2023. 12. 1

Japan Society of Civil Engineers
International Activities Center

IAC News No.134
The IAC News introduces significant and unique international projects, technologies, symposium,communication undertaken by JSCE IAC, International Section, ACECC, and Research & Development
Section with over 30 committees, state-of-art- civil engineering technologies and projects, greatand interesting achievements of civil engineer and researcher once a month.
This month’s issue features 2 unique human development programs: Hokkaido University’ Nitobe
College and annual JSCE Open Campus, and JSCE Earthquake Engineering Committee’s report about
the field survey of 2023 Trukey-Syria Earthquake. More details are read on that committee’s HP(https://committees.jsce.or.jp/eec2/node/215).
We are happy to receive your interests, requests and feedbacks anytime. Thank you～ Universities International Courses～

Nitobe College, Hokkaido University
This article looks at Nitobe College, a global education program at Hokkaido
University that has been set up to develop human resources that are internationallyminded and can apply themselves across different fields. Based on the philosophy of
Hokkaido University and Nitobe Inazo’s spirit of learning, Nitobe College focuses onacademic expertise and aims for students to acquire English proficiency, leadership andteamwork skills, and the ability to solve problems within a multi-culturalenvironment. The Graduate School Education Course, which is for all graduate
students, including those in master’s or professional degree programs, as well as

Assoc. Prof. Katsufumi
Hashimoto(Hokkaido University)international students, aims to provide an opportunity forstudents with diverse cultural backgrounds and specialties
to deepen their knowledge collectively and to foster theirability to think beyond the confines of their specific fieldsof expertise.
Nitobe College offers a foundation program for both theFaculty Education Course and the Graduate School
Education Course (graduate school admissions in the 2022
academic year: 77 (33 of which were internationalstudents)) and an honors program (graduate school
admissions in the 2022 academic year: 32 (12 of which wereinternational students)). The screening of admitted students
is done according to their language capabilities and an issue

From admission to Nitobe College to completion ofreport assessment. The honors program can be taken bycourse (sourced from a Nitobe College pamphlet)1

individuals who complete the foundation program and demonstrate outstanding performance (a scholarshipsystem is available, including for studying overseas). In the 2019 academic year, the faculty and graduate school
were integrated into the six-year program that exists today. In the academic years 2020 and 2021, the numberof international students enrolled in the Graduate School Education Course fell due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
but this number bounced back in the 2022 academic year.
I am in charge of a subject in the graduate school foundation program (Practice of Team-Based Learning). Basedon the basic skills and knowledge of project management indicated in the Project Management Body ofKnowledge (PMBOK), teams are formed of about five members to utilize their fortes, and they manage andfacilitate tasks from the conception of a project to proposing concrete outcomes with regards to the set topics ofeither measures against bears within Sapporo or the acceptance of refugees within the university campus.
Examples of projects that are proposed are a project that brings together engineering to develop a sensor formonitoring the habitats of bears and agriculture to revitalize undeveloped woodland serving as a buffer zone
with urban areas, and a project that links information technologies related to building a logistics network toachieve food donations to refugees and reducing food loss and construction technologies to build a simple campfacility that can be used in cold climates.
Nitobe College has established initiatives to support
students in forging their careers and has built a system that
actively supports networking through attending fellow andmentor lectures led by graduates as well as holding forum
events. In pushing forward by linking global humanresource development and career education, by fusing
technological seeds and ideas across fields in aninternational and interdisciplinary manner, I believe that therole of Hokkaido University’s Nitobe College will besignificant as a space and environment to cultivate

Lecture in Progress

individuals and capabilities that can shape new needs
suitable for society and drive projects forward.

【Reported by Assoc. Prof. Katsufumi Hashimoto, Hokkaido University 】

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JSCE Open Campus 2023
About JSCE Open Campus

The Civil Engineering PR Group did not hold JSCE Open Campus, an event that started
back in 2017, in fiscal 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in fiscal years 2021
and 2022, it was held as an online event. With the pandemic showing signs of easing
off, in fiscal 2023 on Saturday, July 22, JSCE Open Campus was held in person for thefirst time in four years at the JSCE Headquarters in Yotsuya, Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. The
event opened up the JSCE Headquarters to members of the general public, with manyvisitors, including people with ties to the society, their family members, and students,in attendance. The event was an initiative to deepen the visitors’ interest andunderstanding of civil engineering through various workshop programs as well as

Yuma Ohtani(JSCECommunications andPublicRelations
Center)archives and footage possessed by JSCE. Members of the local community and those working in fields otherthan civil engineering also attended, and as an organization open to the public, local communities, and society
as a whole, the aim was to broadly give back and contribute to society using the knowledge and resources atJSCE’s disposal.
Programs at JSCE Open Campus

The programs at JSCE Open Campus are shown in Table 1. Each program was held with the help of each JSCEcommittee and related organizations, and I would like to take this opportunity to introduce a few of the programs.
Civil Engineering Fureai Festa taught attendees about civil engineering through hands-on demonstrations andworkshops that were easy to understand even for people outside of civil engineering, including activities suchas scooping up bouncy balls floating in water by using a remote-controlled toy version of a piece of heavy
construction machinery (Photo 1), learning about the structures of bridges and tunnels (Photo 2), learning whylandslides and liquefaction happen, measuring distances with one’s feet, and playing a card game themed arounddisaster prevention (PokeDobo card game).

3The Mini Civil Engineering Collection Exhibition was also held as a special event project. Under the theme of
the “Linear Chuo Shinkansen,” this special event project was put together with the help of the Central Japan
Railway Company and excited children and adults alike by communicating the scheme, history, and charm of
the Linear Chuo Shinkansen through green-screen photos, a Doboku Collection train model (Photo 3), andDoboku Collection capsule toys (Photo 4).
Also, as the Civil Engineering Quiz Rally, a quiz was held in each program venue, and by making it a rally
format, it was an endeavor that encouraged more people to visit each program venue to experience what was onoffer.

Photo 1 Scooping up bouncy balls with remotecontrolled heavy construction machinery toy

Photo 2 Tunnel test - ‘What shape makes astrong tunnel?’

Photo 3 Doboku Collection train model

Photo 4 Doboku Collection capsule toys

Survey Results of JSCE Open Campus and Looking Ahead to Next YearThe results of the survey taken by visitors are shown in Figure 1. The survey results were that children andadults both enjoyed the event overall. The event received high praise, with 99% of people answering, “I want tocome back next year.” As was the objective of the event, the survey results gave a sense that attendees took aninterest in civil engineering.
In the programs, the activity of scooping up bouncy balls floating in the water by using a remote-controlled toy
version of a piece of heavy construction machinery was said to be interesting by over 50% of children.
As for how they came to attend the event, the most common answer from visitors was, as in past years, “I waspassing by.” This was followed by “I attend the neighboring gym” and “I heard about the event online, etc.”,
which were more common answers this year. The percentage of visitors as a result of promotional activities suchas handing out flyers at elementary schools nearby and posting information on JSCE’s social media accounts
rose to close to 30% overall, showing that the hard work of these promotional activities paid off.

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The number of visitors was 357, achieving a 126% increase in visitors compared to last time (fiscal 2019). In
fiscal 2024, the aim is to increase the number of visitors again, and by further enhancing promotional activities
and putting out information effectively, we wish to make JSCE Open Campus an even more attractive event byconsidering further enhancing/improving the programs and extending the duration of the event by increasing
the number of committees that help to organize it.
Figure 1 Visitor Survey Results

Interesting Programs (Multiple Answers Allowed)

How did you hear about the event【Reported by Yuma Ohtani, Civil Engineering PR Group, Citizen Exchange Group,JSCE Communications and Public Relations Center】

5Field Survey of the 2023 Turkey-Syria Earthquake

On February 6, 2023, two M7-class earthquakes occurred one after the other with theirepicenter in southeastern Turkey, causing extensive damage. This article reports on thefield survey conducted by the Subcommittee on Earthquake Damage Investigation, theEarthquake Engineering Committee, JSCE. The subcommittee conducted two separate
field surveys: the first group from March 29 to April 2, 2023, and the second groupfrom May 2 to May 10, 2023. The first group participated in the field survey conducted
mainly by the Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ), and mainly investigatedgeotechnical disasters.

Prof. Yusuke Ono(EarthquakeEngineeringCommittee, JSCE)

The second group was led by the subcommittee, which
conducted a joint survey with the Japan Association for
Earthquake Engineering and the Japanese Geotechnical Society,mainly to investigate damage to infrastructures. The second
survey team was supported by the JSCE International Activities
Center, and Associate Professor Beyza Taşkın of Istanbul
Technical University from the JSCE Turkey Section also
participated in the survey team. The results of the survey werepresented at the “Preliminary Report of the Damage Survey on
the February 2023 Earthquakes in Southern Turkey (M7.7 andM7.6)” which was co-hosted by the Earthquake Engineering
Committee and the Japan Association for Earthquake
Engineering (May 29, 2023), and “Learning from the 2023
Turkey-Syria Earthquake” (September 7, 2023). The researchand investigation by the members of the survey team is stillongoing, and the subcommittee is now preparing a report.
Finally, we would like to express our deepest condolences tothe victims of the earthquake and thank all those who
cooperated in conducting the survey.

FYI: Preliminary Report of the Damage Survey on the February 2023 Earthquakes in Southern Turkey (M7.7 and M7.6)
https://committees.jsce.or.jp/eec2/node/215【Reported by Prof. Yusuke Ono, Chair, Subcommittee on Earthquake Damage Investigation,
Earthquake Engineering Committee, JSCE 】

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Updates◆The International Infrastructure Archives– A Compilation of Japan’s Greatest Projects in Transfer of Civil Engineering Technology in Service –http://www.jsce.or.jp/e/archive/◆Infrastructure System Resilience: An Engineering Framework forAssessment, Management, and Governancehttps://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/9780784485088◆Joint Company Information Session for Int'l Students, Online (December 9)https://www.jsce-int.org/◆IAC “News Pick Up!!” on the JSCE Japanese website
https://committees.jsce.or.jp/kokusai/iac_dayori_2023◆Call for JSCE Award Nominations: “International Lifetime Contribution Award” and “International
Outstanding Collaboration Award”
https://committees.jsce.or.jp/kouken_sho/R5_English◆【YouTube】 Civil Engineering, in Your own Words (Full ver.)https://youtu.be/r1Dc37kABXM?feature=shared◆2023 Civil Engineering Design Prize, JSCE
http://design-prize.sakura.ne.jp/◆Summary of featured articles in JSCE Magazine Vol. 108, No.12, December 2023
http://www.jsce-int.org/pub/magazine◆Journal of JSCE
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/journalofjsce◆Call for Papers: Advances in AI, Data Science and Digital Twin
https://committees.jsce.or.jp/struct1002/node/36◆Safe and Healthy Work in the Digital Age 2023-2025 Campaign
https://healthy-workplaces.osha.europa.eu/en/media-centre/events/launch-ceremony-healthy-workplacescampaign-safe-and-healthy-work-digital-age-2023-2025◆【YouTube】 Taiwan Public Infrastructure Archives: Public Water Supply Series
https://youtu.be/mMMvODevd_Q?feature=shared◆38th Indian Engineering Congress
https://www.38iec.org/events/◆Putting Science into Standards(PSIS) workshop – Circular Technologiesfor construction industry
https://www.cencenelec.eu/news-and-events/events/2023/2023-12-12-psis/◆CECAR10：http://www.cecar10.org/§ IAC News Subscription §The IAC News is one of the communication tools to share information and ideas with the members. We would like to invite
you, your friends and colleagues to join the communication and to subscribe the IAC News. Please register online:(http://www.jsce-int.org/node/150). We look forward to meeting you.
§ IAC Facebook §Recent activity of International Activities Center is introduced on this Facebook. Please see this home page(https://www.facebook.com/JSCE.en).
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