At #UTokyo_IIS , all professors, associate professors and lecturers independently lead their own laboratories. When Yoshiho Ikeuchi joined #UTokyo_IIS as a lecturer in 2014, he sat alone in his newly established lab and was carefully mapping out his future research plans. One day, he received a visit from Jiro Kawada, a postdoctoral researcher at #UTokyo_IIS who aspired to develop medication for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Together, they launched a research project that merged neuroscience and engineering, which eventually lead to the biotech startup Jiksak Bioengineering.Eight years have passed since the company's founding. The young CEO Jiro Kawada is devoted wholeheartedly to drug discovery, and Professor Yoshiho Ikeuchi works alongside him as a technical advisor while also continuing his academic research. Their conversation hinted at a wide range of career possibilities, not only for PhD holders but also for those with master's and bachelor's degrees.

On Tuesday, November 25, the Institute of Industrial Science (IIS), the University of Tokyo, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Department of Industrial Design at KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), South Korea. The signing ceremony was conducted virtually.

In recent years, a great deal of research has been conducted on creating organ models known as organoids. Organoids are produced by differentiating stem cells or iPS cells into the cells of a target organ while culturing them in three dimensions, thereby partially replicating cell-to-cell interactions and certain functions of the organ. Brain-mimicking organoids have also been developed and are drawing attention as a new approach to neuroscience research. At #UTokyo_IIS, Professor Yoshiho Ikeuchi is taking an inventive approach to brain organoid research, employing unique methods to uncover the secrets behind the intricate workings of the human brain.

Understanding the mechanisms behind massive earthquakes to predict their magnitude and frequency requires conducting frequent measurements of seafloor movements with centimeter-level precision. However, with the currently available method, such observations call for traveling by ship to the target location, collecting data, and then returning--making it difficult to conduct measurements with sufficient frequency. Under these circumstances, Associate Professor Yusuke Yokota of #UTokyo_IIS throughout joint research with HAMA, Inc., has succeeded for the first time in the world in measuring the position of the seabed with centimeter-level precision using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that lands on the sea surface. This breakthrough technology is attracting attention for enabling more frequent and cost-effective measurements of seabed positions.

Researchers led by Associate Professor Hideki Kikumoto at #UTokyo_IIS fuse regional climate datasets and local weather observations to find a significant rise in urban temperatures and heatwaves in Tokyo.

The Nankai Trough seafloor cable seismic observation network DONET is used for earthquake early warning and tsunami prediction. A thermometer is attached to each of these ocean bottom seismometers to measure the temperature near the seafloor. In this study, by investigating long-term ocean bottom temperature data, a research group of Yusuke Yokota (Associate Professor at #UTokyo_IIS), Tomohiro Inoue and Tatsuya Kubota (National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience) detected for the first time ocean waves fluctuating synchronously over an area of more than 100 km along the Nankai Trough. In oceanography, this may be a "Coastal Trapped Wave (CTW)" , and this is a rare observation case that shows the possibility of new oceanographic observations using the ocean bottom seismic observation network. The temperature change is very small, a phenomenon that cannot be detected by ocean bottom pressure gauges, and the signal is of a size that does not affect earthquake observations or slow slip observations in the Nankai Trough. In the future, if more accurate slow slip detection is implemented, it may become noise.

What exactly are quasicrystals, often called the “third state of matter”? Professor Keiichi Edagawa of #UTokyo_IIS has been a pioneering figure in the field of quasicrystal research since its early days. This article explores his groundbreaking work—such as capturing the once-enigmatic formation process of quasicrystals on video—and delves into the unique nature of this mysterious structure.

"Let me check your breathing." "I'm sure that you're in pain, but you're going to be okay." These were comments made by participants in a training session at the Disaster Management Training Center (DMTC), #UTokyo_IIS. The Disaster Management Field Guide is designed for hands-on training that closely simulates real-life scenarios as well as for use at actual disaster sites. We spoke with Associate Professor Muneyoshi Numada of #UTokyo_IIS, the creator of the Field Guide.

The digital world is filled with information being transmitted by individuals and sensors connected to the internet, offering valuable insights into the state of the world at any given moment. This information serves as a mirror of the real world, and within this vast amount of digital data lie valuable clues that make it possible to analyze and visualize social trends and forecast the future. Building on this concept, Professor Masashi Toyoda of the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo is exploring methods to harness the ever-growing volume of data that accumulates daily in digital space. Toyoda has proposed methods using data from social media to estimate various figures, such as the number of positive COVID-19 cases that will arise and the degree of attendance at various types of events, as well as techniques for visualizing the results of data analyses. How are such estimates made possible? And how will visualizing these various forms of data contribute to society? We spoke with Toyoda to find out.