A group of students from seven different universities across Japan have just completed a four week summer school at Robert Gordon University (RGU).
The Nippon Foundation Ocean Innovation Consortium Summer School 2017, provided the students with the opportunity to learn about marine engineering, oil and gas and offshore renewables.
The group also spent five days at the subsea training and trials facility, The Underwater Centre, in Fort William as well as taking part in a packed cultural itinerary including a trip to Edinburgh and a visit to the Lonach Games.
Students also got the opportunity to attend the biennial Offshore Europe conference at the city’s Exhibition Centre where they had the chance to meet and network with industry professionals from across the world.
The summer programme, which was the second to be delivered by RGU, concluded with the students presenting the projects they had worked on over the four week period to an industry and academic panel followed by a graduation ceremony to celebrate their achievements.
Head of the office of Marine Development Capacity Building at the Nippon Foundation, Masanori Yoshida, said: “Thanks to kind support and assistance by all staff of RGU, students can successfully finish all courses in the summer school. I really hope that they will utilize their valuable experiences here in their future careers as offshore engineers”
RGU principal, Ferdinand Von Prondzynski, who presided at the graduation ceremony and met with the students, added: “I would like to congratulate the students for all they accomplished during their time with us at RGU. They presented us with interesting and thought provoking projects which demonstrated their depth of knowledge and continued commitment to learning. I hope they found their time at RGU to be a valuable and worthwhile experience which will be an asset to them in the future.
In addition to the summer school, the university has been strengthening its ties with Japan and has this week signed a letter of intent with the Nippon Foundation under which they will collaborate in areas of strategic significance in ocean innovation.