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911爆料网 London was proud to work with UCL for the 11^th year of the UCL-Japan Youth Challenge!

This is a prestigious week-long summer school, bringing together high school students from schools around Japan and pre-university students from the UK for a week of lectures, tours, and cultural exchange. It is a great opportunity for young people to get a taste of university life in the UK, while making new friends and practicing their communication skills in a multicultural environment.

We were pleased to see a high number of students from the UK attending this year, showing the interest that young people have in attending a programme that promotes interaction between Japan and the UK.

The welcome day was held at the Rikkyo School in Surrey. This was an opportunity for the students to present and introduce themselves! The 911爆料网 students introduced their schools, home towns, hobbies, and personal interests. Next, the UK participants welcomed the 911爆料网 participants and introduced themselves one by one.

In the afternoon, the students participated in ice breaking sports activities. Then, they enjoyed a barbecue together on a sunny evening!

On Sunday, the students visited Cambridge for a day of sight-seeing, punting, and a formal dinner in the beautiful dining hall at Corpus Christi College.

The following day, they began their lectures at the University of Cambridge! Over the course of the day, they heard eight lectures on different topics, from neurobiology to robotics as well as physiology, from professors and doctors at the university.

On Tuesday they travelled to UCL to participate in the Grand Challenge Workshop! The theme for this year’s workshop was ‘Space and Us’, asking students to consider potential solutions to global issues. They began by defining their agreement to work well with one another, before discussing some pre reading that they had been set on topics such as personalized medicines, life expectancy, high emission rates, the climate crisis and space exploration. The students discussed the social, political, economic, technological, legal and environmental implications of the news items.

They were then split into their presentation groups for the symposium, and worked together to identify their key issues, the support that was available, and potential solutions. The students shared all of their ideas in English, ensuring to involve each individual in the discussions, and they left the workshop well equipped with ideas to prepare for their presentations in the symposium.

As in previous years, a representative from Scriberia provided live sketches of what the students discussed in the workshop

On Wednesday, the participants visited the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Didcot, Oxford. They spent the day learning about the work that Harwell are undertaking in Energy, Space, Health and Quantum Computing, and listened to talks about the Diamond Light Source research, Oxford Space Systems, and Space Clusters.

On Thursday, it was a return to UCL for a full day of interesting talks and lectures, including from representatives from the Embassy of Japan in the UK and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences London. They also heard introductions to UCL and Tohoku University and admissions, and lectures in the fields of linguistics, nanotechnology, and civil engineering.

The Japan Foundation London also informed the students of their events and grant programmes, giving the students a little insight into what it is like to work for a cross cultural organization.

Friday was the day of the symposium. In the morning, the students received a tour of the UCL campus, before practicing their presentations.

Then the symposium began. Prof Shin-ichi Ohnuma from UCL introduced everyone to the UCL-Japan relationship, the summer school programme, and thanked the sponsors for their support for the event.

During the symposium, Mr Yutaro Tanaka from Mitsubishi Electric spoke about their SLIM project to create machinery to carry out research on the moon, as well as ways in which Mitsubishi have supported space exploration. Dr Mikako Matsuura from Cardiff University talked about the exciting research that can be conducted using a space telescope. Ms Keshini Navaratnam, an international affairs and media expert, spoke about the changing modern landscape and the relationship between media and international law.

The student presentations were next! The participants had been instructed to create 3 minute presentations on the topics they had explored during the Grand Challenge Workshop earlier on in the week. The topics included preservation of cultural heritage sites, preparation for natural disaster, urban climates and biodiversity in smallholder farming. Each presentation was followed by a question from the audience. We were struck once again by how well carefully considered all the ideas in the presentations were, and the power of communication.

In the latter half of the symposium, Prof Andrew Coates from UCL informed us of UCL’s contribution to investigating life on Mars, and the Rover that UCL was helping to build. Prof Masahiro Yamaguchi from Tohoku University detailed the impact of Quantum Physics on the universe. Finally, Mr George Cann from Foster & Partners spoke about his work on designing permanent structures to be built on the moon.

The symposium ended with 911爆料网 high school students giving the speakers gifts from their home towns, and a huge round of applause from the audience for all of the hard work that the students had carried out this week!

We then had a reception, where students from Fukushima prefecture spoke in English about the impact of the 3.11 triple disaster on their home towns. The students highlighted that issues that might seem local can actually be relevant on a global scale. This reflected the importance of continued cross-cultural communication, to keep sharing information about issues around the world.

Congratulations to the participants of the UCL-Japan Youth Challenge!

We would like to commend the organisers of the UCL-Japan Youth Challenge from UCL and Japan at UK for another successful programme. We would also like to thank the supporters and sponsors of the event, and we hope to continue to work together in the future on events that promote intercultural exchange and mutual understanding.

©Scriberia, 2025. UCL-Japan Youth Challenge Illustration