A group of TSU students from the Faculty of Geology and Geography and the Faculty of Innovative Technologies, who are employees of the BioClimLand Centre, have passed an internship at Tokyo Metropolitan University. With specialists there, they conducted an expedition study of the ancient volcano Hakone on Honshu Island, studied the state of groundwater in Tokyo, and mastered computer technologies for creating a decision tree on the example of forecasting landslides in the Japanese Alps.
- Our students’ internship in Japan took place under the collaboration agreement between TSU and TMU signed by the Rectors of universities in 2015, - says Vadim Khromykh, an associate professor of the Faculty of Geology and Geography, who supervised the group on the trip. - The agreement provides scientific internships, exchange of students and teachers, and organization of joint research. Study of the environment was chosen as the priority area of collaboration between the Tomsk and Tokyo universities.
Professor Jun Matsumoto, head of the Department of Geography and director of the TMU Research Center for Climatology, was the head of the internship programme for TSU students. Presentations with reports at the International Workshop on Climate and Land in Eurasia, scientific excursions, field research, and student training in some computer technologies for spatial analysis were included in the internship programme.
- In particular, students were engaged in creating of decision tree using a digital relief model, - said Vadim Khromykh. - As an example, a forecast was made for the development of landslides in the Japanese Alps. The TSU Faculty of Geology and Geography began teaching GIS software 20 years ago, so our students readily joined the work of the TMU Laboratory of Geoinformation Systems.
During the visit to Tokyo, TSU representatives discussed with their Japanese colleagues the options for further collaboration. Scientists of the Tokyo Metropolitan University are very interested in Siberian climate research and are ready to take part in joint scientific research with TSU scientists in the Trans-Siberian Scientific Way.
In September, TSU teachers will visit Tokyo Metropolitan University, where they will read a series of lectures for Japanese students. After that, Daichi Nakayama, an assistant professor at TMU, will pay a return visit to Tomsk, where he will teach TSU students