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Feature
Navigating the open seas of graduate school

Research Highlights
Network traffic anomaly detection - machine learning
Coding theorem defines decoding error capacity for general scenarios
Engineering: Improvements to a decision-making algorithm
Speech signal processing: Enhancing voice conversion models

Topics
Evaluating the evaluators: Analysis of big data for peer assessment
Attraction of complex chemistry: Quest for innovative single-molecule magnets

News and Events
Irago Conference 2016 is held at UEC, Tokyo.
UEC students receive Irago Conference 2016 Awards

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2016 The University of Electro-Communications.

Navigating the open seas of graduate school
The move from undergraduate studies based on highly structured lecture courses with clearly defined goals
and timelines to the nerve racking freedom offered by graduate school is a challenging transition. Here, three
UEC graduate students describe their goals and share their aspirations in pursuit of scientific excellence.

Time management and freedom"As an undergraduate I had to take many lecture courses, write reports, attend seminars for credits to complete
my course, says Kanami Ikeda. "It was an extremely busy time. I recall having little time to think. But now as
a graduate school student there are hardly any compulsory courses, aandnd I have much more time to think about
my research. This newly discovered freedom comes with the challenge of the necessity for careful time
management to conduct experiments, write papers, and so on."This view is echoed by Ryoji Yukino, a first year do
doctoralctoral student. "As a graduate student I think that I amliving my own life," says Ryoji. "I am able to make my own decisions about how to proceed with my research.
It's much more enjoyable that undergraduate courses and lectures."
Akihiro Ondo shares these views: "I have realized that the research experiments are not like those described in
textbooks. In research, the experiments do not always go according to plan. They can yield inexplicable
results. It's a different world."

Communication skills
Attending international conferences is an integral part of being a graduate student. Such meetings demand

good communication skills from both the speaker's podium and during networking events.
"I was really nervous during my first poster presentation at an ininternational
ternational conference," says Ryoji. "One of
my main concerns was whether anyone would visit my poster. Thankfully, many people stopped and asked
questions. This gave me confidence in describing my research to people I had not ever met before."
Speaking to an audience with a projector and slides can also be demanding. "I remember that I could not reply

to questions after finishing my first ever conference presentation," confides Kanami. "My mind suddenly went
blank. Following this experience, I focused on improving my presentation skills. The Q&A sessions are finenow."

Plans for the future
UEC graduates are in great demand by Japanese industry reflecting the high-quality of research conducted at
the University.And, like all UEC graduates, Kanami, Ryoji, aandnd Akihiro will have many choices after
completing their research. "I have not decided what I want to do yet," says Kanami. "Focusing on the

The University of Electro -Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182 -8585© 2016 The University of Electro -Communications.

applications of my research would be one avenue to follow. Although I am also interested in teaching andacademia."

Ryoji Yukino (left), Kanami Ikeda (center) and Akihiro Ondo.

Kanami Ikeda (2nd year doctoral student)
Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering, University of Electro
Electro-Communications.
Communications.
Research
Optical correlation for ultra
ultra-high speed data analysis
Key words: Optical correlation, optical disk, holography.
Group and website
Eriko Watanabe Lab
http://mp-image.f
image.f-lab.tech.uec.ac.jp/
lab.tech.uec.ac.jp/
http://www.uec.ac.jp/eng/research/introduction/opal
http://www.uec.ac.jp/eng/research/introduction/opal-ring/0005841.html
ring/0005841.html
Summary of a presentation at Ira
Irago
go Conference 2016, (1(1-2
2 November 2016, UEC, Chofu, Tokyo).
http://www.iragoconference.jp/
Stabilization of the optical correlation output signal using new methods
The volume of information that is not only generated by people but also generated by, for example, sensors
such as those in cameras, has been dramatically increasing. Faster technologies that can analyze the enormous
amount of data are required. We have developed an optical correlation system using a coaxial holographysystem. This optical cor
correlation
relation system has a simple configuration and has a compatibility with a control
technique of the conventional optical disk. We improved the disk rotation speed by weight reduction of theobjective lens and reduced the shift pitch of the shift multiplex rrecording
ecording for 2μm.
2 m. We achieved 2.4 Mfps
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optical correlation experiment that is equivalent to 143 Gbps data transfer speed. We also developed ademonstration system using the optical correlator in a cloud environment.
In this study, for its practical use, w
wee improve the stability of the optical correlation system introducing a new
structure disk and a feedback servo system. A simple structure disk without a dichroic layer was designed andfabricated for tracking the servo system although two different color lasers was used. More than 1000
holograms with a 2 μm
m pitch were written using the highhigh-power
power green pulse laser and tracking on a single
circular groove track. The stable optical correlation signals were obtained from the written holograms using
the green CW laser. Therefore, the optical correlation system enable us to demonstrate the image matching fora large number of the database images.

Kanami Ikeda, UEC, Tokyo.

Ryoji Yukino
Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering, University of Electro-Communications.
Communications.
Research
Magnetic nanoparticle based point of care medical diagnostics
Keywords: Medical diagnostics, magnetic nanoparticles, biosensing, nano-diffraction
nano diffraction gratings
Group and website
Adarsh Sandhu Lab
http://www.sandhu.jp/
Summary of a presentation at Irago Conference 2016, (1(1-2
2 November 2016, UEC, Chofu, Tokyo).
http://www.iragoconference.jp/
Smartphone--based
based Platform for Medical Diagnostics
There is increasing demand for point of care medical testing (POCT) in developing count
countries
ries in the form ofsimple kits for home use. We are developing POCT protocols based on magnetic nanoparticles, CCD imaging,
The University of Electro
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and smartphones. Here, we describe biomolecule detection by combining a diffraction grating biosensor andsmartphone spectroscope.
We used biosensors made of silicon nitride diffraction grating
grating-biosensors
biosensors fabricated by electron beamlithography. A diffraction grating sensor irradiated with white light only reflects a narrow band of light with awell-defined
defined peak wavelength. The peak wavelength shifts with changes in the refractive index of the surfaceof the grating. Now, due to the fact that biomolecules have high refractive indices, when they are attached tothe sensor, the peak wavelength shifts significantly. Our concept also includes
includes using the CCD camera of asmartphone as a spectroscope to analyze the signal from the diffraction grating sensor. Notably, our system iscompact, portable and it is easy to transmit data to centralized health institutes anywhere in the world. In proofof principle experiments, we demonstrated how a diffraction grating sensor can be used to measure theconcentration of biomolecules with an avidin-biotin
avidin biotin complex. Avidin
Avidin-biotin
biotin interaction was selected becauseof its well-known
known bond strength approaching thatthat of a covalent bond with a high affinity constant. Our system
clearly detected changes in the concentration of avidin concentration using the smartphone spectrometer.

Ryoji Yukino, UEC, Tokyo.

Akihiro Ondo (1st year master's student)
Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering, University of Electro
Electro-Communications.
Communications.
Research
Development of magnets using organic-organicorganic organic spin
spin-crossovercrossover (SCO) materials.
Key words: Molecule
Molecule-based
based magnet, magnetic materials, coordination compounds, orga
organic
nic free radicals.
Group and website
Takayuki Ishida Lab
http://www.uec.ac.jp/eng/research/introduction/opal
http://www.uec.ac.jp/eng/research/introduction/opal-ring/0000392.html
ring/0000392.html
Ishida Lab (Japanese)
http://ttf.pc.uec.ac.jp/
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Summary of a presentation at Irago Conference 2016, (1(1-2
2 November 2016, UEC, Chofu, Tokyo).
http://www.iragoconference.jp/
Structures and Magnetic Properties of TransitionTransition
Transition-Metal
Metal Complexes Involving Bipyridinyl Nitroxide Radicals
Metal-radical
radical hybrid sol
solidsids have well been investigated toward magnetic materials which show various
physical properties on the molecular level. Heteroaromatic substituents (Ar's) are utilized in Ar
Ar-NN
NN andAr-NO,
NO, and the Ar groups can ligate transition-metaltransition metal ions. Exchange coupling
coupling is one of the most importantparameters in magnetic materials. Magnetic exchange interactions between the radical group and metal ion
across the Ar group are larger in Ar
Ar-NO
NO than those in Ar
Ar-NN,
NN, because of larger spin-delocalization
spin delocalization on the Ar
group. The singly occupied molecular orbital of NN has a node at the central carbon of the NN group, whereas
NO is attached to the aromatic ring directly at the spin
spin-carrying
carrying N atom. Heteroaromatic
Heteroaromatic-substituted
substituted tert-butyl
tert butyl
nitroxide radicals were studied. Heteroaromatic
Heteroaromatic rings are known to have a weaker stabilizing effect thanphenyl, as indicated by the fact that tert-butyl
tert butyl pyridyl nitroxides are unisolable. Thus, we introduced an
additional stabilizing group to a pyridine ring and synthesized and isolated radical liga
ligands
nds containing
2,2'-bipyridine,
bipyridine, namely 4bpyNO, 5bpyNO, and 6bpyNO and investigated the structures and magnetic
properties of transitiontransition-metal
metal complexes involving the above radicals.

Akihiro Ondo, UEC, Tokyo.

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Network traffic anomaly detection - machine learning"Diagnosing unusual events (called "anomalies") in a large
large-scale
scale network like Internet Service Providers andenterprise networks is critical and challenging for both network operators and end users," explain Hiroyuki
Kasai from The University of Electro-Communications
Electro Communications in Japan, and co
co-authors
authors Wolfgang Kellerer Martin
Kleinsteuber at the Technical University of Munich in Germany in a recent report. In their latest work they
devise a computationally efficient and effective algorithm to identify network level anomalies by exploiting
the state-of-the
the-artart machine learning algorithms, especially the large
large-scale
scale higher-orderhigher order tensor tracking
technique.
Kasai, Kellerer and Kleinsteuber describe their system as data flows from origin to destination along coursesthat cross at various links. Measuring the traffic volume of each flow is incredibly data intensive, so instead
the researchers focus on the directly observable but coarse link matrix, for which they then need to identify
how they can estimate the unobservable flow matrix for the full network from the link matrix.
The researchers also avoid storage issues for large sets of archive data by developing the algorithm to operate
online. They formulate their system with a latent structure of normal flows with noise, and they can thenestimate abnormal flows as outlier sparse flows by leveraging sparse modelling.
As the researchers point out in their report, network anomalies can be caused by deliberate malicious
operations, or misconfigurations and failures of network equipment, all of which are important to identify.
They add, "Extensive numerical evaluations show that the proposed algorithm achieves faster convergence periteration of model approximation, and better volume anomaly detection performance compared tostate-of-the--artart algorithms."

Reference
Hiroyuki Kasai1,2, Wolfgang Kellerer3, and Martin Kleinsteuber3, Network volume anomaly detection andidentification in large
large-scale
scale networks based on online time
time-structured
structured traffic tensor tracking, IEEE
Transactions on network and service management 13, 636-650
650 (2016) DOI: 10.1109/TNSM.2016.2598788.
1. University of Electro
Electro--Communications,
Communications, Tokyo 182
182-8585,
8585, Japan
2. Previously in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technical University of Munich, 80333
Munich, Germany
3. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technical University of Munich, 80290 Munich,Germany

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Basic architecture and procedures of the proposed algorithm

Associate Professor:
Professor Hiroyuki KASAI (Doctor of Engineering from Waseda University 2000/03)
Current research areas:
areas Optimization Theory, Machine Learning, Signal Processing
Current research subjects
subjects: Non Linear and Non-convex
Non convex Optimization, Optimization on
Riemannian Manifolds, Stochastic Optimization, Convergence Theory and Analysis, Machine
Learning for Large Scale Data, Matrix/tensor Factorization/decomposition, Low
Low-rank
rank
Approximation, Distributed Optimization, Sparse Signal Representation and Processing
Personal website:
website http://kasai.kasailab.com/index.php/contact/

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Coding theorem defines decoding error capacity for general scenarios
The rate at which information can be coded so that it can be decoded within a particular error probability
constraint is one of the "major research topics in information theory" as Hideki Yagi at the University ofElectro-Communications,
Communications, Te Sun Han at the National Institute of Information and Communications
Technology, and Ryo Nomura at Senshu University in Jap
Japan
an explain in their recent report. In this latest work
they formulate a theorem for a general class of coding theorems that gives a formula for the decoding error
capacity. They also show how the theorem reduces to known theorems for more restricted scenar
scenarios.
ios.
The researchers describe their system as an input stream that is coded into the output by a channel sequence.
The channel capacity is then the rate at which information can be reliably transmitted by that channel.
Previous work has demonstrated formulae
formulae for the error capacity for coding channels but they were limited by
the length of the coding stream - which becomes uncomputable for general scenarios. Other work has
characterised the channel capacity in such a way that the complexity does not increase
increase with the channel length,
but they are limited in terms of what mixture of channel types can be coded in this way.
While progress has been made towards more general theorems, Yagi, Han and Nomura now establish thefirst-order
order coding theorem, which gives a formula for the error
error-capacity
capacity for mixed memoryless channels withgeneral mixture. They also provide a direct part of the second
second-order
order coding theorem, and show that otherpreviously established formulas can be obtained by reducing the theorem to restricted
restric ted scenarios.
They add in their concluding remarks, "Extensions of the established formulas for mixed channels withgeneral input and/or output alphabets are interesting and practically important research subjects."

Reference
Hideki Yagi1, Te Sun Han2, and Ryo Nomura3 FirstFirst- and second-ordersecond order coding theorems for mixed memorylesschannels with general mixture, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory (Volume: 62, Issue: 8, Aug. 2016),
DOI: 10.1109/TIT.2016.2573310
1. Dept. of Communication Engineering and Informatics, The University of ElectroElectro -Communications,
Communications, Tokyo,
Japan
2. T. S. Han is with the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Tokyo, Japan
3. R. Nomura is with School of Network and Information, Senshu University, Kanagawa, JapanThe University of Electro
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The coding system over mixed channels with general mixture.

Associate Professor:
Professor Hideki YAGI (Doctor of Engineering from Waseda University 2005/12)
Current research areas:
areas Communication/ Network engineering, Theory of informatics
Current research subjects
subjects: Coding theory, Information theory, Error correcting code, Information
security
Personal website:
website http://www.ict.cei.uec.ac.jp/yagilab/

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Engineering: Improvements to a decision
decision-making
making algorithm
In fields such as engineering, economics or finance, highly complex decisions must be made, often
incorporating multiple, at times contradictory, objectives. Highly specialised computer algorithms can help
find the best possible solutions to these multi-objective
multi objective problems (MOPs).
One such algorithm is MOEA/D (multi-objective(multi objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition), whichworks by decomposing MOPs into single 'sub-problems','sub problems', before selecting and presenting an optimal set of
possible solutions known as the 'Pareto frontier'. The Pareto frontier is useful to designers and engineers, forexample, because it helps them make trade-offs
troffs that allow for the best solution to a MOP.
Now, Hiroyuki Sato at the University of Electro-Communications
Electro -Communications
Communications in Tokyo has made improvements to theway in which MOEA/D searches for this optimal set of solutions. The method, which is based upon achain-reaction
reaction solution update, deliberately ignores duplicated solutions within a search, thus enhancing thediversity of the solution population during a search. It also determines the order of existing search solutions tobe presented in any one objective sspace;
pace; it does not automatically delete a solution if another neighbouringsolution is deemed better but rather allows the user to specify target areas of the Pareto frontier that need to be
met.
Further, the chain
chain-reaction
reaction solution update allows for existing solutions to be replaced, and it willautomatically backback-track
track to check for alternative search directions. Initial trials using the updated MOEA/Dwith 2-8
8 objectives showed improvements in its searching ability by enhancing solution diversity, alalthoughfurther investigations are needed into the computational costs of the proposed update.

Reference
1. Sato, H. Chain
Chain-reaction
reaction solution update in MOEA/D and its effects on multimulti and many
many-objective
objective optimization.
Soft Comput 20 (2016) 20: 3803. doi:10.1007/s00500
doi:10.1007/s00500-016-2092
2092-3The chain-reaction
reaction update to effectively replace existing solutions for the search of the Pareto frontier.
Hiroyuki Sato at the University of Electro
Electro-Communications
Communications in Tokyo, Japan, has made improvements
improv ements to ability of the MOEA/D
algorithm to search for the best solutions in multimulti and many
many-objective
objective decision-making
decision making problems.

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Associate Professor:
Professor Hiroyuki SATO (Ph. D from Shinshu University 2009/3)
Current research areas:
areas Soft computing
Current research subjects
subjects: Single- and multi-objective
multi objective optimization, Evolutionary computation,
multi-criteria
criteria decision making, and their applications.
Personal website:
website http://hs.hc.uec.ac.jp/

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Speech signal processing: Enhancing voice conversion models
Altering a person's voice so that it sounds like another person is a useful technique for use in security andprivacy, for example. This computational technique, known as voice conversion (VC), usually requires
parallel data from two speakers to achieve a natural
natural-sounding
sounding conversion. Parallel data requires recordings of
two people saying the same sentences, with the necessary vocabulary, which are then time
time-matchedmatched and used
to create a new target voice for the original speaker.
However, there are issues surrounding parallel data in speech processing, not least a need for exact matching
vocabulary between two speakers, which leads
leads to a lack of corpus for other vocabulary not included in the
pre-defined
defined model training. Now, Toru Nakashika at the University of Electro-Communications
Electro Communications in Tokyo andco-workers
workers have successfully created a model capable of using non
non-parallel
parallel data to crecreateate a target voice - inother words, the target voice can say sentences and vocabulary not used in model training.
Their new VC method is based on the simple premise that the acoustic features of speech are made up of twolayers - neutral phonological inf
information
ormation belonging to no specific person, and 'speaker identity' features thatmake words sound like they are coming from a particular speaker. Nakashika's model, called an adaptive
restricted Boltzmann machine, helps deconstruct speech, retaining the neutral
neutral phonological information but
replacing speaker specific information with that of the target speaker.
After training, the model was comparable with existing parallel
parallel-trained
trained models with the added advantage thatnew phonemic sounds can be generated for the target speaker, which enables speech generation of the target
speaker with a different language.

Reference
1. Nakashika, T., Takiguchi, T. & Minami, Y. Non
Non-parallel
parallel training in voice conversion using an adaptive
restricted Boltzmann machine. IEEE/ACM tratransactions
nsactions on audio, speech and language processing 24 (11)(2016) DOI: 10.1109/TASLP.2016.2593263

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Researchers in Japan have created a new voice conversion method using an adaptive restricted Boltzmann machine - a model
capable of deconstructing speech and rebuilding it to sound like a different person speaking. Crucially, this model works
without the need for parallel data from two speakers for training, meaning target voices can say words and sentences not used intraining.

Associate Professor:
Professor Toru NAKASHIKA (Ph.D. in Engineering from Kobe University
2014/09/25)
Current research areas:
areas Multimedia database, Cognitive science, Perceptual information
processing
Current research subjects
subjects: Simultaneous Emotion/Phoneme/Identity Separation and Intention
Estimation, Discovery of Mechanism for Human Activity and Recognition Based on Statistical
Modelling
Personal website:
website http://www.sd.is.uec.ac.jp/nakashika/index.html

Professor: Yasuhiro MINAMI (Ph. D from Keio University 1991/03)
Current research areas:
areas Cognitive science, Human interface and interaction, Intelligent
informatics, Intelligent robotics, Learning support system
Current research subjects
subjects: Human interface and interaction
Personal website:
website http://www.sd.is.uec.ac.jp/index.html

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Evaluating the evaluators: Analysis of big data for peer assessment
Assistant Professor Masaki Uto and Professor Maomi Ueno are pursuing research in areas including machinelearning, artificial intelligence, information science, statistics, and educational technology, at the Departmentof Computer and Network Engineering, Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering, University ofElectro-Communications.
Communications.
"My research is based on Bay
Bayesianesian statistics," says Uto. "I construct and optimize statistical models such as
the latent variable model and use machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze big data for
applications including ee--Testing, e-Learning."
Learning."
Recent research include
includess the development of 'massive rating technology' with the inclusion of modellingparameters accounting for unique characteristics of reviewers for assessing the accuracy and reproducibility ofdata collected for rating of on line shopping; replies to quest
questionnaires;
ionnaires; quality control of cloud sourcing; peer
review of reports for massive open online courses; and evaluation of university entrance exams based on
written essays.
"The important point in this research is estimating the 'true score' of such ratings," explains Uto. "Weincorporate reviewer characteristic parameters in our item response model (latent variable model)."Uto and colleagues have been successful in assessing a wide range of reviewers using this approach [1].
Importantly, the UEC re
researchers
searchers are collaborating with partners on developing practical applications of their'rating technology'. Recent examples of real-life
real life applications are:- e-Testing
Testing (Computer based testing) [2] with the Benesse Holdings, Inc. and the Information
Information-techno
technology
Promotion Agency (IPA).
- English language exams with the Eiken Foundation of Japan.
- Medical examinations with Common Achievement Tests Organization (CATO)- Selecting reviewers for specific assessments with Recruit Career Co., Ltd.

Further informa
information
Publication
Masaki Uto and Maomi Ueno, Item Response Theory for Peer Assessment, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON
LEARNING TECHNOLOGIESTECHNOLOGIES,, 9, 157, (2016)
Maomi Ueno Lab, UEC
http://www.ai.lab.uec.ac.jp/index
http://www.ai.lab.uec.ac.jp/index-e/e/
Masaki Uto
https://sites.google.com/site/utomasakieng/

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Communications.

Assistant Professor:
Professor Masaki Uto (Ph. D. from University of Electro-Communications
Electro Communications 2013/09)
Current research areas:
areas Bayesian Statistics, Machine Learning, Big Data, Data Science, Bayesian
Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, ee-Testing,Testing, e-Learning,e Learning, Information Systems
Current research subjects
subjects: Rating big data analysis, Bayesian network, argument mining,
e-Testing,
Personal website:
website https://sites.google.com
https://sites.google.com/site/utomasakieng//site/utomasakieng/

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Attraction of complex chemistry: Quest for innovative single-molecule
single molecule magnets
Professor Takayuki Ishida
Department of Engineering Science, Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering"I am a molecular/crystal designer", says Professor Takayuki Ishida, at the Department of Engineering
Science, Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering, University of Electro-Communications.
Electro Communications. "Myresearch started by trying to answer the question:question: 'can organic materials be magnetic?' My policy for researchin order to answer this question has been: chemical and physical properties must be predictable fromstructures, and molecular and crystal structures must be designed for target properties."
propertie s."
Professor Ishida is focused on three main areas of research: spin science in materials chemistry; resolving
unknown aspects of lanthanoid periodicity; and innovative technological applications of lanthanoid elements.
Ishida is one of the pioneers in ssynthesizing
ynthesizing ferromagnetic organic compounds--materials
compounds materials that were thought tobe diamagnetic before this discovery.
"My group holds the record for the strongest ferro
ferro- and antiferromagnetic couplings inlanthanoid(III)lanthanoid(III)-nitroxide
nitroxide compounds," explains Ishida. "This follows the success of our approach focused on
the metal−radical approach with large out-of-planeout plane torsion between lanthanoid and radical groups forsynthesis of molecular magnets" [1]. This discovery is extendable to other metal ions and particularl
particularly
important to meet demand for alternatives to NdNd -Fe-B
B magnetics incorporating rare earth elements, that are
expensive and in short supply.
Such lanthanoid complexes are expected to have many industrial applications including media for storing data,
as wellll as novel luminescent single
single-molecule
molecule exploiting the light emitting properties of lanthanoid complexes.
Ishida hopes that his research will add a "new page to chemistry books" as research has led to in depth
knowledge about lanthanoid ions, in particularparticular the exchange coupling interaction with organic radicals.

Further information
Takayuki ISHIDA Laboratory
http://www.uec.ac.jp/eng/research/introduction/opal
http://www.uec.ac.jp/eng/research/introduction/opal-ring/0000392.html
ring/0000392.html
Ishida Lab (Japanese)
http://ttf.pc.uec.ac.jp/[1] Takuya Kanetomo, Toru Yoshitake, and Takayuki Ishida, Strongest Ferromagnetic Coupling in Designed
Gadolinium(III)−Nitroxide Coordination Compounds, Inorganic Chemistry, 55, 8140−8146 (2016).
DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.6b01072

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Professor: Takayuki ISHIDA (D. Sc. from The University of Tokyo 1991/03)
Current research areas:
areas Materials chemistry, magnetochemistry, physical organic chemistry
Current research subjects
subjects: Single-molecule
molecule magnets, heterospin materials, hysteretic
spin-crossovercrossover compounds, room
room-temperature
perature triplet biradicals, functional materials based on
supramolecular science
Personal website:
website http://ttf.pc.uec.ac.jp/www.page/Ishida.html

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Electro-Communications
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1 1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182
182-8585© 2016
201 The University
rsity of Electro
Electro-Communications.
Communications.

Irago Conference 2016 is held at UEC, Tokyo.
The Irago Conference 2016 was held 1-2 November 2016 at the University of Electro-Communications,
Chofu City, Tokyo.
Since its inception in 2011, the "Interdisciplinary Research And Global Outlook" conference has beenrecognized as a unique platform for a "360 degree outlook on critical scientific and technological challenges
for a sustainable society". In particular, the conference offers an excellent opportunity for graduate students tointeract firsthand with internationally acclaimed experts from wide ranging of disciplines, as well as publish
referred, open access papers in the AIP Conference Proceedings series.
Organized jointly by UEC, Tokyo and Toyohashi University of Technology, the theme of this year's
conference was "Waves in Science", and approximately 200 participants actively listened to invited talks that
ranged from gravitational waves and the future of music therapy, to 5G mobile communications andphoton-nano science.
Specifically, there 19 invited talks, including speakers from South Africa, Hong Kong, and USA; 3
contributed oral presentations; 14 talks at the Graduate Student Session; and 90 posters.

Participants gathered for a group photo at the break of the IRAGO 2016 conference.

Attendees discussing the research presented at the Poster Session.

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2016 The University of Electro-Communications.

Highlights of the conference include the Best Presentation Award for the Graduate Student Sessions held
during the lunch breaks, and the Best Poster Award. Notably, the entire proceedings were transmitted live via
the internet, reflecting the global nature of the conference.
In addition to the wide ranging technical discussions, Irago is also famous for the exciting and thoughtprovoking conference banquet and social events. This year's events included the energetic sounds of Japanesedrums (wadaiko), classical music based on a fusion of 'koto', vocal, violin, and piano, as well as popularsounds performed by members of UEC staff.

Japanese drums (WADAIKO) performed by Team HIMIKO.

The Irago Conference 2017 is scheduled to be held at UEC, Tokyo in October/November 2017.

Further information
The Irago Conference 2016
http://www.iragoconference.jp/2016/publication.html

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2016 The University of Electro-Communications.

UEC students receive Irago Conference 2016 Awards
UEC graduate students Kanami Ikeda and Natsumi Hara received the Irago Conference 2016 Best Graduate
Student Presentation and Best Poster awards, respectively.
The recipients were selected by votes cast by the more than 200 participants of the Irago Conference 2016
held at the Auditorium, University of Electro-communications, 1 -2, November 2016.
Yoshiaki Tamura (1st year master's student,
student, Graduate School of Electrical and Electronic Information
Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology) received the Best Presentation Award for the Graduate
Student Session on the first day for his presentation: "A Fundamental Study on Carbon Com
Composites
posites of
FeF3·0.33H2O as Open-framework Cathode Materials for Calcium-ion Batteries".

The recipient of the Best Presentation award of the Graduate Student Session on the second day was Kanami
Ikeda (2nd year doctoral student, Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering, University ofElectro-Communications) for her presentation: "Stabilization of the optical correlation output signal using

new methods".
The Best Poster Award for the conference was given to Natsumi Hara (2nd year mater's studestudent,
nt, Graduate
School of Informatics and Engineering, University of Electro -Communications) for her poster: "Evaluation ofplanar light wave circuit for digital holographic microscope".
UEC, Tokyo, President Takashi Fukuda presented the award certificates toto Miss Ikeda and Miss Hara on 24
November 2016.

Further information
Irago Conference 2016
http://www.iragoconference.jp/

UEC, Tokyo, President Takashi Fukuda (center) after presenting Miss Kanami Ikeda (left) and Miss Natsumi Hara (right)
their awards on 24 November 2016.

The University of Electro -Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182 -8585© 2016 The University of Electro -Communications.

The University of Electro-Communications (UEC) in Tokyo
is a small, luminous university at the forefront of pure and applied sciences, engineering, andtechnology research. Its roots go back to the Technical Institute for Wireless Commutations,which was established in 1918 by the Wireless Association to train so-called wireless engineers
in maritime communications in response to the Titanic disaster in 1912. In 1949, the UEC wasestablished as a national university by the Japanese Ministry of Education, and moved in 1957
from Meguro to its current Chofu campus Tokyo.
With approximately 4,000 students and 350 faculty, UEC is regarded as a small university, butwith particular expertise in wireless communications, laser science, robotics, informatics, andmaterial science, to name just a few areas of research.
The UEC was selected for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)
Program for Promoting the Enhancement of Research Universities as a result of its strengths inthree main areas: optics and photonics research, where we are number one for the numberof joint publications with foreign researchers; wireless communications, which reflects ourroots; and materials-based research, particularly on fuel cells.
International Public Relations
The University of Electro-Communications
1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585
E-mail : kokusai-k@office.uec.ac.jp
Website : http://www.uec.ac.jp/eng/

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2016 The University of Electro-Communications.