2016.10.20
The application researched and developed by Mina Sakamura, a first-year doctoral student in the Graduate School of Media and Governance, won first place in the ACM MobiCom 2016 Mobile App Contest, held as part of the international conference MobiCom 2016 in New York, USA, from October 3. MobiCom is the world's premier international conference on mobile computing and communication, sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) SIGMOBILE, and this year marked its 22nd anniversary.
Sakamura's research presentation, "Lokemon: Location-specific Monsters as Sensor," won the final round against 11 other finalist teams selected in the preliminary rounds, securing first place. This application is a study of a new participatory communication platform that promotes communication between users by having them embody monsters placed throughout a smart city and answer questions from other users about that location.
This victory marks the first time a research presentation from Japan has won this contest.
Title of the research presentation: "Lokemon: Location-specific Monsters as a Sensor"
Lokemon is a system that aims to make people's lives more enjoyable and fulfilling with a completely new concept not found in conventional applications or systems. The judges commented, "It had a huge impact and covered everything this contest was looking for. And the monsters were cute!"
Comment from Mina Sakamura
I am extremely happy to have won first place. Lokemon seems exciting at first glance, but it was challenging to convey the appeal of the app, which includes not only its fun and interesting aspects but also its value as research and its business model. Presenting at this conference, where there are usually very few Japanese participants, was nerve-racking, but it reminded me of the importance of dedicating myself even more to my research activities and playing an active role on the global stage. I want to continue proposing and developing systems for the realization of smart cities, together with these cute monsters.
I would like to express my deep gratitude to Professor Hideyuki Tokuda for his daily guidance in carrying out this research, as well as to all the members of my laboratory, and to my friends and family for their support.
Source: General Affairs (Public Relations), Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) Office