NTT Research and Development 2009 Review of Activities | Forum/Symposium/Event
The role that information communications should play in the advancement of the society and economy is of great importance. NTT has an objective to contribute to the development of information communications in Japan, and all around the world as well, by disseminating our research and development results. To achieve the objective, we are energetically developing the activities shown as follows.
- Announcing research results, exchanging research with other organizations
- Dissemination of R&D results through technology disclosures and other methods
- Standardization activities
2008 Symposiums/Forums Schedule (arranged chronologically)
| Event | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|
| NTT Communication Science Laboratories OpenHouse * Mirai-soron2008 |
May 29-30, 2008 | NTT Keihanna Building (Kyoto) |
| Tsukuba Forum 2008 | October 15-16, 2008 | NTT Tsukuba R&D Center Tsukuba International Congress Center |
| NTT Lecture for Citizens Transformation of Network Life by Cutting-Edge Technology |
October 29, 2008 | Yokosuka Arts Theatre |
| NTT Basic Research Laboratories Science Plaza 2008 |
November 21, 2008 | NTT Atsugi R&D Center |
| NTT R&D Open Lab 2009 | January 17-18, 2009 | NTT Musashino R&D Center |
| International Symposium on Nanoscale Transport and Technology 2009 (ISNTT2009) | January 20-23, 2009 | NTT Atsugi R&D Center |
| NTT R&D Forum 2009 | February 19-20, 2009 | NTT Musashino R&D Center |
NTT R&D Forum 2008
The theme of this year's NTT R&D Forum was "The NGN opens up a new chapter of communication service" and was put on as a joint effort by the three NTT laboratory groups. Held at the NTT Musashino R&D Center on February 19 and 20, the forum drew a good-sized crowd of 4,500 visitors who had an opportunity to view a wide range of R&D projects and working demonstrations.
Besides the keynote addresses, special lectures, presentations, and panel discussions, the achievements of NTT R&D were introduced from the viewpoint of three exhibit categories: "Themes of NGN services —including (1) Various services, and (2) Service elements," "Basic technology for support services," and "Innovative Technology section." The" Themes of NGN services" in particular were presented as a story that made the entire process of NGN service deployment clear and easy to understand. The NTT History Center of Technologies at Musashino was also opened up for the two days of the forum, and many enjoyed the exhibits which chronicle NTT's history all the way back to when the corporation was still a public monopoly (dendenkosha) and NTT's rich history of technological achievement.
This year's forum was a tremendous success for it gave the guests a chance to see the full range of R&D initiatives, and experience NTT's steady progress and achievements first hand. The forum is also extremely valuable to the company for the input andf eedback we receive from the guests regarding the services that they envision and expect.
- Satoshi Miura, President and CEO,
delivering the opening keynote address 
- Exhibition of "Themes of NGN services"
NTT CS Labs Open House * Mirai-soron 2008
NTT Communication Science Laboratories (NTT CS Labs) held an event "the NTT CS Labs Open House * Mirai-soron 2008" on May 29 and 30 at the NTT Keihanna Building, Kyoto, Japan. This event consisted of an open house and a series of lectures such as forums entitled "Mirai-soron." The open house presented exhibits of the latest research achievements and the Mirai-soron forums imagined and discussed our future.
The series of lectures started with an opening lecture by Dr. Yoshinobu TONOMURA, director of the laboratories, entitled "Communication of the Future with Sensing and Knowing to the Heart." This was followed by four other Mirai-soron forums: "Considering Communication Environment from the Human Point of View," "Future Child Care: What the Media and Science Can Do for It," "Communication Scene Analysis: Methods, Technologies, and Vision for the Future," and "Data Mining x Marketing: What Do We Need for Successful Research Incubation?"
Research exhibits were divided into ten categories: (1) The Environment of Intellect: The Future Communication Environment Making the Space Attractive, (2) Speech and Video Signal Processing Technology for Understanding Communication Scene: Multi-modal Communication Scene Analysis, (3) Realtime Identification of Media Content File: Audio/Video Fingerprint and Media Profiling Technology, (4) Technologies for Studying and Enjoying with Media Content around the World, (5) Building Language Resources for Understanding, (6) Data Mining Technologies for Finding and Visualizing Latent Structures from Relational Data, (7) Positive Applications of Fluctuations: Improvement of Information Transmission Using Random Phenomena, (8) Quantum Information Processing: Towards Ultra High Speed Computing, (9) New Trends in Formal Methods, and (10) The Elucidation of Brain Mechanisms and Its Application to Man-machine Interface Devices: Vision, Hearing, Touch, Action and Their Interaction. Two to four exhibits were included in each of these ten categories for a total of 32 exhibits altogether.
Close to 1,000 guests attended the NTT CS Labs Open House * Mirai-soron 2008 event giving the guests a chance to see the full depth and range of research being conducted at the labs, and giving us an opportunity to exchange opinions through discussions and to receive valuable feedback from the guests. Members of the press were also in attendance, and the event received extensive coverage in the media.
- Opening lecture by Dr. Yoshinobu Tonomura, director of the laboratories
- Research exhibits
Tsukuba Forum 2008
The year 2008 was the inaugural rollout of commercial NGN, thus marking the beginning of a new era of richer communications based on better quality and more reliable services. In this landmark year, the Tsukuba Forum, which has now become one of the most anticipated events of the fall season, addressed the theme "Access Networks: Support for a Robust Next-Generation Infrastructure and Secure Operating Environment."
Leading-edge optical access technologies incorporate contributions from many different sources: of course the efforts of NTT Access Network Service Systems Laboratories that hosted this year's event, but also numerous R&D advances from all the other NTT research laboratories, and many other companies in the NTT group and industry at large.All this year's events were well attended including the keynote speech and special lectures at the Tsukuba International Congress Center, the workshops orchestrated by the project manager, and the various technical sessions led by prominent engineers.
Distinctive features of this year's forum were the division into three technology sectors, and the special FTTH corner charged with introducing the exhibition hall. The joint exhibit by the operating companies in collaboration with the Japan Industrial Association for Telecommunications Equipment and Materials (JATEM, Zentsukyo) was also well received, and the display of actual equipment that visitors could handle and examine close-up proved to be a popular and practical introduction to network access equipment.
The forum not only provided an excellent overview of the latest R&D and trends at NTT Access Network Service Systems Laboratories, it also gave people a good idea of how access networks are likely to evolvein the years ahead.
- Shinichi Otake, President of NTT West Corporation, delivering the keynote address
- Exhibitionhallscene
Science Plaza 2008
Hosted by NTT Basic Research Laboratories (BRL), "Science Plaza 2008" was an open-house event held at NTT Atsugi R&D Center on Friday, November 21, 2008. Under the banner "Nanoscience Opens Up the Quantum World", the event introduced the latest research findings to a broad audience both inside and outside of NTT, and provided an excellent forum for having stimulating discussion with the attendees.
The lecture hall was crowded in the morning session for an interesting talk entitled "Stopping and Confining Light: Controlling Light with Photonic Crystals" by Dr. Masaya Notomi, Distinguished Technical Member, and Leader of the Photonic Nano-Structure Research Group at the BRL. In the afternoon session, Prof. Hiroyuki Sakaki, Vice-President of the Toyota Technological Institute, gave a thought-provoking special lecture on "Nano-Space Quantum Physics and the 21st Century World: Thoughts on How Science and Technology Should Proceed in the Years Ahead."
This year some 48 posters were presented detailing much of the recent work and latest research findings from researchers at NTT Basic Research Laboratries, Photonics Laboratories, and Microsystem IntegrationLaboratories. In addition, the facilities lab tour allowing visitors the rare chance to visit research laboratories including a clean room was a great crowd-pleaser.
- Prof. Hiroyuki Sakaki at the lectern
- Discussion at poster display
NTT R&D Open Lab 2009
Targeting recent graduates and potential new recruits, "NTT R&D Open Lab 2009" was hosted by three NTT laboratory groups around the theme "Understanding the Work of NTT Labs in 2 Days."
Held over the weekend of January 17 and 18, at NTT Musashino R&D Center, some 1,051 people turned out for the event and saw numerous examples of the R&D work done at NTT laboratories.
A wide range of events and activities were planned for the two-day fair including statements of corporate vision by directors of the three NTT laboratory groups, introductions with demonstrations of work done at the different labs, lectures on some of the latest cutting-edge technologies, informal sessions where younger engineers describing what it's like to work at NTT, roundtable discussions with researchers were interspersed with comic Monkey Chack routines familiar from the Chie no Warai website. Job recruiters and consultants were also on hand to chat with the graduates.
This open lab event provides an excellent opportunity for potential applicants to talk one-on-one with younger researchers who actually work at NTT, and especially when exposed to the dazzling demonstrations of NTT's impressive R&D achievements, the job fair has been highly effective at generating interest and recruiting new talent to work for NTT.
- Attendees learn about NTT future vision
- Demonstrations highlight latest research findings
