IEEE Region 10 Industry Forum
27 May 2019, 15:20‐17:10
in ISCAS 2019
Small Hall (Room14) Sapporo Convention Center, Japan

Industrial application of AI related technologies
in cooperation with academia for SDGs
- How to challenge the paradigm shift by AI, IoT,Big Data, Sensing, Blockchain, etc.? SPEAKERS
Adapting recommendation systems with startup business phases
Yoshifumi Seki
Co‐founder, Gunosy Inc

Blockchain in Healthcare: Current status and Prospects
Hiroshi Mizushima

Admission freeforDirector of Center for Public Health Informatics,
National Institute of Public HealthISCASregistrants

How to melt snow with AI/IoT
Takuya Irisawa
Representative Director, Ecomott Inc.

Prototyping the Future in Sapporo – Innovation from northern Japan
Tsuyoshi Yamamoto
Specially Appointed Professor, Advanced IT Prototyping Laboratory, Hokkaido University.
Followed by “Networking”‐Industry and Academia‐
For more information: https://www.iscas2019.org/
Contact
IEEE Japan Office
Phone: +81 3 3408 3118
Email to: ieee-japan@ieee.org
www.ieee.org

IEEE Region 10 Industry Forum Invited Speaker Abstract and Biography
at ISCAS 2019, Sapporo, May 27, 2019

INVITED SPEAKERS

Yoshifumi Seki
Co-founderGunosy Inc

Adapting recommendation systems with startup business phases
Abstract:
Recommendation systems are used in many web services, for example Amazon, Netflix, andFacebook, and various studies report on algorithms, user interfaces, evaluation methods, and businessapplications used for such systems.
Gunosy is one of the most popular news services in Japan, and it also adopts recommendation systems.
Gunosy Inc. is one of the fastest growing startups in Japan; its applications have been downloaded over 27
million times since they were introduced in 2011.
During our growth process, we have adapted the recommendation system to each business phase. In thispresentation, I talk about this adaptation process. During the growth of a startup, target users and businessissues change significantly. I will talk about how we adapted the recommendation system in such changing
environments and why we decided to do so.

Biography:
Yoshifumi Seki is co-founder of Gunosy Inc. He co-developed Gunosy in 2011 when he was a
postgraduate student and eventually co-founded the company in 2012. He's been responsible for news
delivery logic at the company, and has deep expertise in web-mining focusing on recommendation systems,
application of machine learning, and natural language processing. In parallel, he received his Ph.D. inEngineering from the University of Tokyo in 2017. Currently he is engaged in research and development
focusing on recommender systems, user experience and computational social science.

IEEE Region 10 Industry Forum Invited Speaker Abstract and Biography
at ISCAS 2019, Sapporo, May 27, 2019

Hiroshi Mizushima
Director of Center for Public Health Informatics
National Institute of Public HealthBlockchain in Healthcare: Current status and Prospects
Abstract:
The block chain technology, which is used in Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, has great potential
for application, and I believe it has the potential to make a revolution in the medical field. Various efforts havebeen made these years with block chain application to medical field, and it has become a hot topic in medical
informatics, such as many seminars and presentation at annual HIMSS (Health Information and Management
Systems Society) conference in USA. IEEE played a big role in this initialization, as IEEE held one day
workshop “Blockchain in Healthcare” at HIMSS2017 in Orlando. This was the first workshop discussing about
blockchain in healthcare around the world. Next year at HIMSS2018, there was so many presentations about
blockchain, and blockchain was one of the keywords among with “Big Data”, Artificial Intelligence (AI)”,“Internet of Things (IoT)”. The movement of international standardization has also begun in ISO(InternationalOrganization for Standardization) in TC307. Some studies in Japan have also begun, while forming
consortiums between medical institutes and pharmaceutical companies.
In this lecture, I will explain practical use cases in e-government in Estonia, activities of the "medical
blockchain study group" recently launched in Japan, and initiatives started in domestic ventures andconsortiums. I will also talk about its potential use cases, along with the issues, and conclude with future
vision of sharing personal health records.

Biography:Hiroshi Mizushima has his expertise in medical informatics, computer science, public healthinformatics, molecular biology etc. He has graduated from University of Tokyo, faculty of Pharmaceutical
Science in 1983, and got PhD in 1988 at Univ. Tokyo. He established Cancer information service and Cancer
Information Network at National Cancer Center. He became Professor of Medical Omics Informatics at Tokyo
Medical and Dental University in 2009. He moved to National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) in 2011, andbecame Director of Center for Public Health Informatics at NIPH in 2017. He is currently president of Japan
IT- healthcare Association and more. He likes biking around the world with his folding bike. Details can beaccessed at http://hiroshi.mizushima.info/CV.html

IEEE Region 10 Industry Forum Invited Speaker Abstract and Biography
at ISCAS 2019, Sapporo, May 27, 2019

Takuya Irisawa
Representative Director, Ecomott Inc.

How to melt snow with AI/IoTAbstract:
Road heating is a great way of reducing the snow-clearing burden in areas with heavy snowfall, butgiven rising fuel prices, etc., the running costs of snow melting apparatus are frequently raised as a concern.
Ecomott has found a way to use AI /IoT to slash fuel costs.

Biography:
Takuya Irisawa is CEO, Ecomott, Inc. He was born in Sapporo, Hokkaido in 1980. Graduated fromHighline Community College in Washington, America in 2002.
Took an MBA at Otaru University of Commerce with a major in entrepreneurship in 2010.
After returning from America in 2002, he entered Crypton Future Media, an IT company in Sapporo City,where he handled mobile phone content planning and development, including developing popular sites suchas “Poketto Koukaon,” which has more than 100,000 paid members.
He left Crypton in January 2007 and set up Ecomott, Inc. a month later.
Ecomott was listed on the Sapporo Securities Exchange “Ambitious.” in June 2017, and also listed with
Market of the high-growth and emerging stocks (aka Mothers) of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in June 2018.
He is currently Executive Director of the Hokkaido Information and Communication Technology Association,a member of the Human Resource Development Committee and the vice president of the Hokkaido Mobile
Content and Business Council.

IEEE Region 10 Industry Forum Invited Speaker Abstract and Biography
at ISCAS 2019, Sapporo, May 27, 2019

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto
Specially Appointed Professor
Advanced IT Prototyping Laboratory
Hokkaido University

Prototyping the Future in Sapporo – Innovation from northern Japan
Abstract:
Sapporo has started many companies in the IT field since the 1970s. Historically, IT industry ofSapporo has grown up through collaboration between universities and companies.
In this presentation, I will explain the history of the IT industry that has continued since the dawn ofmicrocomputers in the 1970s and introduce some of the industry-academia collaboration activities currently
in progress in Sapporo.
In addition, Sapporo has been holding “NoMaps” since 2017. NoMaps is a new type of event that combinesmusic, movies and information technology to innovate the city. I will extend my talk to introduce this activity.

Biography:
Tsuyoshi Yamamoto is a specially appointed professor of the Advanced IT Prototyping Laboratory
at Hokkaido University. The laboratory has started up last April with collaboration of academia and industries.
During 2004-2019, he was a professor at the graduate school of information science and technology at
Hokkaido University. During 1999-2004, he was a professor at the graduate school of engineering at
Hokkaido University. From 2012 to 2017 he appointed as director of Institute for the Promotion of BusinessRegional Collaboration at Hokkaido University.
His research interest includes computer graphics, media technology and embedded system development.
He also has many experiences in industry. He worked for Fujitsu Ltd. (Japan, 1978-1980) and Rand
Corporation (USA, 1987-1988). He was one of founders of Medical Image Laboratory Inc. that operates teleradiology services.
Currently, he is an executive committee member of “NoMaps” which is an multi-disciplinary event to be heldin Sapporo.