[No. 68] Yoshiyuki Nishino

My former academic advisor, Professor Sasase, invited me to an event called the "1st Global COE Forum" on May 7, right after a long holiday. I was curious about the cutting-edge research currently being conducted at the university, so I decided to visit my alma mater for the first time in a while. On that occasion, I heard about this column and accepted the offer to write for it, hoping to convey even a little of the joy of university life.

When I was in elementary school, I asked my parents to buy me a Microsoft MSX and a PC8801, which were popular at the time, and that's how I became interested in PCs. I had a vague idea that I wanted to go into the electrical field, and my high school homeroom teacher suggested I apply for a designated school recommendation to the Keio Faculty of Science and Technology, so I decided to go for it. I hadn't studied much until then, so once I got into university, rather than just "studying," I chose the classes I wanted to learn from and did the research I wanted to do. Among all this, being assigned to a research laboratory had a major impact on me.

In the laboratory, before the internet became widespread, I was able to research broadband communications. I consistently wrote for two international conferences, two domestic research meetings, and one journal paper per year. Some people said that writing papers wasn't everything, but for a student who knew nothing, it was a very simple goal. Thanks to this, I was able to win awards such as the Denki Fukyu Zaidan Award and the 2000 Ericsson Young Scientist Award. I still remember the joy of being completely absorbed in research. As a reward of sorts, whenever I went to present at an international conference, I would travel for about three weeks to explore the country and the city. This work-hard, play-hard approach of rewarding myself after achieving results from intense research is something I still practice today.

Photo 1 shows me with my junior colleagues when we went to present at a conference in Finland. At that time, a friend from my class was working at Nokia in Finland, so I was able to meet up with him there. Thinking it was a rare opportunity to be in Finland, I made a special trip to Santa Claus Village to meet Santa. At the same time, I went to the Heineken factory in the Netherlands and drank authentic draft beer (Photo 2). My junior colleague drank too much and fell asleep. We also stopped by Portugal, where MINI was holding an exhibition, so we took a commemorative photo (Photo 3). At the conferences, we had heated discussions with researchers from around the world, but once they were over, I had the most enjoyable trips filled with such memories.

Afterward, thanks to Professor Sasase's guidance, I graduated a year early, started my own business, and became a company manager. Even now, as I run my company, everything I learned from my professors, senior colleagues, and junior colleagues during my university days is still relevant. Of course, this includes the direct guidance I received on my research, but I also learned problem-solving skills and management methods. It is certainly very appealing to pursue a single path as a researcher. However, I feel my role is to meet many more researchers and to spread the word on how to utilize their technologies to contribute to society. I meet many Keio alumni through my work, and I want to do more to create an environment where researchers are properly evaluated.

When I was selected for the Microsoft Power Venture project by the Softopia Japan Foundation in Gifu Prefecture and went to Silicon Valley, I was very shocked by the disparity in the research environment between Japan and the United States. However, I returned to Japan feeling that there are things that can be done in Japan as well (Photos 4 and 5).

I want to pursue how the internet and the technologies that support it can evolve society and provide new services. Currently, I am providing a service called ullet , which allows users to search the corporate value of 4,000 listed companies with the click of a button. This service uses corporate information to realize how efficiently humans can gather information in a society overloaded with it. It is also useful for students who are job hunting to research companies they want to join. This type of cross-sectional search engine holds the potential to realize a different kind of search from Google or Yahoo in the future. Just as I did when I presented at international conferences during my university days, I want to pursue services that can compete on a global scale. Because of this, I am always curious about overseas trends and often travel. Photo 6 is a picture a local person took for me during a business meeting at a cafe in Switzerland.

Something I've often thought about since entering the workforce is that nothing you experience as a student, including your research, is ever a waste. I believe it's important to take on big challenges, not be afraid of failure, and see every opportunity given to you as a chance to keep trying. At least, the laboratory I was in had such an environment, and it remains a precious treasure to me even now.