About us
Welcome message from the head of the department
We live in an era of major transformations and challenges, and responding to them requires interdisciplinary wisdom and creativity.
This department was established by integrating multiple fields of engineering amid a current of reform and creation at the University of Tokyo. Combining different elements of engineering to build systems that are harmonious as a whole and bring innovative value to society—this is the mission of Systems Innovation. Rather than a mere assemblage of specialized knowledge, Systems Innovation takes a panoramic view of our relationships with society and nature and connects knowledge across disciplines. This comprehensive perspective is the very essence of “Systems Innovation.” Learning here fosters the ability to deepen one’s specialization while linking different fields to create new solutions.
In recent years, progress in science and technology has advanced at an unprecedented pace, greatly transforming our lives and society. In particular, artificial intelligence (AI) has reached realms unimaginable only a few years ago. Among these, generative AI—technology that can automatically generate text, designs, and programs—has spread rapidly, and its adoption in industry is accelerating. Meanwhile, communications technology is also at a major turning point. With 5G standardized, the next generation, 6G, is already in view. When ultra‑high‑speed communications and ultra‑low latency are realized, the fusion of cyberspace and physical space—namely Society 5.0 advocated by Japan—will become even more of a reality. Furthermore, in non‑terrestrial networks (NTN), the realization of global connectivity integrating the ground and space through low‑Earth‑orbit satellite communication systems and HAPS is progressing. The potential of quantum computing is also becoming more tangible. Thanks to achievements in stabilizing quantum bits and scaling up, practical application is coming into view. The year 2025 is the United Nations‑designated “International Year of Quantum Science and Technology,” and expectations are rising that innovations in quantum technology will transform science and industry at their foundations. In this department, we place emphasis not only on research into advanced technologies such as AI, communications, and quantum, but also on building mechanisms that leverage them to solve social issues.
This department also faces in earnest the fact that the relationship between humanity and the Earth is undergoing major change. Extreme weather events such as record‑breaking heavy rainfall and heat waves show that human activity is placing a significant burden on the global environment. In the face of this reality, the international community is working in earnest toward the realization of a sustainable and resilient society, making serious efforts to expand renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Around the world, renewable energy is being newly introduced and now accounts for much of the expansion in power generation capacity. What is required of us is the realization of sustainability as a system that transforms society as a whole.
In addition to environmental challenges, our social systems are also facing great trials. The spread of digital services such as remote education, telework, and online healthcare is accelerating. Geopolitical tensions and conflicts have affected the supply of resources, food, and energy, revealing the vulnerabilities of global interdependence. Contemporary society is more complex and interdependent than ever. Climate change, public health, and geopolitical risks are intertwined, and they cannot be solved by a single technology or policy. Therefore, system design that comprehensively encompasses technology, the economy, the environment, and society is necessary. This is precisely the role of Systems Innovation.
In such an era, it is an urgent task for our country to cultivate leaders who connect science and technology with society. What is needed are individuals who combine deep expertise with a broad perspective. For problems that cannot be solved by a mere aggregation of specialists, there is a need for the ability to guide collaboration from a cross‑disciplinary perspective and lead us to the right overall solutions. The mission of this department lies precisely in cultivating such individuals. Graduate school is the final intensive training ground before entering society. While cherishing dreams and aspirations, we seek to cultivate individuals who, while deepening their specialties, sharpen their sensitivity to social issues, grow into trusted people, and maintain an attitude of returning their achievements to society.
Best wishes,
Akihiro Nakao, PhD
Head of the department and professor,
Department of Systems Innovation
Department of Systems Innovation
New Horizons for Education and Research
In modern days, multifaceted challenges involving humans, artificial objects and nature require attention and more versatile personnel are requisite. We at Department of Systems Innovation, based on systems science to comprehend phenomena from multilateral and panoramic viewpoints, are committed to implementing both education and research on principles and methodology to materialize innovative systems for better harmony between nature and human society through integrating engineering knowledge that has been subdivided into specialized areas.
Creation of New Values
Systematic ways of thinking to comprehend phenomena from multilateral and panoramic viewpoints are becoming increasingly important in modern days as we need to find solutions for sprouting various challenges in our society where we see globalization accelerating and complexity growing deeper. Engineering of today is expected to make a clear departure from a conventional perception of engineering such as extraction and analysis of basic elements of the subject matter. What is expected in modern society is having solutions presented for challenges in our society such as environmental issues, realization of safe and secure society and many other tasks. These solutions need to happen while trying to integrate processes with due consideration for the relationship or interaction among factors as well as putting together our knowledge and technology previously obtained in specialized fields. For instance, we have a challenge to harmonize nature, society and technology. This challenge calls for more commitment in factors around human-made objects such as humanware, management, service or social system in addition to other familiar human-made industrial product objects. We are seeing more importance in considering the impact of human-made objects to our society as well as their installation method with more economic-soundness while continuing to pursue better design and production processes for each human-made object. The expectation is the possibility for creating unrivaled, multidisciplinary values by overall redesigning the mechanisms for society and the environment but doing so not only for individual product values.
Exploring New Fields
For engineering to meet the expectations of our society and to be more extensively applied, we at Department of Systems Innovation wish to explore new engineering fields toward the goal of functional fusion of natural systems, human-made objects and social systems based upon integrated knowledge of engineering as well as system thinking.
