(by S. Miyauchi, Professional Engineer, Doctor of Engineering, JSME Fellow)
<About Kyoto and Kyoto University >
Kyoto has such traditional and new cultures which have the unchanging tightness and strong centripetal forces (Good things become tradition with time goes by), and the pioneering newness of the times produced by that great potential. And Kyoto University which I graduated would be a gift by those in Kyoto.
My classmates gather on the campus festival day in November, and we all come back to those days which never goes by from us. For Japanese, especially Kyoto univ. graduates, Kyoto is the homes in our hearts. Though all of us became over 62 years old to withdraw from the front line of their companies, we talked about a lot hardships and boasts such as success of development in our student and company days, and we got great excitements.
Because many classmates entered automobile companies or heavy industrial companies, there were many celebrities.
Such as Toyota's managing director (production control) and a president of Honda Motor Co.. And famous engineer to develop a lean burn engine torque control (Prevention of detonation) in Mitsubishi Motors.
And Mr. Iida who is a plant engineer of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said with laughing "In the first Iraq war in 1990, I became one of 36 Japanese hostages. Not Japanese government but Antonio Inoki rescued us in the same year. My wife was one of few hostage's wives who went with him". Of course, we were surprised at both him and his courageous wife. In addition, Antonio Inoki is so famous pro wrestler by his fight with Muhammad Ali. Also, The science satellite Hayabusa was launched in May 2003 and became uncontrollable and missing, but returned to Earth in June 2010 after a large trip of 6 billion km. In September 2005 it landed on the Apollo asteroid Itokawa and made the world's first achievement to collect some of astronomical objects out of the Earth gravity zone. Its project manager J. Kawaguchi is also my classmate.