2019.09.18
News
Partnership Agreement with UCLouvain Saint-Louis University, Brussels; Associate Professor Wim Laurier Visits for Signing Ceremony
From left, Professor, Satoshi Horiuchi, Associate Professor, Wim Laurier, Vice President, Akira Inoue, Director of the International Center, Hiroshi Shirai
Associate Professor Wim Laurier of UCLouvain Saint-Louis University, Brussels, visited Chuo University’s Tama Campus on August 19, 2019 to sign a cooperation agreement between UCLouvain and Chuo.
Chuo and UC Louvain Saint-Louis signed a general Cooperation Agreement along with a Memoranda on Student and Faculty Exchange.
Vice President, Akira Inoue, Director of the International Center, Hiroshi Shirai, and Faculty of Commerce Professor, Satoshi Horiuchi, attended from Chuo University. In a friendly atmosphere, the two universities exchanged opinions on future directions for active exchange and cooperation.
The two universities have been actively engaging in joint research, with Associate Professor Wim Laurier visiting Chuo University as a Visiting Associate Professor to the Institute of Business Research in March 2018, and Professor Horiuchi visiting UCLouvain Saint-Louis University, Brussels in December 2018.
The partnership Agreement concluded will enable both universities to further promote active exchange and cooperation, including sending and accepting students, exchanging researchers for joint research and communication, and facilitating joint research.
The Kingdom of Belgium is easily accessible from major European cities, including Paris, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and Geneva, and numerous Japanese companies as well as the headquarters of various international organizations are in the vicinity. The new partnership is expected to open up valuable opportunities for Chuo University to cooperate with those companies and organizations.
Vice President, Akira Inoue, and Director of the International Center, Hiroshi Shirai asking questions
Vice President, Akira Inoue, handing a gift from Chuo
UCLouvain Saint-Louis University, Brussels
UCLouvain Saint-Louis University, Brussels is the university’s new name following a merger between Saint-Louis University, Brussels and the University of Louvain in September 2018. However, this merger is still awaiting official approval from the Belgium Government. For this reason, the partnership agreement concluded with Chuo was signed by Saint-Louis University, Brussels.
Saint-Louis University, Brussels is located in the central part of Brussels and is a prestigious public university, founded in 1858 as a school specializing in Law and Philosophy. Currently, the university has four faculties and is especially renowned in the fields of Law and Commerce. As a multilingual country, French, Dutch, German are used in Belgium and Saint-Louis University, Brussels, is located in the French-speaking community. Nevertheless, many classes are taught in English as part of its efforts to facilitate active exchange of students and faculty members with overseas universities.
The University of Louvain, which merged with Saint-Louis University, was founded in the 15th century and is one of the oldest universities in the world. The University of Louvain is a comprehensive university, often ranked as one of the top universities in Europe, and hosts a wide variety of courses and research institutions in fields ranging from humanities and social science to natural science and medicine.
Associate Professor Wim Laurier Speaks to Research Seminar at Institute of Business Research
Prior to concluding the partnership Agreement, a research seminar was held at the Institute of Business Research on the Tama Campus on the theme “REA triple view smart contract”, during which Associate Professor Laurier offered a lecture.
The research seminar was organized by the “Business process innovation using the latest ICT” team headed by Chuo University Professor, Satoshi Horiuchi. In addition to Professor Horiuchi and guest researchers, Chuo University’s post-graduate and under-graduate students, including members of Professor Horiuchi’s seminar, also took part.
In the first session of the seminar, Associate Professor Laurier gave a presentation on “Blockchain & Value Network Software.” The main theme of his presentation was to show how DLT (Decentralized Ledger Technology), such as a blockchain, should be used for shared business records among stakeholders, including buyers, sellers, governments. He also explained how such shared records could be used for business simulation.
In the second session, Associate Professor of Information and Society Research, National Institute of Information, Hitoshi Okada, Japan’s leading researcher in the field of electric commerce, gave a presentation on “A consideration of Blockchain Economy.” His presentation focused on the possibilities of a blockchain economy as the foundation for smart contracts, which could enable cross border contracts without the existence of a trusted third party. He offered several concrete examples, including a Ramen festival case to compete for the deliciousness of ramen and smart-contract key cases to open doors, and he showed how public blockchains, such as Bitcoin, could guarantee authenticity.
Active Q&A sessions followed each presentation.
Associate Professor, Wim Laurier giving a presentation
Associate Professor, Hitoshi Okada giving a presentation
Professor, Satoshi Horiuchi making a speech
