The 3rd International GIGAKU Conference in Nagaoka (IGCN) is designed and organized to provide a cross-border, cross-sector, cross-disciplinary forum for those researchers, educators and industrial leaders who are creating and practicing GIGAKU.

When we organized the first round of the conference, the term GIGAKU was not recognized by most participants, especially participants from abroad. But through two round of the conference, the term GIGAKU seems prevailing among the researchers, educators, and industry leaders who are practicing industrial innovation around the world. The term, simply the science of technology or manufacturing art, was originally coined to describe the fundamental philosophy of education and research at Nagaoka University of Technology (NUT) when it was established in 1976. Through this term the founders of NUT intended to express their recognition that all innovative technical endeavors in the real world could be successfully achieved only by employing a scientific approach. And NUT has relentlessly pursued GIGAKU since then. The spirit of GIGAKU is shared not only by NUT researchers but also researchers of the organizing committee of this conference. But the community of GIGAKU is now expanding beyond the organizing members of the conference.

  Nagaoka, the conference venue, is the birthplace of the legendary tale “One hundred sacks of rice”, which tells how the people of the city gave the highest priority to education even in the midst of hard time. The spirit of this tale is still giving encouragements to all people in the city.

The organizers sincerely hope that the International GIGAKU Conference organized at this special place will offer a venue where all GIGAKU practitioners – young and old, coming from different corners of the world but sharing a common dream for GIGAKU – can meet together, strengthen their ties, cross-fertilize each other’s imaginations and make further steps toward the realization of their dreams.

June, 2014

Koichi Niihara

Chairman of the Organizing Committee

The 3rd International GIGAKU Conference in Nagaoka