Academic agreement signing ceremony hosted by Belgium and Université catholique de Louvain delegation visit (June 14, 2012)

2012/06/21

A Signing Ceremony was held on June 14th at the Hilton Osaka Hotel in the presence of HRH Prince Philippe of Belgium as part of the "Belgian Economic Mission to Japan" project held by the Belgian Foreign Trade Office. Industry and higher education institution representatives from Belgium and Japan attended this signing ceremony, in which President Akira Isogai and 5 other faculty/staff members from NAIST's relevant areas participated.

NAIST first concluded a school-wide exchange agreement with Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) on September 2007 after collaborating with UCL under the agreement with the Graduate School of Information Science concluded on October 2001. As it was expiring at the end of August 2012, both institutions agreed to renew the agreement. At the signing ceremony, NAIST President Akira Isogai and the UCL Rector Bruno Delvaux signed the agreement and both universities confirmed to continue and expand collaboration.

The following day, Prof. Bruno Delvaux (Rector, UCL), Prof. Benoit Macq (Vice-Rector, UCL), Prof. Geneviève Schamps (Director of the Centre for Medical and Biomedical Law, UCL), Assoc. Prof. Jean-Luc CAPRON (UCL) and Mrs. Samia Patsalides (International Relations Officer for Asia, UCL) made an official visit to NAIST President Akira Isogai.

During the official visit, President Akira Isogai, Vice President and Executive Director Atsuhiko Shinmyo, Vice President and Executive Director Shinji Murai, Vice President Mikio Kataoka and related faculty and staff welcomed the delegation. Both groups introduced their universities, shared information and exchanged opinions concerning further exchanges and activities.

After the official visit, the delegation visited the Computational Linguistics Laboratory, Ubiquitous Computing System Laboratory and Robotics Laboratory in the Graduate School of Information Science, where faculty members from each laboratory gave explanations of their own research. The guests also exchanged opinions with Prof. Kozo Kubo (Vice-Director of Division for Industry-Government-Academia Collaboration, NAIST) about possible cooperation through the Industry-Government-Academia Collaboration activities.

This signing ceremony and the visit of the UCL delegation was a beneficial opportunity to strengthen relationships to further promote research and student exchange between the two institutions.

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