Camp for Designing the Future 2017

SFC will be holding the “Camp for Designing the Future” again this year. A “camp” is an environment where you can learn the importance of utilizing your own abilities and experiences in the field and translating creative ideas into action. The approaches to various problems that SFC advocates for require the “ability to execute.” While the “camp” is prepared in advance, its specific activities are designed improvisationally according to the situation on site. We know from experience that flexible ideas and flashes of inspiration are born in unexpected ways and often in informal settings. In that sense, the “camp” is also a place where you can find many hints for understanding communication between people. In the first place, both “campus” and “camp” are derived from the Latin word “campus,” meaning “a flat place or open field.” The essence of intellectual activity at a university is to share a special time through free and open discussion. The “Camp for Designing the Future” is a place for diverse knowledge and wisdom to collide, and for you to experientially consider the “ability to execute” that will lead to the future. Let's get our minds and bodies moving busily with the friends we gather with at the “camp” and take one more step toward the future.

- 8/7 Announcing the Excellence Award winners for WS06 of the Camp for Designing the Future 2017.

- 8/2 Announcing the Excellence Award winners for WS01-05 of the Camp for Designing the Future 2017.

- 6/21 Notification of results for the Camp for Designing the Future 2017 has been sent via email.

- 6/12 Applications for the Camp for Designing the Future 2017 are now closed.

- 5/12 Applications for the 2017 academic year are now open.

- 4/21 The schedule for the 2017 academic year has been released.

In this workshop, you will experience the fun of “softness” in manufacturing.

For example, architecture is required to be both robust and “flexible.” The five-story pagoda at Horyuji Temple has a flexible structure like a spine. It is this “soft” strength that has allowed it to stand for over 1,300 years in earthquake-prone Japan. There are also buildings made of “soft” materials that inflate with air, like the Tokyo Dome. Urban planning always includes plans for parks, greenbelts, and other natural elements. In the midst of a hard city, greenery, soil, birds, and other living things are very important as “soft” presences. As a more familiar example, in the kitchen, where wood, metal, and glass materials were once mainstream, cooking utensils made of “soft” materials like plastic and silicone have appeared, making cooking safer and more convenient. Exploring why “soft” sofas are preferred in cafes and other places is also a very important part of considering design.

This workshop is about exploring designs that satisfy softness, beauty, and strength at the same time, using limited materials, and creating them with your own hands. You will create a beautiful three-dimensional object using soft materials, but at the same time, it must have sufficient strength to stand on its own. You will also need to think about how to efficiently assemble the parts within the constraints of production time and limited materials.

Takuya Onishi (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies), Hajime Narukawa (Graduate School of Media and Governance)

Approx. 20 people

When you hear the word “management,” you might think of the management of for-profit companies. However, the way of thinking about management can contribute to all kinds of human activities and society. The knowledge of business administration is utilized wherever people act as a group or organization, such as in social innovation, government reform, and the management of non-profit organizations.

Business administration is a discipline that has traditionally specialized in the narrow fields of commerce and accounting, which are related to money. However, against the backdrop of an increasingly complex world and the rise of multinational corporations with growing influence, it has grown into a huge theoretical system to which a wide range of academic systems are applied, including sociology, economics, cognitive psychology, and even neuroscience and demography. In other words, modern business administration is a very interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary field of study, with research being conducted from a variety of perspectives that transcend the boundaries of academic disciplines.

SFC is a very suitable campus for studying business administration. Among social and business issues, there are those that are very difficult to solve, in which the conflicting interests of various stakeholders are deeply involved. To solve such problems, we must utilize all kinds of knowledge, overcome these dilemmas, and derive the most desirable solutions. In addition, important decisions regarding management are basically made through discussions among multiple stakeholders. This is because difficult decisions require creative discussions to overcome various dilemmas.

In this workshop, high school students will simulate the perspective of a manager of an actual company. Through discussions with other participants, that is, other managers, you will simulate decision-making to derive creative solutions to management issues and deepen your understanding of the essence of management. We are looking for high school students who are interested in entrepreneurship, management, and leadership.

Masahiro Kotosaka (Faculty of Policy Management), Takashi Iba (Faculty of Policy Management)

Approx. 20 people

At SFC, which has celebrated its 25th anniversary, we have positioned multilingualism as a major philosophy in language education, and have emphasized the importance of mutual understanding of each other's linguistic and cultural backgrounds and mutually beneficial and creative coexistence with people around the world. Under this philosophy, each of the world's major regional languages (Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Malay-Indonesian, Spanish, Japanese, German, and French) has been given the same status as English, and a curriculum has been developed to enable students to acquire a high level of practical language skills in an intensive manner. The efforts of SFC to date can be seen from multiple sources, such as, for example, Fumiya Hirataka, Junichi Yamamoto, and Kyoko Furuishi, eds., Re-designing Foreign Language Education: From the Field of Keio SFC (Keio University Press, 2005).

This year, we would like to return to our starting point and reconsider the philosophy and practice of multilingualism. Even if SFC's efforts to date have been advanced, there must be limits and points that should be overcome. Is the lineup of languages good enough? How should we choose a language? How can we create a language learning environment for students with various language backgrounds accumulated throughout their lives? What kind of connection with society is desirable? Are we not treading on the tacit assumptions of the majority? How is the multilingual situation in Japanese society today? There are countless points to consider.

We are not looking for an honor student's model answer, but rather a substantive proposal for a new multilingualism that is engraved with each person's past multilingual life trajectory and thoughts on a multilingual society, based on an understanding of SFC's efforts to date. Let's discuss it thoroughly with the faculty and create the future of SFC.

Mamoru Fujita (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies), Yoh Nonaka (Faculty of Policy Management), Yumi Sugihara (Faculty of Policy Management), Petrus Allestandt Santos (Faculty of Policy Management), Rafael Aroutz-Aengel (Faculty of Policy Management), Tiina Matikainen (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies)

Approx. 20 people

Realizing a society of health and longevity is a common dream of humankind, but our country is facing a super-aged society and contains numerous problems such as the increase in medical costs, population decline, and especially the decline in the working-age population. At SFC, various courses and research groups related to health are established, from the micro world of molecules and cells to the physical and mental health of individual human beings, the health of organizations, communities, and society, and the macro world that connects medical information and policy. While making effective use of this curriculum, we hope that each student will tackle various issues related to health from a cross-disciplinary and unique perspective, and grow into a highly skilled human resource who will be responsible for the future society of health and longevity.

In this workshop, we are looking for innovative and creative TV program proposals from high school students that will form the core of future health education at SFC. We expect that proposals full of originality will be made by skillfully connecting your interests with the current health education and research at SFC. First, it would be good to start by researching what kind of health-related lectures are being offered at SFC.

On the day of the workshop, you will be asked to introduce the TV program proposal you have proposed as a member of a TV program production company. After that, we plan to have everyone discuss and refine a better TV program.

To all high school students interested in people's health! Participating in the SFC Camp for Designing the Future may be the first step toward contributing to a future society of health and longevity.

Junichi Ushiyama (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies), Yuki Kuroda (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies), Masaru Tomita (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies), Atsushi Aoyama (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies), Naohisa Yahagi (Graduate School of Media and Governance), Shinya Fujii (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies), Miki Akiyama (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies), Kenji Watanabe (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies), Haruo Suzuki (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies), Yuji Ogi (Graduate School of Media and Governance), Takaaki Kato (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies), Masaki Suwa (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies), Yuko Shoji (Faculty of Policy Management), Yasuhiro Naito (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies), Yoko Hamada (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies), Sachiko Mori (Faculty of Policy Management), Hisashi Mizutori (Faculty of Policy Management)

Approx. 20 people

There are truly various methods for investigating the natural and social environment, depending on the purpose. With the advancement of technology, various methods have been developed, and data that was unthinkable a long time ago can now be collected. For example, remote sensing, which uses various sensors from artificial satellites to investigate the earth's surface, and methods for tracking the migration routes of migratory birds on a global scale by attaching transmitters to them, were once completely impossible. However, at the core of environmental investigation are our five senses. If you walk up various slopes, the incline will soak into your body, and if you can distinguish the chirping of birds, you will understand that there are truly various species of birds around us.

The reason why people called experts can use appropriate equipment and methods for their purposes is not only because of their knowledge, but also because they have learned a lot through their five senses in their past experiences. In this workshop, instead of using instruments as a means of investigating the environment, we will have you fully utilize your five senses to capture the environment. Let's investigate the environment inside and outside SFC together and discuss it based on that.

Tomohiro Ichinose (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies), Hajime Ishikawa (Graduate School of Media and Governance)

Approx. 20 people

Not only communication robots that emphasize conversation functions with people, but also service robots like cleaning robots that work diligently around us without being noticed are being introduced into ordinary households one after another. On the other hand, there are also strong opinions that they are convenient but lack affection, and that robots are still scary to live with. Perhaps because they cannot have direct communication through “words,” people feel a sense of inorganicity in the goal-oriented movements and uniform reactions of robots. If we could find the same “lifelike” quality in robots that we usually feel in our families and pets, would the situation change?

In this workshop, we will consider methods and designs to give a “lifelike” quality to robots, which are artificial objects. Let's aim for a robot that you can't help but watch, forgetting the time. First, we will start by carefully observing real “living things.” Not only their appearance, but also their slight reactions to stimuli, their selfishness, their bargaining, and so on, the hints may be in the very subtle details. Then, we will incorporate these discoveries into the robot's appearance design and movements. In the workshop, we will use an SFC original educational robot kit. While experiencing everything from electronics, programming, and exterior design to prototyping at the FAB facility, let's assemble a unique robot. Please take this opportunity to experience the fun of learning and practice at SFC.

Kazunori Takashio (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies), Masafumi Nakatani (Faculty of Environment and Information Studies)

Approx. 15 people

If the conventional one-day camp is a camp for “prototyping future concepts,” then the residential Camp for Designing the Future would be positioned as a camp for “creating the future in reality” with an eye to the future. Also, behind the start of this new residential initiative is our hope to increase opportunities for participation from regions outside the Tokyo metropolitan area more than ever before. The time of two days and one night may be too short to create the future. Even so, if people with diverse experiences from various places can settle down at the “camp,” find and share the problems that exist now, clash their wisdom day and night, be creative, and connect it to action, something new will surely be born. The encounters at this “Camp for Designing the Future” may develop into internships in ongoing research projects at SFC. This encounter may be the trigger for a new research and education project that transcends the boundaries of high school and university. Let's create such a future together with us.

  As part of the Camp for Designing the Future (Residential Program) WS06, we are planning an internship at the Kazunori Takashio Laboratory and Masafumi Nakatani Laboratory of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies from after the camp until March 2018 (for award winners who wish to participate). For details, please see the “Camp for Designing the Future Residential Workshop Follow-up Program.”  

If you have any questions about the Camp for Designing the Future, please feel free to contact us by phone or email.