May 13, 2013

Japan Society of Civil Engineers
International Activities Center

IAC News No. 8Looking Back at the Establishment of IAC

One of the noteworthy events within JSCE in 2012 was the establishment ofInternational Activities Center (IAC) in April 2012. After extensive discussions
by the Strategic Task Force (STF) for Internationalization of Civil Engineering inJapan chaired by Prof Shigeru MORICHI, the JSCE Board of Directors approved
the IAC establishment proposed by STF with full recognition of the importance ofinternationalization. The establishment of IAC means not only the change inorganizational structure of JSCE, but also the enhancement of manpower andbudget. International activities need information transfer among different
languages and cultures and occasionally long distance travels. Without
appropriate manpower and budget, internationalization cannot be advanced.
The manpower and budget both became double (from two to four full-time officers

UEDA Tamon, Dr. Eng.
Senior Director, IAC(Hokkaido University)and 2% to 4% of the total JSCE budget). Although these levels may not be high incomparison with similar organizations overseas, it was a great step for JSCE.
After the establishment of IAC, the followings are primary changes: (1) the quality/quantity improvement ofinformation dissemination in English by a new English website and publishing of monthly IAC newsletter, (2)the start of real exchange activities for collaborative works rather than simply exchanging visits, especially with
Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam and Myanmar, and (3) the establishment of database of international members forbetter service through networking. If people in the JSCE community, especially non-Japanese, could see
those changes, IAC team would be more than happy.
Civil engineering is international in its nature. JSCE activity should naturally be international. Increased
participation of non-Japanese in JSCE activities and joint activities with other AOC (Agreement of Cooperation)organizations is expected. JSCE has decided to further strengthen the manpower and budget of IAC in 2013.
The IAC team will put more efforts not only to serve the community in JSCE, but also to collaborate with AOC.
We look forward to hearing from you on IAC activities. You can write us at iac-news@jsce.org.jp or directly tome at ueda@eng.hokudai.ac.jp.

【Information Networking Gr.: Greetings from the Leader】

JSCE’s activities are the very source of information, which produces
one story after another every day. It is a good challenge for us the IAC
Information Networking Group to catch interesting pieces of news fromthe sea of information, sort them out and deliver them to the JSCE members.
We have determined to deal with this challenge in order to strengthen theindustry-government-academia partnership, amid advancing social andeconomic globalization. While knowing that each member pictures his/her
own goal to pursue, we as part of action-oriented IAC team is taking a firm
footing toward the goal the IAC has set forth.
TSURUMAKI, Eimitsu
Director, IAC,Inf. Networking Gr. Leader

The first task is collecting the information which scatters all over thecivil engineering community. It is not easy for us to pick up every
piece of information even with our very best effort. We are recruiting
IAC News reporters among the JSCE members who are engaged with several activities around the civilengineering field. Those reporters will collect news and write articles to share with the IAC News subscribers.
We expect that their efforts will set us work in full throttle.
Besides the IAC News, the monthly JSCE Magazine is another information repository for the members.
Although it will be able to pick up only a few pieces, we will carefully select the news from the repository whichshould be interesting and informative to the members and send it to the members overseas regularly.
Meanwhile, we are planning to introduce IAC’s activities in the monthly magazine, taking up one page. In theseways, we will communicate with the members in and outside the country.
We will acquire two tools for communication with the members: the monthly IAC News (in both Japanese andEnglish), and IAC News Extra. While continuing the IAC News to update the members with timely news andinformation once a month, we will cover a wider range of topics by publishing extra issues.
Moreover, our effort will continue to keep the JSCE website in English fresh and up to date, and to gain more
IAC subscribers. Your support and cooperation will be greatly appreciated.
Please view and sign up for the IAC News subscription:
http://www.jsce-int.org/pub/registration/international_student
http://www.jsce-int.org/pub/registration/non-international_students

What’s HappeningMay 8：The 18th National Convention on Civil Engineering, EIT (‘Bangkok, Thailand)
May 17-18：The 3rd Joint Symposium: Lessons Learned from Recent Earthquake and Strategies for
Disaster Reduction with a special emphasis on Izmit Gulf Suspension Bridge & Gebze-Orhangazi Izmir
Motorway Project (Istanbul, Turkey)
May 27-29 ：The 1st International Conference on Concrete Sustainability at Toshi Central Hotel,
Tokyo (http://www.jci-iccs13.jp/ )May 30-June 1 ： 57th ECCE General Meeting & ECCE Conference (Ordem dos Engenheiros,Lisbon, Portugal) (http://www.ecceengineers.eu/)

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June 10：A Special Lecture by Dr. Chiu-Hsing Yang, Minister Without Portfolio, Taiwan, R.O.C. (JSCE Hq,Tokyo)
June 13-15：2013 MACE Annual Meeting (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia),
ACECC 6th CECAR in Jakarta, Indonesia (August 20-22, 2013)
http://committees.jsce.or.jp/acecc/6thcecar
Sept 4-7：2013 JSCE Annual Meeting in Chiba (Nihon University Tsudanuma Campus)

Updates

The summary of feature articles in the JSCE Magazine is now on the JSCE website:
http://www.jsce-int.org/pub/magazine
Concrete Committee International Newsletter No. 33
http://www.jsce.or.jp/committee/concrete/e/newsletter/newsletter32/index.htm

IAC News Subscription
IAC publishes the IAC News as one of tool to communicate with and share information with the members. Inorder to network widely, we would like to invite you, your friends and colleagues to become a subscriber to theIAC News. Please register online if you are interested in the IAC News:(http://committees.jsce.or.jp/s_iad/iac_news_e). We are looking forward to meeting you.
Registration form for IAC News subscription:
・Japanese :（http://committees.jsce.or.jp/kokusai/node/31）
・English :（http://committees.jsce.or.jp/s_iad/iac_news_registration）
・English for those who have studied/ graduated from Japanese colleges and universities :（http://committees.jsce.or.jp/kokusai/node/30）

President’s Mumbling
Networking of foreign students
International Activities Center (IAC) which was organized in April 2012 has the foreign students’ group. This
group acts to build a network to connect the students who are studying now or studied before in Japan.
We think the network has at least three merits. First, for those who have studied in Japan and are taking active
part in various fields all over the world, this network can be very beneficial because it covers the wide range ofareas including government, universities and industries to find out the people who will be able to help theirbusinesses.
Second, for students who are now studying in Japan, this network also can be profitable because it can offer
the chances of future occupations.
Finally, for those who have plans to study outside of their home countries, this network can supply adequate
information about studying abroad.
We distribute the civil engineering information in various fields such as government, academia, and industries
through our homepage (http://www.jsce-int.org/) and international activities center news
(http://www.jsce-int.org/pub/iacnews/7). We strongly recommend you to register now to International Activities
Center through the form (http://www.jsce-int.org/taxonomy/term/10). We are pleased to deliver the IAC news
every month. We are also planning to improve the IAC news to include the information of jobs, technologies,
symposiums, government’s activities and various civil engineering projects.

We need your cooperation to utilize the network not only to use it for businesses or studies but also to build abridge between your country and Japan.

Staff’s MumblingI have joined the IAC as a staff member since this April. My first assignment was editing this issue and I had a
hard time to do the English version particularly. I’m convinced that this newsletter as well as the JSCE
website is one of major communication tools to liaison between the readers and us; therefore, I will do my best
to make the newsletter more informative and interesting to the readers. Your help, support and encouragement
will help me go on. Thank you. (T)【Comments and Questions】
Please send us your feedback and comments to help us improve the IAC news. We look forward to hearing fromyou. JSCE IAC: iac-news@jsce.or.jp