The 24th HU-SNU Joint Symposium held successfully on 4-5 November 2021

Hokkaido University (HU) hosted its 24^th Joint Symposium with a long-term key partner Seoul National University (SNU) on 4-5 November 2021. Following the conclusion of the university-wide agreement on academic collaboration in 1997, this annual joint symposium has worked as the foundation to cultivate research seeds and co-education between the two universities. The 24th HU-SNU Joint Symposium was the second fully online HU-SNU Joint Symposium, following last year’s arrangement, due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic.

This year’s symposium comprised a plenary session under the theme “Enhancement of Universities’ Capacity through Industry-Academia Collaboration” which involved eight research and educational satellite sessions on mathematics, convergence science, environmental health science, forestry, materials sciences, media, mechanical and aerospace engineering, and dentistry; and staff exchange programmes for librarians and research forest technicians.

The plenary session introduced the overviews of industry-academia collaborations by Specially Appointed Professor Yongtaek Hong of SNU R&DB Foundation and Professor Ikuo Terauchi of HU’s Institute for the Promotion of Business-Regional Collaboration. The subject was further explained through actual case studies on computing science by Specially Appointed Professor Tsuyoshi Yamamoto of HU, and biochemistry by Professor Junho Chung of SNU.

Staff exchange programmes on the second day  were specifically designed for technical and facility-stationed staff to share their good practices, discuss work-related difficulties with their matched counterpart divisions/positions, and learn the counterpart’s perspectives. The programmes welcomed participants from the Libraries, HU Research Forests, SNU Academic Forests, Center for Teaching and Learning, Headquarters for Technical Support, Global Facility Center, and Offices of International Affairs.

The complete program for the 24^th Joint Symposium could be seen here.

The 25^th anniversary symposium will be held in Seoul National University in late 2022.

Text and images provided by Institute for International Collaboration