Assembly Chairpersons from 12 Okinawa Northern Municipalities Visit OIST

On Tuesday, May 24, the assembly chairpersons and secretaries general of the 12 northern municipalities of Okinawa visited OIST as part of their tour of Onna Village. The 28 visitors came from Nago City, Kunigami Village, Ogimi Village, Higashi Village, Nakijin Village, Motobu Town, Onna Village, Ginoza Village, Kin Town, Ie Village, Izena Village, and Iheya Village.

The visit began with a greeting by Executive Director Dr. Robert Baughman. Mr. Hirokazu Tanaka, Senior Manager of the General Affairs Group, then gave an overview of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) and talked about the status of preparation for establishing the graduate university. Mr. Tanaka also referred to OIST contribution to the development of Okinawa, and highlighted the relations with the northern region of Okinawa, including recent interactions with Okinawa National College of Technology in Nago and with the research center of Ocean Exposition Commemorative Park Management Foundation in Motobu. He added that a student from Hokuzan High School in Nakijin is expected to participate in the upcoming Science Talk with Nobel Laureate *** scheduled for June 18.

In the subsequent tour of the OIST facilities, the visitors met with Dr. Kenji Doya, Principal Investigator of the Neural Computation Unit. Dr. Doya talked about his life in Okinawa and presented his research on the brain, which uses robots that learn behavior patterns based on rewards.

*** Science Talk with Nobel Laureate
OIST capitalizes on visits by Nobel Prize winners to host interaction between Okinawa high school students and Nobel Laureates. The event gives young people the opportunity to talk directly to some of the world’s most famous scientists.