Proprius21 Feasibility Study
Example cases (published 2008)
Case 10: Showa Shell Sekiyu KK
Updated April 8, 2008
Proprius21 in Their Fuel Cell R&D
The University of Tokyo and Showa Shell Sekiyu KK have agreed to conduct collaborative research concerning thermal management and related technologies applied in their fuel cell stack system in order to further optimize the compact and highly efficient next generation solid oxide fuel cell systems. The research will be undertaken over three years with the participation of a group of researchers from the School of Engineering in the University of Tokyo. There are great expectations concerning the results of this collaborative research in the form of a practical demonstration of energy efficiency and a major contribution to the global environment.
Case 11: Company A
Updated April 8, 2008
Research Topic Search in Material Development and Process Development
A search for topics for research concerning material development between the University of Tokyo and Company A resulted in agreement to proceed with multiple collaborative research on a wide range of topics such as improvement of film formation consistency during vapor deposition reactions, and the development of new electronic device materials. These projects will be conducted by researchers from the School of Engineering, the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, and other departments in the University of Tokyo, over a period of about three years. Proprius21, the university corporate relations program offered by the University of Tokyo, has already created a variety of cross-disciplinary collaborative work, and this project is expected to expand research in a variety of domains, including future prospects for innovative production methods and new materials development.
Case 12: Sun Microsystems
Updated April 8, 2008
International University Corporate Relations in Programming Languages
The University of Tokyo has been striving to further international university corporate relations. As a part of these efforts, a trailblazing Propius21 contract was made between the University of Tokyo and Sun Microsystems in June 2005, and the search for research topics in the IT technology field commenced in April 2006, following the appointment of researchers. Visits to Sun Labs, the research and development arm of US Sun Microsystems, were made to gather information, and this effort yielded around 10 candidate research topics. After thoroughgoing discussions over a year through a variety of communication methods, including video conferencing, two topics were selected and actual research began. This research focuses on high performance computing utilizing a programming language designed by Sun as a response to demands for ever faster computing. In addition to the researchers from the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology and from Sun’s JRuby team, various researchers from Sun Labs will be involved in this research. Each research project is scheduled to last for between eighteen months and two years, and Sun Microsystems will fund 100,000 USD for each project in the first year.
Case 13: Trend Micro Incorporated
Updated April 8, 2008
Information Security Research to Protect against Threats through the World Wide Web
The information society brings us various daily conveniences, but at the same time it has engendered specific negative social problems that need to be addressed, such as computer viruses and phishing. Trend Micro Inc, a global information security company known for its anti-virus software, and the University of Tokyo, together launched a Proprius21 project in January 2007 aiming to realize a safer social infrastructure. After a five-month assessment period covering several research topics, the two parties commenced a collaborative research project. A lecturer from the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology and another from the Graduate School of Economics participated in the research from June 2006 to January 2008, providing knowledge that could contribute to future security measures from the results of the information network structure analysis utilizing a large-scale URL database owned by Trend Micro. Further research possibilities in other domains are now under discussion aiming at the continuous creation of new knowledge through collaboration.
Case 14: Jorudan Co., Ltd.
Updated April 8, 2008
Implementation of a High-Speed Processing Method for Arbitrary Station Name Screening
– First Commercial Usage of Propirus21 Research Results –
It was in the autumn of 2005 when Jorudan agreed with the University of Tokyo to seek collaborative research opportunities.
The two parties mainly discussed improvements in the quality of Jorudan's public transport information service accessible through PCs and cellular phones. The research topic was finally determined to be a reasoning algorithm to search candidate station names from an erroneous or partial station name input by a user and determine the correct name. The research was undertaken through collaboration with the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Industrial Science. Utilizing a massive data log provided by Jorudan, researchers verified the effectiveness of the string similarity search method developed by the Institute of Industrial Science, and this method was implemented within Jorudan's commercial service in mid-March 2008. This method enables the company's service to present the correct station name to users at a high speed—even when they input an incorrect or incomplete station name when searching a transportation timetable. This represents the first commercial usage of research results provided by Proprius21.
