Vol.4 No.4 2012

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Round-table talks : Systems and synthesiology−240−Synthesiology - English edition Vol.4 No.4 (2012) AkamatsuUntil about 1965, I think the university professors and company people worked closely together to solve various issues. After 1965 and well into the 70s, the companies gained force, and the companies became leaders in system generation and the professors were left behind. I feel that the situation is still continuing. We must do something about this.KuwaharaI was the chairman of the Japan Society for Technology of Plasticity. If one has a firm objective of “I want to make this hardware by Plasticity”, studies could be completed and the solution could be obtained using the plasticity technology only. However, if safe and secure society and environment are involved, IT comes in, police system enters, and various services become relevant. This cannot be dealt with by segmented, vertically divided academic societies alone.Today, our government is promoting the export of Japanese systems overseas and national budget is allocated here and there. Now is the chance. Japan has advanced technology for water, environment, food, and others, and considering the export industry, I think major contributions can be made if the points discussed herein are brought together for system generation.Effective industry-academia-government collaborationAkamatsuAIST is spending effort to promote the collaboration among industry, universities, and public research institutions. I think the industry-academia-government collaborations will become more important in the future. OnoActually, I don’t think the industry-academia-government collaboration is going very well in Japan currently. The reasons are due to the budget and the organizations. Yet, besides that, I think there may be a gap in the consciousness of researchers and engineers. If we understand each other more clearly on what our objectives are, what our differences are, and what can be shared as a common goal, I think industry-academia-government collaboration may be pursued more smoothly.In AIST, research group leaders have their own scenarios in pursuing their research. We can present these scenarios to obtain better understanding of corporate people, and we are able to communicate with each other at scenario levels. Can we expect such efforts from the corporate side? Are there any barriers such as the issue of corporate secrets? KuwaharaThat barrier is not small. We must sign a non-disclosure agreement, we must set limits on paper writing and the publication at academic societies must be done after patents are filed, or the researcher must never talk about what they are doing in the project. All of these are for protecting against unnecessary disclosure of corporate strategy. The researchers are itching to publish as soon as possible, and I don’t have a good general solution on that aspect. For now, we must go case by case, and some good solution must be provided for each individual project and I think we can do it. AkamatsuDr. Ono mentioned that the industry-academia-government collaboration is not going very well. What should we consider to do an effective collaboration? KuwaharaTo strengthen the industry-academia collaboration and for the science and technology to make contributions to the development of society, the Council of Science and Technology Policy must acknowledge Type 2 Basic Research, and the government must provide budget to this field. It must gain general acceptance in the academic arena. And then there must also be an unspoken perception that the traditional basic research will not be eliminated. OnoAIST is recently encouraging the consortium method where collaborations are done with multiple companies, and this is being done for solar cell projects. AIST and each company sign separate agreements to ensure that information does not flow directly from company to company while the objectives and information for the basic parts are shared among the participants. Expectation for AIST on systems researchAkamatsuYou talked about the importance of systemic thinking. There is a scenario before the system is created, and I believe the methodology of the scenario for creating the system is synthesiology.KuwaharaI have no objections to your comment. The 20th century was called the age of systems, but in Japan, thermal power, nuclear power and chemical plants are almost entirely copied from others. The systems that were created originally in Japan are quite small in number and they are iron-steel manufacturing and railroad train control.Therefore, I would like AIST to engage in systems research in the 21st century. One example is solar power generation. If you want to do it as Type 2 Basic Research, I hope you do at least about one-third of the system, hopefully the kernel of the system. That way, the rest can be an opportunity for system engineers at AIST to learn and grow in the actual project.

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