Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A) 2024-2029
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The 1st Summer Camp (the 2nd Area Meeting) was held.
2024.09.09
The 1st Summer Camp for Transformative Research Areas (A) “Biological Supremacy” was held in Yukawa, Hakodate City, Hokkaido, from September 5th to 7th, 2024. The purpose of the camp was team building, sharing of goals, and fostering of young researchers. The research teams and the sharing of goals within them are already in place, but by discussing face-to-face over a meal and sharing the results of the project since its launch, we were able to create a synergy of 120% that exceeded our expectations at the application stage!
A total of 63 people participated in the camp, including advisors, area members and students, and there were lively discussions through oral presentations (17 cases) and poster presentations (30 cases).
In order to facilitate mission-oriented discussions, the oral presentations were divided into sessions for each of the three targets of the research area: multi-cellular mathematical models, multi-cellular hardware, and multi-cellular wetware, rather than research items such as A01 and A02. At the first online domain meeting held in May, the representatives of the planning groups introduced their research, so this time we asked the researchers in charge of each planning group to give oral presentations.
In Session 1, “Towards Transcending Biology with Multicellular Mathematical Models”, which was held from 18:40 to 21:30 on September 5th, presentations were given by Dr.Kondo (A01-2 Group Co-I), Dr. Osaki (A03-1 Group Co-I), Dr. Li (A01-2 Matui Group, Assistant Professor), Dr. Hosaka (A01-1 Group Co-I), Dr. Tokuda (A01-1 Group Co-I), and Dr. Fujiwara (A01-1 Group Co-I) gave presentations on topics such as functional measurements and data analysis of the cerebral cortex of model animals, mainly rodents, as well as mathematics that uses frameworks such as reservoir computing to develop high-dimensional nonlinear dynamics in computational theory.
In Session 2, “Towards Transcending Biology with Multicellular Hardware”, which was held from 9:30 to 11:50 on September 6, Dr. Okuno (A04-2 Group Co-I), Dr. Yasukawa (A04-2 Group Co-I), Dr. Kohno (A04-1 Group PI), and Moriya (A02-1 Group Co-I) introduced new visual recognition systems that incorporate the information processing mechanisms of the nervous system, underwater search robots, and analog brain-type hardware that operates with ultra-low power consumption.
After that, in Session 3, “Towards Transcending Biology with Multi-cellular Wetware”, which was held from 13:30 to 15:50 after a lunch break, Dr. Nishimura (A03-1 Group Co-I), Dr. Morimoto (A02-2 Group Co-I), Dr. Sumi (A02), Mr. Watanabe (A02 Hirano Lab M2 ), and Dr. Uchino (A03 Guilin Lab PD) shared the latest data on technologies for differentiating human iPS cells into neurons in various brain regions, biomimetic robots using cultured skeletal muscle tissue, new manipulation technologies for cultured neural circuits and methods for decoding neural activity, and physiological measurement of synaptic function. During the Q&A session, in addition to the area members and advisors, questions about the content of the research were also asked by graduate and undergraduate students who had voluntarily participated, and a lively discussion was held.
The area advisors said, “I want you young people to work together and produce new results” (Dr. Aihara), “I want you to aim for bio ‘transcendence’, not bio ‘superiority’” (Dr. Horio), “I think it would be even more exciting if you could move in both directions, not just transcending existing technology with bio, but also creating new technology that transcends bio (Dr. Nemoto), “If we can include content like educational lectures in our interdisciplinary projects, such as summer camps, we can promote mutual understanding between different fields and also educate students” (Dr. Ikegaya), “I hope that the activities of the Young Researchers’ Association will continue to flourish, such as visiting different laboratories to promote communication between different fields” (Dr. Hosokawa), and other encouraging comments.
Poster Session
The poster session was held in the evening and night of the second day, and there were 30 presentations by graduate and undergraduate students from all 9 research groups. Including data that had not been released externally, the individual themes being pursued by each research group were discussed, and there were also discussions about the possibility of new joint research. It seems that being able to present their own research directly to professors active in various fields was a great stimulus for the students.
At this camp, Dr. Kato (A01-1 Group Co-I), a member of the Young Researchers’ Association, proposed that the “Best Poster Award” be decided by vote of the students and young researchers, and this was put into practice immediately. Thanks to this, there was a lot of enthusiastic discussion between the students. As a prize for the students who were selected for the Outstanding Poster Award, an invitation to the International Symposium of the Field, which is scheduled to be held in Sendai in February of the following year, was given as a supplementary prize with the aim of encouraging young researchers.
“Best Poster Award” winners
| Presenter | Affiliation (University/Position) | Poster Title |
|---|---|---|
| Reiji Ota | Future University-Hakodate/B4 | Reservoir calculation using oscillators that exhibit hysteresis |
| Kawamoto kenshiro | Doshisha University/D1 | Analysis of whether or not neuronal connections can be predicted from calcium imaging |
| Hakuba Murota | Tohoku University/D1 | Plasticity of neural ensembles in artificial neural circuits |
| Riko Kishida | Waseda University/M1 | Direct material introduction into nerve cells using nanotube stamping |
| Shintaro Numata | Doshisha University/M1 | Development of basic technology to elucidate the effects of nerve cell masses transplanted into the motor cortex on motor function |
| Teruhito Morita | Osaka Institute of Technology/D3 | Application of preprocessing learned from the biological visual nervous system to CNN |
Comment from the award winner
“I am very honored to have received the Brst Award for my poster presentation. This recognition has been a great encouragement to me. Through the presentation, I was able to interact with researchers from various research fields and gain many new perspectives and insights. I would like to make use of this experience and continue to deepen my research in the future.”
Kawamoto kenshiro (Doshisha University/D1)
“The 1st summer camp was a valuable experience that allowed me to deepen my understanding of the field of biotechnology and gain new knowledge. I would like to make use of the advice I received during the poster session in my future research and further deepen my research.”
Riko Kishida (Waseda University/M1)
“I am very honored to have received the Best Poster Award. At the summer camp, I was able to learn about many interesting research topics, and it was a great learning experience. I would like to make the most of this experience and continue to work hard on my research activities in the future.”
Teruhito Morita (Osaka Institute of Technology/D3)
Special Lecture “Future Intelligence: Creating New Intelligence through the Fusion of the Brain, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence”
On the final day of the camp, Dr. Katori (A01-1 Group PI), the camp organizer, planned an excursion to explore Hakodate City and Mt. Hakodate, as well as a special lecture by Dr. Kazuyuki Aihara (Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo, Area Advisor ) and Minoru Asada (Vice President of Osaka International University of Professional Studies) gave a special lecture entitled “Intelligent Futures: Creating New Intelligence through the Fusion of the Brain, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence”.
Dr.Aihara spoke about the history of the connection between neural network research and artificial intelligence research, and the various points of contact between mathematical engineering and society. Dr. Asada then gave a talk about his thoughts on the establishment of RoboCup and the latest robots that can recognize pain.
In the final panel discussion, the speakers answered the many questions that had been submitted in advance. In response to the question “What was the happiest moment of your research career?”, Dr. Aihara answered “Seeing my students grow and flourish. I am also very happy that Katori-kun has prepared such a wonderful venue for me today.” This answer gave us a glimpse of an ideal teacher-student relationship.
Comment from Katori (A01-1 Group PI), who hosted the 1st Summer Camp (2nd Area Meeting)
“This camp brought together researchers from different fields, and provided a place for them to stimulate each other. In particular, many students and young researchers also participated, and through lively discussions, new perspectives and ideas were born, and I feel that this will lead to progress in research towards bio-transcendence. There were also special lectures by Dr. Aihara and Dr. Asada, and it was a very enjoyable and fulfilling event. We would like to continue to make use of the results of this camp and aim to further deepen our research.”