1. Reservations can be made at the Tokyo Tech COOP through Friday, March 16.
   Please note that there is only a limited number of cap and gown sets available, and reservations will be taken on a first-come-first-served basis.
2. The rental fee for a set including a cap, a gown, and a hood is ¥6,000 for Kuramae Alumni Association members and ¥8,000 for non-members.
3. Rental gowns are sized S M L by height, as noted in the chart below:

The 64th Japan Choral Association National Choral Competition, University, Company and Community category was held in Aomori City Bunka Kaikan on November 19, and Tokyo Tech's chorus group "Chor Kleines" won both the gold medal and the Superintendent of Aomori Prefecture Board of Education Award. "Chor Kleines" has now won the Gold medal 14 years in a row and will be seeded in next year's National Competition.

The National Choral Competition is a historic competition held each fall since the establishment of the Japan Choral Association in 1948. It is organized into five divisions: junior high school, high school, college and university, company, and private choruses.

The group leader, Koudai Morita, a third-year student from Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering commented as follows.

This year we faced some difficulties after the huge earthquake. However, all 150 members worked hard together and received this great award. On the day of the competition, even though it was held in Aomori, it was very warm and because our turn was after noon, we managed to have enough time to prepare for our performance and we were able to sing in our best condition. I am very pleased that we received this great honor with members including first-year students that have just joined this year.
We will step up our efforts to receive the gold medal again at the National Competition next year in Toyama.

For details of Chor Kleines: http://www.chorkleines.com/

The Gordon Bell Prize was awarded to Professor Aoki's group of the Global Scientific Information Computing Center (GSIC) at Tokyo Institute of Technology.

For details, please visit the following webpage:
http://www.gsic.titech.ac.jp/en/node/514

Leonardo Bautista Gomez, a Doctoral student from the Department of Mathematical and Computing Sciences, Graduate School of Information Science and Engineering, received the George Michael Memorial HPC Ph.D. Fellowship and a Special Recognition Award for perfect score at ACM/IEEE Supercomputing 2011, the world's biggest international supercomputing conference, held in Seattle.

George Michael Memorial HPC Ph.D. Fellowships were established in memory of George Michael one of the founding fathers of the SC Conference series. This award honors exceptional Ph.D. students throughout the world whose focus areas are on high performance computing, networking, storage, and analysis. In addition to receiving the fellowship he was also given a "Special Recognition Award" for gaining a perfect score from all judges in their peer review. These awards are a validation of his research in fault-tolerance that was conducted on TSUBAME2.0, the supercomputer at Tokyo Tech.

For details of the Awards at the SC11 conference:  http://sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=awards.html

TokyoTech achieved the best performance in the Semantic Indexing task of TRECVID2011 hosted by the National  Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), outperforming 28 teams comprised of top universities and research institutions from all over the world. TRECVID is an annual international workshop of video information search technology, that attracts excellent research institutes from around the world to compete with each other on various tasks. The Semantic Indexing task involves extracting features from internet video that are meaningful for the user without using any text information such as tags and meta-data. These can include: objects such as cars and chairs, scenes such as sunsets and families having an enjoyable time, and events such as wedding ceremonies and fireworks.This task is considered to be the core task of TRECVID and our first place result indicates that TokyoTech has the world's best video search technology.

The TokyoTech video search method first comprises Gaussian supervectors from audio-visual signals and inputs them into support vector machines to detect the features. This method successfully achieves robustness against differences in locations, movements, colors, shapes, angles, and brightness, etc. Mr. Nakamasa Inoue, a member of the Koichi Shinoda lab in the Computer Science department, played a central role in developing this method. TokyoTech's supercomputer, TSUBAME, also contributed to this achievement by providing large computationalresources. This project is supported by Canon Inc.

Contact: Koichi Shinoda, shinoda@cs.titech.ac.jp

Video search examples

Associate Professor Shuichi Murakami of Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, and Associate Professor Yukio Kawano of Quantum Nanoelectronics Research Center were honored with the 25^th Japan IBM Science Prize. The award ceremony will be held on December 1^st at Gakushi-kaikan.

As a part of the social action initiatives of IBM, the Japan IBM Science Prize was founded in 1987 with the aims of promoting Japanese academic research in the field of science and supporting up and coming young researchers. The Japan IBM Science Prize annually recognizes Japanese or international scientists under the age of 45 who have achieved outstanding results in one of the four fundamental research fields of physics, chemistry, computer science (including bioinformatics) or electronics (including bioelectronics) at a Japanese university or public research institute. Winners in each respective field receive prize money of 3 million yen, commemorative certificates, and medals.

Associate Professor Murakami was recognized in the field of physics. His winning research entitled "Spin Hall Effect/Pioneering Research on Inversed Spin Hall Effect and Deployment of Spin Current Physics" is the same research theme of another winner in the field, Professor Eiji Saito of the Institute for Materials Research of Tohoku University.

Spin current is the flow of electronic spin angular momentum of matter, and has tremendous potential for low-loss information-communication. The method for generating and detecting spin current had not been solidified; however, Murakami's "Endogenous Spin Hall Effect" prediction has led to the establishment of basic theories related to the generation and detection of spin current. Murakami is said to have originated the research on spin current physics. Furthermore, Murakami expanded the Spin Hall Effect by theorizing that the various transport phenomena which resulted from geometric phase (Berry phase) were caused by solid band structure. This discovery has contributed significantly to the development of this research field.

Upon receipt of the esteemed prize Associate Professor Murakami expressed his delight at being honored by such a prestigious award, and commented that his research achievements were made possible by the great support of both Tokyo Tech and the University of Tokyo, where Murakami also conducted research.
"I would like to extend my deep appreciation to Professor Nagaosa of the University of Tokyo, colleagues, my laboratory staff, students and others involves in the research," Murakami commented.

The physics of Spin Hall Effect that Murakami theoretically predicted was later broadly developed, and is now studied actively as a field of spin current physics along with topological insulator. Thinking about his contribution to this emerging field, Murakami humbly stated, "We never expected this broad development and are deeply moved by the profoundness of condensed matter physics. This high honor boosts my spirits to dedicate myself to further research."

Concurrently, Associate Professor Kawano was awarded for his contribution to the field of electronics. Kawano's award-winning research is entitled the "Electromagnetic Wave Detection and Imaging Development in the terahertz range using Nanostructure."

The application possibility of terahertz electromagnetic waves in various areas had previously been recognized, but its detection and imaging development lagged behind in comparison to other frequency ranges. Kawano used semiconductors and carbon nanostructure to develop the unique technology necessary to detect and image terahertz electromagnetic waves with high sensitivity and high resolution. In addition, as he applied the technology to the research on semiconductors and graphene, Kawano extended his findings into the field of condensed matter physics.

Associate Professor Kawano commented, "It is a great honor to receive the Japan IBM Science Prize, as it is one of the most prestigious prizes recognizing young researchers in the fields of physics, chemistry, computer science and electronics." Kawano felt honored to be among the ranks of previous award recipients who have become world-renown scientists by opening up new fields of research, and regarded this commendation as a jumping off point for him to further his scientific efforts under the spirit of creating pioneering new academic frontiers.

Associate Professor Yukio Kawano of the Quantum Nanoelectronics Research Center was honored with the 13th Sir Martin Wood Prize. The award ceremony and commemorative speech will be held on November 9 at the British Embassy in Tokyo on the occasion of the 2011 Millennium Science Forum.

The Sir Martin Wood Prize, based on the endowment from Oxford Instruments plc, the British scientific instrument company, acknowledges the outstanding work of young researchers in Japan. Each year an under-40 year old scientist from a Japanese institute who achieved excellent results in the field of condensed matter science, which includes research in condensed matter physics, organic/inorganic chemistry, and materials science and surface physics, is commemorated by this scientific honor. The prize comprises a commemorative certificate, trophy, prize money and the opportunity to lecture at major British universities, such as the University of Oxford. The Sir Martin Wood Prize Lecture Series are highly recognized by British universities and significantly contribute to the scientific and technological exchanges between Japan and the U.K.

Associate Professor Kawano's award-winning research is entitled the "THz wave detection based on low-dimensional electron systems." The terahertz wave region - between the radio region and the optical region - has been regarded as an under-explored region due to the difficulty in generating and detecting the wave. In recent years, however, the detection of the terahertz wave has received broader interest in pioneering research fields such as the space, life and materials science, along with attention being given within the practical fields of industry and medical care. By skillfully utilizing the unique functions of low-dimensional electron systems, Kawano succeeded in developing highly sensitive, high spatial resolution, and wideband detection of the terahertz wave, which proved to be a powerful tool for research on physical property. This unique measurement method is applicable not only to physics research but also to other areas such as high polymer chemistry.

Associate Professor Kawano commented that, "It is a great honor to receive the Sir Martin Wood Prize as it is one of the most prestigious prizes awarded to young researchers in the field of condensed matter science." He further noted that because Tokyo Tech researchers have been recognized by this prestigious honor for the second consecutive year and that four previous award recipients are current Tokyo Tech faculty members, this commendation is especially significant in encouraging further efforts which will strengthen the Japanese research presence in the fields of science and technology.

Associate Professor Yukio Kawano (left) and HM Ambassador to Japan, David Warren at the award ceremony held at the British Embassy in Tokyo.

TechCrunch:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/07/video-japanese-university-uses-fish-scales-to-develop-stronger-artificial-bones/
 
You Tube (Movies):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb50MQQkc84

Tanaka-Ikoma Lab:
http://www.bio.ceram.titech.ac.jp/english/index.html
 

Heated Game on the Contest Field

Winning Moment