)/Mohamed Shawky(Nagoya University)/Aung Kyaw Min(Tokyo Institute of Technology)/Ha Minh(Saitama University)/Yoshimasa Terada(Kochi University of Technology)/Xin Zhou(Nagoya University)

The Summer Symposium closed with a promise to meet again in the Ninth International Summer Symposium to be held next year.

(Hanbin Ge, Chair, Organizing Committee of the Eighth International Summer Symposium, JSCE)