Strategic Partnership between the Universities
for Research and Education (SPUR)

2022

August 1 - October 10

The “Maison Suisse” project, a collaboration led by Associate Prof. Yusuke Obuchi of the Department of Architecture (School of Engineering, UTokyo) and Gramazio Kohler Research (ETH Zürich) with support from the Swiss government, several Swiss governmental agencies, Aichi Prefecture, and Swiss and Japanese industrial sponsors, was finally exhibited at the Aichi Triennale under the title “Kizuki-au - Collaborative Constructions”. The project was originally planned to be showcased at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but was postponed twice during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prof. Obuchi made the most of the opportunity to promote the Strategic Partnership Project through multiple events and media interviews.

• Collaborative Constructions
• Swiss Vitality Talk 1
• In-person with Prof. Yusuke Obuchi
• Kizuki-au - Collaborative Constructions: Interview

July 14

After over 8 years of development and testing, the MEG II Experiment began collecting data on July 14, 2022. The MEG II Experiment is an international collaboration involving researchers from Japan, Switzerland, Italy, the United States, and Russia that was initiated by researchers at the International Center for Elementary Particle Physics (ICEPP) and is carried out at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). It aims to observe the phenomenon in which a muon breaks down into an electron while emitting a gamma ray.

The MEG II Experiment

June

The collaborative research project “High-resolution bidirectional optical-acoustic mesoscopic neural interface for image-guided neuromodulation in behaving animals” led by Prof. Robert Campbell of the Department of Chemistry (School of Science, UTokyo) and Prof. Daniel Razansky of the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (ETH Zürich) was selected for funding under the NIH Research Project Grant Program (R01). The project will run until 2025.

2021

Ongoing

Associate Prof. Yusuke Obuchi of the Department of Architecture (School of Engineering, UTokyo) continues to work with Gramazio Kohler Research in the Department of Architecture (ETH Zürich) on the “Collaborative Construction” project (previously “Maison Suisse”) in collaboration with the Swiss government and Swiss and Japanese industrial sponsors. The project was originally planned to be showcased at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but was cancelled for the second time in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They now plan to construct a public pavilion for the Aichi Triennale, which will be held in summer 2022.

Ongoing

Prof. Hiroaki Suga's research group in the Department of Chemistry (School of Science, UTokyo) began a new research collaboration with Prof. Jeffery Bode's group in the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences (ETH Zürich). They aim to develop new biosensors to detect the COVID-19 virus and the ACE2 receptor, which may be involved in the mechanism of the disease.

2020

Ongoing

Associate Prof. Yusuke Obuchi of the Department of Architecture (School of Engineering, UTokyo) continues to collaborate with Gramazio Kohler Research in the Department of Architecture (ETH Zürich) on the “Maison Suisse 2021” project, which is funded by the Swiss government and Swiss and Japanese industrial sponsors. Prof. Obuchi and his collaborators will design a pavilion for the event, which will be constructed in Omotesando, Tokyo, and open to the public in summer 2021. They are also planning a talk event in collaboration with Swissnex, part of the Embassy of Switzerland in Japan, to showcase Swiss and Japanese researchers from all academic fields.

Pavilion design for Maison Suisse 2021

Ongoing

Prof. Robert Campbell of the Department of Chemistry (School of Science, UTokyo) has an ongoing collaboration with Prof. Daniel Razansky, who has a double appointment at the Faculty of Medicine (UZH) and the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (ETH Zürich). They published a paper together in Nature Methods in 2019.

March 16 - 18

A paper by Mr. Dejun Mao, a first-year Master's student, and Dr. Hidefumi Hiraishi, Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology (UTokyo), in collaboration with Mr. Patrick Schnider, a Doctoral student from ETH Zürich, was accepted by the 36th European Workshop on Computational Geometry in Würzburg, Germany. Mr. Mao planned to give a talk at the workshop, but was unable to travel because of the current circumstances, so Mr. Schnider gave the talk. Mr. Schnider spent 1 week at UTokyo in 2018, when he was invited to give a talk at the Department of Computer Science lecture series.

February 6 - 7

Prof. Yasuhiro Sakemi of the Center for Nuclear Study (School of Science, UTokyo) and Prof. Klaus Kirch of the Department of Physics (ETH Zürich) participated as reviewers in the external advisory board meeting for an international particle physics collaboration using ultra cold neutrons at TRIUMF, Canada's particle accelerator center. They took the opportunity to discuss the progress on their collaborative development of a magnetometer.

July 8

Prof. Hiroko Akiyama of the Institute of Gerontology (UTokyo) gave a presentation on the topic of “Ageing Society” at a luncheon meeting for the Swiss Economic and Scientific Mission to Japan led by the Swiss Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin. Her presentation was followed by a lively discussion. The invitation was arranged in collaboration with Mr. Thomas Meyer, Head of the Science & Technology Office Tokyo of the Embassy of Switzerland in Japan.

Ongoing

Associate Prof. Yusuke Obuchi of the Department of Architecture (School of Engineering, UTokyo) is collaborating with Gramazio Kohler Research in the Department of Architecture (ETH Zürich) on a project organized by the Swiss government to design and build a pavilion for the House of Switzerland, which will be constructed for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. They regularly hold video conferences to exchange ideas and better understand each other's research results.

2019

March 15

Prof. Naoto Sekimura, Vice President of UTokyo, and Prof. Hiroaki Suga of the Department of Chemistry; Dr. Satoru Nogami, Senior URA; and Dr. Kate Harris, URA, (all three of the School of Science, UTokyo) met Mr. Thomas Meyer, Head of the Science & Technology Office Tokyo of the Embassy of Switzerland in Japan, to discuss future ideas regarding the strategic partnership between UTokyo and ETH Zürich.

2018

Ongoing

The Center for Nuclear Study (School of Science, UTokyo) is preparing an application for the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Core-to-Core Program and plans to invite Prof. Klaus Kirch of the Department of Physics (ETH Zürich) to be one of the core institutions in a counterpart country. Continued support for academic exchange with ETH Zürich will strengthen the exchange carried out under this program and is thus an important part of the proposal.

2017

December

Dr. Rainer Schmidt of F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Ltd. was elected as a Fellow of the Faculty of Engineering at UTokyo. Dr. Schmidt has participated in and contributed to the creation of the strategic partnership between ETH Zürich and UTokyo as a representative of the Swiss industrial sector.

Dr. Schmidt

October 30

A manuscript on research carried out in collaboration between Associate Prof. Hirokazu Sugiyama of the Department of Chemical System Engineering (School of Engineering, UTokyo) and F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Ltd. was accepted for publication by AIChE Journal, which is published by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. The first author of the article is Mr. Gioele Casola, who graduated from ETH Zürich and is now a doctoral student in Prof. Sugiyama's group.