The first day of Sakura Science Exchange Program was held under "Circular Economy and Biocatalysts." The participants was 33 (academic staff 5, researcher 1, students 27). The video presentation of four laboratories, two from PU and two from YNU, was carried out, by using the online program to advantage in the exchange. After introducing studies of both universities, selected works of students were presented by themselves. Finally, free discussion was done to contribute for making individual cooperative relationships.
The second day of Sakura Science Exchange Program was held online focusing on " Environment/Bio Processes" with Prof.M.Takeda Lab(YNU), A.Prof.Nakamura Lab(YNU), Prof.Sivakumar Lab(Anna University), Prof.Mahesh and Prof.Aruna Lab(VIT). The number of participants was 117 including 7 academic staffs. In laboratory introduction session the research concepts of each laboratories “Application of Separation Engineering For SDGs From the Viewpoints of India and Japan”(A.Prof. Nakamura),“Waste to Valuable Products – A Look Into The Future of Research”(Prof.Sivakumar), “Resource Recovery From Wastes: Towards A Circular Economy”(Prof. Mahesh), “Innovative Combination of Cellulose and Bacterial Polysaccharide”(Prof. Takeda) were introduced. In the virtual laboratory tour session, the laboratories were introduced by live or video by students in order to feel atmosphere of students and research facilities. These online activities well helped us to understand each research environments. We discussed further exchange and research collaboration in future.
The third day of Sakura Science Exchange Program was held under “Hydrogen energy, Energy conversion, and Robotics.” The number of participants was around 50 (academic staff 11, students ~40). Laboratories on mechanical engineering in YNU and IITK participated in this event. Both sides presented their research activities and held a virtual lab visit through live broadcasting and recorded video. Further collaboration including re-conclusion of an academic agreement and student exchange was discussed.
The fourth day of Sakura Science Exchange Program was held under "Healthcare and Biomaterials" using Zoom. The participants were 12 (academic staff 4, students 8). After Introduction of laboratory and virtual lab tour from Prof. Mandal laboratory of Indian Institute of Technology Gwahati and Assoc. Prof. Iijima laboratory of Yokohama National University, selected undergraduate and graduate students presented their own research. Then, free discussion was held to discuss the possibility of future joint research.
On the final day (Day 5), it was held as Japan-India YNU Symposium 2021. Here, as a summary of the individual meetings from the 1st to the 4th day, the discussions of each meeting were reported and poster presentations were given by the young researchers and students. After that, a comprehensive discussion on future activities was held and the event ended.
First of all, at the opening session, Professor Hiromi Kabashima, Vice President of Yokohama National University (in charge of globalization), gave a greeting. Next, Mr. Yuji Nishikawa (National Research and Development Corporation, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)) of the Sakura Science Exchange Program Promotion Headquarters gave a special message along with an explanation of the Sakura Science Exchange Program. Then, as a keynote speech, Professor Gautam Biswas of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of IIT Kanpur gave a keynote speech on the importance of Japan-India exchange and the expectations for deepening exchanges with YNU. There were poster presentations by 33 young researchers and students from 5 partner universities with YNU. First, poster presenters gave a short presentation for 2 minutes per person, hereafter, posters with odd-numbered presentations and then posters with even-numbered presentations were presented in each room using Zoom's breakout function. Finally, the whole program was summarized, and the symposium was over.
