Message from the Faculty

　Thoughts on Safety

Meeting at National University of Singapore(From left: Associate Prof. Shirasaka, Associate Prof. Kohtake, Dean and Prof. Maeno, Prof. V. Shim, Prof. ST Quek and Prof. R. Jain)April 2012

The cherry trees bloomed somewhat later than usual this year. Around this time last year we were struck by such traumatic

and catastrophic events that it is difficult to recall when the cherry trees bloomed. A once-in-a-millennium-earthquake was followed by tsunamis and the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant ― leaving us to ask, “What is it that this series of disasters is telling us?” I feel it is necessary to reflect on these things once again.I used to work for an automobile manufacturing company: a place where we would get more than an earful concerning safety. I must admit, however, that they did provide some practical education concerning safety. What I remember the most is the “hazard prediction test” also known as KYT or ACT. It consists of (1) predicting hazardous situations; (2) evaluating severity and frequency of occurrence; and (3) self-evaluating countermeasures. Submitting the test results of the KYT/ACT was a prerequisite for launching any new experiment. For a person like me, who was eager to collect data as quickly as possible, this system seemed redundant and merely a disruption to work. Looking back, however, I now see that it was indeed a necessary step to ensure the safety of the multiple stakeholders engaged in the experiments. At the Graduate School of System Design and Management (SDM) we also deal with the issue of hazard predictions; but our version, as it deals with society as a whole, differs from that of companies in terms of the scale and impact of countermeasures.Judging from the disasters of last year, I must say that the level of abili ty to predict hazardous situations and their frequency was extremely inadequate. It is said that the scale of an earthquake and its frequency of occurrence are generally

exponentially distributed. This means that eventually there will be an earthquake of unexpected intensity, though it might be thousands of years from now. We then need to acknowledge that such a cataclysm is sure to occur in the span of some thousands of years. If the recovery takes 100,000 years, we need a system designed to take into account a time period that great. Consider the system that was designed in such a way that the once-in-a-millennium-earthquake causes the land to be useless for the next 100,000 years. A system designed as such is nowhere near being a practical option when considering the actual availability of land.In normal life, it is extremely difficult to base our actions on the worst predictable situation. Unless we do that, however, it is like relying on pure luck to continue living. To make the matter more complicated, the time constant of human memories is much shorter than that of the earth. If we do not experience any hazard for thirty years, we easily forget that the area was once affected. We may even begin to hold an unfounded belief that there will be no catastrophic events for all eternity.Safety is like rowing upstream in a slow-moving river. The moment we stop rowing, we begin to be swept downstream; thus we should be prepared to continue rowing. With this in mind, I hope we will prevent the kind of situation for which young people might curse us a thousand years from now.

Shoichi Sasaki, ProfessorGraduate School of System Design and Management

http://www.sdm.keio.ac.jp/en/

Extension Lecture on “Dialogue for Design Thinkers”1

Tele-Immersion Technology Workshop4

SDM Team Wins “Interactive Audience Award” at Interaction 20125

Special Lecture at “Shizuoka Cancer Conference 2011” by Associate Professor Toma2

AGRI (Agricultural) Laboratory Publishes Its Activity Report, “AGRILAB REPORT 2011-2012”3

SDM NEWS April 2012

http://www.sdm.keio.ac.jp/en/

The 16th Tele-Immersion Technology Workshop was held at the Collaboration Complex of Keio

University, on February 17, 2012. It was hosted by the Tele-Immersion Technology Committee of the Virtual Reality Society of Japan (VRSJ) headed by Professor Tetsuro Ogi, and co-sponsored by the Ultra-Realistic Communications Forum and the SDM Research Institute.Tele-immersion technology allows geographically distant users to communicate and interact in real-time through a shared virtual space. It has been attracting attention recently, thanks to improvements

in technologies related to immersive virtual space and high-speed networking.As the venue was the Collaboration Complex of Keio University, some works were also exhibited in addition to the research presentations by SDM. These include 4K3D images, CAVE system and tiled display with the cooperation of the laboratories represented by Professor Ogi, Professor Toma, and Professor Maeno, as well as the Graduate School of Media Design.Tele-immersion technology is expected to be applied to a wide range of fields including design, education,

healthcare, business, and art. SDM looks forward to further developments.

At Interaction 2012, held at the National Museum of Emerging Science and

Innovation in Odaiba on March 15-17, 2012, a team composed of Yoichi Watanabe, Katsunari Sato, Yasutoshi Makino, and Takashi Maeno, made a presentation entitled, “Proposal of an Input Device for a Mobile Touch-Panel Terminal Using the Optical Force Measurement Method.” The team won

the “Interactive Audience Award,” a prize awarded to one out of fifty-four research presentations based on audience voting.The proposed method gives a joystick-like operability to a touch-panel device using a cell phone camera by applying GelForce technology developed by the laboratory represented by Professor Tachi, the Graduate School of Media Design.

Demonstration of the tiled display

On March 9, 2012, an extension lecture entitled, “Dialogue for Design Thinkers,”

was delivered by Ms. Naho Iguchi, Communication Process Designer and Representative of TEDxTokyo. With an attendance of nearly fifty individuals from within and outside SDM, the lecture was followed by lively discussions. Various topics were covered from the basics to real-life examples, such as the history and concepts of TEDx, an explanation of organizational

psychology, the relationship between dialogues and design thinking, and detailed explanation on methods. The lecture introduced key tools for a successful dialogue, such as active listening, empathy, emotional intelligence, observation, here and now, feeling, and sensing. Some dialogue techniques were also introduced including world café, open space technology, future search, Appreciative Inquiry (AI), and think Like a genius. It was a great opportunity to

learn the subject in a systematic manner.

Associate Professor Toma gave a special lecture at the “Shizuoka Cancer Conference 2011: Prospects

for Cancer Medical Services and Development of Technologies, Including State-of-the-Art Robots for Medical and Nursing Care” which was held at Shizuoka Cancer Center on March 20, 2012. The special lecture entitled, “Realizing Remote Medical Care with the Application of High-Definition Video Transmission Using the State-of-the-Art Photonics,” introduced the research and development work of Keio Photonics Research Institute (KPPI), for which Associate Professor Toma serves as Deputy Head. The presentation particularly focused on the application of high-definition

video transmission to remote medical care, which is being researched by his Communication Design Laboratory.Taking this opportunity, uncompressed transmission of high-definition video was demonstrated using the world’s fastest plastic optical fiber, in which it distinguished itself by its high image quality and low latency compared to a normal teleconference system. The transmission of 3D images was also successful. Unreliable image quality and delayed video transmission have been the barriers to the practical application of robotic telesurgery in the development of robotic surgery, thus the lecture drew much interest.

The “AGRI” (Agricultural) laboratory, which is made possible by a donation from Norinchukin

Bank, has published its activity report entitled, “AGRILAB REPORT 2011-2012.” It reports on the laboratory’s activities for the past one year, including a number of photographs.The opening article is a dialogue between Professor Takashi Maeno and Project Professor Mikako

Hayashi, the representatives of the laboratory. The topics include the activities of AGRI laboratory in its fourth year, research on local revitalization, and “Hiyoshi Natural Cultivation Farm” which has been established following the natural farming techniques of Mr. Akinori Kimura, known for “miracle apples”.In addition, there is a detailed report on the field visits to the Tohoku Region ― Aomori, Miyagi and Yamagata

prefectures ― as well as an introduction to research and the social activities of the AGRI laboratory’s members, along with their messages. The report is available on the SDM website under Media.

http://www.sdm.keio.ac.jp/about/media.html ▲

(in Japanese)

Ms. Naho Iguchi

Demonstrating the uncompressed transmission of high-definition video

The cover page of the activity report of AGRI

(Agricultural) laboratory

http://www.n3vr.org/tts/ ▲ (in Japanese)

The awarded members (From left: Professor Maeno, Mr. Watanabe (2nd year masters course), Project Lecturer Makino and Visiting Researcher Sato)

News

Update on the Coordination Efforts for International Collaboration with National University of Singapore and University of Adelaide7

Outstanding Lecture Award at Annual Conference of SI, SICE8

Degrees Awarded and Doctoral Thesis Titles9

Report on “First Japan Symposium for Promotion of Academic Exchanges”6

SDM NEWS April 2012

http://www.sdm.keio.ac.jp/en/

The “First Japan Symposium for Promotion of Academic Exchanges” was held at Swiss Federal

Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) on March 7-9, 2012, with the objective of strengthening cooperation between ETH and Japanese universities. Associate Professor Naohiko Kohtake attended from SDM. He introduced SDM’s educational research activities and advised ETH’s current students on the overseas study program at SDM.

The symposium was attended by seven universities and two research institutes from Japan: Kyoto University, Keio University, Chiba University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, The University of Tokyo, Tohoku University, Hokkaido University, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), and RIKEN. Representing Switzerland were ETH, Swiss National Science Foundation, and the Swiss Embassy. As for Keio University, the Faculty of Science and Technology and SDM participated. Professor Kohei Itoh from the Faculty of Science and Technology made a keynote speech. On the sidelines at the symposium, each university and institution ran a booth for publicity and individual consultations. SDM has already begun its collaboration with ETH through Professor Masaru Nakano and others in the form of an exchange program, joint research and special lectures.

SDM met with the Faculty of Engineering of National University of Singapore (NUS) at

NUS on March 22-23, 2012, concerning international collaboration. From SDM, Dean and Professor Takashi Maeno, Associate Professor Naohiko Kohtake, and Associate Professor Seiko Shirasaka attended and discussed the exchange program and joint research.NUS has a program concerning Systems Design and Management, and Associate Professor Rashmi Jain plans to give part of the lectures on “System Architecting and Integration” and “System Evaluation and Verification” which are core courses of SDM.

SDM also met with the University of Adelaide (UA) Business School at UA on March 25-26, 2012. Professor Takashi Maeno, Director and Dean, attended from SDM and exchanged a letter of intent (LOI) with the System Design and Complexity Management Alliance of UA. From this time forth, there will be interactions among the faculties and educational and research collaborations among the students.As an initial step there is a plan to invite Professor Ockie Bosh from UA to give lectures and workshops on “system thinking” and “Bayesian network” from August 31 to September 2 for the Active Learning

Projects (ALPs) of “Design Project,” a compulsory course at SDM.

At an annual conference of System Integration (SI) Division of the Society of Instrument

and Control Engineers (SICE) held on December 23-25, 2011, a presentation entitled, “Creating a Sense of Horizontal Movement with the Use of Vertical

Vibrations” (Yasutoshi Makino and Takashi Maeno) received the Outstanding Lecture Award. The presentation showed that simple vertical vibrations can create a sense of horizontal movement if relevant contexts are presented such as visual and somatic

senses. This reveals that by taking advantage of the perceptual characteristic of humans, it is possible to actualize the function in a simple manner without relying on complex mechanisms.

The number of degrees awarded in March 2012 and the titles of the doctoral theses are as follows:

Associate Professor Naohiko Kohtake presenting at the symposium

Universities and research institutes running booths for publicity

http://www.ethz.ch/index_EN ▲

http://www.ifor.math.ethz.ch/~fukuda/conf/ ▲

ethjapan/EJ1/e0.html

http://www.eng.nus.edu.sg/ero/index.php ▲

http://www.eng.nus.edu.sg/etm/programmes/ ▲

SDM.htmhttp://www.business.adelaide.edu.au/

▲

ETH Zurich:

The First Japan Symposium for Promotion of Academic Exchanges:

NUS Faculty of Engineering: Faculty of Engineering M. Sc. in SDM Programme:

UA Business School:Campus of University of Adelaide

54 Masters Degrees and 4 Ph.D.s

Name: Kenichi Seki (3rd year doctoral course)

Title: Distributed Collaborative Design Method using Structural and Functional Modeling for Complex Consumer Electronics Products

Degree: Ph.D. in System Engineering

Name: Takayuki Tomaru (3rd year doctoral course)

Title: The Quality Verification Process and Design Change Management for Components Replacement in Case of End of Life

Degree: Ph.D. in System Engineering

Name: Seiko Shirasaka (3rd year doctoral course)

Title: Architecture Framework Development Process using Meta-Thinking and Enabler

Degree: Ph.D. in System Engineering

Name: Tomomi Nonaka (2nd year doctoral course)

Title: Green Policies for Clean Energy Vehicles Using Life Cycle Assessment

Degree: Ph.D. in System Engineering

SDM NEWS April 2012

SDM Research Institute, Graduate School of System Design and Management at Keio University

Collaboration Complex, Keio University, 4-1-1 Hiyoshi, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 223-8526Tel：045-564-2518　　Fax：045-562-3502 　　E-mail：sdm@info.keio.ac.jp

Laboratory / Center profile

Innovative Design Center

Professor Takashi MaenoRepresentative:Members: Professor Shinichiro Haruyama, Associate Professor Naohiko Kohtake, Associate

Professor Seiko Shirasaka, Project Professor Toshiyuki Yasui, Researchers Kanenori Ishibashi, Tomoaki Sakurai, Yoshinobu Soda, Soichiro Takamine, Yoshikazu Tomita, Madoka Nakajima, Shinya Nomura, Hiroyuki Yagita, and others

http://lab.sdm.keio.ac.jp/idc/ ▲

(in Japanese)Official website :

The Innovation Design Center of the SDM Research Institute, affiliated with SDM, Keio University, engages in educational and research

activities in the form of workshops related to design projects based on design thinking. We pursue designs for new technological and social systems which innovate the next generation through workshops and cooperation among various stakeholders. More specifically, the center carries out a range of activities which include educating students at SDM; conducting training for companies; organizing workshops for the public;

and collaborating with Future Center and universities, companies, research institutes, and local governments, which pursue design thinking. The center also conducts research into methodologies and methods concerning design projects built upon cooperation and collaboration, playing an important role in the research development of this field. We are committed to promoting activities concerning innovative designs by collaborating with those who desire to design better futures. We look forward to your continued support and cooperation.

We create innovative designs for a wide range of subjects, such as technological systems, service systems, business models,

organizational designs, communication designs, and policy designs. The bottom line is that they are all designed in line with the following principles: ● Innovative design which makes the best of collective wisdom generated through cooperation among various stakeholders.● Integrated design which places significance on philosophy, ethnography, Meta thinking, idea generation, and project management.

● Systematic and reliable design which follows the V-Model of systems engineering. ● Precise design based on various frameworks and methods such as brainstorming, mind maps, the KJ Method (affinity diagram), CVCA, WCA, OPM, Value Graph, and Pugh Concept Selection.With new and innovative designs, we hope to build a better society. To that end, we strive to nurture the right people.

S ince its establishment in 2008, SDM, Keio University has been providing education through the design project, a compulsory course for the

masters program, by partnering with companies and local governments and collaborating with Stanford University, MIT, TU Delft, and others. At the same time we have been conducting research into the whole concept of design project education as well as its methodologies and methods.Building on our educational research experiences, we have been conducting workshops and lectures across the country since 2010 by collaborating with local governments, companies, universities, Future Center, and others. Furthermore,

we have been conducting training on design thinking for companies.With a view to carrying out these activities in a more coherent manner, Innovative Design Center was established in 2011 within the SDM Research Institute, affiliated with SDM, Keio University. Since then it has been providing education, research, training, and workshops on innovative designs that are built upon collaboration in an integrated manner. The center closely coordinates with the Social Design Center (SDC) (http://lab.sdm.keio.ac.jp/sdc/) of the SDM Research Institute in particular, as they have been active in collaborating with local governments and NPOs.

As all kinds of systems have grown large and complex in today’s world, there is increasing attention to methodologies such as

systems engineering and system thinking. These methodologies allow us to “see the trees and the forest Simultaneously”. In other words, they enable us to take a panoramic view of things and society as a whole so that we can sophisticatedly design solutions in a balanced and consistent manner. On the other hand, in order to break the sense of stagnation in today’s society, there is increasing attention to design thinking, which pursues creative and innovative designs that respond to the needs of society based on collaboration and cooperation, beyond the limits of engineering, by thinking

outside the box, as do designers and artists.It has long been thought that the perspective on systems and the idea of designs are opposites ― the former focused on relations and certainty while the latter focused on creativity and sensations. Now, however, SDM has been developing its own unique methodology to combine these two. Design thinking seeks to create by thinking outside the box, while systems engineering seeks to have a panoramic and systemic view of the world, to design new solutions systematically, and to sophisticatedly verify the design solutions. Both are necessary to realize creative and innovative designs that are also sophisticated and reliable.

A place to cooperate with one another for innovative system designs

SDM’s design thinking innovates all systems

Transforming a university to a hub for social contribution

System × Design ＝ Innovation

SYSTEM MEETS DESIGN ― Would you like to change the world together?

EVERYBODY’S FUTURE ― Technologies, Services, and Designs for Society

BEYOND ACADEMIA ― From Education and Training to Social Activities

http://www.sdm.keio.ac.jp/en/