On Sunday, December 6, 12, Kuma Nagai, a fifth-year student in the Department of Information and Mechanical Systems Engineering, participated in the finals of the 15rd National College of Technology Girls SDGs x Technology Contest (National College of Technology GCON3) held at Nikkei Hall.Yuna Kitagawa, 4th grade, Ai Nakagawa, Rina Matsumoto,Second-year student Aoi NagataIsAs the ezaki-lab teamI participated.
The Kosen GCON is held with the aim of encouraging teams of female Kosen students to propose technological developments to solve social issues based on the results of their daily studies and research from the perspective of the SDGs, and to encourage further growth as future researchers and engineers.ezaki-labOf the 85 teams that applied, only 12 teams will be selected through document screening and interview screening to advance to the finals.ToI attended.
The students presented an initiative that aims not only to eradicate sea urchins, which are the cause of the nationwide problem of sea denudation, but also to cultivate sea urchins and brand them for sale. The Ise-Shima region, where our school is located, is famous for female divers, but the decline in the catch due to sea denudation is a problem, and there is also a shortage of successors due to aging. Therefore, the students wanted to support sustainable female diver fishing by cultivating sea urchins collected by female divers as a countermeasure against sea denudation and branding them. To do this, they raised the sea urchins collected by female divers with various feeds and analyzed the amino acids contained in the edible parts of the sea urchins using high-performance liquid chromatography to determine the optimal type of feed, as well as to determine the optimal cultivation period by analyzing the difference in feeding amount due to differences in marine weather. In the future, they aim to sell the sweet sea urchins collected and cultivated by female divers as "female sweet sea urchins."
In the finals, the students presented their work wearing matching hoodies that resembled the attire of female divers, and won the Finalist Award. Presenting in front of a large audience was a very meaningful experience for the students.
Going forward, this project plans to continue working with local female divers from Osatsu, Toba City, towards branding sea urchins.