Fulbright Trip #1 of 2004 to Japan, Report

by Ralph Abraham

PART II: Kyoto University

Kyoto University (KU) is one of the top universities in Japan, and is highly respected in many areas, especially the Department of Electrical Engineering (KUEE). This department has been internationally recognized for leadership in chaos theory, including computational math in its graduate and undergraduate programs for the past twenty years at least.

The presence of Professor Ueda in KUEE until his recent move to Hakodate has been the major factor in this international recognition. During his tenure in Kyoto, many of his graduate students became internationally visible, among them, Professor Takashi Hikihara, until recently, chair of the KUEE department, and the host for my two-week visit. Professor Hikihara leads the subprogram in chaos theory and computational math in KUEE, and also has brought together indisciplinary groups interested in complex systems applied to many other fields.

The structure of the KUEE department, somewhat like a European university, has a laboratory as a functional unit. Comprising (normally) one each: professor, assistant professor, and research associate, this has proved an excellent structure. But due to new budget constraints, some of these units have been recently reduced in size.

Activities

During my two weeks in Kyoto, I went to the university every day. I met a number of graduate students, gave two lectures in an electrical engineering graduate course at the new Katsura campus, and one more advanced lecture on current research to an interdisciplinary group of experts at the original Yoshida campus. I had several talks with Professor Hikihara about the current courses and research activities. In addition, Professor Ueda visited Kyoto during my stay there, and we continued our conversations from Hakodate.

Further, I was lucky to meet two other members of the KU faculty, Professor Kosaku Inagaki of the Informatics Department (www.scienceismagic.com), and Professor Chihiro Suematsu of the Economics Department. I spent much time discussing complex systems and related subjects with them. In all of these talks, I formed the impression that the Kyoto University programs were excellent, but also rather traditional, and that the newly emerging and very important ideas of complexity were not adequately treated.

Recommendations

For Kyoto University, an increased emphasis on complex systems would be very beneficial. The Japanese business network, environment, and technological evolution, might all benefit enormously if the best students were mastering the latest concepts of CS. Professors Hikihara, Inagaki, and Suematsu were all quite aware of these possibilities, but they are not given enough support from the administration of KU to lead the way to innovations in their respective programs.