AY2026 Entrance Ceremony was held

The University of Aizu AY2026 entrance ceremony was held on Thursday, April 2, 2026. A total of 341 new students, 247 to the undergraduate school, 85 to master' s program, and 9 to the doctoral program were admitted by President Tsukahara. At the ceremony, congratulatory addresses by the Governor of Fukushima, Chairperson of Fukushima Prefectural Assembly, and Aizuwakamatsu City Mayor were delivered. After the addresses, Mr. TSUKUI Rai and Ms. HIRATSUKA Yuki each pledged on behalf of the new students admitted to the undergraduate school and the graduate school respectively.

Congratulations on your admission to the University of Aizu. Today we welcome 341 new students, including 247 to our undergraduate school, 85 to our master's program, and 9 to our doctoral program. It is my pleasure to welcome all of you taking your first steps as members of our university.

Not a day goes by that we don't see words like AI, Big Data, IoT, and self-driving cars, which have become indispensable in our daily lives. Each of these is part of information and communication technology, or ICT, which is the subject you will study here. ICT is no longer limited to computers and communications technology. Rather, it enriches human lives in everything from daily life to advanced medicine and space exploration, and is indispensable in paving the way to the future.

With the 2024 Nobel prizes in both Physics and Chemistry being awarded for AI-related research, it has become increasingly clear that AI is causing a major upheaval in the fundamental sciences, and is having an immeasurable impact on society as a whole.

Within this context, the various achievements of the UoA's excellent international faculty and student body have rapidly increased recognition of the University over the last few years, and we are now attracting attention even from fields outside informatics. In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, we placed 11^th amongst Japanese universities and 1^st amongst public universities in Japan for the third year in a row, illustrating how highly our university has been evaluated, particularly in terms of our international outlook and research.

Our research ranges from community-based projects, such as the use of AI to prevent damage caused by bears and other wild animals, to the recent taking of images with the multi-band spectrographic camera on the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, as well as the analysis of these images. As demonstrated by the UoA faculty members who worked on this space mission, our achievements extend to space exploration.

As science and technology advances and the social circumstances of the era change, so too have changed the knowledge and skills required of individuals. However, I believe that the learning process is largely universal and unchanging. Nobel laureate author OE Kenzaburo described the learning process as having three stages; "to know," "to understand," and "to realize." To quote Oe; "'To know' is to be taught knowledge. 'To understand' is to be able to use that knowledge.' 'To realize' requires deepening that understanding by repeating the first two steps until you are able to break through novel challenges on your own." Research, the activity through which new things are created, is nothing more than the repetition of this process. Looking back on my own life as a student and researcher, I have learned the importance of this process.

Technological progress in the ICT field has been remarkable, and generative AI and other technologies are rapidly penetrating society. I hope you will engage in learning that gets to the essence of things based on knowing, understanding, and realizing.

Learning requires hard work and perseverance. Please pursue your studies with a belief that a future of your own lies beyond, while ambitiously polishing your intelligence and humanity.

I will conclude by expressing my hope that all of you will acquire a broad education and an international outlook, and grow into talents capable of global success.

Once again, congratulations to all of you enrolling at our university today.

April 2, 2026

TSUKAHARA Tsuneo, President, the University of Aizu