Kyoto University of Advanced Science (KUAS), Kyoto City, Ukyo Ward / President Masafumi Maeda, announced Dr. Osamu Tabata, the current founding Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, will devote himself as Vice President, and Dr. Alberto Castellazzi, a professor of the Faculty of Engineering, will become the new Dean effective from April 1st. Dr. Castellazzi obtained his degrees from universities in Italy and Germany, and after working as a researcher in Switzerland, he began his teaching career at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Nottingham in the UK in 2008.
In 2019, he joined KUAS as a professor in the Faculty of Engineering. His research areas include power semiconductors and power electronics. Dr. Castellazzi was also involved in the establishment of the Faculty of Engineering at KUAS, which was set up in 2020. The Faculty of Engineering at KUAS was founded by Dr. Tabata, who transferred from Kyoto University to KUAS. He led the establishment of the faculty, including designing the curriculum, recruiting faculty members, and designing the engineering building from scratch.
At KUAS, Japanese students who enroll in April and international students who enroll in September study together in the same classes, with all courses taught in English, which is a very unique curriculum among domestic universities. So far, KUAS has accepted international students from over 50 countries and regions, leading the university’s efforts towards ‘internationalization.’
Comment from Alberto Castellazzi, the new Dean of the Faculty of Engineering
I visited Japan in 2006 to attend an international conference for the first time. Since then, I have had several opportunities to visit Japan and have grown fond of the country. In 2011, I conducted research on wide-band-gap semiconductor devices as a visiting scholar at Kyoto University for six months. When I joined Kyoto University of Advanced Science (KUAS) as a faculty member in 2019, it felt like a natural step since most of my research involves Japanese technology. I was fortunate to be involved early on establishment of the brandnew Faculty of Engineering, conceptualized by the current Dean, Professor Tabata. It is a great honor to be appointed as his successor. Moving forward, based on the foundation laid by Dr. Tabata, , I am committed to nurturing practical and globally active engineers “Street Smart Global Engineers” by further strengthening collaboration with industry and promoting academic exchanges with overseas institutions, and contributing to the further development of the Faculty of Engineering at KUAS.
Comment from Vice President Osamu Tabata
I began designing the curriculum for the new Faculty of Engineering in January 2018 while still at Kyoto University. The past seven years have flown by. The opening of the Faculty of Engineering in April 2020 coincided with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, making it a tumultuous start. With more than half of the students being international, EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction) education, and the “Capstone Project” that addresses real-world corporate challenges, our Faculty of Engineering has many unique features, all of which were first-time endeavors. However, thanks to the strong leadership of the Chairman and President, the capable faculty and staff, and most importantly, the highly motivated students from around the world, we were able to establish a solid foundation for the Faculty of Engineering. This March, we graduated the second cohort of students from the Faculty of Engineering. Under the new Dean, we are now entering the second phase, where we will solidify our position as a one-of-a-kind Faculty of Engineering recognized worldwide. As Vice President, I will continue to dedicate myself to the development of the Faculty of Engineering.
Brief Biography of Dr. Alberto Castellazzi
- Doctor of Engineering
- Graduated from the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Milan (Italy)
- PhD in Engineering from the Technical University of Munich (Germany)
- Researcher in Power Semiconductor Devices at the Institute of Electrical Engineering Physics, Technical University of Munich
- Principal Researcher at the Integrated Microsystems Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
- Assistant Professor/Associate Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham
- Appointed as Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, Kyoto University of Advanced Science in 2019
- Hobbies: Electric guitar, motorcycling, learning Japanese
- Favorite Japanese word: “Monozukuri” (craftsmanship)