Activities

1st Research Assistants (RA) Forum

Reported by Naoki Kono (Research Fellow, supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science)

Date & Time: 10:00 to 17:10 on Tuesday, 21 December, 2004
Venue: Collaboration Room at West-9 Building on Ookayama Campus
Number of Participants: 38

The aim of the first RA Forum was to foster young researchers as the so-called "super generalists." The program of the Forum included a special lecture by Dr. Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, Professor Surna Tjahja Djajadiningrat, and Dr. Utomo Sarjono Putro of the School of Business and Management, Institut Teknologi Bandung (SBM-ITB). In addition, seven RA's and I gave presentations on the researches that are been undertaken.

In the special lecture, Dr. Kuntoro Mangkusubroto explained about the educational programs of the recently-established graduate school, the School of Business and Management (SBM). In addition, he mentioned how the education in Indonesia differs from that of Japan and also the social factors/background that affect the students and education in Indonesia. The number of questions asked by the RA's as well teaching staff reflected how much the audience was interested in the lecture.

After each RA's presentation, the COE program members with different academic backgrounds asked various questions, some technical and others referring to social demands for the particular research, and there were lively discussions among the participants.

Because the Department of Computational Intelligence and Systems Science and the Department of Value and Decision Science are stationed on separate campuses, there had not been enough understanding by RA's about researches that are undertaken on the other campus until today. However, RA's were seen exchanging opinions and questions even during the breaks, and this indicates that the first step of the aim of this Forum, i.e. fostering young researchers with broad knowledge and view, has been successfully achieved.

The program tended to fall behind schedule because RA's actively asked series of questions after each presentation. From the next RA Forum, we need to allocate enough time for the question and answer periods in order to avoid such problem.

(5) Social Simulation Project

1. Hiroshi Deguchi
   'S&G for Agent Social Systems Sciences'
   2004 JASAG Autumn Conference, Plenary Talk
   November 6, 2004 at Hitotsubashi University

(6) Agent-based Modeling and its Applications

1. Presented three papers at the 2004 AI, Simulation and Planning at Jeju Island in Korea on Oct. 4, 2004.
   
   
2. Organized an informal meeting with Prof. Jackson and Dr. Zhu titled "Recent Trends in Systems thinking in UK" at Tokyo Institute of Technology on Nov. 8, 2004.
   
   
3. Gave a plenary talk at the Knowledge and Systems Sciences 2004 Conference at JAIST on Nov. 12, 2004.
   
   
4. Presented two papers at the Knowledge and Systems Sciences 2004 Conference at JAIST on Nov. 10, 2004.
   
   
5. Presented four papers at the JASMIN at Nagoya Institute of Technology on Nov. 14, 2004.