2016 G-EXPO Symposium

Panel Discussion（1）From November 24th to 26th, G-EXPO was held at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan). As part of the event, on November 25th from 13:00-17:00 at Innovation Hall, G-SPASE Symposium “Social Innovation through Space and Geospatial Technology -Competency-based Education beyond Skill and Knowledge-” was held. Starting from the opening address by Akihiro Fujimori, Head of Space Technology Utilization Department MEXT, the program agenda was followed by the introduction of the G-SPASE program, 3 invited lectures, 3-minutes TED style research presentation, poster session and panel discussions. The symposium attracted 96 people in total.

Akihiro Fujimori（MEXT）Professor Ryosuke Shibasaki（The University of Tokyo）

First, we had Susumu Kato from Japan Top League speak on “Current and Future Training of Top Athletes.” His talk focused on nurturing athletes who can strive in the corporate world after retiring from one’s professional sport. In his experience, he mentioned that athletes who have good decision-making and communication skills and being flexible in how to behave dependent on their position tend to adapt himself/herself to the social environment.  Whether the athlete would standout even after retirement is quite easy to guess by looking at how they respond to interviews, he mentioned.

Susumu Kato（Japan Top League）

Second, Fabien Roudier from Institute for a Global Society delivered the talk “Road to Global Leader -Competency-based Education-” He briefly explained the overview of “competency”  and introduced the latest competency-based education carried out in Minerva Schools in the United States. 

 
Fabien Roudier（IGS）

Third, Yuji Yamada, English teacher at Kaisei High School, set forth the example of providing university education experience to high school students in Japan. He introduced how Kaisei High School and the University of Tokyo and Keio University collaborated from May to July this year for high school students to gain “real” university-level education experience. In addition, relating to competency, he mentioned how Kaisei High School grant opportunities through school festivals and sports days to encourage student’s uniqueness besides studying. We rumor that specific student would play an active part in the society after graduation but we cannot detect and verbalize what characteristics in particular which makes us think that way, he stated. 

Yuji Yamada（Kaisei High School）

Next, we had 11 students from the following research themes make a 3-minutes TED style presentation.

1) City Mapping & Analysis and Infrastructure Development
2) Deployment of Asian Base Stations
3) Traffic Congestion Reduction via Taxi Probe Data
4) Small Wearable GNSS + Sensor Device Development and Data Analysis
5) Tourist Analyzation in Detail by Using Positioning Data
6) Increasing QOL of Doctors and Patients after Disaster using Telepresence Technology
7) Total Support: Early Warning through Post Disaster
8) Efficient Plantation of Palm Trees in Malaysia
9) Confronting Malaria through Geospatial Technology: Smartphone + Mobile Telescope + Community
10) Decreasing Long Toilet Lines via Indoor Positioning Technology
11) Solving Phangan Island Coconut Tree Issues using UAV

Satoshi Miyazawa（The University of Tokyo）Hiroko Tokura（TUMSAT）

Saurav Ranjit（The University of Tokyo）Chihiro Ota（Keio University）

Ken Wada（The University of Tokyo）Ryo Sato（Keio University）

Minami Tsuruta（The University of Tokyo）Tomoaki Masuma（Keio University）

Nuntikorn Kitratporn（The University of Tokyo）Nanami Mizumura（Keio University）

Kaito Kobayashi（TUMSAT）Assistant Professor Nobuaki Kubo（TUMSAT）

In the panel discussion “Competency-based Education through Skill and Knowledge,” we had students voice their opinions of the G-SPASE program. They recounted that G-SPASE program give them the chance to stand in front of people and state their opinion clearly and effectively, to experience failure and to communicate with people from diverse fields. The strength of G-SPASE program is to actually go out on fieldworks and to realize one’s own strength and weakness by interacting with various participants. In the last session, the faculties briefly commented what they bear in mind when educating people.

Professor Atsushi Koshio（The Graduate School of Project Design）
“You should figure out by yourself who to collaborate with to create dynamism.” “It’s crucial to define one’s own competency in one’s own definition.”

Professor Taichi Furuhashi（Aoyama University）
“PDCA（Plan・Do・Check・Action）cycle is not sufficient in research. Besides PDCA, there’s a cycle called OODA（Observe・Orient・Decide・Act）which emphasize the quick responsiveness of actions. Before planning, observation is the key.”

Professor Ryosuke Shibasaki（The University of Tokyo）
“We have to focus on tailoring education to each individuals in graduate schools. It’s important to provide various opportunities to students. Balancing responsibility and fun aspect of study is difficult but I wish the students of my laboratory to enjoy as much as they can. I’m working hard to realize that. ”

The goal of G-SPASE is to educate personnel who can communicate and realize projects in the international environment. We will continue to strengthen the industry-academia-university collaboration. We plan to hold another symposium in February and looking forward to delivering the final project outcome.

Panel Discussion（2）