【EVENT REPORT】From Scholars to Scholars: Weathering the Covid-19 storm

みらい創造機構とMEXT Scholars Association （文部科学省国費留学生協会）との共催にて、留学生向けオンラインイベントをALL Englishで開催しました！
MIRAI SOUZOU has partnered with MEXT Scholars Association (MSA) on MSA’s From Scholars to Scholars (FSTS) event held on June 13th, 2020.

*English version is available below the Japanese one

Covid-19により環境が大きく変化する中で、投資先である株式会社ハイボットのミケレ・グアラニエリCEOをお招きし、留学生のスタートアップ起業や、来日から今日までの日本での生活、研究者として日本で直面した課題、起業家として直面した課題などについて伺いました。参加者からはたくさんの質問が寄せられ、オンラインながら盛況なイベントとなりました！特に、研究者から起業家へのキャリアの転換により直面した課題については多くの参加者の興味が寄せられました。

Hibot, one of MIRAI SOUZOU’s portfolio startups, was established by a MEXT alumni, Michele Guarnieri (PhD). He was the guest speaker at the ONLINE FSTS: Weathering the COVID-19 storm event.

Michele Guarnieri　ミケレ・グアラニエリ
Co-founder and CEO of HiBot Corporation
He received his “Laurea” degree in Computer Science from the University of Verona (Italy) in 2000.
He received the prestigious MEXT scholarship and moved to Japan in 2001. He received his MS and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering respectively in 2004 and 2007 from Tokyo Institute of Technology (at Prof. Hirose’s Laboratory).
He received the best presentation award in 2004 from Tokyo Institute of Technology.
After establishing HiBot Corporation, some of his projects bagged noteworthy awards such as the Robot Award by the Japanese Ministry of Economy (2010), the Edison Gold Award (2015), and the IEEE Inaba Innovation Technology award (2017).
He was also selected as a World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneer in 2015. In 2019, the International Rotary Club felicitated him with the International Galileo Galilei award (the Italian equivalent of the Nobel Prize) for his contributions and achievements in the engineering field.

https://www.hibot.co.jp/

Michele as a Senpai / MEXT alumni / entrepreneur:
In this session, Michele shared some interesting anecdotes about his life as a MEXT Scholar. He covered issues such as how he applied to the scholarship program, the kind of challenges he faced in Japan as a researcher, the challenges he faced as an entrepreneur, etc.

Q&A session:
We had around 40 participants at the event and the audience was equally enthusiastic as they asked a lot of questions. We definitely felt the need to accommodate more time for the Q&A / networking session. There were a lot of questions regarding setting up companies in Japan, engaging with clients, etc.

The most interesting points that stood out at the event are:

1. Michele learned English and Japanese after coming to Japan. Common misconception: All the foreigners who come to Japan are very well versed in English.

2. Michele also mentioned that the technology / R&D issues at the company are probably not the biggest challenges at the company. Dealing with people, motivating team members, hiring new employees, leadership skills and sales were some of the challenges which he felt were really interesting.

3. Michele’s career took a drastic turn when he moved out of Academia into the world of entrepreneurship (which is almost opposite to Academia). A majority of the participants were interested in this career switch and the challenges that followed the switch.
Michele also highlighted how robotics companies are hiring in the post-COVID 19 world. All in all, he felt that it was a great event as a lot of people reached out to him on LinkedIn and he now has a highly skilled talent pool of MEXT scholars available to him from which he can hire them.

Stay tuned for more interesting events and notifications from MIRAI SOUZOU!