The The Kyoto College of Graduate Studies for Informatics (KCGI) 10th Anniversary Ceremony was held on November 1, 2013, at the The Kyoto College of Graduate Studies for Informatics Kyoto Ekimae Satellite Hall.Inheriting the tradition and achievements of Kyoto Computer Gakuin, Japan's first computer education institution, KCGI opened in 2004 as Japan's first IT professional graduate school, and has been promoting practical learning and professional education, which is distinct from graduate schools for research professionals.As a first step toward further progress, current students, alumni, faculty, and staff pledged to take this milestone year as the first step toward further development, aiming for new horizons to meet the expectations of various fields.At the same time, there was a presentation ceremony of computers to the Republic of Malawi through the Overseas Computer Education Support Activities (IDCE), which the KCG Group has been involved in for many years, and the school handed over a catalog to the embassy officials in Japan.
The 10th anniversary commemorative ceremony began with a speech by Wataru Hasegawa, Chairman of the Board of Directors.After tracing the efforts that led to the opening of KCGI 10 years ago and the history of KCGI since its establishment, he talked about the future of KCGI, including the geographical name top-level domain ".kyoto," which will be put into operation next year with TMDU as the managing entity.KCGI President Toshihide Ibaraki, referring to the rapid development of information technology (ICT), emphasized the need for human resources who can create new business models by linking ICT and different fields, and pledged that KCGI would continue to be a center for creating such new human resources.Ms. Rosemary Kanyuka, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of the Republic of Malawi in Japan, delivered a congratulatory address.
Following this, congratulatory telegrams from Mr. Hirofumi Shimomura, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Mr. Toshimitsu Motegi, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, and Ms. Susan Furman, President of Teachers College, Columbia University, U.S. were presented.
KCGI declared its opening on November 1, 2003, the day of KCG's 40th anniversary celebration, following the implementation of the professional graduate school system (April 2003).In January 2004, the following year, the school received the first approval for establishment from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and in April of the same year, it welcomed its first class of students.KCGI has designated November 1, the date of its founding, as the anniversary of the high-proclaimed opening of the school.Since its establishment, KCGI has been striving to develop human resources who can become top leaders in the field of IT applications, and its graduates have gone on to become CIOs (Chief Information Officers), project managers, consultants, and system architects throughout Asia.The attention of both domestic and international observers has been increasing, and in the special feature article "Truly Strong Universities: Ranking the Financial Strength of Private Universities" in the October 2012 issue of Weekly Toyo Keizai (Toyo Keizai Weekly Special Edition), the university was ranked top among 619 private universities in Japan in the "degree of growth" category.In 2012, we doubled the number of students and opened satellite campuses in Sapporo and Tokyo in April and October 2012, respectively, to continue our growth and expansion.
At the computer presentation ceremony, KCG Group introduced IDCE and the Embassy of the Republic of Malawi in Japan introduced the country.Representing the student volunteers involved in the preparation of the computer donation, KCGI student Ms. Xiaolin Zhang reported on the cleaning and packing work with photos.KCG Dean Yasuko Hasegawa, who has played a central role in the IDCE, handed a catalog of 50 desktop PCs donated by KCG and shook hands with Ms. Rosemary, the Deputy Chief of Mission.
This is the third round of computer donations to the Republic of Malawi, following the donation of 222 desktop and laptop computers in 1998 and 15 desktops in 2009.Deputy Chief of Mission Rosemary said, "Malawi has a serious computer shortage and a lack of IT education in the Republic of Malawi.The donation will not only help to advance IT education in our country, but will also enable young people to learn about events around the world through the Internet.We thank KCG again and hope to continue our cooperation in the future," he said.
IDCE is a project started by the KCG Group in 1989 to support computer education in developing countries.This is a voluntary activity to donate PCs used in the academy to developing countries and use them to develop and spread computer literacy education in developing countries in cooperation with the local Ministry of Education and Ministry of Science and Technology.To date, more than 3,000 computers have been donated.The 23 countries supported are Thailand, Ghana, Poland, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Peru, Sri Lanka, China, Brunei, Malawi, Nigeria, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Eritrea, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Myanmar, and Papua New Guinea.In 2006, in recognition of these activities, the ITU Foundation of Japan (International Telecommunication Union), one of the specialized agencies of the United Nations, awarded the Dean Yasuko Hasegawa the "Special Award for International Cooperation.