TDU Power of Research 2

We are committed to advancing urban development through IoT-based data platforms that collect, analyze, and utilize diverse datasets.Our work aims to address regional challenges and inspire innovation by leveraging data in meaningful ways.One of our key projects, "Data Platform Kure," exemplifies this vision. This platform integrates real-time data, including population trends, GPS-based mobility patterns, weather, and library usage, to support smart city initiatives in Kure City. By analyzing these datasets, we help local governments and stakeholders make informed decisions, whether in urban planning, disaster preparedness, or community engagement. For instance, the platform provides critical weather data for Kure’s island areas, where natural events like typhoons significantly impact daily life.
A key aspect of our approach is ensuring open access to data. We designed the platform as an experimental “sandbox,” encouraging residents, businesses, and innovators to explore new ways of utilizing data. From predicting event attendance to optimizing transportation systems, the platform serves as a foundation for diverse applications that benefit the community.
Through our efforts, we aim to empower local communities, attract innovators, and create a scalable model for smart cities worldwide. By combining technology with local expertise, we envision cities that are not only resilient and adaptive but also inclusive and vibrant hubs of innovation.

• https://www.matsuilab.com/

Our laboratory conducts extensive research in the emerging field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) focusing on "cooperation." We believe that by developing robots capable of understanding human emotions and predicting how their actions impact others, we can create robots that "read the room." This is our ultimate goal, and we are engaged in foundational studies to make it a reality.
Recent advancements in science and technology have led to high expectations for intelligent and useful robots. However, true AI that surpasses human expectations remains a challenge. We are exploring ways to learn from human intelligence, which is flexible and adaptable. The components that make up intelligence are varied, and the question of what defines "smartness" differs among researchers. By organizing human skills hierarchically, we observe that tasks humans struggle with are often areas where robots excel, and vice versa.
We believe that humans and robots can achieve high performance when they collaborate by leveraging their respective strengths. However, two key issues arise: first, robots may over-assist humans, becoming more of a hindrance than help; second, as humans gain expertise, their behavior changes, complicating the support robots provide. Our research aims to address these challenges through the development of cooperation capabilities, enabling robots to understand
human intentions and adjust their actions accordingly. This concept of cooperation extends not only to human-robot interactions but also to robot-robot collaboration and teamwork between humans, offering broader applications.

• https://www.crl.epi.dendai.ac.jp/en/

Our laboratory, which specializes in architectural planning and environmental behavior research, has been studying educational, medical, and welfare facilities. Our goal is to support people who are easily affected by their environment, and to accommodate their independent lives by improving their surroundings.
In Architectural Planning, our team studies prior phases of execution design, such as identifying a building’s target users and uses, usability, security, and comfort, and then provide recommendations to the property owners, or our clients, based on our research.
In Environmental Behavior, on the other hand, we focus on the relationship between humans and the environment itself, and study human psychology and behavior under certain settings.
Conducting research that integrates both architectural planning and environmental behavior studies provides a broader perspective for the future needs of society and helps us predict what kinds of buildings we may need to construct beyond the current paradigm (for example, school facilities should be planned with considerations beyond a construction framework and should take into account the population and purpose of those schools). As a result, we can provide fruitful recommendations to prospective stakeholders. For instance, we designed a facility for elderly people and a playroom for children in a medical facility in conjunction with the concerned parties.

We are focusing on the cellular function during cellular life – from birth, growth, differentiation, and finally, death.
Programmed cell death, or so-called apoptosis, occurs to eliminate unnecessary cells (reaching the life expectancy or suffering injury and cannot function normally) for the body. The dying cell is eaten by the phagocytes and extinguishes itself. Once these cellular suicide mechanisms are collapsed, abnormal cells, unwanted by the body, multiply and various diseases like cancer occur. Therefore, cell death mechanism is well preserved among species and strictly regulated. Unraveling cell death pathways leads to artificially provoking cell death to particular cells, such as cancer cells, aiding the discovery of anti-cancer agents. We are currently researching the cellular function of several cancer cell specific apoptosis-inducing chemicals to elucidate how these chemicals induce cell death to specific cancer cells in the cellular level using both a molecular and chemical biology approaches.

• http://www.b.dendai.ac.jp/~biochem/index_en.html