December 09, 2015

A delegation led by Yu Wang, president of the Academy of Opto-Electronics (AOE), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), visited the University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo (UEC, Tokyo) to discuss collaborating on optical engineering and opto-electronics research with Kaoru Minoshima at the Department of Engineering Science, Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering, UEC on 30 November 2015.

President Takashi Fukuda welcomed the members of AOE and started the meeting with an overview of the university and recent developments. “UEC was one of only 22 universities in Japan selected by MEXT for the ‘Program for Promoting the Enhancement of Research Universities’ launched in 2013, ” explained Fukuda. “Our participation in this highly competitive 10 year program highlights our strengths over a wide range of research areas including optics.”

Effective global outreach is important for promoting international collaborative research, and at UEC, Wataru Mitsuhashi, Director of Research Strategy, is in charge of producing the university’s flagship English language research newsletter: ‘UEC e-Bulletin’. “The inaugural issue of e-Bulletin in March 2014 included a feature article about ‘intelligent light sources and the optical comb’ being conducted by Kaoru Minoshima,” said Mitsuhashi. “Please visit our website and the ‘UEC e-Bulletin’ for up to date details about research being conducted at UEC.”

“‘The Minoshima Intelligent Optical Synthesizer Project’ was launched in 2013,” said Minoshima. “The ultimate goal is to develop an intelligent light source by controlling the time, phase and frequency information of light." Applications of such a light source include metrology, astronomy, and spectroscopy.

The Minoshima Intelligent Optical Synthesizer Project is funded by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and Yoshiko Shirokizawa, Executive Director, attended the meeting with her colleagues to give a brief explanation of the science and technology policy of Japan, the vision and mission of the JST and the many achievements including funding that led to the Nobel Prize for “the invention of blue light emitting diodes” in 2014.

The activities of the AOE were described by President Wang. He explained that AOE was set up by CAS in November 2003 and its activities are focused on “optoelectronic engineering, aerospace engineering, and application technology”. “The 360 staff at AOE are young with an average age of 33,” said Wang. “We would like to enhance our collaboration with Professor Minoshima and her colleagues at UEC. We look forward to a fruitful relationship with UEC in the future.”

After the meeting the members of the AOE group were given a tour of the research facilities at the Minoshima Laboratory and other optical science research groups and institutes at UEC.