Message
Kyoto University has launched a new Global Center Of Excellence (GCOE) Program entitled "Global Center for Education and Research on Human Security Engineering for Asian Megacities" in the Graduate School of Engineering (the departments of Environmental Engineering, Civil and Earth Resources Engineering, Urban Management, and Architecture and Architectural Engineering), the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies and Disaster Prevention Research Institute since 2008 fiscal year. This GCOE Program is funded by Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, in order to "strengthen and enhance the education and research functions of graduate schools, to foster highly creative young researchers who will go on to become world leaders in their respective fields through experiencing and practicing research of the highest world standard." Fulfilling basic human needs and assuring the self-sustainable recovery from environmental pollution and disasters in Asian Megacities have been the major challenges for several decades, and the situation still needs more improvement. One main reason for this unsuccessful situation was the unsystematic management of the technologies and systems for dealing with those risks rather than the rapid growth of cities. Besides past attempts to solve human security issues overlooked the importance of the development of human resources and communities for systematically applying those technologies and systems to their specific problems. From the above awareness, in this program, we will attempt the complementary co-evolution among technologies, city management, and policy design by putting greater emphasis on local orientation while fully utilizing our rich academic traditions of civil engineering, architecture, environmental engineering and disaster prevention research. With this approach, we will develop the existing individual disciplines into a more comprehensive discipline that encompasses fields such as urban management strategies, urban policy in order to establish human security in Asian megacities, and promote research and education in this new discipline. More specifically, we will working together with universities, research institutions, and private enterprises in Asia through the network of seven overseas bases, and foster 20 doctoral students per academic year.
We are looking forward to your response on this new GCOE program.
Professor Yuzuru MATSUOKA
Department of Environmental Engineering,
Graduate School of Engineering,
Kyoto University