In the April Plenary Meeting, an orientation of this year's Leading program activities, reports of both the progress towards Summer School 2017 and the Spring School 2017, recent reports regarding last year's "Creative Research Project", and recent internships, were discussed.

Here is a short summary of each topic discussed:

Progress towards the Summer School 2017 "Cultural Exchange"

In this year's Summer School 2017 "Cultural Exchange" held in Thailand, students of the Leading program introduce Japanese culture to local students. The participating students were divided into four groups, each presenting a different topic related to Japanese culture. During the April Plenary Meeting, each group presented their topic and current progress.

Report of Spring School 2017

Abraham Israel Monrroy Cano (1st inaugural class student) presented the details of the Spring School 2017, held in Mexico City from March 20th to 24th. It included workshops with local students about cultural exchange, as well as visiting the offices of abroad Japanese companies, among other things.

Latest report of "Creative Research Project"

In the "Creative Research Project" program, students from different fields of expertise form groups and start research projects together. The choice of research topics is both proposed and evaluated by students. Last year, topics by Bao Naren and Yusuke Hattori (3rd inaugural class students) were chosen for 1-year research projects.

• Title：SkinAPP Beauty Project
  Members：Naren Bao、Jie Yin、Chenxi Tu、Hong Xu、Yang Ying
  Abstract:
  In this project, the goal was to develop an application which provides skin care support. Using machine learning algorithms, the application is able to analyze an input image of skin. Based on this data, the application can give feedback on the skin condition. The improvement of accuracy, better user feedback, and exploration of further business applications are open for future work.
• Title：The Sake Project 〜Create the best-selling Sake〜
  Members：Yusuke Hattori, Miho Toyama, Hyuntai Chin, Yuki Kitsukawa, Ryosuke Onose
  Abstract: ：
  In this project, the goal was to improve the automated quality control during the production of Japanese Sake. After installing sensors in real Sake breweries, different approaches to collect and analyze the data were tested and evaluated. Based on this research, a special batch of Sake was produced. A user study performed with students and university staff showed that there is a noticeable flavor difference compared to previously produced Sake. Starting mid-2017, the newly produced Sake will be available for sale.

Report of internships

Kohei Isechi (2nd inaugural class student) participated in an internship from March to the beginning of April at the KDDI Research Inc. He presented an outline of his work and progress at KDDI. During his internship, he could feel a difference between performing research at a public university and at a private enterprise. He was able to acquire cutting-edge knowledge in his field of study, which will be valuable for his future career.