Most successful spin-off research from Multi-career program
2012.02.07
Most successful spin-off research from Multi-career program* (30 million R&D for home healthcare and Fukushima-type rescue robots) - The largest spin-off research from the multi-career program was my ACE class where I showed some of the robotics research I was doing with Professor Nonami's students. A member of my class, Myagmarbayar (Mika) Nergui, invited her supervisor, Professor Wenwei Yu to join in a proposal for home-healthcare robots. The students in the class included Mika, Sari Sugaya and Nanao Suzuki. The proposal was developed by Professor Yu, Professor/VP Kenzo Nonami, Professor Satoshi Inoue and I. It resulted ultimately in two projects total lying 30 million Yen for Home Healthcare & Fukushima-Type Rescue Robots. This research was funded by the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) and JST. Prof. Yu and VP/ Prof. Nonami filed the final winning proposal for home healthcare robots and Professor Haley teamed up with Virginia Tech and the University of Waterloo to obtain additional funding for Fukushima-Type rescue robots. This project for the rescue robots was won by my firm, Analytical Software Inc. where I am the President and my firm is the project manager of this development where we are enhancing the Packbot, the only robot currently, successfully operating inside Fukushima.
*Multi-career program Website: http://www.ccr.chiba-u.jp/multicareer/english/index-eng.html
Mark Haley,
Professor Chiba University
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