去る11月10日(金)、米国カリフォルニア州のスウィフト・エンジニアリング社(会長兼CEOヒロ松下氏)より、本学に特別講演が提供されました。同社は無人航空機や垂直離着陸機に関するシステムや技術において世界の先端を走っており、今回講演のメインパートを担当された副社長兼チーフサイエンティストのアンドリュー・ストリート氏からは、スライドや動画を交えながら、最先端技術が紹介され、かつそれらが今後、農業、マッピング測量、各種監視システムなど様々なマーケットやシーンで活用される可能性について語られました。
会の冒頭、KIC福岡賢二副学長からは、「この講演が必ず学生たちのモティベーションに繋がるはずだ」とのイントロダクションがありましたが、その期待通り、ICT技術とそれを使った課題解決を学ぶKICの学生らは、多くの気づきとインスピレーションを得た様子で、講演後の質疑応答では制限時間一杯まで質問が途絶えることはありませんでした。この尚、この質疑応答ではアンドリュー氏はもちろん、社長兼COOのリック・ハイス氏も積極的にご回答くださいました他、最後に会長兼CEOのヒロ松下氏からも、活発で有意義な議論であったと総括されました。通常ではめったに聴くことができない、貴重なご講演を誠に有難うございました。
A special lecture, titled “Autonomous Runway Independence”, was delivered by Mr Andrew Streett, the Vice President and Chief Scientist at Swift Engineering, CA, USA, at KIC on the 10th Nov. The welcome message was honoured by the Vice president of KIC Mr Kenji Fukuoka and he mentioned that the lecture would motivate the students to enhance their idea of areas in order to solve social issues in their own country by using ICT.
Swift Engineering is an innovative American engineering firm working on various products from racing cars to next-generation aviation and aerospace components. In this special lecture, Mr Andrew addressed the mainly three innovative products, UAS(Unmanned Aircraft System), UAV(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), and VTOL (Vertical Take-off and Landing). Distinguishing from the drones, these products are manipulated automatically, take off vertically, transit horizontally and so forth. With a swappable 1kg to 25 kg payload capacity and a 2 to 15-hour flight endurance, depending on the product, they can make the remote operations faster, more inexpensively, safely and efficiently than any other currently available products in the market. Also, Mr Andrew talked about the application of these cutting-edge technologies into the existing and as-yet-unrecognized industries such as agriculture, mapping surveying, and surveillance.
After delivering his lecture to all of the attendants, Mr Andrew opened the floor for their questions in approximately 50 minutes. Since KIC has the core value that all of the students should be capable of tackling on social issues with the application of ICT and innovation and they are trained to do so through our graduate-level education, a lot of questions regarding the applications and their business model had been avidly asked from the floor. In this vigorous discussion, not only Mr Andrew but also Mr Rick Heise, the President and Chief Strategy Officer at Swift Engineering has been actively involved to answer the questions. It seemed like that all of the attendants in this lecture enjoyed the time and learned a lot from their innovative products.
At the end, Mr Hiro Matsushita the Chairman and CEO of the Swift Engineering made the ending remarks and showed his gratitude for their engagement in the active discussion.