—Why did you choose to pursue platform studies?
The study of platforms is an interdisciplinary field that attracts participants from diverse domains of specialization. Settings that bring scholars together and transcend the boundaries of specialization are a good fit for me. Additionally, I wanted to learn more about the research content and issues in fields that I still knew little about.
—What research themes are you currently working on?
Inverse problems. These are problems that involve drawing from observational data to infer the causal factors that give rise to or control certain phenomena. In the fields of agricultural engineering and geotechnology, they involve investigating the internal characteristics of built structures and natural geological formations. For example, the echoes from an ultrasonically scanned target object may be utilized as observational data to measure or infer the internal features of the scanned object. In geological surveys, it is difficult to locate observation points, resulting in an insufficient number of measurements, reduced data precision, and other problems that introduce uncertainty into the inferred results. To address that issue, I am using Bayesian inference and other probabilistic methods that allow this uncertainty to be quantified.
—What have you gained through the School of Platforms program?
In our seminars, I have enjoyed opportunities to hear contrasting perspectives offered by researchers and professional practitioners in the field who take the podium to speak on a given topic. Differences between the views of researchers and professional practitioners are understandable, but in exploring what should be done to ensure that the research can contribute to society through social implementation, I value the remarks of professional practitioners who we rarely have the chance to hear.
—What is the platform to you (ideal situations, desirable future, etc.)?
My image of platforms is somewhat vague. It often happens that people in different locations or settings are pursuing similar undertakings, which can be more efficiently improved if the common parts of those undertakings could be shared by everyone rather than pursued separately. I view platforms as settings that enable this.
—If the goal is to improve the world just a little from where it stands today, what do you think is needed, or what would you like to do?
Through research, I believe we can solve problems, render the impossible possible, and accordingly contribute to a happier world. To achieve that, I feel it will be important to have a multifaceted understanding of current realities, and I think platforms will be necessary because they provide interdisciplinary settings that bring scholars together from disparate fields.
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