Hitachi Hokudai Lab & Hokkaido University
Programming Contest 2022 “Future autonomous
distributed city development”
Accelerating research and development of spatio-temporal optimization technology
to ensure sustainability of rural communities by opening problematization of real
problems
Hitachi Ltd. and Hitachi Hokudai lab. which was established on the Hokkaido University
campus will hold a marathon-type programming contest “Hitachi Hokudai lab. & Hokkaido
University Contest 2022” collaborated with Hitachi Ltd. and Hokkaido University.
Hitachi Hokkaido Lab. and Hokkaido University are collaborating to solve social issues inHokkaido, such as depopulation, declining birthrates, and aging populations, and topromote joint research that will lead to the creation of local communities. As the number offarm households declines due to the depopulation and aging, domestic food self-sufficiency
is on a downward trend. In order to ensure a stable food supply without relying on imports
from overseas, the challenge is to improve the efficiency of farming and create anenvironment that facilitates entry into farming. It is expected to improve agricultural
efficiency through the introduction of smart agricultural machinery using robot technology
and ICT to solve this issue, however, the high introduction costs are a concern. Therefore, itwill be important in the future to promote services that minimize initial investment as muchas possible and maximize equipment utilization by leasing or sharing farm machinery.
Hitachi Hokkaido Lab. and Hokkaido University are developing an agricultural asset sharing
platform to help decarbonize and improve productivity in the agricultural sector by sharing
agricultural assets such as electricity and farm machinery to ensure sustainability in ruralcommunities (Fig. 1). We have been developing local promotion for local consumption, andself-supporting regional energy systems based on small-scale, self-supporting nanogridsthat utilize renewable energy as the basic unit. The multi-sector community simulator aims
to estimate specific investment development effects by simulating the entire community thatencompasses this system. The evaluation of the feasibility of an efficient agricultural asset
sharing platform, which is the subject of this contest, is an important positioning for therealization of Hitachi Hokudai Lab’s vision of a symbiotic community through a virtuous
cycle of health, industry, and energy.

In addition to problem-solving techniques, it will be important to identify the problems thatneed to be solved from the sense of issues noticed in the community and to share theissues in order to solve increasingly complex social issues. Hitachi Hokudai Lab. andHokkaido University have been holding an annual marathon-type contest since 2017, in
which local problems (real problems) to be solved are formulated using mathematicalmodeling, and a marathon contest is held every year by open problem solving, including
clear evaluation criteria and the fun of coming up with algorithms. By dealing with real
problems rather than simple benchmarks, people around the world can share the social
issues that we want to solve and empathize with the value of services we want to provide,and through this contest, highly efficient algorithms that lead to practical applications arebeing proposed.
In this year’s contest, a total of two questions (A and B) will be given in the following
schedule for optimization problems (space-time optimization problems) involving many
complex factors such as working hours, travel of farm machinery, and timing of work, under
the theme of work planning efficiency for farm machinery sharing, etc.
■Sponsorship: Center for Explanatory Research, Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi Hokudai Lab.,
Hokkaido University■Cooperation: Kansai University■Date: December 23, 2022 ~ January 22, 2023 (Problem A, B)
The winners of the contest will be awarded prize money (Problem A: 100,000 yen, Problem
B: 300,000 yen), and the top-scoring contestants will also receive prize money and specialgifts.
The awards ceremony will be held during the lunch seminar session of the “85th NationalConvention of the Information Processing Society of Japan”.

Awards will be given to thetop-scoring contestants in each problem, and the lectures by the winners and other eventsare planned to commemorate the event.
■Date and Time: March 3, 2023 (Fri) 11:40 ~ 12:30■Site: The University of Electro-Communications and Online (Hybrid)Anyone is eligible to participate in this contest, regardless of affiliation, age, or residential
area.

Please access from the following site.

https://atcoder.jp/contests/hokudai-hitachi2022

Fig. 1 Agricultural asset-sharing platform* Marathon-type programming contest: programming contests that are held over multiple
days (solution code submission period).

This contest will be held for one month.

Related News Releases:•Development of a regional stand-alone energy system enabling local production
and consumption to both low-carbon local industry and strengthen disasterprevention functions
Hitachi opens stand-alone nanogrid demonstration site in partnership with theIwamizawa City, Hokkaido to start proof-of-concept testing in cooperation with local
companies and farmers December 9, 2021

https://www.hitachi.com/rd/news/topics/2021/2112_ses.html•Toward Sustainable Agriculture in Iwamizawa City: Growing Expectations for
Hitachi's Stand-alone Nanogrid Mar. 30, 2022

https://social-innovation.hitachi/en/article/nanogrid/Contact person:
Tamiki Komatsuzaki
Molecule & Life Nonlinear Sciences Laboratory
Research Center of Mathematics for Social Creativity
Research Institute for Electronic Science (RIES)
Professor
011-706-9434
tamiki@es.hokudai.ac.jp