SFC Open Research Forum (ORF) 2011 Held in Tokyo
07 December 2011The 2011 edition of the SFC Open Research Forum (ORF) took place on Tuesday, November 22 and Wednesday, November 23 at Tokyo Midtown Hall and Conference, attracting around 5,200 visitors over the two days. ORF is hosted every fall by the Keio Research Institute at SFC, with the aims of presenting to a wider audience the efforts of leading-edge research conducted on campus, returning to the public the fruit (seeds) of this research, and promoting further collaboration between government, business and academia.
The theme of this, the 16th ORF, was "The Shinka of Learning." As well as standing for the "value" (真価) of learning, this term Shinka (シンカ) incorporates a number of other meanings, such as "deepening" (深化), "advancement" (進化), "familiarity" (親化) and "newness" (新化). In addition, the phonetic symbol カ is the same as the character for strength (chikara), which adds a further layer of meaning to the title, illustrating that true strength, from the heart, is needed at this time. This title (see the first picture below), composed by Kohei Tsuji, a first-year master's student of the Graduate School of Media and Governance, as well as a calligraphy instructor, effectively expresses the thinking behind the chosen theme.
The Midtown Hall featured various exhibition booths introducing research conducted, as well as hosting open sessions, and in the Midtown Conference center, Premium Sessions and workshops were held. With many sessions full to capacity, being broadcast live in separate rooms, the event proved to be a great success beyond expectations. In the exhibition area, presentations on around 150 research projects, covering four main research fields, were conducted. Other Keio participants included Shonan Fujisawa Junior and Senior High School, Mita Campus's Global Security Research Institute and the SFC Academic Society, ensuring there was something to see for everyone, from high school students to business people.
Meanwhile, on the Conference floor, the "National ICT Summit on Self-Governing Bodies" saw nineteen regional leaders from across the country gather for a round-table discussion on three main topics of "The Shinka of a New Japan," "The Shinka of Future Learning" and "The Shinka of Scientific Technologies." Amongst the other sessions were "Female Athletes and the Shinka of Sports," featuring appearances by a number of female athletes including tennis player Ai Sugiyama, "Design's Expanding Frontier," with panelists Nobumichi Tosa, the President of Meiwa Denki, and interface designer Yugo Nakamura, and "Scanning the Earth - The Future of Scientific Technologies," in which Joi Ito, the Director of the M.I.T. Media Laboratory, and Jun Murai, the Dean of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, discussed the loss of trust in scientific technology in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake. The many visitors were treated to a wide range of fascinating sessions, in true SFC tradition.
(Photographer: Satoru Inoue)
(This information is released by the Public Relations Section)