EIIRIS, Toyohashi Tech’s Flagship Research Institute: new frontiers of interdisciplinary research
Toyohashi University of Technology (Toyohashi Tech) was founded
in 1976, and based on the spirit of ‘Master
technology, Create technology’ the university has evolved and fulfilled
its mission of educating and nurturing students; research and
development of technology; and contributing to society by
implementing academic-industrial-government projects and interaction
with the local community.
Recently, however, changes in global economics and industrial
priorities, environmental and energy issues, food and population
problems have become serious challenges for the future of humanity,
with the world international facing a major turning point. In response
to these global-social changes, Toyohashi Tech is reorganizing its
academic
and research structure to meet the challenges of the next 20 to 30
years. The Electronics-Inspired Interdisciplinary
Research Institute (EIIRIS) is a ‘pillar of research’, reflecting our
commitment to finding solutions now, for problems of
the future.
During it relatively short history, Toyohashi Tech has been internationally recognized for the development of innovative and cutting-edge technology and major contributions to industry. Among these achievements, Toyohashi Tech researchers are widely acknowledged for their contributions to the field of electronics including sensor microchips and ultra-high capacity memory devices. Notably, this expertise was a critical factor behind the selection of Toyohashi Tech for one of the highly competitive Global Center of Excellence (G-COE) awards by MEXT.
Research at the Electronics-Inspired Interdisciplinary Research Institute fuses the university’s historical excellence in electronics with the ‘advanced knowledge’ of medicine and medical diagnostics, agriculture, and information
communication technology. Our goal is to open up new frontiers in interdisciplinary research—EIIRIS is the ‘flagship’
of research at Toyohashi Tech.
The initial proposal to set up an interdisciplinary research institute was made two years ago, and fortunately MEXT accepted our vision and approved funding for construction the new research facility in the fiscal 2009 supplementary budget. Importantly, in the same year, MEXT also selected Toyohashi Tech for a tenure track program for hiring young
researchers, thus enabling the realization of the new research facilities much earlier than initial plans. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people involved in this project for their support in establishing this research complex.
The university is determined to build on our tradition and achievements and continue to push back the frontiers of research. We look forward to the continued understanding and support from friends and colleagues all over the world.
Unique research platform for pursuing world-class cuttingedge interdisciplinary research
On 1st October 2009, Toyohashi University of Technology
(Toyohashi Tech) established the Advanced Interdisciplinary
Electronics Research Center to facilitate interdisciplinary
research—life sciences, medical diagnostics, agriculture, environment,
information communications technology, and robots. This Center was
built on the expertise and knowledge accumulated by the University’s
internationally recognized research on intelligent sensing architecture,
LSI fabrication technology, and photonic devices. In order to create an
environment conducive for innovative interdisciplinary research, the
Center was formed by reorganizing and integrating existing research
platforms: Intelligent Sensing Systems Research Center,
Nanophotonics Information Technology Research Center,
and the Advanced Agricultural Bioresearch Center.
Then on 1st October 2010, based on the extremely promising results
produced by the Center, the University decided to establish its first
ever research institute—EIIRIS, the Electronics-Inspired Interdisciplinary Research Institute. EIIRIS consists of the following departments and managers: Advanced Medical Technology (Mitsuteru Inoue),
Brain Technology (Makoto Ishida), Green Technology (Akira Hiraishi) and Research and Human Resources Support-Platform (Adarsh Sandhu). Furthermore, other research centers at the university, including the ‘LSI Fabrication Line’ housed in the Venture Business Laboratory are designated as affiliated facilities of EIIRIS.
The Electronics-Inspired Interdisciplinary Research Institute consists of a new 1500 m2 dedicated building constructed with funding from MEXT and completed in October 2010. The new building is connected to the adjacent 2300 m2 VBL via a corridor on the third floor between the buildings, enabling ready access to the LSI-fab and other facilities in the VBL clean rooms. In addition to the faculty members from existing research centers at Toyohashi Tech, EIIRIS has three new research staff including Adarsh Sandhu, who started in April 2010 as tenured professor at EIIRIS; and eight tenure track researchers who were recruited for the Program to Foster Young Researchers in Cutting-Edge Interdisciplinary Research launched in 2009. The tenure track researchers—of whom three are from overseas—have backgrounds including life sciences, biotechnology, neuroscience, robotics, microchips and magnetophotonic devices. The EIIRIS staff share a large open-plan office on the third floor of the new research building for effective communication without walls and barriers.
EIIRIS is an extension of the current Global Center of Excellence (G-COE) “Frontiers of Intelligent Sensing” program.
And importantly, EIIRIS puts Toyohashi Tech on the world stage as a center for conducting innovative, world-class
interdisciplinary research. We welcome scientists and engineers from all over the world to join Toyohashi
Tech researchers at EIIRIS to test ideas, and create new paradigms based on electronics-inspired interdisciplinary
research.
