Prof. Takashi Ikeda, Professor in Department of Agriculture, School of Agriculture, Meiji University, Japan visited the University of Sri Jayewardenepura on 17th March 2025. He is an expertise in the areas of production systems, horticulture and instrumentation engineering. Earlier, Prof. Ikeda had visited our university. During his visit to the University of Sri Jayewardenepura from 21st of March to 24th of March 2023, he had some fruitful meetings regarding development of collaboration between the two institutes. He has also conducted two guest talks under the course module UBR2216: Farming in Control Environments of 2nd year 1st semester on Protected cultivation and hydroponic culture techniques for urban area and Brief introduction of vertical farm for future agriculture. This opportunity was a diverse experience for the students and the staff for the future collaborations of the department and the faculty.
This year, in align with the ongoing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two institutions, Prof. Ikeda visited the Vice-Chancellor, Senior Prof. M.M. Pathmalal to further discuss the future activities based on the MoU. As FUAB is a recently established faculty of our university, the Vice-Chancellor emphasized the need for having international exposure to the faculty. Senior Prof. Pradeep Jayaweera, Dean, Faculty of Urban and Aquatic Bioresources added to this justifying the need for utilizing the maximum benefit of the sophisticated technological resources we have, to reach out to the international community.
Currently, Prof. Ikeda is working as a visiting lecturer of the Department of Urban Bioresources, Faculty of Urban and Aquatic Bioresources, University of Sri Jayewardenepura (FUAB/USJ) while co-supervising a PhD student from FUAB/USJ as well.
During the discussions, the future aspects in student and staff exchange programmes, opportunity to conduct double degree programmes, joint research publications, joint online workshops on recent advancements and researches in the discipline of Agriculture for the students of both the institutions collaborating other universities which we have partnerships both local and international, as well as the potential avenues for conducting joint research conferences were also discussed at the meeting.
The link was initiated by Dr. Udari Rathnathunga, Senior Lecturer, Department of Urban Bioresources, Faculty of Urban and Aquatic Bioresources and the Faculty coordinator of International Affairs. The International Affairs Division of the university facilitated the meeting. Prof. Ikeda had the opportunity to meet with the senior academic staff members of the Faculty of Urban and Aquatic Bioresources as well.
This visit marked the continuous involvement of the faculty and the university with the international community.
