The 3rd and 4th floor of the Research Laboratory Building III
which was newly opened in April, 2020
is the learning hub of the Faculty of Information Engineering.
Here, we have the "innovation hub,"
a creative space where students can make full use of ICT.
The space supports our students and local community
to work collaboratively for creating ideas with all the tools needed,
Wi-Fi, movable tables, whiteboards, and 8 big screens.
The "Hackathon" is a combination of "hack" and "marathon",
where the participants develop hardware, software, apps, etc.
and compete within a time limit.
In Japan's largest student hackathon, JPHACKS 2018,
the Meijo students' team won the Best Hack Award.
5 students from different Faculties joined to compete in the Hack Aichi 2020
as university representatives and won the Excellence Award.
Their assignment was to "Use AI/IoT in order to revive
face-to-face communication lost in teleworking."
They were successful in creating a smart-coaster
which prompts a conversation using a video calling device.
This device is activated by the "drinking" motion.
Their balanced system with efficiency and a sense of security
was recognized with distinction.
This VR work allows a participant to experience
pounding mochi (a rice cake) virtually.
By wearing a Head Mount Display (HMD) while holding a mallet,
one can feel a real pounding sensation.
Our students won the Grand Prix award at the IVRC2017,
where an impact of what a user can experience,
technical capabilities, and novelty were highly evaluated.
This is a VR experience fusing 3 senses, sight, hearing, and touch.
Much trial and error was necessary
in order to recreate the feeling of the weight
when striking the bell as well as measuring the striking speed.
It was a very valuable experience for our team
to learn the importance and difficulty of perseverance.
We can create student projects by taking advantage
of working together with the 9 other faculties in our university.
For example, our students have created an app called
"Memo-Health" with students from the Faculty of Pharmacy.
They've put a lot of effort to design a user-friendly interface
while keeping basic functions for managing one's health.
They even received some practical advice from pharmacists
by launching the app in public during our university festival.
We held a development seminar with professional engineers
to foster student Information Engineers with ready-to-use skills.
An exciting learning environment was created
during the hands-on seminar with Pepper* and Watson (an AI).
*Programing Education offered by SoftBank Group and SoftBank Robotics
as "Social Contribution Program with Pepper II"
Aichi is the center of manufacturing.
We conduct research and development of commuting mobility
in a smart-city, closely working with automakers.
We have a student who took part in the Idea Olympics
hosted by TOYOTA Motors.
She won the Excellence Award.
Her idea of Personal Size Mobility with different shapes and designs
in the theme "The link between mobility and Fashion"
were highly evaluated.
We have been holding Global Engineer Programs
in either Thailand or Singapore since 2015,
aiming to foster Information Engineers
who can contribute in an international community.
Selected students get opportunities
to take lectures in our partner universities,
interact with local university students,
participate in short internship programs at Japanese companies,
and visit venture companies with AI business.
These experiences aid in students' career planning
and better understanding of globalism in industries,
cross-cultural awareness, and diversity.