Please tell us about your approach to education and research activities.

I like Einstein's various aphorisms, and there is also one about education. It is, "Education is what remains after the students have forgotten everything they learned in school." Classes, unfortunately, focus on teaching knowledge because it is difficult to do more than teach knowledge. I hope that this will hopefully support the students' research in the future.

In contrast, the role of research activities is not only to teach the actual research topic itself but also to foster ways of thinking, which students will need to have later on in their lives. Because of this difference in roles, my approach to supervising students in research activities is different from that in the classroom. Rather than simply instilling knowledge, I want to help students acquire ways of thinking and give them various experiences.

It might be essential to balance research and education for research activities in the university, and it isn't easy. On the one hand, research is a kind of tough competition. Our paper will not be accepted unless we become a world leader in some aspects. Nobody appreciates us if we are only following someone else's lead. On the other hand, research is also a process of education, so students need to grow. I am always struggling to find the right balance between the two. I think it would be wrong to prepare everything and tell students every single step of conducting their research. It would also be wrong just to give them their research theme and let them do everything on their own. Every day, I try to find the most appropriate balance between research and education.

What do you think is the appeal of the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Osaka?

I could say that our school is a world-class research institute though students may not realize it. Many students of our school participate in international conferences. Surprisingly, many of them are still master's course students. Students may think attending an international conference is quite usual, but I don't think it's easy. I also think it is terrific that students can write their own papers. Of course, there are such students in other universities as well, but many students here are capable of being at the forefront of the world. Here is an excellent environment where we can educate such talented students, and they can conduct their research as they want.
The faculty members of the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology may be going through a trial and error process in their daily research life to involve students in world-class research activities. The fact that master's course students participate in international conferences might prove that education and research are working in a good balance. Students think about how to proceed toward their research goals in their own way, without being just a helper of teachers. One more thing, all the faculty members may think that other members are their rivals. They may want to make better achievements, attend better conferences, and publish better papers than other members. This might contribute to creating a good atmosphere of healthy rivalry in the entire graduate school.