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Welcome to M3 Asia, an e-newsletter from the Center for International Studies at MIT about our events, activities, and opportunities relating to the Asia region. You are receiving the Mens Manus Mundus (M3) newsletter because you have research interests in Asia or have been a friend to the MIT International Science & Technology Initiatives (MISTI) or the Center for International Studies (CIS). Please contact Asia/MIT lead Sean Gilbert with questions, suggestions, and/or to submit news for the next newsletter. If you are not already subscribed, sign up for future Asia/MIT newsletters here. | |
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Emerging business and technology paradigms in China’s Greater Bay Area
Monday, November 25
5:00 PM
E40-496
Lewis Chan, co-founder and CEO of Dragonmarts Xsight and Chair of the Advisory Board, MIT Hong Kong Innovation Node, will discuss innovative business and technology cases emerging from the Greater Bay Area (GBA) in China. In-person event limited to the MIT community only.
More information here.
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The 14th annual Boston Japan Film Festival
Sunday, December 1
1:00–5:15 PM
Building 32-123 (Stata Center)
Come to an afternoon of films from Japan: this year’s theme is focused around the celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the First Japanese to graduate from MIT
Raffle prizes will be given at the end of the festival for those with raffle tickets; grand prize is 65,000 Japan Airlines miles that's equivalent to a round trip premium economy airfare from Boston to Japan!
More information here.
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The Wargaming Working Group
The Wargaming Working Group (WGWG) is a venue for those interested in wargaming to experiment with new games and learn about how to incorporate wargames into their research and teaching. All MIT or Harvard students, faculty, or guests are welcome. Please find below a list of dates we have planned for events this semester.
December 4
Millikan Room (E53-482)
5:30–7:00 PM
WGWG is hosting a game night to play Flashpoint: South China Sea, a strategy game with political, economic, and military elements. Players will simulate the US-China geopolitical contest in the SCS in an informal setting. Food will be provided.
December 7
CIS Pye Room (E40-496)
8:30 AM–3:30 PM
WGWG plans to hold a play-through of a Taiwan invasion scenario designed by MIT’s Dr. Eric Heginbotham and Dr. Matt Cancian. For those who attended last year's operational Taiwan game, this one is different as it explicitly explores both the conventional and the nuclear dynamics of the conflict. Red and Blue players will simulate the first 2–3 weeks of a 2027 Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
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MIT-Japan
To commemorate MIT’s 150+ years history with Japan, the MIT-Japan Program during summer 2024 conducted five STEAM workshops in Japan in collaboration with the MIT Club of Japan. On September 25, MIT Professor Hiromu Nagahara, his students from his spring 21H.154 (Inventing the Samurai) class, and Professor Shimizu from Keio University, gathered nearly 100 people in the Nexus inside the Hayden Library for the panel discussion “From Samurai into Engineers.” This exhibition will be shown until the end of the year in the mezzanine of the Hayden Library.
Watch the recording here.
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Eiichiro Honma’s great-grandson (far left), Christine Pilcavage (managing director of the MIT-Japan Program), Mr. Toyohiko Hagiwara 萩原豊彦 (president of the Usuitogei Historical and Cultural Heritage Research Association), and Sawaka Romaine (president of the MIT Club of Japan) | |
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President Kornbluth visits Japan
On November 15, the MIT Club of Japan and MIT Alumni Association hosted a gala to help celebrate the 150 years of Japan and MIT at the Meiji Kinenkan in Tokyo, Japan. The event started with a reception at Kinkei no ma followed by a fireside chat and dinner with MIT President Sally Kornbluth and MIT Club of Japan President Sawaka Romaine ’01.
In 1874, Honma Eichiro graduated from MIT in Civil Engineering (Course 1) as the first Japanese and first Asian student. Four years later Dan Takuma graduated from Mining / Course 3. The evening in Tokyo celebrated the first Japanese students at MIT and were attended by 150 MIT alumni, alumnae, staff, friends and family.
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Above: An auspicious occasion in Japan isn’t without Kagami Biraki and the breaking of a sake barrel to celebrate good health, fortune and 150 more years of MIT and Japan relations. | | |
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Left: (L-R) Christine Pilcavage (managing director of the MIT-Japan Program); Dan Norihiko, the great-grandson of Dan Takuma (the second Japanese to graduate from MIT); and Hiromu Naghara, History, MIT.
Right: Fireside chat with MIT Club of Japan President Sawaka Romaine ’01 and MIT President Sally Kornbluth.
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Recent China-focused events
China’s potential to blockade Taiwan using missile attacks on ports
MIT Security Studies Program
October 16, 2024
Professor Eugene Gholz, University of Notre Dame
Watch the recording here.
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MIT Starr Forum: The rise & fall of the EAST: How exams, autocracy, stability, and technology brought China success, and why they might lead to its decline
April 11, 2024
Professor Yasheng Huang, Epoch Foundation Professor of Global Economics and Management, MIT Sloan School of Management, and faculty director of the MIT-China Program at the Center for International Studies.
Watch the video here.
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MIT Global Seed Funds highlights | |
The MIT Global Seed Funds (GSF) program helps MIT faculty and principal investigators create new connections by supporting early-stage collaborations with researchers at peer institutions around the world. Administered by the Center for International Studies (CIS), the GSF program has awarded nearly $26 million to more than 1,200 faculty research projects since its inception in 2008. | |
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13
Seed Fund grants were awarded across Asia in the 2023–24 cycle
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It was a strong year for Asia seed funds with $400,000 awarded to 13 projects
across Greater China, India, and Japan. Below are highlights of the Asia 2023-2024 awarded projects: | |
Recent MIT Greater China Fund for Innovation Seed Fund
project experiences | |
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MIT Professor Gene-Wei Li, Department of Biology, collaboration with Professor Jin-Der Wen, Department of Biology, National Taiwan University
Topic: “mRNA without a leader: Defining the mechanism of translation”
The MIT Global Seed Fund program has enabled us to build strong connections with our collaborators in Taiwan, as well as exchanging scientific knowledge and technical expertise. One of the highlights is the Molecular Systems Biology Workshop that we co-organized with a joint PhD program between National Taiwan University and Academia Sinica. Several MIT students participated and presented in the workshop, gaining extremely valuable feedback.
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MIT Professor Liang Fu, Department of Physics, collaboration with Dr. Hsin Lin, Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica
Topic: “Nonreciprocal topological materials”
My MIT Global Seed Fund project with Taiwan collaborator Professor Hsin Lin turned out to be very helpful and timely. Professor Lin has already visited MIT a number of times; two of my students (including a UROP student) visited his group in Taiwan. Our collaboration has led to our recent award of a US-Taiwan research grant, and I attended its kick-off meeting in Taiwan together with Professor Lin in October. In terms of research, my theory of nonreciprocal quantum materials for room-temperature ultrabroadband wireless rectification has now been experimentally verified by our new collaborator in Taiwan. We are now pursuing a quantum start-up.
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Other featured activities | |
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MIT Sloan launches new international office in Bangkok
Congratulations to the MIT Sloan School of Management for its successful launch of the school’s second international office. Officially opened October 31–November 1, 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand, the MIT Sloan Office for Southeast Asian Nations (MSAO) will provide opportunities to expand upon MIT educational offerings across the Institute, action learning, and convene meetings in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region.
Watch the video: A partnership of promise: The MIT Sloan ASEAN Initiative
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MISTI Global Classroom
MIT Global Languages offers 21G.S04 and 21G.S05 Special Subject: IAP Chinese Abroad (9 credits) over IAP at National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. In January 2025 sixteen MIT students will participate in the daily language classes. The students also will explore Taiwanese culture, history, and industry. Language instruction will be conducted by MIT senior lecturer in Chinese, Dr. Haohsiang Liao, and lecturer Tong Chen. Program prerequisites are Chinese III Regular or Chinese II Streamlined.
Learn more about Global Classrooms here.
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Haohsiang Liao from MIT Global Languages during pre-lunar new year’s activities with the Chinese class in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, January 2024. | |
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PhD students receive CIS summer research grants
The Center for International Studies’ Summer Research Grant provides funding for research projects to PhD candidates whose work focuses on international studies. Research on a broad range of issues are considered and students from all MIT departments are eligible to apply. 2024 Asia grant winners include students whose dissertation research took them to India, Japan, and Vietnam this past summer:
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The decoupling myth: Redirection of China-US trade through Vietnam
Casper Keysers, Political Science
This summer, I had the opportunity to travel to Vietnam, where I spent most of my time in and around Saigon and Hanoi. The experience was incredibly enriching, both personally and academically. I explored the country's deep historical roots, vibrant culture, and evolving political landscape, which provided valuable insights relevant to my research on how US-China relations are refracted in Southeast Asia. My visit also allowed me to engage with local scholars and gain a better understanding of ASEAN perspectives on great power competition in the region, which will undoubtedly inform my future work.
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Buy or build? How states source military might
Samuel Leiter, Political Science
My dissertation builds on past research on weapons sourcing to develop a typology of military platform sourcing strategies, a theory to explain variation, and tests it using case studies focused on Japan, experimental methods, and statistical analysis. Thanks to CIS summer funding, I was able to begin work on my case studies in Japan and refine my theory. My activities over the summer included attending a conference organized for companies considering entering the defense industry, collecting and analyzing Japanese language materials, and conducting more than three dozen interviews in Japanese. Interviewees included the first head of Japan’s Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Agency, Japanese defense company executives, and current and former military officers.
Learn more about the CIS Summer Research Grants here.
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MISTI Asia programs had a very active summer 2024 with 127 students participating
in internships and workshops through MISTI’s China, India, Japan, Korea, and
Singapore programs. | |
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Amanda Tong recently completed her third internship via MISTI Korea
Amanda Tong, ’24
Major: Computation & Cognition
City, Country: Seoul, South Korea
“I am very thankful that I have been able to do MISTI Korea for now my third time. Thanks to the program, I discovered a love for the language and culture, a desire to work in Korea, and to in general broaden my horizons beyond what my home country has to offer.”
Amanda has worked as a front-end engineer intern at Boeing’s Korea Engineering Technology Center, a software engineering intern for the App/UI Team at Bear Robotics, and an innovation strategy intern in the S Innovation Progress Team at Hyundai Motors.
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South Asia: First summer internship programming in Bhutan
In summer of 2024, the MIT-South Asia program piloted the internship program in Bhutan. Six MIT students spent their summer and fall in Bhutan, interning with four different host institutions and working on AI/ML, sustainability and engineering projects.
“I felt Bhutan would be a very unique experience and also a difficult place for me to see without help from MIT resources. I worked at the National Centre for Hydrology and Meteorology (NCHM), which handles the weather forecasting in the country. I am looking to continue working in the climate arena so these skills are very helpful. It is hard to say what my favorite part of my experience was there; everything has been really amazing. If I had to say, then my favorite parts would
be the people I have met here, some of whom I think
will end up being lifelong friends, and the stunning
natural scenery.”
––Jessica Cohen, Physics ’24
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Jessica Cohen (center in front row) with her colleagues at NCHM. |
MIT students Pedro Matarranz, Mariana Reyes-Holguin and Jazmin Mucino with
Bhutanese monks. | |
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New Global Teaching Labs
MIT-South Asia is piloting five different social impact GTLs in India and Nepal in January 2025. About fifteen MIT students will work with nonprofits and social enterprises to teach STEM subjects to children from low income and disadvantaged communities.
In India, students will work with Agastya Foundation and Experimind Labs and in Nepal, they will work with OLE Nepal and Ankuran School.
Following the launch of the MIT Sloan School of Management ASEAN office in Bangkok October 31–November 1, the MIT MISTI ASEAN Initiative is expanding its Global Teaching Lab workshops from Singapore to Thailand and Vietnam.
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MISTI in January 2025 will be holding its second Global Teaching Labs (GTL) workshop at the National University of Singapore High School of Mathematics and Science. In January 2025 we will also be sending our first team of two students on a GTL workshop at the British International School Hanoi and the British Vietnamese International School Hanoi.
BIS Hanoi and BVIS Hanoi are international schools that partner in the Nord Anglia STEAM collaboration with the MIT Museum, bringing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEAM) learning to life. The 2025 STEAM project includes educational applications of AI. MISTI GTL will also seek to reach out to other Vietnamese schools in an attempt to scale up GTL STEM activities in Hanoi and in other cities of Vietnam.
After an introduction and visit to the school during the MIT ASEAN Initiative events in early November, MISTI hopes to start a GTL collaboration with the Darunsikkhalai School for Innovative Learning (DSIL) in Bangkok, Thailand. Recently DSIL has introduced Fab Labs and other innovative educational tools into its secondary school’s curriculum.
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MISTI China student workshop collaborations with the MIT Hong Kong Innovation Node
Since 2015, the MIT Hong Kong Innovation Node and MISTI China have partnered in cultivating the innovation capabilities of MIT students through annual two-week workshops in areas of product prototyping (MEMSI), fintech (MEFTI), and urban design (UrbanTech).
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Empower emerging social entrepreneurs for Urban Tech Week 2024
The two-week intensive program focused on three problem statements: 1) Hong Kong as an example of promoting a harmonious coexistence environment among senior residents with cognitive impairment or dementia at Residential Care Homes for the Elderly (RCHE);
2) Mass Transit Railway (MTR) transforming urban mobility and explored how to leverage digital signage and smartphone Interactivity to enhance passenger experience, service responsiveness, and revenue opportunities; 3) sustainable consumption and initiating digital transformation in the fashion industry.
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MIT Fung Scholars Program resumes
in Hong Kong
MIT Fung Scholars interns with Sean Gilbert, MIT-China, Program and JennyAnn Chan, Li & Fung Foundation, attended MIT Hong Kong Innovation Node UrbanTech Week showcase event in June 2024. The MIT Fung Scholars program, now in its tenth year, provides fully funded research internships at Hong Kong, Singapore and other global universities to MIT undergraduate students.
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