Objectives of the “Humanware Innovation Program”
Information technology has developed remarkably in terms of both hardware and software. People and machines are now closely interconnected through information networks which together form a complex and dynamic large-scale network. As a result a range of unpredictable problems emerge in interaction among humans and between humans, machines, and the environment. In addition, information systems puts a growing burden on both humans and the environment.
One urgent challenge in this rapidly changing information society is the development of humanware: information technology that employs the same mechanisms as are found in flexible, sustainable, and robust biosystems to create an information society attuned to both humans and the environment.
In order to develop expertise related to humanware, it is essential to comprehend the “biological dynamics” of organisms that adapt and evolve in dynamically changing natural environment. It is also necessary to understand the “information dynamics” required to construct an information society attuned to both humans and the environment, and “cognitive dynamics,” the dynamics of higher brain functions that generate new information.
This degree program provides intensive interdisciplinary studies (Seido Jukugi : in-depth discussion) to foster leaders who can construct flexible, robust, and sustainable systems that support an ever-changing social environment by introducing an entirely new concept: humanware. The program fosters a self-directed approach to identifying problems and to organizing and leading group work to address those problems, founded on an integrated understanding of the three types of dynamics mentioned above. Graduates will make significant contributions to shifting the direction of innovation by constructing social networks that can recover autonomously in the event of a disaster, and developing human-oriented information technology that encourages close communication and builds new communities beyond generations and differences of position and philosophy.