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The two institutions discussed education, genomics, scholarship programs and a pilot photonics infrastructure project.
The Head of Chancery of the Embassy of Japan in Chile, Hiroaki Kodama, together with the First Secretary of the Department of Culture and Public Relations, Maki Ashida; the Second Secretary of the Department of Economics, Akihiro Kamamoto; and advisor Carlos Rodriguez, visited the Center for Mathematical Modeling of the University of Chile to restructure and nurture the strategic alliance, which was forced to pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chile and Japan have cultivated a prosperous bilateral relationship for more than 100 years. This bond has been deepened in various scientific areas since the birth of the CMM in 2000, such as astronomical, seismological, biological, genomic, educational and mining data analysis. It is also reinforced every two years with the Chile-Japan Academic Forum, led by the University of Tokyo and the University of Chile, together with the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and the Universidad de Concepción.
“The center has many active international relations, but we don’t necessarily keep in touch with the embassies or the different offices of the countries in Chile. Part of the objective of these meetings is to show the collaborative projects that have had a lot of relevance and to advance in concretizing some new or deepening existing cooperation programs,” said CMM’s Director of International Relations, Alejandro Maass.
The Japanese delegation was also received by the director of Transfer and Innovation of the center, Salomé Martínez; the coordinator of External Relations, Eduardo Vera; and the institutional director Héctor Ramírez, who emphasized that “at CMM we have cultivated a relationship with Japan, both with its universities and research centers and with companies such as NTT, for many years. The ambassador’s visit responds to this history and allows us to strengthen this collaboration into the future”.
NTT and Japan Scholarships
About the meeting, Hiroaki Kodama highlighted the “diversity and variety of cooperation” offered by the center. “From climate change to astronomy, that amazes me. We have a very strong and long-standing bond with Professor (Eduardo) Vera. He invited us to visit the CMM to diversify our cooperation, exchange views and see its facilities,” he said.
Meanwhile, the CMM External Liaison Coordinator, Eduardo Vera, highlighted the collaborative work that is emerging between the center’s Climate and Biodiversity line and the prestigious communications company NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation).
“It has to do with the genomics of microalgae in the ocean and the impact on the planet. Interestingly, it is a priority topic in NTT’s laboratories, one of the most important research efforts in the world,” he said.
Along these lines, the scientist added that “NTT uses 1% of Japan’s electricity. Therefore, they have a carbon footprint that they want to mitigate. It is also a leader in photonic infrastructure, in which everything is done by light, including signal routing. These are technologies that consume less energy, have very low latency and a very high data transmission capacity. In the understanding that there is an increasing demand for data processing in the world, the environmental impact of its growing global cloud demands an advanced infrastructure with such characteristics. Therefore, the possibility is now being explored for the University (of Chile) to participate in a regional pilot project in this regard”.
For his part, the Japanese authority highlighted the benefits offered by his country and the upcoming bilateral linkage initiatives. “We have a scholarship program from the Japanese government and, in addition, we have some symposiums where we can participate together, there we can further develop relations between the University of Chile and the Embassy of Japan in Chile,” he said.
Sumo Primero
According to the authorities, another of the most discussed topics was the Sumo Primero project of the Education Laboratory (CMM-Edu) led by Salomé Martínez.
“It is a collaboration to adapt a series of Japanese texts to educate elementary school children in mathematics, which in Chile was developed by the CMM-Edu and distributed by the Ministry (of Education) to more than 1 million students. It is a project of great relevance and impact in the country,” said Alejandro Maass.
Hiroaki Kodama, head of chancellery at the Embassy of Japan in Chile, commented that “I saw a glimpse of the text and it is very similar, obviously. It is easier to learn mathematics. In a way, we cooperate to improve Chilean education and that is a source of pride for us as Japanese“.
Visit to the Supercomputer
After the meeting held on July 17 at the CMM building, located in the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Chile, the Japanese delegation visited the Data Center that houses Guacolda and Leftraru Epu, the machines that make up the Supercomputer of Chile (NLHPC).
“It is impressive, it has been maintained and operated very well. I see a lot of effort from CMM to take care of this supercomputer. I was told that 88 universities are using this supercomputing center, so it is a very important tool. It is a national treasure of Chile,” Kodama remarked.
Center for Mathematical Modeling
The CMM is today the most active scientific research institution in mathematical modeling in Latin America. It is a center of excellence of the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) of Chile, integrated by eight partner universities and located at the Faculty of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Chile. It is also the International Research Laboratory (IRL) #2807 of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).
Its mission is to create mathematics in response to problems in other sciences, industry and public policy. It seeks to develop science with the highest standards, excellence and rigor in areas such as data science, climate and biodiversity, education, resource management, mining and digital health.
© Alonso Farías Ponce, journalist of the Center for Mathematical Modeling.
Posted on Aug 2, 2024 in News
