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Global Organization
The centre for nano-biomedical engineering of the East Asian and Pan-Pacific region will be established at Tohoku University under this Global COE program, with the participation of National Cheng-Kun University of Taiwan, the National University of Singapore, the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, the University of California, Los Angeles and CNSI. Tohoku University will coordinate the multi-centre collaboration through the human exchange program, not only for students but also for instructors and academic staff.
To create and develop truly international collaboration for nano-biomedical engineering in the East-Asian Pacific region, the centre will be composed of internationally renowned researchers in the nano-biomedical engineering field. In the previous 21st Century COE program, we successfully organised nine international conferences, two of which were held in Singapore, with substantial support by the National University of Singapore. Of the international conferences held in Japan, we invited a large number of leading researchers from all over the world, particularly from the East Asian-Pacific countries, including Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific coast of the United States. Members of the 21st Century COE program were also invited by those countries to discuss collaborative studies.
In the proposed Global COE program, we will invite exceptional researchers from those countries to the centre as visiting scholars. On arriving at Tohoku University, they will provide intensive lecture courses on various subjects, in English, so that students at Tohoku University and others will benefit in terms of their exposure to English education. In addition, we plan to exchange students between Tohoku University and member universities of the centre, primarily at the Ph.D. level. Peer mentorship will be organised for overseas students conducting research at Tohoku University so that Japanese students can form friendships with overseas students and achieve lifelong links to research in the advancing scientific fields in nano-biomedical engineering. At the instructor level, middle- to long-term exchange programs will be established, using the currently proposed framework, especially for young investigators. It is also important to retrain faculty members so as to make them continuously aware of new, advanced studies. Faculty members in the program, regardless of their experience and seniority, will participate in the international faculty development. In faculty development activities, researchers in either the biomedical or engineering discipline will be requested to join organised courses of education in their counterpart specialties, so that, for example, biomedical scientists or medical doctors can receive systematic education in the fundamentals of engineering. In the faculty development courses in the proposed global COE program, all courses will be taught in English, so that participants will be able to use the knowledge they acquire in the international setting.
