Faculty members from our university participated in organizing the hands-on manufacturing experience event “Engineers meet girls !!”

On August 2, 2025, the hands-on manufacturing event titled "Engineers meet girls !!" (Organizer: EmEco co. / Event details: https://note.com/emeco2024/n/n65a0517bcb2e) was held to introduce elementary and junior high school students to the appeal of STEM fields. As part of the University of Aizu's Women's Empowerment Program, Associate Professor NAGAI Kashiko of the University's Center for Planning and Promotion participated in the event's operation.

The event featured four hands-on programs (making bath salts, building an airplane, and operating robots and self-driving cars), with woman engineers who normally work for top Japanese manufacturing companies acting as instructors to support the children's manufacturing experiences.

The children had fun using their hands to learn about the structure of molecules, how airplanes fly, and the technology that powers cars and robots, and shared their impressions, such as "I already loved chemistry, but now I love it even more," and "It was fascinating to learn how airplanes fly."

The keynote speech and discussion featured Toyota Motor Corporation's Chika Kako (Executive Vice President, former head of Lexus development) and EmEco Corporation's Tokiko Shimizu (CEO), who spoke at length about the appeal of science and engineering fields under the theme of artistic thinking in manufacturing. They also appealed to the parents in attendance for their understanding of unbiased career choices.

During the laboratory tour, participants toured the Nagoya University laboratories where the event was held, and, with commentary from female researchers, observed experiments and observations such as the discovery of plant hormones and the behavior of fruit flies.

Our university will continue to support and understand these activities with the goal of promoting women's participation in science and engineering fields.