From July 9th to 20th, the 3rd annual summer program – “KIT Electronics Summer School 2018” – was held by KIT’s Associate Professor Kazuo Takahashi, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Electronics, in collaboration with Professor Laifa Boufendi from University of Orleans – Polytech Orleans (France). A total of 33 students, including students from Polytech Orleans (France), Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and Kazakh-British Technical University (Kazakhstan), Donghua University (China), Mahasarakham University (Thailand) and 15 students from KIT gathered for the 2-week program. For the students of the Kazakh National University, support was received from the JST “Sakura Science Plan”.

 Participants were divided into eight teams and were assigned the task of “Make Something”, by building up systems using Arduino. Each team consisted of various nationalities and the students had the chance to create something with Arduino, learning its basics, electronics and programming.

 On the fifth day, the “Plasma-Nanotechnology Seminar” on plasma science and engineering was held for students of Kazakhstan, with a lecture and experiment guidance by Prof. Boufendi and a workshops among students.

 On the final day, during the “Make Something” contest, each team presented its work. Voting took place by students and all the staff member, and judged the Best Award (KIT Award), which was given to the team creating the crop cultivation system “IGardener”. Furthermore, the OMRON Award was awarded to the walking support sensor “B – Loved” for the visually impaired.

 Various works were presented, ranging from social implementation conscious systems to universal common game machines. All works were proposals with a global viewpoint and universality, reflecting exactly the significance of this program, which is the interchange and influence among different cultural backgrounds. The curtain of the program came down with the expectation of future activities that go beyond Kyoto, such as plans for exchange among the participating countries and not only.

• Lecture by Prof. Boufendi
• Working in teams
• KIT Award winning team
  (center: Vice President Pezzotti)
• OMRON Award winning team
  (with OMRON Corporation’s staff)
• “Somethings” created
• Participating students and staff