September 25th 2023
Congratulatory Address for the 2023 Fall Commencement Ceremony
Yasunori Mitani, President
Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech)

It is a great pleasure for us to welcome you to the 2023 Fall Commencement
Ceremony here today.
First, I would like to congratulate all of you on your achievement and new start ofyour prosperous future. I would also like to express my heartfelt congratulations to
all the parents and families who are also happy and proud of the graduates after
giving financial and emotional support to this day.
As we are finally coming out of the long tunnel of the covid-19 pandemic in this year,
not only domestic activities but also international exchanges have become more andmore active. Learning from our experience during the pandemic, we are starting a
new way of living rather than returning to the same way of living before the pandemic.
On the other hand, as we can see now, international conflicts are becoming greatly
intense, and in the face of the ravages of war unfolding in the real world today, wehumans are now in the great danger of repeating the same mistakes we have mademany times in our history.
I believe that the progress and development of modern science and technology is
because of the innovation that has been created through the meetings and exchangesof people with various intelligence and personalities in a free and open environment.
However, the world now has been facing problems of many social divisions, and if thedivided society deprives the opportunities for such exchange from us, our loss isimmeasurable.
Therefore, global communications and exchanges among people and among
institutions are important today, and it is one of your most important roles in society
after today’s graduation under these circumstances. You must have spent youruniversity life, sometimes worrying and helping each other with the people frommany countries and regions at Kyutech together. I believe each of you has built
various human networks during this time.

You will be now walking on our separate ways from today, but I expect and hope thatyou can continue to strengthen your networks you have built at Kyutech with strong
bonds even more than ever.
We, as academia, can create relationships where we can connect remotely even when
we are physically separated, deepen our interactions when we meet face-to-face,shake hands, and hug with each other, then figure out solutions to our problems
through intensive mutual discussion but not by fighting against each other withweapons.
In divided society, you lose your control to make the right decisions and find theright directions when you are dominated by the idea of eliminating those who are
different from you. I am certain that your knowledge, skills, experience,inquisitiveness, curiosity, human networks, and everything you have gained at
Kyutech is not because of AI but meeting and working with your supervisors andmentors, making friends, and interacting with students and researchers from manydifferent countries and regions in Kyutech.
Our life still goes on with the virus which is mutating time to time and conflicts
around the world continue, and it does not seem to end soon unfortunately. However,it could give us an opportunity to take this moment to appreciate and think of theimportance of our health, our lives, and cooperation instead of dividing.
Human Intelligence can always continue to advance and evolve based on ourexperience and I think what is needed is the wisdom to fully utilize our knowledge
with curiosity which Artificial Intelligence does not have yet.
Kyutech has this important keyword, “creation of diversity”. Diversity is an
essential element for recombinant innovation to occur. As a hypothetical example,
imagine a situation in which we are conducting research only with male students who
have graduated from schools from neighboring area, the results of this research willstrongly reflect the perspectives of men in the area, and opportunities to generate
further ideas will be limited. However, when different gender, people from different
areas, from overseas, and from industries join and work together on the research, thepossibility of creating ideas that would not have been possible in a limited group will
increase dramatically. In other words, high diversity has a strong correlation withgreater opportunities for innovation.

I believe you have made many good friends, and I am confident that all theencounters you have during your life at Kyutech will enrich your future which could
also give a positive impact on the future of Kyutech.
Finally but not least, I wish each of you joyful and prosperous life with all blessingof many valuable meetings and experience you have with us at Kyutech, and once
again, I would like to send my congratulations on successful departure for your newjourney.
Thank you very much and congratulations.