Opening Ceremony Group Photo at RESTEC

RESTEC conducted “MEXT-JAXA Satellite Data Training Workshop in Japan” from November 15th to 20th 2015. Twenty three participants from ten African countries, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, completed the entire training program.

His Excellency, Mr. Daniel KALONJI MADIMBA, the Minister of Scientific Research and Technology of DRC also attended the opening ceremony of the workshop and made a keynote speech. From the Japan side, Professor Emeritus. Yoshifumi Yasuoka from the University of Tokyo made a keynote speech. Mr. Niizuma, a member of the House of Councillors and Mr. Isa, a member of the House of Representatives, also attended the workshop and kindly delivered their speeches as well.

Based upon the strong needs in the African continent, RESTEC arranged exercises of satellite data analysis in the areas of agriculture and mineral exploration, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) provided approximately 30 scenes of satellite data for the participants free of charge. The Japan Space Systems (JSS) kindly dispatched lecturers for the mineral exploration session.

The training workshop included a facility tour of JAXA’s Tsukuba Space Center (TKSC) and Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI). The participants enjoyed the state of the art facilities and sophisticated exhibitions as well as discussions with JAXA’s scientists. The workshop also included a corporate session in which six private companies (noted below) and three agencies, JAXA, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC), introduced their advanced technologies, products, services, activities, etc.

This training workshop was co-hosted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan (MEXT), JAXA, and the Government of DRC. It was the 2nd workshop following the workshop held in Kinshasa, DRC, in January 2015. The workshop was also co-sponsored by Japanese private companies, Canon Electronics Inc., Fujitsu, Kokusai Kogyo Co., Ltd (KKC), Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (MELCO), NEC Corporation, and Pasco Corporation, as well as RESTEC. In addition to financial support, they delivered excellent speeches during the corporate session. RESTEC would like to express its appreciation for their cooperation.

Discussions with JAXA’s Scientists

Training Scene at RESTEC

Facility Tour Group Photo at TKSC