IR4TD
The Institute of Research for Technology Development is a newly created research institute dedicated to excellence in engineering research and providing a unique education based on IR4TD-Hitozukuri principles. Specific aims of IR4TD are:
- To solve industry’s technical problems by developing a win-win working relationship with company’s engineers to create new ideas and find value-added solutions which are only possible through collaboration; and
- To create a learning system which can enhance the learning process for students, researchers, and visiting scholars through sponsored research projects, helping them to become unique engineers who have the ability to function in an ever-changing international arena.
The Painting Technology Consortium, which offers membership for companies to seek solutions on painting and coating technology, is part of IR4TD. The Painting Technology Consortium also hosts an annual workshop that offers a networking and educational opportunity to all of its members and participants.
The first aim requires for IR4TD to assemble strong researchers who have diversified talents and different views. Einstein elaborates the importance of different views in solving problems:
“You can’t solve a problem with the same mind-set that got you into the problem in the first place.” – Albert Einstein.
Importance of education, the second aim of IR4TD also resonates with Einstein’s message:
“There are two ways in which science affects human affairs. The first is familiar to everyone: Directly, and to an even greater extent indirectly, science produces aids that have completely transformed human existence. The second way is educational in character – it works on the mind. Although it may appear less obvious to cursory examination, it is no less incisive than the first.”