The Meaning Behind the "Dot" | Hideyuki Tokuda (Dean, Graduate School of Media and Governance)
2004.04.21
The 21st Century COE Program Mid-term Progress Report Symposium has successfully concluded. Following the public symposium starting at 11:00 a.m., we held a closed session in the afternoon, inviting external evaluation committee members to provide their assessment of the program's progress and future initiatives. I am very grateful to the committee members for their extremely valuable comments. While preparing to be evaluated is a lot of work, the task of evaluating is even more demanding.
At SFC, a total of 2 + 1/3 research center formation programs are being implemented: "Next-Generation Media and Intelligent Social Infrastructure" in the interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and new domain fields; "Leading Center for Comprehensive Policy Studies in Japan and Asia - Through Foundational Research on Human Security" in the social sciences field; and "Understanding and Controlling Life Functions through Systems Biology" in the life sciences field. This symposium was held by Keio University as a whole, targeting the five programs that started in fiscal year 2002.
The "Next-Generation Media and Intelligent Social Infrastructure" program, in a sense, feels like it is creating an answer to the question of why there is a "dot" between "Policy" and "Media" in the name of the graduate school. Changes in media significantly affect not only content but also the patterns of behavior for using it and social systems themselves. The program's objective is to create a research and education center for comprehensively exploring and implementing the development of an intelligent social infrastructure to support the future ubiquitous society. In particular, researchers in IT and
information and media studies and researchers in policy science are creating new academic methodologies through collaboration on a single campus called SFC, which is internationally unique. Fortunately, this program aims not only to form a world-class research and education center but also to foster young researchers who can be active internationally. We currently employ 24 Research Assistants (RA*), and we expect them to continue to make various contributions through collaboration in the future.
In May, the official mid-term review hearing will take place.
*Research Assistant (RA)
In the "Next-Generation Media and Intelligent Social Infrastructure" program, students enrolled in the Ph.D. program and those who have completed the course requirements of the program are employed as COE Research Fellows (RA) to play a part in the formation of the research and education center for the 21st Century COE Program.
(Date of publication: 2004/04/21)