Chairperson of the Board of Executives and President
TSUKAHARA Tsuneo

The University of Aizu (UoA) is proud to be celebrating its 30-year anniversary.

We, the UoA, are a computer science and engineering-focused tech institute and proud to be a university that actively engages with society. We continue to thrive while keeping a weather eye on the ever-changing world. Accordingly, we are always fine-tuning our curricula and recalibrating our research directions in response to the unpredictable demands of society.

We always strive to excel in teaching and research, banking on our thoroughgoing knowledge in the fundamental educational domains underpinning ICT (Information and Communication Technology). We rejoice in the privilege to showcase our success in all applied fields, including AI, Big Data, IoT (Internet of Things), semiconductor integrated circuits, medical engineering, robotics, and space technology, to name just a few.

Our undergraduate enrollment number is 240 per graduating class. Nurturing that many ICT conversant students each year is unique in the field of information science in Japan and places us among the largest of all like-minded, informatics-leaned universities in the country. By the time of graduation, UoA students have mastered their specific concentration to the point they are prepared for immediate and effective social engagement. Those facts make the UoA stand out as one of the more prolific institutions fostering tomorrow's engineers in the country, which is important during the current national shortage of skilled ICT workers.

We stand firm with our second-to-none education and research programs, which also lay the foundation of UoA's signature formula to amass well-versed, highly sought-after, graduates in the ICT market. To not mince words, we are blessed to receive glowing reviews from media outlets that publish university rankings worldwide. Of particular note is our international outlook, for which we are ranked as outright top-tier in the nation.

The UoA is a bilingual institution to its core―English and Japanese. The UoA has a very strong representation of international faculty (currently a staggering 40% of faculty are with international background). All internal business documents are in both languages. All meetings are bilingual. Being a dual-language entity is UoA's business motto, it is fundamentally in its DNA. It has always been this way since the time of its foundation.

At the UoA, students write up theses in English, and then present their research in English. With few exceptions, our graduate courses are English-medium. Such a bona fide bilingual, international, ethos makes us truly a one-of-a-kind Japan-based tech institution. I pledge to capitalize on our unique complexion, which is conducive to diversity, broad cultural perspectives, and many other advantages, and thereby bring you the best the UoA can offer. I pledge to use our invaluable scholarly expertise and resources for the good of the citizenry of our beautiful nation, and the citizenry of our beautiful world.

All that said, I also feel morally obligated to lift UoA's domestic prestige for both UoA faculty and students. Allow me to be candid for a moment: I am seeking to redress the fact that UoA's name has not been satisfactorily made known domestically. UoA's name is not greeted with the due fairness and appreciation it deserves. High school teachers and students in our nation at large do not fully appreciate or understand UoA's attractive assets and strong points.

Universities are destined to compete against their peer institutions. That is a "given". The cold hard fact is, as we speak, the terrain of competition between ICT departments/schools―UoA's major battlefield―is becoming fiercer and fiercer. I am bent on being a good steward of UoA's institutional caliber. I am stout-hearted enough to do my bit to rectify the "perceived slight". As a starter, I will personally host "sneak peek " events for high school teachers and counselors.

People who are 30 years of age are often considered to be at their prime. By analogy, the UoA becoming 30 years old is a significant milestone which underscores our tremendous potential. You have my word: getting UoA's brand image across is my solemn duty.

Last, but not least, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the UoA, we held the following events: Human Ergology Society National Meeting; Asia-Pacific Regional IAU Meeting (APRIM); UoA IT Forum 2023 Fall; PC Koshien 2023; refurbishing of our on-campus Community Space (grand opening scheduled in December 2023), and Temporary Amateur Radio Station 8J7UOA (run by the All Aizu Amateur Radio Memorial Station Operating Committee). I take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to all of you who have supported those activities in one form or another. You deserve my praise because I guarantee that you have made a lasting positive impact on the UoA.

Fifth President
OKA Ryuichi

A university is evaluated based on short-term outcomes and long-term outcomes. Short-term outcomes are its research achievements. Its long-term outcomes are the realization that UoA graduates have while looking back 10, 20, or 30 years down the line later that university life had a positive and significant impact on them. The latter is a definite achievement, although it may not be perceived and is often not explicit. The fact that 30 years have passed since the UoA's foundation means that it has accumulated many of the latter outcomes.

In order to further accumulate these outcomes, the UoA is expected to get feedback on current education and research from the future. Taking a familiar example, the UoA should clarify what it should do in education and research so that IT engineers who graduate from the UoA can enjoy flexible careers in an era when ChatGPT-4 has become ChatGPT-40.

It is said among mathematicians that students who get outstanding grades in mathematics are not suited for mathematical research. That is because high-performance students feel a high level of stress when they face continued setbacks, making them unsuited for a research career. Even if you are not a mathematician, trying to achieve something in your professional life always comes with setbacks. This is because it requires not staying in one place, but moving forward even at great personal cost. I hope that UoA graduates will have tough spirits even when faced with setbacks, as setbacks are also opportunities for self-transformation.

Chairperson of the University of Aizu Alumni Association
NOYAMA Kotaro

I would like to express my heartfelt congratulations to the University of Aizu on its 30th anniversary.

More than 7,000 alumni have graduated from the UoA, Japan's first university solely dedicated to computer science and engineering. The UoA has the highest number of spinoff companies of any public university in Japan, and the impact of the UoA and its alumni on the ICT industry has been very significant. In this era when the entire industry is trying to collaborate beyond organizational frameworks through open innovation, we recognize that the network that has formed around the UoA with its broad roots in industry, academia, and government, is a great force for us and for the industry.

The guiding principles of our activities are "Connection," "the Founding Philosophy," and "Solidity and Trust." As a bridge that connects alumni, current students, faculty and staff and the community, we especially emphasize "Connection," and we hope to further expand and strengthen our network.

We, the Alumni Association, will continue to grow together with the UoA. I hope that the UoA will continue to develop further and further by continuing to make itself a unique university that fits a rapidly changing world.