In the April Plenary Meeting, the opening and graduation ceremonies, the programs' orientation session, the final report on the Industry-Academia Creative Research Project 2017, and a report on the Global Challenge II, took place.

Here is a short summary of each topic discussed:

Opening Ceremony & Graduation Ceremony

During the ceremonies, enrollment certificates, diplomas, and honorary awards for the QE1 were given to qualifying students. Hongjin Chung (2nd inaugural class) graduated the program early, making him the first student to finish this Leading Program. The program welcomed five new students into the 5th inaugural class. Additionally, two students entered the program midway into the 3rd inaugural class. Every student expressed their resolutions for the upcoming program.

Final report on the Industry-Academia Creative Research Project 2017

In the Industry-Academia Creative Research Project, students from different research fields form groups to do research together. Each group proposes a research topic, which is evaluated by the faculty members. Afterwards, selected proposals become research projects. In the last term, the proposals by Etsutaro Kamino (4th inaugural class,) Ken Matsushita (2nd inaugural class,) and Hatem Abdelhameed Darweesh (1st inaugural class) were selected to perform a one year research project.

• Title：Effective advertisement system using attention time
  Members：Etsutaro Kamino、Syunya Seiya、Ryosuke Onose、Soohyun Nam、Ayaka Hirukawa
  Abstract:
  This project aimed at creating efficient advertisement methods, targeting attributes like the consumers age and gender, during idle time like waiting for a bus or subway. They developed an advertisement medium which, after undergoing the approval process of the Ethics Committee, has been used in experiments near the library. They collected and analyzed data to further improve the system.
• Title：Intelligently Building HD Road Network Maps for Autonomous Cars
  Members：Hatem Abdelhameed Darweesh, Naren Bao, Hong Xu, Nozomu Ohashi, Hyuntai Chin, Daiki Hayashi
  Abstract: ：
  This project aimed at creating HD Road Network Maps for realizing future autonomous driving applications. They commercialized the idea and created a business model, improving on issues of existing digital map creation. They reported that they could improve technical aspects and processing speed of the approach and aim at further improving the systems' performance.
• Title：Legal AI ~Legal comment system for contracts~
  Members：Ken Matsushita, Takumi Ban, Takahiro Yamakoshi
  Abstract: ：
  This project aimed at improving efficiency when processing legal contracts by incorporating natural language processing and machine learning. The group cooperated with law offices to create a system which can improve work routines and assist with word choices automatically. Last January, there was a lecture on the developed system "Legal AI" at the JP Tower.

Global Challenge II

In the Global Challenge II, students visit a top-tier international research institution. While participating in competitive research, they can practice the communication and interaction with international researchers. This time, Hirokazu Iida (2nd inaugural class) reported on his experiences and results from participating the Global Challenge II at the Simon Fraser University, Canada. By interacting with researchers from other universities and enterprises, he could achieve new research results.