[No. 24] Seijiro Inaba

Although it was nearly a decade ago, I still vividly remember the excitement I felt as I passed through the gates of Keio University. In my initial enthusiasm, I joined several clubs, including tennis and baseball, but eventually focused on just one: the varsity baseball team of the Faculty of Science and Technology's Athletic Association, where I felt I truly belonged. The practice field and clubhouse were conveniently located on the Yagami Campus, allowing me to practice between classes. I have many fond memories, from our spring and summer training camps where we competed not just in practice but also in who could eat the most, to consulting with fellow team members about classes and experiments, as many of them were also students in the Faculty of Science and Technology. Additionally, since we belonged to the Tokyo Big6 science and engineering league, I had valuable experiences such as interacting with students from other universities and playing the opening game at the Tokyo Dome.

Now, turning to my studies, I would like to reflect on the classes and professors from my time as a member of the inaugural class of the Department of System Design Engineering (hereafter referred to as the SD Engineering Department). The SD Engineering Department was created through the combined efforts of professors specializing mainly in mechanical and electrical engineering, and I believe its keywords were mechanics, electronics, and the environment. A wide range of classes was available for selection. At the time, there was an atmosphere of students and professors building the SD Engineering Department together. Many of the course materials were handmade printouts, which conveyed the professors' motivation and passion. The SD training camp in the summer of my second year and company tours as part of our classes fostered interaction among students, between students and professors, and between students and companies.

Among all my classes, the SD Engineering Workshop in the fall semester of my third year is particularly memorable. In groups of five, we spent six months building an autonomous vehicle. It required mechanical design for the car's frame and drivetrain, electrical circuit design to transmit commands from a PC to the drive system, and program design to interpret signals from various sensors and control the drive system. We had to mobilize all the knowledge we had learned in our classes up to that point. In the final class, we held a race between the groups, but I remember the joy of seeing the autonomous vehicle we built actually move was greater than the outcome of the race itself.

In my fourth year of university, I began my graduation research. Unfortunately, I was not accepted into my first-choice laboratory and was assigned to the Maeda-Hishida Laboratory, which focused on fluid measurement. Although I had felt that fluid dynamics was a weak point for me, once I started working on my graduation research topic, I began to find the development of fluid measurement algorithms fascinating. It was a new discovery for me. Furthermore, through an introduction from Professor Hishida, I was able to work as an intern for about two months in the fluid dynamics department of a Swiss national research institute, a valuable opportunity unique to this laboratory.

I proceeded to the master's program and began developing a method for measuring the velocity of flow fields in microscale domains. At that time, Yohei Sato, a graduate of our laboratory (now an associate professor in the Faculty of Science and Technology), was about to start research on that theme at a national research institute in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture. Since research on fluid measurement in microscale domains was difficult with the equipment available at the university at the time, my lab mate Mr. Irisawa and I went to the research institute in Tsukuba as part of a joint research project. For the first few months of our life in Tsukuba, we lived together in Mr. Sato's six-tatami-mat dorm room, and he kindly provided us with dinner, baths, and a place to sleep. This experience of living and working together strengthened our research team's bond and enabled us to have frank and open discussions. After that, Mr. Irisawa and I rented an apartment together in Tsukuba City. While our lives were completely immersed in research, we also commuted back and forth between the Yagami Campus and Tsukuba for our graduate school classes. Although there was a financial burden, I was able to concentrate on my research thanks to a grant from the Keio University Scholarship and the consideration of my professors. I am very grateful.

In my second year of the master's program, I was swamped with conference presentations and papers; it was my busiest time. Professors Maeda and Hishida, Mr. Sato, and my lab mates supported me, as I was not very good at conference presentations and writing papers. My first conference presentation in Saitama became an unforgettable experience. My repeated practice paid off, and I won an Excellent Presentation Award. I realized that nothing beats hard work. At a conference in Germany, my supervising professor, Professor Maeda, was stranded in Hawaii due to the September 11th attacks in the US, so the students had to handle the presentation and Q&A session on our own. Subsequent conference presentations in Okayama and papers submitted to domestic and international journals were all highly evaluated, leading to later academic awards. Although there were many hardships, being in such an active laboratory allowed me to have an incredibly dense and fulfilling time.

Patents were something that felt distant to me as a student, but I applied for two patents based on my research theme (Patent Publication 2003-27026: Local Spatial Averaging Particle Tracking Velocimetry, and Patent Publication 2003-322659: Electroosmotic Flow Measurement Method Using Micro-fluorescent Particles). I was surprised when those patents were sold to a company last year, but I was even more astonished when they were immediately commercialized into products. Seeing research results applied to actual products is extremely rewarding for a student, and I believe it is beneficial for both universities and companies. I hope this flow from research to patents and then to commercialization will continue in the future.

Currently, I am engaged in the development of camera signal processing LSIs for video cameras at Sony Corporation. My workplace has many talented and open-minded engineers, creating an atmosphere where work is enjoyable even when busy. The first LSI I was involved in developing is called the EIP (Enhanced Imaging Processor), and it is featured in the recently released Handycam HDR-HC1. When a product I was involved with was released to the world and I could directly feel the response from general consumers, I was thrilled with anticipation and joy. This must be the true pleasure of being an engineer at a manufacturer. I want to continue developing products that will astonish the world.