November 15, 2017

As part of the Erasmus+ staff mobility exchange program between Kobe University and Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) Assistant Professor KURIYAMA Naoko (Kobe University Graduate School of Engineering, Department of Architecture) visited VGTU for five days from October 5 and gave lectures for undergraduate students in the Faculty of Architecture.

The Kobe University Graduate School of Human Development and Environment and Graduate School of Engineering concluded inter-faculty agreements for academic exchange with the VGTU Faculty of Fundamental Sciences on March 26, 2014. Agreements for student exchange were concluded on February 24, 2015, and since then collaboration in education and research has expanded between our institutions. On December 9, 2015, the Graduate School of Engineering, Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, and Graduate School of System Informatics concluded an Erasmus+ agreement with VGTU. (Erasmus+ is an education funding program provided by the European Union that promotes exchange of students, teaching staff and administrative staff between universities.)

At VGTU, Professor Kuriyama visited the Faculty of Architecture, meeting Professor Liutauras Nekrošius (Dean of the Faculty of Architecture), Professor Skirmantė Mozūriūnaitė (Vice Dean) and Professor Eglė Navickienė (Vice Dean); the Faculty of Fundamental Sciences, meeting Associate Professor Daiva Makutėnienė; and the International Office, meeting Ms. Aušra Pelėdienė and Ms. Dovilė Mackevičienė.

On October 10 Professor Kuriyama traveled to Riga in Latvia (one of Kobe’s sister cities), and guided by architect Ms. Dace Penke and Assistant Professor Ilze Paklone (RISEBA University Department of Architecture), she met with Professor Jānis Dripe (Head of the Department of Architecture at RISEBA) and Professor Uģis Bratuškins (Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at Riga Technical University).

At each of the universities she visited, Professor Kuriyama introduced the research fields at Kobe University’s Department of Architecture, and discussed potential exchange in education and research between our institutions. In Latvia, she pledged to organize a Kobe venue for the exhibition “Latvia. Architecture at convergence”.

We look forward to further exchange with architecture-focused universities in the Baltic States.

Visit to the Faculty of Architecture at VGTU	Visit to the Faculty of Fundamental Sciences and International Office at VGTU
Visit to RISEBA University	Visit to Riga Technical University

(Graduate School of Engineering)