Topics - UEC Research and Innovation
The University of Electro-Communications publishes the January 2025 issue of the UEC Research and Innovation newsletter.
The January 2025 issue of UEC Research and Innovation includes a video profile of UEC faculty Satoshi Takahashi on applied mathematics for optimization of society (Innovation), and the Research Highlights section features research by Yuichi Sei (Innovation) on “face recognition”, and Keisuke Hosokawa (Research) on “gigantic auroras”.
The news covers the signing of a memorandum of understanding for student exchange with Roskilde University (Denmark) and the visit of the New Zealand Chair of the Japan-New Zealand business committee and Aurecon representatives to UEC.
News
UEC Signs Memorandum of Understanding for Student Exchange with Denmark’s Roskilde University
On Thursday, November 21, 2024, UEC and Roskilde University signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for student exchange. This milestone builds on the comprehensive agreement signed on January 1, 2023, which has fostered active research collaborations. Notably, Visiting Associate Professor Go Yuasa (International Strategy Promotion Office/UEC ASEAN Education and Research Support Center) has been working with Roskilde University on integrating and visualizing traffic volume and air quality data to advance smart city initiatives.
New Zealand Chair of the Japan-New Zealand Business Committee and Aurecon Representatives Visit UEC
On Friday, November 15, 2024, Ian Kennedy, Chair of the New Zealand side of the Japan-New Zealand Business Cooperation Committee, along with Rebecca Mehrtens of Aurecon New Zealand and Kanji Kuwata of Aurecon Australia, visited UEC. They held discussions with UEC President Shunichi Tano and Board of Directors (International and Public Relations Strategy) Kazuaki Oya, responsible for international and public relations strategy.
Research Highlights - Research
Space science Gigantic auroras revealed: Unveiling solar dynamics during rare solar wind disappearance
An international research team led by Keisuke Hosokawa and including Takuo Tsuda of the University of Electro-Communications, in collaboration with Kyoto University and the National Institute of Polar Research, has captured a rare and strikingly large aurora spanning the Arctic region. This unprecedented observation occurred during an unusual solar phenomenon where the solar wind, a stream of charged particles that typically interacts with the Earth's magnetosphere to create auroras, almost completely vanished. The study, published in Science Advances provides new insights into how auroras can form in the absence of normal solar wind conditions and reveals unexpected complexity in auroral behavior under these rare circumstances.
Research Highlights - Innovation
Face recognition Voice coming into the picture
During the COVID-19 pandemic, requiring people to wear facemasks in public places and shops was an important measure taken by governments all over the world. The requirement is no longer in place, but in Japan and elsewhere, many people still choose to wear a facemask as a precaution, and it is expected that facemasks will remain commonplace. This poses a problem to security and identification systems, as it is difficult to correctly automatically identify a person whose half face is covered by a mask. To address this situation, computational methods capable of ‘inpainting’ masked face images have been developed, with some degree of success. Now, Yuichi Sei and colleagues from The University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, have created a method that not only uses visual information, but also audio — the person’s voice — to reconstruct a masked face. The approach enables face shape restoration with improved quality.
Video Profile - innovation
Applied mathematics for optimization of society
Satoshi Takahashi
Associate Professor Department of Computer and Network Engineering.