Homecoming Day 2024 unites community members in person and online

The Institute and the Tokyo Tech Alumni Association jointly hosted Homecoming Day 2024 on May 25. Once again, this year's celebrations were held in hybrid format, allowing participants to join the reunions, special lectures, and student-led events both in person and online.

Designed to bring the community together once a year, Homecoming Day unites Tokyo Tech alumni with their fellow graduates, current students, past and present professors, and local residents for a day of exciting activities and warm memories. Homecoming Day 2024 was the twelfth and final event of its kind before Tokyo Tech merges with Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) to form Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo) in October 2024.

In addition to general meetings and lectures hosted by alumni of different academic groups and activities run by members from various official student clubs, this year's celebrations also included a number of events that featured faculty, staff, and students of TMDU.

The Team Tokyo Tech Meeting, one of the highlights of Homecoming Day, was held in hybrid format at the 70th Anniversary Auditorium on Ookayama Campus. A total of 558 participants —436 in-person and 122 online attendees — joined the event. Simultaneous English interpretation was offered to both virtual visitors and those on site. The venue of this year's meeting was decorated by flower arrangements created by the Ikenobo Flower Arrangement Club, a student club at TMDU.

The meeting kicked off with a keynote speech entitled The missing records of Tokyo Tech: opening up opportunities for women by Lecturer Yoshimi Takuwa from Tokyo Tech's Institute for Liberal Arts (ILA). Takuwa's talk highlighted the importance of preserving historical materials while exploring the history of female students at Tokyo Tech. After the lecture, the audience asked a number of thought-provoking questions, indicating the high level of interest in the activities of women.

The second part of the meeting was a panel discussion facilitated by ILA's Institute Professor Akira Ikegami. Joining the discussion on stage were three members of TMDU and three members of Tokyo Tech.

Under the theme of Alumni associations and competence of universities, the speakers first introduced the alumni associations of both universities to the audience. The group then moved to discussions on cooperation between the respective associations and universities, and the future vision for an alumni association at Science Tokyo. Finally, TMDU President Yujiro Tanaka and Tokyo Tech President Kazuya Masu took the podium to share their thoughts on the overall discussion.

This year, the traditional evening reception was held at Tsubame Terrace, a cafeteria that opened on Ookayama Campus in October 2023. After brief opening words from Masu and Ido, the 323 alumni, current students, faculty, staff, guardians, and special guests from TMDU proceeded to deepen exchanges. In addition to free discussions, the reception included a raffle, a short speech by Provost and Executive Vice President for Institute Strategy Isao Satoh, and Bridges to the future—Tokyo Tech's glorious journey, a projection mapping celebrating the history of the Institute. The event concluded with a fantastic performance of the Tokyo Tech Song by alumni of the Schwalben Chor, Chor Kleines, and Kougaku chorus groups.

As is tradition, alumni from various academic groups gathered for both in-person and online general meetings and talks during Homecoming Day 2024. Student club alumni groups also met for exchange and other events. The Institute for Liberal Arts held its lecture session online. Members from TMDU's Faculty of Dentistry offered a dental care experience, while visitors from TMDU Hospital and the Tokyo Medical and Dental University Emergency Medicine Study Session Organized by Students (TESSO) jointly held a workshop on emergency medical care.

Homecoming Day 2024 participants were also entertained by various official student clubs and alumni groups. The Tokyo Institute of Technology Orchestra, Tokyo Tech's Latin jazz band Los Guaracheros, the a cappella group Ajiwai, the Schwalben Chor Alumni Group, TMDU'S a cappella group tic tac, TMDU Jazz Society, TMDU Chorus Club, and others put on musical performances. Members of the Aikido Club and student juggling club Jug Tech showed off their skills, while iGEM Tokyo Tech introduced their activities to visitors.

Students of the Tokyo Tech Volunteer Group (Tokyo Tech VG) organized a fair exhibiting various products. The student group Science Techno held a science festival for young children and their families, while Tokyo Tech alumni hosted the legendary Kurarika science workshops for kids.