Short Stay Program of Sustainable Resource Development 2014 was completed. (October 2014)
International Center of Research and Education on Mineral and Energy Resources (ICREMER) conducted the annual 4-week short Stay program of Sustainable Resource Development 2014 from 6th to 31st of October. It was of the fourth year and 12 students participated from 6 Universities of 6 countries such as University of Botswana, Mongolian University of Science and Technology, East Kazakhstan State Technical University, Chulalongkorn University (Thailand), University of the Philippines and Bandung Institute of Technology (Indonesia).
At the opening ceremony on 6th of October, Dr. Kenichi Sawada, President of Akita University welcomed participants with presentation including history of Akita University and interesting places in Akita. And at Welcome Party, hand-rolled Sushi were served participants by the students of Akita University.
In the first week, the participants gave presentation regarding the resources in their home countries and teaching staff including ICREMER gave lectures of specialized field. Participants could obtain not only the field of individual specialty but also wider field such as exploration, mining, processing, smelting, recycle, environmental protection.
In the second week, observation of resource facilities in northern part of Akita prefecture was conducted. The participants visited Japan New Metal Co., LTD, Akita Zinc Co., LTD, Noshiro Thermal Power Plant, Dowa Eco-System, Eco-Recycle, Kosaka Smelting Company, Sumikawa Geo-thermal Power Plant and Source of Tamagawa Hot Springs and they recorded eagerly the equipment and views where were first visit for them. We would like to extend our deepest gratitude to everybody who accepted our visiting and gave precious explanation during being busy time.
After the field trip, the participants were divided into three groups in accordance to their specialty, and they tackled each research topic with receiving supervisors’ instruction. Some works were difficult to carry out in home countries because of limitation of facilities so some of participants deal with experiments and analysis until midnight for last presentation.
At closing ceremony of last day, Prof. Fumio Yamamoto, Deputy President and Executive Director congratulated participants and Prof. Tsuyoshi Adachi, Director of ICREMER, handed out the certification to each participant. On behalf of the participants, the words of thank were presented by Mr. Brian Bino Sinaice (Botswana) and Ms. Marie Angelynne Cruz (Philippines). After the ceremony, the staff and participants of the program took a group photo.
Some of participants were affected by the furious typhoon when arriving at Akita, however, after that, it was blessed with the weather for the most part of program. Nobody has health problem during the entire program including the participants who had even first overseas trip. The participants who obtained new knowledge, experience and friends returned to the home countries. Our expectation is that the participants will keep in touch with each other and they will return to Akita University someday.
