Vice President Masahiro Yamaguchi addresses the attendees
The Fall Workshop for the AOS (University of Washington-Tohoku University: Academic Open Space) was held at the University of Washington on September 21 and 22, 2023. The event was jointly organized by the hosts and Tohoku University, and over 150 people took part. The workshop helped to deepen collaboration in a number of fields and also set the stage for the kicking off of ‘startup support’, in which the two universities will newly collaborate during the AOS’s second term.
Two simultaneous sessions were held on the first day. Session A began with opening remarks by Fumio Ohuchi, Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington (and specially appointed professor at Tohoku University), and under the theme of ‘Digital Engineering and New Energy Ecosystem in Aeronautics’, keynote speeches were given by researchers from Tohoku University, the University of Washington, and participants from Boeing, which was founded in Seattle.
Session B, whose theme was ‘Japan Seattle AI Innovation Meetup 21.0’, was held at a separate venue, with participants from well-known businesses and up-and-coming startups from both Japan and the United States, and this was followed by a reverse pitch session. Participants from both sessions later met at the Consul General’s residence in Seattle for a networking reception. Consul General Hisao Inagaki of the Consulate-General of Japan in Seattle began proceedings by speaking about how collaboration had developed through the AOS and said that he wishes to continue to support the collaboration between the two universities.
The second day of the workshop was held under the theme of ‘startup support’. Vice President Masahiro Yamaguchi spoke to the attendees on behalf of Tohoku University, saying “I hope that this workshop will be an opportunity for people from both universities and companies to get to know each other better, and that through the AOS, we can set a precedent for academic collaboration between Japan and the United States in innovation and entrepreneurship education”.
Vice President Yamaguchi’s address was followed by presentations by entrepreneurs from Tohoku University.
- Assistant Professor Miwako Kitamura (International Research Institute of Disaster Science) spoke about a plan to develop a handheld device that can understand and enrich the lives of individuals, including caregivers, those facing emotional challenges, and diverse minorities
- Professor Makoto Ohta (Institute of Fluid Science) spoke about an exhaled breath omics analysis device that predicts infection due to viruses contained in exhaled breath
- Yuta Yokokawa, CEO of CERCIT Co., Ltd. (Tohoku University Hospital Emergency Center) told participants about his hopes of introducing echo-guided puncture models as medical education tools
- Professor Shunichi Koshimura (International Research Institute of Disaster Science) made a presentation on real-time tsunami flood damage forecast services
Following these presentations, startup companies from CoMotion at the University of Washington held pitch talks in the afternoon.
The success of this workshop has further raised hopes of greater collaboration between the two universities through the AOS framework.
Participants at the pitch talk