WECC2015 Newsletter No.5
The Significance of Attending
WECC2015“Human Encounters Spark
Innovation”

Prof. Teruhiko YodaChair,
Board of Working
Committee(Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University)

In 1929 the World Engineering Congress (WEC)
was held at Hibiya Public Hall in Tokyo. Beginningon October 29 and running until November 6, it wasa major international conference attracting 4,495
participants, 671 of whom were from overseas. Thus
the origins of WECC2015 in Kyoto date back to1929, when the Japan Federation of Engineering
Societies pooled the resources of industry, academia
and government to host the WEC. That Congress wasa huge success, communicating to the world Japan’srecovery from the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.
The cornerstone of its success was the full supportshown by industry, government, academia and thecollective capabilities of the engineering community.
As well as providing a forum to communicate
Japan’s recovery from the Great East Japan
Earthquake of 2011 and share initiatives based on
lessons learned from that national crisis, this year’s
WECC can also be regarded as an extremely
valuable opportunity to show that the globalengineering community is united in pursuing
scientific and technological innovation needed tocreate societies capable of sustainable development.

June 26, 2015

In this context, the significance of attending
WECC2015 lies in exploring the feasibility of new
possibilities, including drawing up a road map for
creating networks aimed at identifying and resolving
issues facing society with a view to achieving global
sustainable development, discovering innovations
and new markets created by technological advances,
detecting new value triggered by interdisciplinary
collaboration and networks and generating
innovations associated with such value, finding R&D
projects and business partners beyond the bounds ofspecialized fields, and discovering new global
innovation projects involving collaboration among
multiple disciplines and business domains.
Professor P.W. Anderson, winner of the Nobel Prizein Physics in 1977, famously said that “more isdifferent”. The quality of WECC2015 will bedetermined by the number of international
participants. In this sense, the key to the success ofWECC2015 lies in attracting the largest possible
number of attendees from around the world. Thissentiment is also echoed by Professor Hiroshi Amano,
winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014 andplenary speaker at WECC2015, who said that weshould direct all our energies at matters requiring
attention now. WECC2015 will bring together
representatives of industry, science, education, andgovernment to direct all their energies to sharing
practical examples of how engineering is supporting
society and sparking innovation, as well as
information related to these themes, with people all
around the world. The first rays of light that willbring our hopes to life have begun to appear. Byjoining forces, we aim to build a brighter, more
prosperous future. The future is just around thecorner.

Conference Plenary Lecturers have been announced!
We are honored to announce that our conference Plenary Lecturers have been confirmed as follows:

November 30 (Mon.), 2015
9:00-10:00

Opening Ceremony

Conference Plenary Lectures Part 1, 2, 3
Ms. Flavia Schlegel
Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, UNESCO(On behalf of the Secretary General of UNESCO)
10:30-12:30

H.E. Professor Dr. Han Seung-Soo
UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Disaster Risk Reduction and Water
Former Prime Minister of the Republic of Kore
Prof. Nobuo Tanaka
Former Executive Director, International Energy Agency
Visiting Professor, The University of Tokyo

14:00-16:00

Conference Plenary Lectures Part 4, 5, 6
Mr. Takeshi Uchiyamada
Chairman of the Board, Toyota Motor Corporation
Vice Chairman, KEIDANREN
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry

December 1 (Tue.), 2015
9:00-9:50

Conference Plenary Lectures Part 7
Prof. Hiroshi AmanoNagoya University
2014 Nobel Prize Laureate

WECC2015 Registration is now available online!
Registration and accommodation reservation is available from our official website:
http://www.wecc2015.info/index.html

We are looking forward to welcoming you all at the venue!