Heisei 30 Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology Entrance Ceremony Speech

Heisei 30 Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology Entrance ceremony speech.

April 6, 30
Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology Hiroyuki Ohno

Congratulations to all of you who have enrolled in Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. On behalf of the faculty and staff, I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations. I would also like to express my sincere congratulations to all of you who have supported you so far for today's entrance ceremony.

There are 330 new students in Faculty of Agriculture and 619 in Faculty of Engineering, for a total of 949 undergraduate students. The university's graduate school consists of four Graduate School of Engineering, Graduate School of Agriculture, Graduate School of Bio-Applications and Systems Engineering, and United Graduate School of Agricultural Science, and if we include all the Cooperative Major in Advanced Health Science programs established in the Graduate School of Bio-Applications and Systems Engineering in collaboration with Waseda University, there will be 635 new students in the master's, master's, and Specialist degree programs, and 109 students in the doctoral program. In addition, there are a total of 57 international students from all over the world, bringing the total number of new students to 1,693 this year, including all Faculty & Graduate Schools students.
Throughout its long history, more than 140 years since its founding, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, which you have enrolled, has been making every effort to realize a society that can continue to develop sustainably, including the two fields of agriculture and engineering, which are the backbone of industry, as well as the interdisciplinary fields of agriculture and engineering. First-year undergraduate students enrolled in Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. First of all, you should recognize that education at a university is very different from education up to high school. Until high school, I think that there was a lot of education that absorbed and understood the basic knowledge taught by the teacher according to the program. Since it is a basic science, there is only one solution to the problem. You have been asked to come up with the same answer. However, at university, students are required to think independently and make full use of their knowledge to create new knowledge. In the society that you will go on to after graduation, you will always be asked about things that you do not know or have no experience in. Since there are many parameters, there will be many solutions that satisfy the conditions. However, you need to propose the optimal solution from among them. Or something that is not optimal, but is a good solution as the parameters change over time, will not be constant. Perhaps there is no solution at present. In any case, it is not easy to come up with a solution. What does it take to find a solution in such uncharted territory? Mere knowledge is no match for today's AI. What you need is the ability to combine different pieces of information. And you'll need an out-of-the-box and innovative approach. In order to do this, we need to train ourselves to come up with answers and suggestions that are different from those of others.
For example, there are many answers to the question, "Think of a way to solve the global food problem 20 years from now!" It is an unrealistic but interesting proposal to not only improve the efficiency of food production, but also to prevent population growth, such as underground farms, space factories, and making people smaller, as in recent movies. As you can see, the future is full of challenges. Therefore, everyone's willingness to take on the challenge of the unknown is important. University will help you grow. It's up to you to make the effort to grow. Please draw your own dreams for the future, spare no effort to make those dreams a reality, and work hard in your studies. Also, always be aware of the problem and think about the methodology to solve it. Sometimes insane combinations will also be needed. It is important not to recall knowledge, but to think. In order to do so, it is essential not to study alone, but to gather at the university, discuss with everyone, experience various ways of thinking, and acquire methods to derive optimal solutions. Education at a university is meaningful when you come together. This is a big difference from correspondence learning. Please actively make friends, discuss various things, and grow with each other.
On the other hand, those of you who entered the graduate school of our university this spring have firmly acquired this basic attitude of "thinking broadly without being bound by common sense," and you have entered a more specialized research students activity in order to further improve yourself. However, at the same time as mastering specialization, it is also necessary to acquire a wide range of common sense and culture, and to have a bird's-eye view and a wide variety of perspectives.　It will be useful to have both a wide range of knowledge, even if it is shallow, and a deep expertise that you know best than anyone else, when you are active in the international community. Therefore, please actively study not only research in your own field of specialization, but also knowledge and ways of thinking in other fields, historical background, social elements, international affairs, and everything else. Don't just expand your knowledge, but also have an opinion about each event, "This is how you think." For that reason, I would like you to experience research students activities abroad while you are in graduate school. Overseas graduate students are very motivated. Also, if you look at Japan from the outside, you will discover something new. Again, don't aim for a mere accumulation of knowledge. What you think and how you think about various things is important. As I mentioned earlier, AI can no longer compete with AI in terms of the amount of knowledge. I think the reason why people are people is how they combine knowledge and find solutions.
In graduate school, your life will be centered on research. In the study of uncharted territory, no one knows the answer. It's all about how to find a solution. Please think and worry. And experiment with it. At that time, please do not forget the ethics of research and proceed with correct science. I hope that you will face and overcome the various obstacles that will stand in front of you again and again. You will grow each time. Please become a person who can bring peace to the world and make people happy. We at Faculty Member will continue to be at the top of the world in various fields and will do our best to support you.
And finally, I would like to add an important point. The path of academic research is mentally and physically demanding. You will live a life full of failures. For those of you who have lived a life where everything has gone smoothly and everything has gone well, it will be a very painful period of training. You can't continue without a healthy mind and body. Especially for those of you who come from all over Japan and overseas, I think there are many things that make you feel uneasy in an unfamiliar environment. Don't worry about it alone, talk to friends, Health Service Center staff, and teachers. Please pay close attention to your health, be healthy both physically and mentally, learn a lot, have a lot of fun, and have a fruitful university life. Beyond suffering, there will be shining joy.
I have made many requests to you, and the faculty and staff of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology will always do their utmost in all aspects so that we can support you even more strongly.
I would like to conclude my remarks by expressing my hope that all of you who have enrolled today will not forget your feelings today and will grow greatly toward your dreams, and that you will once again welcome all of you to become members of our university.