About Toyo University Professor's Scoop :Dean of INIAD (Faculty of Information Networking for Innovation and Design) Professor Ken Sakamura
The academic world is continuing to undergo an extensive, in-depth evolution.
What view does a Toyo University faculty member devoted to education and research have on the contemporary world?
In this edition of Professor's Scoop, we interviewed the Dean of the Faculty of Information Networking for Innovation and Design, Dr. Ken Sakamura, who was recently awarded a globally-recognized award. We asked Dr. Sakamura about the points on which he was recognized for when receiving the award, the similarities between these points and the concept of the Faculty of Information Networking for Innovation and Design, and the future development of these points.
Dean of the Faculty of Information Networking for Innovation and Design, Prof. Ken Sakamura, was awarded the IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Technology Award*.
Dean of INIAD (Faculty of Information Networking for Innovation and Design) Professor
Ken Sakamura
Profile
Dean of INIAD (Faculty of Information Networking for Innovation and Design) Professor, Department of Information Networking for Innovation and Design, Faculty of Information Networking for Innovation and Design Doctor of Engineering Chairperson of the TRON Forum. IEEE Life Fellow and IEEE Golden Core Member. Director of the YRP Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory. Professor Emeritus of The University of Tokyo. Research areas: computer architecture, computer science Received the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) 150 Award in 2015.
I received the award for my contribution to the field of consumer electronics through the real-time OS we have developed. The award is a great honor for the project team members (TRON Project*) as well. The real-time OS that was developed by the TRON project is an OS for controlling tiny computers embedded in the electronic circuits of products used in people’s daily lives and homes, such as air conditioners, refrigerators, digital cameras and other devices. The OS is also used in car engines, factory machines, rockets and satellites. For example, what do you do if there is a problem with such products or machines? It is necessary to instantly determine the current priority without human intervention and control the product or machine in real-time. TRON-based systems are widely used in fields where mechanism that conducts instantaneous priority-based processing is necessary and are said to account for 60% of the global market share.
The evaluation of our development of these systems as “open architecture” led to us receiving the award. As a result of our research and development, anyone can use the specification for free. It was because we did not restrict the OS with intellectual property rights that it spread globally. We have been working on this project since 1984; we will continue to enhance and support the real-time OS and its development environment.
When we started the TRON project in the 1980s, the concept of open architecture was not widely known in society. With the subsequent dissemination of the internet, the concept became more popular, and there was an increase in the number of concrete use cases, such as the open architecture OS Linux becoming famous.
The development that uses open architecture makes it easier for people to collaborate, which brings together a great deal of expertise from around the world. This has the advantage of not only accelerating development but also expanding the scope of dissemination and application. The enhancement of public assets not attached to an organization or application will form a critical foundation for our future endeavors to bring about open source projects for DX and IoT.
It is because of this open nature that wide-ranging and diverse collaboration becomes possible. I have always valued collaboration. This is also the concept behind the reason Toyo University established INIAD as the Faculty of Information Networking for Innovation and Design and not a Faculty of Informatics.
Why is collaboration important? Today, the amount of information is so vast and complex that it is challenging for a single person to even grasp an overall picture of issues. Even when working on a project, you can no longer make progress unless everyone cooperates as a team to solve the issue.
Taking advantage of winning this award, I talk about collaboration, and I would also like to talk a little more about INIAD. As we have produced the first-year graduate students, we are now looking to move on to the next step. INIAD aims to “innovate and contribute to society with new creations.” Computer science and collaboration are at the foundation of this aim. However, I think that collaboration alone is not enough to bring about new capabilities.
There is no success theory for innovation. The only option is to take on the challenge of attempting many new things. Even if you fail many times, try it again. What is crucial at this stage is diversity. Something is created when many diverse people interact with one another. What is created, is serendipity (finding interesting and valuable things by chance in a happy and beneficial way.) When a team collaborates and attempts something new, serendipity is more likely to occur if the team is composed of people of different ages and genders. It has also been statistically proven that the probability of success will also increase. That is why at INIAD, we aim to create a diverse environment that is 50% Japanese and 50% international, 50% male and 50% female, and 50% high school graduates and 50% working people.
We are also enhancing our facilities and looking to revamp the INIAD curriculum into a ver.2. Please continue to keep your eyes on INIAD.
Notes
■IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers): the world’s largest professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering based in the US. The IEEE is an industry-leading association that conducts standardization, specialized and educational activities, along with hosting a variety of awards.
■IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Technology Award: an award associated with one of the founders of Sony, Dr. Masaru Ibuka. It is awarded for outstanding contributions in the field of consumer technology. Recent recipients well-known in Japan include Apple’s Steve Wozniak and
Linux’s Linus Torvalds.
■TRON Project: a joint industry-academia development project for computer architecture started in 1984. Prof. Sakamura is the project leader, and he is conducting various developments in the field of computing, from the real-time OS for embedded systems to the enhancement of the development environment for these OS and IoT networks.
■Open architecture: architecture where one part or all of the design or specification is made open to the public. The source code of the real-time OS that is an outcome of the TRON project is completely open to the public, and anyone is free to duplicate, alter, or use the OS in products. It is provided as a so-called “public asset” and contributes to the industry's development.