Report on the First International Conference on Advanced Structural Steel (ICASS 2002)

The International Conference on Advanced Structural Steel was held for 3 days from May 22 to 24 at the Tsukuba International Conference Center. China, Korea, and Japan, the three countries that are engaged in the ultra-steels project, decided to host international conferences on ultra-steels in turn every other year. The first conference was hosted by NIMS in conjunction with The Chinese Society for Metals, The Korean Institute of Metals and Materials, and The Iron and Steel Institute of Japan.

The organizing committee was made up of representatives from the 4 organizations listed above, the international advisory committee had 10 prominent researchers from foreign countries, and the executive committee consisted of 16 members from NIMS and 9 members from other organizations. Although the members from NIMS made the arrangements for the conference, members from other organizations gave us advice on the various aspects of planning and organization. In particular, Prof. Taku Sakai of The University of Electro-Communications, a representative committee member of the Iron and Steel Institute, and Prof. Akira Azushima of Yokohama National University helped us with the planning on the sessions on ultra-fine grained steels and high-speed modifications.

Thus, we were able to move ahead with the preparations with the support of many people. However, we were sometimes inefficient because it was hard to predict the number of participants and talks for a first conference. Nevertheless, the result was a very successful conference with 178 presentations and 370 participants, and I would like to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who was involved.

The conference began on the evening of May 21 with the Get Together Party. Many participants attended this party, and I saw a warm atmosphere with the reunion of old friendships. Many who attended ICASS also participated in the Sixth Ultra-Steel workshop that was held on the same day, so the planning of the joint conferences appeared to be a success. The meeting itself began on the morning of May 22 with the Plenary Lecture (comprised of 4 talks). The trend of the ultra-steels research in Japan, China, Korea, and Europe was introduced here. Afterwards, the talks were separated into 5 conference halls for a total of 20 sessions with presentations and debates.

There were active debates on the 43 invited lectures and 131 presentations in the various halls during the 3 days, and I received a strong impression that discussions were progressing well in Chinese English, Korean English, and Japanese English. I think that this can be attributed to one of the results of the international exchange that was cultivated at the past ultra-steel workshops. This time, there were many participants from the joint sponsorship countries of China and Korea (refer to the table), and I think that it was the result of the common goal for East Asia to become the base (center) for ultra-steel research.

We were concerned about the number of participants from the second day on, after the completion of the keynote lectures and the banquet on the first day; however, we counted over 220 people at the end of the second day. There was also a request "I didn't register in the presentations, but I would like to have a discussions session"; therefore, we had to organize a private session outside the regularly scheduled times, and active discussions were also held at that session.

Furthermore, a Korean researcher appeared at the registration desk on the afternoon of the second day saying "I had an emergency, and could not attend the conference from the first day, but I would like to register now." So, I think this was a conference filled with serious discussions and one where everyone could gather lots of information.

I also saw researchers in the same field organizing their own social meetings outside of conference hours regardless of their nationality. The organizers of many of these social meetings were researchers from NIMS. The proximity of NIMS and the conference center seemed to be very effective for providing "a place for exchange". The next ICASS will be sponsored by The Chinese Society of Metals, CISRI, and Bao Steel and will be held in Shanghai, China in mid-April 2004. We must cooperate and maintain our leadership in research so that ICASS can develop as the place for exchange on discussions on ultra-steel research.

(SRC Chairman of Exchange Promotion Committee: Kaneaki Tsuzaki)

• Impressions on ICASS 2002

• Website of ICASS 2002