2019.02.06
37 people from Ube Kosen joined “1st Kosen Rebuild Strategy” organized by Tokuyama Kosen. International students (Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Cambodia) and students who joined Tobitate Study Abroad Program from Ube and Tokuyama Kosen, Entrepreneur Club from Nagaoka Kosen, and a start-up company “Next Technology” from Kitakyushu Kosen were also invited to the event. The event was to learn how to start Kosen enterprise and how to do an academia and industry collaboration. Students and Teachers from Tokuyama, Ube, Nagaoka, Akashi and Kumamoto gathered together.
“Part 1: Think about Kosen Global Education”
Teachers and students from 5 different Kosen discussed problems of Kosen education. When we made groups for discussion, we tried to separate students and teachers from same Kosen, so that it would be easier for students to make some negative comments.
Discussing Kosen education problems
Comments from students were like “Do we have to memorize something we can ask to Siri or Google?” “Is it discipline to submit hand writing report?” “Can you make opportunities that we can talk to international students in English class?” It got very excited more than we expected, and we could learn what our student’s thoughts were.
“Part 2: Lecture on Kosen Enterprise”
The first lecturer was Ms. Kimika Tsuji, Managing member of Next Technology. Next Technology is a start-up company from Kitakyushu Kosen, and they invented “Sniffing Robot Dog, Hana-Chan” and it became famous. It was broadcasted by “Getsuyo kara Yofukashi” and also CBS news in United states broadcasted over the country. Ms. Tsuji said, “Nothing could be succeeded without other people’s support to do the business. So I think the most important thing for business is to be loved.” She is now 21 years old, she just graduated from Kitakyushu Kosen recently. So that our students felt connected with her more.
Ms. Tsuji’s lecture
The second lecturer was Associate Prof. Yuki Murakami from Nagaoka Kosen. He talked about “Entrepreneur Club” which is run by Nagaoka Kosen students. The Entrepreneur Club receives so many requests because they have solved problems which local companies had, and he introduced how to earn by using our specialized skills. That made not only students but teachers excited.
“Part 3: Three Global Experiences Activities”
We separated to 3 groups.
“1st group: Let’s speak in English!”
We played many games which made us to speak interactively in English. 4 students from Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages, who were learning at Ube Kosen and Tokuyama Kosen, played a role as a teacher. As students from Singapore and Malaysia joined the game, Kosen students had more opportunities to speak in English. They all made friends each other.
Let’s speak in English!
“2nd group: Challenge to Tobitate Study Abroad!”
7 students from Ube Kosen and Tokuyama Kosen who went to Tobitate gave some advice to other students who planned to apply for Tobitate, ex; how to create application form, how to pass interview successfully.
Challenge to Tobitate Study Abroad!
“3rd group: Academia and Industry Collaboration PBL Workshop”
Associate Prof. Murakami led the workshop. He gave a sample problem to work, but it was a real inquiry that Nagaoka Kosen received from a local community. Attendees discussed enthusiastically over the boarder of departments, age, teachers, and students. Teachers analyzed how to earn small amount of additional Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research or development fees and students analyzed how to earn income by using their specialties. They made 6 teams, 4 people per team, and worked together. At the end, they presented how to resolve the problem. All the teams had high level proposals, and they could execute the proposals as soon as possible. It can be realistic to start Kosen enterprise by teachers and students, also students start own business in the future.
Academia and Industry Collaboration PBL Workshop
We learned we could produce something new by interacting with other Kosen members. Although we had interaction between students only or teachers only, but we seldom had mixed interaction between students and teachers. It would be great to keep having events like this in the future to make relationship for all Kosen stronger.
Group picture