Professor, School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo

Moderator

Gentiane VENTURE

Gentiane Venture is Professor of Robotics with the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Tokyo and a cross appointed fellow with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology, Japan. Her research focuses on the dynamics of human, robots and the environment. Her group and her work are transdisciplinary to see robotics not as field with applications in certain areas but rather as an art of living together. She has co-authored more than 200 scientific publications, co-developed the award winning robot Yokobo. In 2022 she was promoted knight of the French order of merit.

Associate Professor, Philosophy, École Normale Supérieure Paris

Dominique LESTEL

Dr. Lestel teaches philosophy at Ecole normale supérieure. He has been Visiting Professor in many institutions including Keio University (2012) and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (2017-2018). He was a Visiting Scientist at the University of Tokyo French-Japanese Laboratory of Informatics (2013-2014) with a JSPS long term fellowship (in philosophy). In 2018-2019, he was a Berggruen Fellow at the Center of Advanced Research in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He has published in philosophy of robotics, human/other-than-human shared life and post-biological living agents. About his work: M. Chrulew & al. (eds), 2017, The Philosophical Ethology of Dominique Lestel, Routledge.

Performance Artist

STELARC

Stelarc’s projects and performances explore alternative anatomical architectures. He has performed with a Third Hand, an Extended Arm and a 6-legged robot. He had an ear surgically constructed on his arm. He has exhibited and performed in Europe, the USA, South America, China, SE Asia and Australia. He has been awarded the Prix Ars Electronica Hybrid Arts Prize and has received the Australia Council’s Emerging and Experimental Arts Award. He was designated Honorary Professor of Art and Robotics, Carnegie University, Pittsburgh in 1997. And he has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by Monash University in 2002, Melbourne; the Ionian University, Corfu in 2017 and the Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow in 2023.

Robotics Scientist, Professor (Distinguished Professor), Graduate School of Engineering Science, Department of Systems Innovation, Osaka University

ISHIGURO Hiroshi

Hiroshi Ishiguro received a Ph. D. from Osaka University, Japan in 1991. He is currently Professor of Department of Systems Innovation at Osaka University, Visiting Director of Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute (ATR), Project Manager of MOONSHOT R&D Project, Thematic Project Producer of EXPO 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, and CEO of AVITA, Inc. His research interests are interactive robotics, avatar, and android science.

Professor, Institute for Future Initiatives, Center for Global Commons, the University of Tokyo

Moderator

KAJIKAWA Yuya

Institute for Future Initiatives, The University of Tokyo
Visiting Professor, School of Environment and Society, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Visiting Professor, Strategic Innovation Office, Nagoya University
Board Member at the Advisory Board for the Promotion of Science and Technology Diplomacy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA).

His research explores intelligent bibliometrics on innovation and sustainability. He has made unique contributions by using analysis of citations and text mining to support strategic design of research and development projects.

Professor, University of Strathclyde, UK

Scott CUNNINGHAM

Scott Cunningham accepted a Professorship in Public Policy from the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde in 2020. The department is part of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Strathclyde. With a background in engineering and policy, his research interests are in the fields of the economics of technological change; regional policy and industrial development; infrastructure policy and infrastructure modelling; digital technology and transformation; and urban geographical and administrative data.

Professor, School of Computing, KAIST
Chief Investigator, IBS

CHA Meeyoung

Meeyoung Cha is an associate professor at the School of Computing in Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). She studies how socially relevant information spreads in various domains. Her research on misinformation, poverty mapping, fraud detection, and long-tail content has received more than 20,000 citations. She was a Visiting Professor at Facebook's Data Science Team and has won the Young Information Scientist Award in Korea, and Test-of-Time Awards at AAAI ICWSM and ACM IMC. She is also a Chief Investigator at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in Korea.

Professor, Institute of Technology Management, National Tsing Hua University

HU Mei-Chih

Mei-Chih Hu is a Professor at the Institute of Technology Management, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan . Her research is in the areas of innovation system, intellectual property rights, emerging industries (particularly green energy and biotechnology) in Asia, and latecomer strategy. Her research focus is to investigate how the Asian latecomers are able to strategically shift from pursuing ‘competitive advantages’ to the addition of ‘collaboration advantages’ in the global innovation system. She is also working as a Co-Editor-in-Chief at Technological Forecasting and Social Change, an Advisory Editor at Research Policy, and board members for a few international journals. Her papers have been published in a variety of journals including Research Policy, Nature, World Development, Regional Studies, Futures, Carbon Management, and etc.