AY2025 Admission Guidefor Department of Creative Informatics
Graduate School ofInformation Science and Technology
The University of Tokyo
Examinations Conducted in AY2024
Contact: Department Administration Office7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656
University of Tokyo Graduate School of Engineering / Information Science
Office of Academic Affairs Division
Department Team (Department of Creative Informatics)
TEL: 03-5841-6889
office@ci.i.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Department’s website for Entrance Examinations:
Visit https://www.i.u-tokyo.ac.jp/index_e.shtml
Admissions > Departments and Faculty > Creative Informatics > Admissions

Note 1: In addition to this document, carefully read Admission Guide for Graduate School ofInformation Science and Technology (read the guide for the applicant’s program: Master’s program,Doctoral program, or Doctoral program [Special Selection for Professionals]), as well as theGuidelines for Submission of TOEFL Scores.

Note 2: The Department of Creative Informatics conducts Summer entrance examinations and Winterentrance examinations for both the Master’s and Doctoral programs. Summer and Winter entrance
examinations differ in schedules, examination subjects, and examination methods.

Note 3: Successful applicants may be allowed October 2024 entry for Summer entrance examinationsand April 2025 entry for Winter entrance examinations (hereafter referred to as “Early Entrance”) ifapplicants indicate this preference on the application form.

1. Message for applicants
The Department of Creative Informatics is the newest department within the comparatively newGraduate School of Information Science and Technology. It was founded in 2005. The Department ofCreative Informatics currently incorporates aspects of five fields: Computer Science, Mathematical
Informatics, Information Physics and Computing, Information and Communication Engineering, andMechano-Informatics. The educational philosophy is “To refine practical creativity for realizing
outstanding ideas, through creative practices over interdisciplinary fields.” To achieve this goal, theDepartment will combine projects and advanced personnel training, and will promote collaborations
among industry, government, and academia aimed at human resource cultivation. We hope thatstudents completing this Department's program will play a leading role in the field of informationtechnology.

2. Master’s program
2.1 Examination schedules and examination subjectsi) Summer entrance examination(1) Document screening
Document screening will be conducted based on the submitted documents. Regarding the notificationof the screening, refer to Admission Guide for Graduate School.
(2) General education subjects
Applicants must select either Mathematics or Programming at the time of application.
Those who are absent from the examination in the general education subject are considered to havewithdrawn from the entrance examination.
Subject
Mathematics

Date and location
Refer to Admission Guide for Graduate School
Friday, August 16, 2024
13:00 – 15:30

Programming

Description

School of Engineering; Bldg. No. 6(tentative)(Details will be posted on thewebsite by the day of theexamination)

The basic skills of programming areexamined. The applicants must bring
their own laptop PCs and write
programs for the given topics. Theymay use their preferred programming
languages.
Answering time is 150 minutes intotal.

Notes: A programming environment must be installed in the laptop PCs used during the programming
examination. The applicants may use documents, source programs, libraries, and other resources
stored in the PC. Connecting the PC to any network is prohibited during the examination. Confirm
that the PC can read from and write to a USB flash drive (type A). The applicants can bring and use amouse. The applicants can use a two-pronged power outlet.
(3) Foreign language
TOEFL Scores will be used to evaluate the applicants’ English skills. For details, refer to“Guidelines for Submission of TOEFL Scores (for AY2025 Entrance Examinations)”.
(4) Specialized subjects
Applicants shall select one of the following five specialized subjects at the time of application.
The applicants not selecting Creative Informatics should find out the details by referring to theAdmission Guide for the corresponding department. Those who are absent from the examination in
the specialized subjects are considered to have withdrawn from the entrance examination.

SubjectDates and locations

Description

Creative Informatics

Monday, August 19, 2024
13:00 – 15:30
School of Engineering Bldg.,
No. 6 (tentative)(Details will be posted on thewebsite by the day of theexamination)

Applicants solve three problems in
the fields related to software andalgorithms, computer hardware,
information systems, and otherrelated fields.
Answering time is 150 minutes intotal.

Computer Science

Refer to Admission Guide for Department of Computer Science.

Mathematical Informatics

Refer to Admission Guide for Department of Mathematical
Informatics.

Information Physics andComputing

Refer to Admission Guide for Department of Information Physicsand Computing.

Information andCommunication Engineering

Refer to Admission Guide for Department of Information andCommunication Engineering.

(5) Oral examination
The oral examination is conducted online on Wednesday, August 21, 2024 (when the examination
starts and ends depends on the number of applicants). The oral examination schedule will be postedon the website by the day of the examination. In the oral examination, applicants will be asked about
the issues such as the written examinations, current research topics, and a research plan at the graduateschool.

ii) Winter entrance examination(1) Document screening
Document screening will be conducted based on the submitted documents. Regarding the notificationof the screening, refer to Admission Guide for Graduate School.
(2) General education subject
The applicants must select programming for Winter entrance examination unlike Summer entrance
examination. Those who are absent from the examination in the general education subject areconsidered to have withdrawn from the entrance examination.
Subject

Dates and location
Friday, January 31, 2025
13:00 – 15:30

Programming

School of Engineering; Bldg. No. 6 (tentative)(Details will be posted on the website by theday of the examination)

Note: Refer to the description for Summer entrance examination

Description
Refer to the description
for Summer entrance
examination.

(3) Foreign language
TOEFL Scores will be used to evaluate the applicants’ English skills. For details, refer to “Guidelines
for Submission of TOEFL Scores (for AY2025 Entrance Examinations)”.
(4) Specialized subject
Unlike the Summer entrance examination, applicants cannot take examinations for the specialized
subjects of other departments. Those who are absent from the written examination are considered tohave withdrawn from the entrance exam.
SubjectDates and location

Description

CreativeInformatics

Refer to the description forThursday, January 30, 2025
Summer entrance
13:00 – 15:30
School of Engineering, Bldg. No.6 (tentative) examination.
(Details will be posted on the website by theday of the examination)(5) Oral examination
The oral examination is conducted online on Monday, February 3, 2025 (when the examination startsand ends depends on the number of applicants). The oral examination schedule will be posted on thewebsite by the day of the examination. In the oral examination, applicants will be asked about theissues such as the written examinations, current research topics, and a research plan at the graduateschool.
2.2 Submission of Research Plan
Applicants must submit a pdf document of Research Plan along with other application materials,
clearly describing the research field you want to study, the reason for your application, the researchplan after your enrollment, and your past activities and achievements. It must be one page of A4-size
paper. Figures and tables may be included but if an external URL is included, it will not be used at theexaminations.

3. Doctoral program / Doctoral program [Special Selection for Professionals]
3.1 Examination schedulesi) Summer entrance examination(1) Primary examination
Subject

Dates and location

Description

Specialized subject
Creative Informatics

Monday, August 19, 2024
13:00 – 15:30
School of Engineering Bldg., No. 6(tentative)(Details will be posted on the website
by the day of the examination)

Applicants solve three problems
in the fields related to softwareand algorithms, computer
hardware, and information
systems, and other related fields.
Answering time is 150 minutes intotal.

Oral examination

Tuesday, August 20, 2024

Applicants give a presentation on
their Master’s thesis or its
alternative and doctoral researchplans (about 20 min.; slides canbe used), and then they are asked
questions on the presentation andother issues.

(When the number of applicants islarge, the examination may be also
held on Thursday, August 22. Whenthe examination starts and ends
depends on the number of applicants.)
The oral examination is conducted
online. Its schedule will be posted on
the website by the day of theexamination.
Notes:(a) TOEFL Scores will be used to evaluate the applicants’ English skills. For details, refer to“Guidelines for Submission of TOEFL Scores (for AY2025 Entrance Examinations)”.
(b) Applicants are exempted from submitting the TOEFL Scores and taking the examination inspecialized subjects if they have graduated or they are expected to complete Master's program at
Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo.
(2) Secondary examination
The secondary examination is conducted during the days for Winter examination. It is an oralexamination. The applicants who have passed the primary examination will be informed later of thedetails. According to the given instructions, submit a master's thesis (not necessarily the final version)or its alternative by the time of the oral examination. If the applicants are master students at
Department of Creative Informatics, in principle, their secondary examinations are conducted fromThursday, January 23 to Friday, January 24, 2025. For applicants who wish to enter the graduate schoolin October 2024, and those who wish to enter in April 2025 but have completed or are expected tocomplete a Master’s or Professional degree program by September 30, 2024, the secondary
examinations will be conducted together during the oral examination for the primary examinations.

ii) Winter entrance examination
The primary and secondary examinations are conducted during the period from Thursday, January 30
to Monday, February 3, 2025, excluding Saturday and Sunday. Only a limited number of applicants
will be accepted. The examination method will be the same as the method for Summer entrance
examination. For the details of the examination in the specialized subject, refer to the corresponding
examination for Winter entrance examination for the Master’s program.
3.2 Submission documents for the Doctoral program
The prospective applicants for the Doctoral program should make close contact with their prospective
faculty advisor before the application period. Applicants must submit their Research Plan along withother application materials. For the details of Research Plan, refer to “2.2 Submission of ResearchPlan” for the Master’s program. A faculty advisor will be immediately assigned to an applicant (butsubject to change) when he/she passes the primary examination.
3.3 Submission documents for the Doctoral program [Special Selection for Professionals]
In addition to Research Plan written in 3.2, the applicants must submit a one- or two-page A4-size
document, which summarizes major achievements during their employment.

The University of Tokyo Graduate School of Information Science andTechnology, Department of Creative Informatics
Faculty Advisors and Concurrent Faculty Advisors (as of April 2024)
Select your advisor(s) among the faculty members in this list, and enter your selection (up to ten formaster's program, one for doctoral program) through the Web application system.
Faculty Advisors
Professor Shigeru ChibaProgramming Languages, Software Infrastructure
Professor Takeo Igarashi
User Interface, Computer Graphics
Professor Kunihiko Sadakane
Algorithms and Data Structures, Big Data Processing
Professor Hiroshi Saruwatari
Speech and Acoustic Information Processing, Statistical Signal Processing,
Machine Learning
Professor Hiroshi Esaki
Smart Internet, Sensor Network
Professor Kei Okada
Everyday Life Robotics, Robot System Software
Associate Professor Hideki Nakayama
Machine Perception, Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning
Associate Professor Ryota Shioya
Computer Architecture, System Software, Information Security
Associate Professor Manabu Tsukada
Computer Network, Cyber Physical Systems
Associate Professor Nobuyuki Umetani
Computer Graphics, Physics Simulation
Associate Professor Tomoharu Ugawa
System Software, Programming Language, Concurrency, Embedded Systems
Concurrent Faculty Advisors who belong to other departments
Professor Yusuke Miyao (Dept. of Computer Science)
Natural Language Processing, Computational Linguistics
Professor Tsuyoshi Takagi (Dept. of Mathematical Informatics)
Mathematical Cryptography, Applied Cryptography
Professor Hiroshi Nakamura (Dept. of Information Physics & Computing)Computer System, IoT/Cyber-Physical System, Computer Architecture
Professor Kenjiro Taura (Dept. of Information & Communication Engineering)
Parallel and distributed computing, programming languages, big data processing,high-performance computing, and their applications
Professor Tatsuya Harada (Dept. of Mechano-Informatics)
Computer Vision，Machine Learning，Real-world Intelligent Information Processing
Associate Professor Masaki Ito (Social ICT Research Center)
Traffic Informatics, Cyber-physical Systems, Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS),
Human-computer Interaction

Concurrent Faculty Advisors who belong to other departments
nameYusuke Miyao

ResearchFields

Natural Language Processing,Computational Linguistics

Our group conducts research in the field of natural language processing and computationallinguistics. Humans communicate, understand information, and behave using natural language.
Our goal is to clarify how this works by making full use of mathematical models and linguistic
theories. Specifically, our research is focused on the following areas.
- Syntactic and semantic analysis, semantic inference: computing the structure and meaning ofsentences in natural language.
- Grounding: connecting the meaning of natural language with real-world data such as images
and numerical data.
- Dialogue systems: building computer systems that use natural language to exchange
information.

name

Tsuyoshi Takagi

ResearchFields

Mathematical Cryptography,
Applied Cryptography

We investigate the theory and practice of cryptography which underpins the security of ourinformation society.
(1)Mathematical Cryptography: We study post-quantum cryptography based on themathematical problems (such as coding theory, lattice theory, multivariate polynomials, graphtheory, etc), which are computationally intractable even in the era of quantum computing.
(2)Applied Cryptography: We are engaged in the development of new efficient cryptographic
algorithms and implementation secure against physical attacks, which can be used in our life,
for example, copyright protection, electronic voting, cryptocurrency, and so on.

name

Hiroshi Nakamura

ResearchFields

Computer System, IoT/Cyber-Physical System,
Computer Architecture

We mainly address high-performance, dependable, and low-power computer system to realize
advanced interaction between physical and cyber worlds.
- IoT/Cyber-Physical System: Optimization of total computer systems by integrating sensors
and server systems in IoT world.
- Ultra Low Power Computer System: Ultra low power VLSI systems and high-performanceand low-power computing through co-optimization between circuit technology, computerarchitecture, system software, and algorithm.

nameKenjiro Taura

Research
FieldsParallel and distributed computing, programming
languages, big data processing, high-performancecomputing, and their applications(Visit our homepage at https://tinyurl.com/taulab) Central topics of Taura group are software
to deliver high-performance computing to everyone and high-performance applications. A
pillar is designing programmer-friendly programming languages or libraries and their highperformance implementations with SIMD, multicores, GPUs, and supercomputers. The
challenge is to attain both productivity and performance on complex hardware. They include
domain-specific systems for machine learning, pattern extractions and N-body problems,
general-purpose systems for load balancing and distributed shared memory and libraries for
special-purpose hardware such as digital annealer (digital implementation of quantumannealer). Another pillar is big data processing and its applications. They include mining ofcompany home pages for finding good business succession and analysis of electronic medical
records for reducing medical accidents, around which we are seeking good synergies withresearch on machine learning frameworks and/or big data processing.

name

Tatsuya Harada

ResearchFields

Computer Vision，Machine Learning，
Real-world Intelligent Information Processing

Our laboratory focuses on machine intelligence. Our goal is to invent hyper-intelligent systems
by combining useful but infinite information in the physical space with a huge amount of dataand powerful computational resources in the cyberspace. To tackle this challenging problem,
we utilize all resources in the area of computer science including machine learning, computervision, natural language processing and robotics.

nameMasaki Ito

Research
FieldsTraffic Informatics, Cyber-physical Systems,
Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), Humancomputer Interaction

Ito Laboratory at the Social ICT Research Center conducts research to create advanced
mobility systems through information technology. We are conducting practical research
including traffic sensing, optimization of traffic signals, simulation of human and vehicle
traffic, large-scale spatio-temporal data processing platforms, big data analysis of various
traffic data, optimization of bus schedules and routes, and behavior change technology ofpeople and vehicles. We welcome students who are interested in social issues such as urban
planning and management of depopulated areas, students who are (or have been) interested inrailroads, buses, automobiles, and other vehicles, and students who wish to conduct practicalresearch using real data and real fields in collaboration with companies and local governments.

Department-specific Conditions on Submitted Documents
For other conditions on submitted documents common to all the departments, check the Admission
Guide of the Graduate School.

List of Department-Specific Documents:
Summer Examination

Winter Examination

Documents to be Submitted

Who toSubmit

Documents to be Submitted

Who toSubmit

Master's
ProgramResearch Plan (1 page in A4-size)

All
Applicants

Research Plan (1 page in A4-size)

All
Applicants

Doctoral
ProgramResearch Plan (1 page in A4-size)

All
Applicants

Research Plan (1 page in A4-size)

All
Applicants

Research Plan (1 page in A4-size)

All
Applicants

Research Plan (1 page in A4-size)

AllApplicants

Major achievement during
employment (no more than 2 pages inA4-size）

AllApplicants

Major achievement during
employment (no more than 2 pages inA4-size）

AllApplicants

Doctoral Program<Special Selectionfor Professionals>

Department-specific Conditions on TOEFL Scores:
Summer Examination

Winter Examination

Master'sProgram

All Applicants

All Applicants

DoctoralProgram

All applicants except those who have completed (orare expected to complete) a master’s program in theGraduate School of Information Science andTechnology, the University of Tokyo

All applicants except those who have completed (orare expected to complete) a master’s program in theGraduate School of Information Science andTechnology, the University of Tokyo

Doctoral Program<Special Selectionfor Professionals>

All applicants except those who have completed amaster’s program in the Graduate School ofInformation Science and Technology, the Universityof Tokyo

All applicants except those who have completed amaster’s program in the Graduate School ofInformation Science and Technology, the Universityof Tokyo