Kyushu Institute of Technology (九州工業大学, Kyūshū Kōgyō Daigaku) is one of the 87 national universities in Japan. Located in Fukuoka Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū, it is dedicated to education and research in the fields of science and technology. It is often abbreviated to KIT and sometimes to Kyutech. The founder was Matsumoto Kenjiro, second son of Yasukawa Keiichiro, and the links with the Yaskawa Electric Corporation (founded in 1915) remain strong to this day. The centenary of the opening of the Tobata campus is being celebrated in 2009, with Founder's Day on May 28, 2009. The most famous alumnus is "Mr. Tornado", the severe storms researcher Tetsuya "Ted" Fujita. He graduated in 1943 and was an associate professor until 1953 when he was invited to the University of Chicago. The university was granted government permission to be founded in 1907 as a private training school for engineers called Meiji Senmon Gakkō (Meiji Vocational School), toward the end of the Meiji period. The first campus opened its doors in Tobata in 1909, and the centenary of the university is therefore being celebrated in 2009.