10-minute Presentations on Cutting-edge Research at UTokyo
On May 16th and 17th, I participated in the University of Tokyo’s May Festival as part of an exhibition project. This year marked the 99th May Festival, which really made me feel the long history of the event.
The project was called “10-minute Presentations on Cutting-edge Research at UTokyo”, an academic outreach event where graduate students introduce their research to the general public. It’s a hugely popular project that has continued for more than 10 years, and one of the original founders was Nishiguchi-san, whom I deeply respect. I first joined as a speaker at Komaba Festival 2023, became part of the organizing team at May Festival 2024, and have been the lead organizer since Komaba Festival 2024. I also ended up handling things like design work and social media.
Once again, we were lucky to have an amazing group of volunteer graduate students, and overall the project was a great success. At the same time, however, the May Festival received a bomb threat, and on the first day we were suddenly informed that all events would be temporarily suspended from 2 PM. Then, at 3 PM, the entire first day was officially cancelled. It was incredibly frustrating, but we managed to recover by squeezing almost all of the cancelled talks into the second day. I’m truly grateful to all the project members for making that happen.
One lingering regret is that Chiba-kun, who had originally been scheduled to give a talk, couldn’t participate on the second day and therefore never got the chance to present at all. I’d really like to create another opportunity especially for him somehow. Coincidentally, staff members at the University of Tokyo Hospital have recently reached out to us, so maybe the timing is perfect.
I’m planning to spend a short period abroad this autumn, so this was my final event as lead organizer. That said, I still intend to stay involved as part of the organizing team. I want to keep watching this project continue and grow bigger and bigger. Of course, I still plan to help make that growth happen myself.