2024/09/27
Keio University and nine corporate research members have established the Keio AI Center to lead the next generation of AI, holding an opening ceremony on September 24, 2024.
The center was established based on a partnership with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in the US, a world leader in AI and robotics research, and is based at the Hiyoshi Campus. Research will be promoted in areas such as the development of foundation models trained on language and images, robotics research using foundation models, research on the coexistence of autonomous AI and humans, and AI research for scientific discovery.
President Kohei Itoh explained the university's past research and activities related to AI, including the establishment of the AI and Advanced Programming Consortium (AIC), where students teach each other, the launch of the Generative AI Lab, and the creation of interdisciplinary research centers that cross faculties and graduate schools, integrating arts and sciences. He stated that the newly opened Keio AI Center will conduct cutting-edge research on AI itself and is a center that will shape the future of AI together with industry, expressing his expectations for future research activities.
Professor Komei Sugiura of the Faculty of Science and Technology, who will serve as the center's director, expressed his ambition, saying, "I want to create an environment just like being at CMU and cultivate talent that will create the common sense of the future." On the occasion of the opening, warm congratulatory remarks wishing for the future development of the center were received from Katherine Elizabeth Monahan, Chargé d'Affaires ad interim of the U.S. Embassy in Japan; Yūichirō Anzai, former President of Keio University; Takeo Kanade, U.A. and Helen Whitaker University Professor at Carnegie Mellon University; and Hideyuki Tokuda, President of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and Professor Emeritus.
After the opening ceremony, a poster session was held by participating laboratories, where a lively exchange of ideas took place with corporate research members. In collaboration with corporate research members representing industry, the center aims to accelerate research on generative AI for scientific research and the evolution of AI technology.
Photo by Takeshi Kishi