Tokyo Tech News
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Tokyo Tech News
HiBot Corporation, a company designated as a Tokyo Tech Venture, was presented with the Top Performer Award in the field of robotics and advanced technology at the 3rd Rise Up Festa on April 25, 2016. HiBot Chairman and Tokyo Tech Professor Emeritus Shigeo Hirose was present at the event to welcome the recognition.
Final presentation to Rise Up Festa review board
HiBot Chairman and CTO Shigeo Hirose speaking to review board
Rise Up Festa, a business support program organized by the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. (BTMU), lauds small, medium-sized, and rapidly growing companies seen as trailblazers in new and innovative areas of industry. Winners in four categories -- bio and life science, robotics and advanced technology, information and network services, and social entrepreneurship — are provided mid and long-term support through a partnership with BTMU.
During my time as a full-time professor at Tokyo Tech, we created a variety of different types of robots, perhaps best represented by the snake-like robot. Today at HiBot, the 20th company to obtain the Tokyo Tech Venture designation, we develop robots for the inspection of infrastructure such as pipe and bridge inspection robots which carry out work at locations that are either dangerous or inaccessible for humans. We have a branch office in Silicon Valley to promote our pipe inspection robots in the US, and hope to expand from there to the rest of the world. I am extremely happy that our technology and business model are being recognized and appreciated.
Tokyo Tech Venture is a designation given to business ventures founded by Tokyo Tech students* or use the technologies or intellectual property rights of Tokyo Tech. The Tokyo Tech Venture designation gives credibility to startup companies that have limited track records. Many companies have been able to expand their businesses shortly after being given the designation. As of May 2016, 75 companies held this designation.