Top > Features

Feature

Strong will to succeed

Professor Makoto Ishida is the Director of the Toyohashi University of Technology Research Administration Center (RAC), set up to implement the projects in the MEXT ‘Program for Promoting the Enhancement of Research Universities’ launched in September 2013: ‘Value Creation Engineering’ for creating new industries.

It is noteworthy that the selection procedure for the MEXT Program for Promoting the Enhancement of Research Universities was top-down, based on objective metrics, including citations, income from technology transfer and research funding from competitive grants. “Toyohashi Tech was selected as one of 22 outstanding research universities and research institutes MEXT Research Enhancement Program,” says Professor Ishida. “This acknowledges our research to-date, and the contributions of the Electronics-Inspired Interdisciplinary Research Institute (EIIRIS), the engine at Toyohashi Tech driving the ‘research university’.”

The ‘Value Creation Engineering’ project is managed by the Research Administration Center (RAC)—set up on 1 December 2013—which includes the University Research Administration (URA) Office.

The creation of ‘new industries’ is one of the major objectives of the Toyohashi ‘Value Creation Engineering’ project. “Our University has an excellent record in technology transfer,” explains Ishida. “We want to build on this by linking up with global partners to generate ideas for new innovative industries.” Toyohashi Tech will use its expertise in interdisciplinary research and EIIRIS to achieve these goals. The project will entail collaboration with research institutes and companies globally; hiring research staff and students from overseas; and reforms in the personal system.

The title of our project is ‘Value Creation Engineering’. The project will focus on devising methods for creating positive value of nominally negative assets. For example, using waste to create valuable assets such as biofuels, and extending the functions of our CCD imaging devices to universal self-diagnosis healthcare biosensors.

“One of the most important factors to achieve the goals of this project will be “strong will” of our staff to move forward to face the challenges that lie ahead,” says Professor Ishida. “I recently listened to a truly inspiring seminar by Hiroichi Yoshida, president of ELIIY Power Co., Ltd. His company is a leader in the manufacture of large-size lithium ion batteries and electricity storage systems. I was amazed to hear that he started his company with four partners when he was 69 years old. And, incredibly, none of them had any experience in the field of power storage. He said that the success of the company was their “strong will to succeed”. Likewise, the success of this project will also depend on a strong will to move forward.”


Professor Makoto Ishida

PDF


PAGETOP