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Research Highlights
 Wireless transceivers: Hardware still limits the unlimited
 Walking control: Influence of lower limb co-ordination
 Snake robot range-sensing control system avoids tail-end collisions
 Random additions efficiently anonymize large data sets

Topics Geophysics: Insights into the origins of sodium and other metallic layers in the Earth's upper atmosphere Neuroscience: Creating realistic computational models of the cerebellum Astrophysics: Birth of high mass stars and the origin of life Cotranscriptional folding: Computational modelling of self-assembly of RNA origami for universal
computation

News and Events
 Over 160 participants attend the Irago Conference 2015 at Cape Irago, Aichi Prefecture

Preface to volumes 8 and 9 of the UEC e-Bulletin
Volumes 8 and 9 of the UEC e-Bulletin are special issues dedicated to highlighting the excellence in research of young
members of faculty on the UEC Tenure Track Program.
Specifically, in 2007 UEC was selected by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)
for its ‘Initiative for the Promotion of Young Scientists' Independent Research’ under MEXT's ‘Special Coordination
Funds for Promoting Science and Technology’.
Following the success of the MEXT program, UEC introduced its own‘Program to Disseminate Tenure Tracking
System’ throughout the university for hiring all members of faculty as assistant professors. To-date, UEC has employed
more than 40 tenure track assistant professors for many hundreds of applicants in this program.
These two issues of UEC e-Bulletin showcase the unique, challenging, and international research being undertaken by
sixteen highly talented tenure track assistant professors at UEC, Tokyo.

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

Wireless transceivers: Hardware still limits the unlimited
The field of 'software-defined radio' (SDR) technology - a wireless communications system that implemented
by means of software on a computer to replicate the work of traditional hardware - has potential in the
cognitive radio and its research and development. Advantages of SDRs include the ability to comply withvarious wireless protocols without hardware modification. It may be possible not only virtualizing the wirelesstransceiver but also compensating for the instability of the wireless protocol at the receiving end, or launching
the wireless transceiver corresponding to the signal automatically.
Work is ongoing to create networks of SDR 'wireless transceivers' - combined transmitters / receivers based in
the virtual world. However, enabling these transceivers to work together efficiently on fluctuating parameters
is challenging.
Now, Yuusuke Kawakita and Haruhisa Ichikawa at the University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan,
have developed the Appliance Defined Ubiquitous Network, or ADUN; a mechanism that delivers unlimited
broadband radio-wave information (or 'radio space information') to clients via a distribution server. To build
such networks, virtualized wireless transceivers are implemented using the cloud computing and thebroadband Internet.
In trials, the researchers found that ADUN worked effectively as a scale-out solution to deliver radio space
information. However, the upper number of clients receiving information at any one time was limited by the
number of physical CPUs in the distribution server. In fact, a CPU is needed for each client - adding logicalCPUs made little difference to performance.
Their findings hold implications for building global networks of distribution servers that can deliver unlimited
radio data to multiple clients simultaneously, because limitations lie within hardware rather than software.
Reference
1. Kawakita, Y. & Ichikawa, H. A resource analysis of radio space distribution for the wide-area virtualization of
wireless transceivers. IEICE Trans.Commun. E97-B (9) (2014)

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

Researchers at the University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo have developed a method for distributing unlimited radio space
information to multiple users, for use in 'software-defined radio' scenarios. Importantly, their findings show data distribution toclients is still limited by physical hardware.

Assistant Professor: Kawakita Yuusuke (Ph.D. from Keio University 2008/03)
Current research areas: Communication/ Network engineering
Current research subjects: Sensing Platform for Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensors

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

Walking control: Influence of lower limb co-ordination
Walking on two legs is inherently unstable, meaning that the human central nervous system must work hard tomaintain balance. Walking motion is maintained by two control approaches - feedforward control, in which
the body anticipates possible disturbances to steady walking, and feedback control, when the body reacts to an
unseen disturbance to stay upright. The precise mechanisms underlying these control approaches are not yet
fully understood.
To uncover variables underpinning feedback control, Tetsuro Funato at the University ofElectro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan, together with scientists from Kyoto University, used a techniquebased on 'uncontrolled manifold analysis' (UCM) - a way of quantifying the behavior of different
multi-segmental motion, how their relationships are formed and how they are used in response todisturbances.
Funato and his team gathered data from 11 healthy male participants who were asked to walk steadily on atreadmill. The researchers sped up or slowed down the treadmill abruptly, with consecutive disturbances
occurring either frequently (within one walking cycle) or gradually (over a few steps).
The team were interested in the significance of 'intersegmental co-ordination' on walking control - specifically,
the interaction of the thigh, shank and foot during motion phases. They compared this with fluctuations in theparticipants' center of mass, head and limb axis during both steady and disturbed walking.
Their UCM-based results indicated that fluctuations in intersegmental co-ordination were smaller than centerof mass, head and limb axis fluctuations. This suggests intersegmental co-ordination may play a significant
role in a feedback control of walking by maintaining a continuous cyclic pattern regardless of disturbances.
Reference
1. Funato, T., Aoi, S., Tomita, N., & Tsuchiya, K. Validating the feedback control of intersegmental coordination
by fluctuation analysis of disturbed walking. Exp. Brain Research 233 1421-1432 (2015)

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

Walking subject on a treadmill.
Researchers at the University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, and Kyoto University, have shown that 'intersegmental
co-ordination' may play a key role in feedback control of walking. Smaller fluctuations in the behavior of parts of the lower limbs
during disturbances point to a cyclical pattern maintained regardless of disturbance.

Assistant Professor: FUNATO Tetsuro (Ph.D from Tokyo Institute of Technology 2008/03)
Current research subjects: Intelligent mechanics/ Mechanical systems
Current research areas: Evaluation of biological rhythm control for system designing using
the environmental dynamics.

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

Snake robot range-sensing control system avoids tail-end collisions
Rescue operations at disaster scenes often use robots to avoid further human danger. Modelling robots on
snakes can provide better access through narrow paths in rubble, but previous models that control snake robots
by the head do not adequately avoid collisions between the body of the robot and surrounding obstacles.
Researchers at the University of Electro-Communications and Kyoto University have now demonstrated an
improved control system for avoiding collisions along the full length of snake robots.
Motoyasu Tanaka, Kazuyuki Kon and Kazuo Tanaka consider a snake robot comprising a series of sections
joined by links that either pitch up and down or yaw through sideways turning angles. An operator controls
the velocity of the first link with a joystick. Previous results demonstrated motion control using passive
wheels that prevent sideways slipping. These wheels provide the side friction force required for the robot toslither forward, and by lifting the wheels out of contact with the terrain at a particular link, the direction of
motion can be adapted to avoid collisions between an obstacle and the body of the robot.
Tanaka, Kon and Tanaka have now demonstrated the ability to navigate not just one but a series of obstacles
in unfamiliar environments, by incorporating range sensors and map generation with semi-autonomous control
at each link.
"The experimental system, which has range sensors and the function generating environmental map using
simultaneous localization and mapping, was developed with decreasing calculation cost," explain the
researchers in their report, highlighting the computational optimization of the control algorithm. Experimentswith the snake robot verify how effectively their control system performs in unknown environments.
Reference
Motoyasu Tanaka1*, Kazuyuki Kon2*, and Kazuo Tanaka1* Range-sensor-based semiautonomous whole-bodycollision avoidance of a snake robot, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, 23, 1927-1934 (2015).
1. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Intelligent Systems, University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo
182-8585, Japan
2. Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan*corresponding author e-mail: mtanaka@uec.ac.jp, ktanaka@mce.uec.ac.jp, kon.kazuyuki.3m@kyoto-u.ac.jp

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

Motion of the robot using both range sensors and map in field C.

Assistant Professor: TANAKA Motoyasu (Ph.D. from The University of Electro-Communications
2009/03 2009/03)
Current research areas: Dynamics/Control, Intelligent mechanics/ Mechanical systems
Current research subjects: Modeling and control of snake robots, Development and control offlying robots, Control of robots based on brain-wave, and Control of nonlinear systems.
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/motoyasutanakalab/english-1

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

Random additions efficiently anonymize large data sets
Balancing transparency and freedom of information with the right to privacy lays high demands on data
handling methods. So far methods for anonymizing shared data sets have assumed that there is a distinction
between details that can be used to identify an individual (quasi-identifiers) and details that are deemed'sensitive' and private, but this is not always the case. Now Yuichi Sei and Akihiko Ohsuga from the
University of Electro- Communications, alongside Takao Takenouchi from NEC Corporation in Japan, havedevised an algorithm that efficiently anonymizes data sets without assuming this distinction.
The researchers use hospital lists as an example. A data set may include the name (direct identifier), address
and age (quasi-identifier) and sensitive information (a medical condition). Even without giving the name foreach entry, someone using the data set could identify entries from the age and address. In addition,
anonymization should be resistant to attempts to identify particulars by comparing two anonymized sets forthe same data.
One approach to anonymizing data is to add noise to a data set, where the frequency of each possible value foreach attribute is presented in a histogram. However as Sei, Ohsuga and Takenouchi point out this can greatly
increase the quantity of the data. "Because almost all of the categories have only a few people in the histogram,the noise added to each category of the histogram has a heavy impact."
The UEC-NEC Corporation researchers instead randomised the data set for each attribute and added random
values to each entry. "Through simulations of real data sets, we prove that our proposed method cananonymize and reconstruct databases while keeping a high quality of data within a realistic period." Theapproach may be useful for anonymizing public records such as the census and electronic electoral votes.
Reference
Yuichi Sei1*, Takao Takenouchi2*, Akihiko Ohsuga1* (l1, ..., lq)-diversity for anonymizing sensitive
quasi-identifiers 2015 IEEE Trustcom/BigDataSE/ISPA 596-603 doi:
10.1109/Trustcom-BigDataSe-ISPA.2015.424
1. Graduate School of Information Systems, The University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan
2. Cloud System Research Laboratories, NEC Corporation, Kanagawa, Japan*corresponding authors e-mail: sei@is.uec.ac.jp, takenouchi@bu.jp.nec.com, ohsuga@uec.ac.jp

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

Name

Age Address

Job

Job

Alex

41 13021

Artist

Fever

Becky

41 17025

ArtistCancerCarl

50 13021

Writer

Fever

Diana

51 14053

Nurse

HIV

Table of patient data including direct identifiers (name) sensitive quasi identifiers (age, address, job and disease)original (left) and reconstructed anonymized data (right) for age and occupation using the proposed algorithm.

Assistant Professor: SEI Yuichi (Ph.D. from The University of Tokyo

2009/03)

Current research areas: Software and Information security.
Current research subjects: Software Development Process Improvement based on Incident Data
Analysis, Process Improvement, Text mining, Privacy-Preserving, Data Mining Security, Privacy,
Sensor networks.

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

Geophysics: Insights into the origins of sodium and other metallic layers in the
Earth's upper atmosphere
Takuo Tsuda, Assistant Professor,
Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering,
University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo.
The Earth's atmosphere is critical for the existence of mankind. A close inspection of reveals that theatmosphere consists of several regions: troposphere is where humans live (ca. 0-15 km); stratosphere and thinlayer of ozone (ca. 15-50 km) that absorbs ultra-violet radiation; and the mesosphere/ionosphere (ca. 50-100km) and thermosphere (where aurora occur) (ca. 100-600 km). For reference, the International Space Station
orbits at approximately 400 km above the Earth.
Intriguingly, in the late 1920s scientists first reported that the glow of light in the Earth's atmosphere
contained light from sodium at a wavelength of 589 nm. In the 1960s a layer of sodium at approximately 90
km above the Earth was discovered. Later, layers of potassium, iron and calcium were reported to exist near
the sodium layer.
These observations raise many questions such as the origins of these well-defined narrow regions of metal
layers, and could they be useful for monitoring climate change.
At UEC, Takuo Tsuda, is literally shed light on the sodium layer surrounding the Earth. "My interest in thesodium layer is inspired by the desire to expand our knowledge of the outer atmosphere for future space utility
and for insights into climate change," says Tsuda. "So far I have used facilities in northern Europe, Japan's
Showa Base in Antarctica, and monitoring stations in Japan to measure levels of sodium and other metals at
80-100 km."Tsuda uses the so-called resonance fluorescence lidar technique where a pulsed laser beam is pointed at theupper atmosphere and scattered light from sodium and other metals is detected by a telescope on the groundfor determining the concentration and location of the metals in the upper atmosphere.
Recent research findings include the first ever observation of 'thermospheric Na layers' above 110 km [1].
"These experiments were conducted at the Syowa Station in Antarctica," explains Tsuda. "Other metal layers
have been observed above 110 km but our report was the first such observation of a sodium layer at this highaltitude.
In research on the stability of metal layers in the upper atmosphere, Tsuda and co-workers reported on theobservation of a so-called 'sporadic sodium layer event' from a site in Norway [2]. This event was proposed tobe "advected by the background wind".
The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

These metals layers are most likely due to dust left by comets orbiting the Sun and from asteroids from otherparts of the Solar System. "In addition to enhancing our knowledge of the Earth and near space, this researchis expected to yield insights into the atmospheres of other planets in our galaxy," says Tsuda.
Further information
References
1. T. T. Tsuda, X. Chu, T. Nakamura, M. K. Ejiri, T. D. Kawahara, A. S. Yukimatu, and K. Hosokawa, A
thermospheric Na layer event observed up to 140 km over Syowa Station (69.0ºS, 39.6ºE) in Antarctica,
Geophys. Res. Lett., 42, 3647-3653, (2015).
2. T. T. Tsuda, S. Nozawa, T. D. Kawahara, T. Kawabata, N. Saito, S. Wada, C. M. Hall, M. Tsutsumi, Y. Ogawa,S. Oyama, T. Takahashi, M. K. Ejiri, T. Nishiyama, T. Nakamura, and A. Brekke, A sporadic sodium layer
event detected with five-directional lidar and simultaneous wind, electron density, and electric field observation
at Tromsø, Norway, Geophys. Res. Lett., 42, 9190-9196, (2015).

An all-sky image above Tromsø at 21:00 UT on 15 December 2012, captured by a color digital camera with 15 s exposure. The fivelaser beams in the lidar observation can be seen as orange lines, which were directed to vertical, south, north, west, and east
directions. The zenith angle in the oblique beams was 30°.

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

Time-altitude variations of Na number density from 18:00 UT on 23 September to 02:00 UT on 24 September 2000. The integration
time and height are 30 min and 5 km, and the time and height intervals are 5 min and 1 km, respectively. Only data with errors(defined as one standard deviation) of less than 50% are displayed. It should be noted that the local time (LT) at Syowa Station isthree hours ahead of UT, i.e., LT = UT + 3 h and that there is no difference between the magnetic local time (MLT) at Syowa
Station and UT, i.e., MLT = UT + 0 h.

Assistant Professor: Takuo TSUDA (Doctor of Science from Nagoya University 2009/03)
Current research areas: Space and upper atmospheric physics
Current research subjects: Upper atmospheric science, Lidar system, and Optical system
Website: Takuo Tsuda laboratory: http://ttt01.cei.uec.ac.jp/

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

Neuroscience: Creating realistic computational models of the cerebellum
Tadashi Yamazaki, Assistant Professor,
Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering
University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo
In spite of gigantic advances in medical science over the last century there are still huge gaps in our
knowledge of the inner workings of the human brain. For example, how do people in their eighties still
remember sights, sounds, and fragrances from their childhood; what are dreams; and why certain people canmaster many different languages and others have their hands full with just one? Underscoring the deep interestin uncovering the functions of the brain, multi-billion dollar projects have been launched in the USA, EU, andJapan to address these and much deeper aspects of the brain.
Importantly, in the quest for answers to such questions one of the fundamental issues for neuroscientists isdeveloping effective scientific approaches to elucidate the mysteries of the human brain--an organ known for
its innate inaccessibility.
At UEC, Tokyo, Tadashi Yamazaki is focusing his efforts on the cerebellum or 'little brain' in Latin. Notably,in terms of relative size, the cerebellum is approximately 10% of the brain but it contains 80% of the neurons.
So computational models based on the cerebellum could potentially be effective in describing the functions of
the whole brain.
"The functions of the cerebellum are much better understood than the much larger cerebrum," says Yamazaki.
"For example we know that the cerebellum plays a major part in coordinating and integrating informationfrom our senses with activation of joints and muscles to produce movement. So in my research I use thewealth of scientific data and information already available about the cerebellum to create realistic
computational models of the structure and functions of the cerebellum. Our models provide many insights into
how the cerebellum and even the other parts of the brain work for building a complete whole-brain model on acomputer."
Recent findings by Yamazaki and colleagues include the use of a graphics processing unit (GPU) to create a'real time cerebellum' comprising of over 100,000 neurons that trained a robot to hit a ball bowled in real-time[1]. These results are important for robotics research where teaching robots to move precisely is critical formany applications.
Furthermore, in research related to memory, Yamazaki and colleagues created a theoretical model of memory
consolidation in the cerebellum. These results offer insights into why 'practice makes perfect' in motor
learning, offering an innovative approach to developing new learning methods and intelligent robots [2].

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

Yamazaki is also pursuing projects with national research institutes and local hospitals in Japan on thedevelopment of brain-style artificial intelligence; neuron circuit simulations based on the shapes of cells; andrehabilitation based on the simulation of brain and body movement.
Further information
Publications
1. Yamazaki T and Igarashi J. Real time cerebellum: A large-scale spiking network model of the cerebellum thatruns in real time using a graphics processing unit. Neural Networks 47 (11): 103-111 (2013).
2. Yamazaki T, Nagao S, Lennon W and Tanaka S. Modeling memory consolidation during post training periods
in cerebellovestibular learning.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112 (11): 3541-3546 (2015).

(A) Schematic diagram of the cerebellar circuit in OKR adaptation, an eye movement reflex. We built a theoretical model thatincorporates dual plasticity at parallel fiber-Purkinje cell synapses and mossy fiber-cerebellar nuclear cell synapses. (B) Comparisonof mouse experiments (gray dots with error bars) and a computer simulation result (red line). Animals are given daily 1-hourtraining followed by dark rearing for 23-hours. The eye movement amplitude increases by 1-hour daily training and decays
naturally after training, indicating the formation of short-term memory. The amplitude also gradually increases day by day,indicating the formation of long-term memory. The horizontal axis represents the training day, and the vertical axis the amplitude ofthe eye movement. Reproduced from a press release of Ref 2.
(http://www.uec.ac.jp/eng/news/announcement/2014/20150226-2.html)

Assistant Professor: YAMAZAKI Tadashi (Ph. D. from Tokyo Institute of Technology 2002/03)
Current research areas: Computational Science, Neuroscience, Robotics
Current research subjects: Computational Neuroscience, High-Performance Neurocomputing,Brain-Style Artificial Intelligence, Neuro-Robotics, Computational Rehabilitation
Website: http://numericalbrain.org/en/

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

Astrophysics: Birth of high mass stars and the origin of life
Takeshi Sakai, Assistant Professor
Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering
University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo"I am using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) facilities in Chile to study theformation of stars," says Sakai. "In particular I am looking at 'high-mass' stars formed in clusters that areapproximately 10,000 light years from the Earth. High mass stars play an important role in the evolution ofgalaxies and ultimately hold the secrets of the origins of life on Earth."
Interest in the formation of stars in clusters stems from research that indicates that 70-90% of stars in ourgalaxy are born in clusters. In contrast to high mass stars, there is much more knowledge about low mass stars
because at 400 light years away, they are located much closer to Earth and more readily accessible withtelescopes.
The radio telescopes at ALMA are located at approximately 5000 m above sea level in Atacama, Chile, where
the air is dry with minimal absorption of weak infra-red signature signals of the chemical composition of theclusters where high mass stars are born.
"Our telescopes enable us to map the evolution of the chemical compositions of molecular clouds," explains
Sakai. "So we are able to detect the very early stages of star formation by looking for changes in the chemical
species of molecular clouds." For example, the core of a diffuse cloud may be composed of only ionizedcarbon but chemical spectra of a dense cloud will show signals from carbon monoxide/ammonia, and complex
organic molecules when a star is formed.
In their experiments, Sakai uses the strategy of narrowing down possible targets using single dish telescopes
such as those at the Nobeyama Radio Observatory (NRO) in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, and then use the 66
telescopes at ALMA for detailed analysis of these promising targets.
Needless to say astrophysics is a time consuming area of research, where it can take two to three years for datacollection. "I collaborate with groups in other countries to write proposals for machine time on all thetelescopes we want to use," says Sakai. "In the case of ALMA we usually get a few hours each year."In research recent Sakai and an international team recently discovered a very young star of about 1000 years
old [1,3] and observations of methanol masers in a molecular clump indicating the existence of a star-forming
region [2].

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

"We hope this research will increase our knowledge of the formation of galaxies and ultimately shed light on
the origin of life of Earth."
Further information
References[1] Takeshi Sakai et.al, ALMA OBSERVATIONS OF THE IRDC CLUMP G34.43+00.24 MM3: DNC/HNC
RATIO, Astrophysical Journal, 803:70 (9pp), (2015)[2] Takahiro Yanagida et.al, ALMA OBSERVATIONS OF THE IRDC CLUMP G34.43+00.24 MM3: 278
GHz CLASS I METHANOL MASERS, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 794:L10 (6pp), (2014).
[3] Takeshi Sakai et.al, ALMA OBSERVATIONS OF THE IRDC CLUMP G34.43+00.24 MM3: HOT
CORE AND MOLECULAR OUTFLOWS, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 775:L31 (6pp), (2013)

Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) facilities in Chile(a) 8 micron color image overlaid with 1.2 mm continuum (Rathborne et al. 2006). The blue circle indicates the observed object(G34.43+00.24 MM3). (b) CH3OH color image overlaid with CS contour image taken with ALMA. The CH3OH emission traces
hot (>100 K) regions around the embedded protostar, while the CS emission traces the outflow driven by the protostar. (c) Artist's
image.

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

(a) N2H+ color image overlaid with CS contour image toward G34.43+00.24 MM3. The N2H+ emission traces cold gas, while theCS emission traces the outflow. The anti-correlation between N2H+ and CS suggests that the outflow is interacting with the colddense gas. (b) Spectrum of methanol maser. We detected the methanol maser emission toward the interacting regions between theoutflow and cold dense gas.

Assistant Professor: SAKAI Takeshi (Doctor of Science from The University of Tokyo 2004/03)
Current research areas: Astronomy
Current research subjects: Investigating the diversity of the formation processes of high-massstars, radio astronomy, star formation, high-mass stars, molecular clouds, interstellar molecules
Website: Takeshi Sakai laboratory: http://www.t-sakai.cei.uec.ac.jp/

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

Cotranscriptional folding: Computational modelling of self-assembly of RNA
origami for universal computation
Shinnosuke Seki, Assistant Professor
Graduate School of Informatics and Engineering
University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo
Imagine a world where the basic building blocks of massive structures interacted autonomously to
self-assemble into majestic landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Golden Gate Bridge in San
Francisco.
Needless to say the self-assembly of such huge structures is still the realm of science fiction but self-assembly
is ubiquitous on the atomic scale where atoms and molecule act autonomously to form much larger structures
such as liquid crystals, lipids, and layer by layer synthesis of single crystal semiconductor thin films.
Effectively exploiting self-assembly of atoms and molecules for the mass production of nano-circuits ormolecular robots requires a deep understanding of the highly complex processes governing the formation of
structures exemplified by self-assembled DNA-origami, as reported recently. So research on self-assembly ishighly interdisciplinary with experiment-based biologists, chemists and physicists collaborating withmathematicians and computer scientists.
At UEC, Shinnosuke Seki is collaborating with the groups in Denmark and USA who developed so-called'RNA origami' [1-4]. "My role is to model the self-assembly of RNA origami," says Seki. "Our research
focused on a new phenomenon that we refer to as 'cotranscriptional folding'.
Here transcription refers to a process where RNA polymerase binds to a DNA sequence and produces its RNA
copy sequence nucleotide by nucleotide while scanning the DNA template from one end towards the other."
Notably, unlike famous double-helical structure of DNA, RNA exists naturally as a single-strand that folds
onto itself as soon as a few of its nucleotides are transcribed. This property of RNA the methodology enables
the use of easy to handle single strands of RNA to construct complicated shapes.
"Using this phenomenon of cotranscriptional folding, Geary, Rothemund, and Andersen1 developed theexperimental technique called RNA origami for the autonomous production of nanoscale structures," explains
Seki. "As my contribution to this research, I have proposed a mathematical model of computation bycotranscriptional folding called oritatami system."

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

Specifically, the Oritatami system is a mathematical model of computation by cotranscriptional folding wherestarting from an initial 'seed' conformation, a primary building block (such as a chain of molecules) is folded
cotranscriptionally over a predefined grid. "One of the important features of the Oritatami system is that it
does not fold its primary structure at once," says Seki. "Instead we transcribe the fragment of the next 'delay'molecules and work dynamically from there."This research has many applications including the realization of 'universal computation' and may enable theformation of RNA structures inside living cells.
Further information[1] C. Geary et.al A single-stranded architecture for cotranscriptional folding of RNA nanostructures, Science,
345 799-804 (2014).
[2] C. Geary, P.-E. Meunier, N. Schabanel, and S. Seki, Efficient universal computation by molecular
cotranscriptional folding, in preparation.
[3] L. Kari, S. Kopecki, P.-E. Meunier, M. J. Patitz, and S. Seki, Binary pattern tile set synthesis is NP-hard,
Proc. ICALP 2015, Part 1, LNCS 9134, pp. 1022-1034, (2015).
[4] M. Ota and S. Seki, Rule set design problems for oritatami system, in revision.

Illustration of RNA origami

Assistant Professor: Shinnosuke SEKI (Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Western
Ontario, 2010/10)
Current research areas: Theory of informatics, Nano/Microsystems, and Computational science.
Current research subjects: Optimization of DNA pattern self-assembly systems.

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

Over 160 participants attend the Irago Conference 2015 at Cape Irago, Aichi
Prefecture
Organized jointly by the Electronics-Inspired Interdisciplinary Research Institute (EIIRIS), Toyohashi
University of Technology and the University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, the Irago Conference 2015
was held 22-23 October 2015 at Irago Aichi.
The goal of the Irago Conference (Interdisciplinary Research And Global Outlook) is to enhance mutual
understanding between scientists, engineers and policy makers. Now in its fifth year, the conference attracted
160 participants (of whom approximately half were graduate students) who shared their research findings inareas ranging from earthquake prediction and generation ultrashort laser pulses, to monitoring public healthand the prevention of contagious diseases in mega-cities.
The 360-degree outlook of the conference impressed invited speakers and guests. "This conference has been
extremely informative for both veterans and grad students," noted Makoto Ishida from Toyohashi Tech. "Aunique conference with experts from a wide range of backgrounds," noted Justin Llandro from the Universityof Cambridge.

Graduate students discussing their researchat the poster session.

Oral presentation session.

In addition to the invited speakers and poster sessions, the special lunch session provided a platform forgraduate students to describe their latest findings as short five minute oral presentations to all the participantsat the conference. The members of the audience were asked to vote for the most impressive student speaker
who received the 'Best Presentation Award'. This year's recipient was a graduate student from UEC.
The highlight of the conference banquet was the 'Tezutsu Hanabi' (hand-held fireworks) display held on thebeach of the conference hotel.
In order to share and disseminate the information from the wide ranging presentations, refereed paper from theconference are published as the Irago Conference proceedings in the AIP Conference Series.

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

Make a note, Irago Conference 2016 will be held at UEC Tokyo in October/November 2016.
The Irago Conference 2015: http://www.iragoconference.jp/

Group photograph of the participants
at Irago Conference 2015.

Irago fireworks: 'Tezutsu hanabi' (hand held
firework) held during the banquet.

About the Irago Conference series
The Irago Conference was launched in 2011 and is a unique conference combining thought provoking insights
into global issues including disaster mitigation, neuroscience, public health monitoring, and nanotechnology
by internationally renowned invited speakers with selected talks, posters, and demonstrations from academics,
industrialists, and think tanks. The conference is truly a '360 degree outlook on critical scientific andtechnological challenges' facing mankind.
Recent changes in global economics and industrial priorities, environmental and energy policies, foodproduction and population movements have produced formidable challenges that must be addressed forsustaining life on earth.
The Irago Conference highlights the major issues by bringing together experts from across the world who will
give their views on key areas such as energy and natural resources, medicine and public health, disasterprevention and management, as well as other advances in science, technology and life sciences.

Ms. Kanami Ikeda, the recipient of the`Best Presentation Award', with Dr.
Takashi Fukuda, President of UEC.

Certificate of `Best Presentation Award'
in IRAGO2015

The University of Electro-Communications 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.

The University of Electro-Communications (UEC) in Tokyo
is a small, luminous university at the forefront of applied sciences, engineering, and technology
research. Its roots go back to the Technical Institute for Wireless Commutations, which wasestablished 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 was established as anational 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, but withparticular expertise in wireless communications, laser science, robotics, informatics, and materialscience, 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 in threemain areas: optics and photonics research, where we are number one for the number of joint
publications with foreign researchers; wireless communications, which reflects our roots; andmaterials-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© 2015 The University of Electro-Communications.