Labs in University of Tsukuba, College of Information Science, School of Informatics, College of Media Arts, Science and Technology

0 student voices

The lab explores the metaverse through visual and haptic media technologies.

The Phygital Media Lab studies virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), the metaverse, haptic interfaces, and more. The lab sees the metaverse as made up of three components—platforms, interfaces, and content—and aims to realize a future in which people are freed from physical and spatiotemporal constraints. A faculty member of the lab holds a cross appointment at Cluster, Inc., and the lab also conducts research using "cluster," the metaverse platform operated by that company. The lab's website introduces it under the name "Metaverse Media Lab," which the lab adopted when it was renamed in fiscal 2024.

#Metaverse #VR and AR #Haptic interfaces

0 student voices

The lab designs technologies that support interactions between people and between people and AI.

The Hybrid Social Interaction Lab studies how new digital technologies affect interpersonal relationships and social ties. Building on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC), and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), the lab combines insights from psychology, communication studies, and information science. "Hybrid" in the lab's name refers to communicating in both English and Japanese, working across both online and offline settings, and designing human-AI collaboration in addition to human-human interaction. Through system development and mixed-methods research, the lab aims to build mechanisms that support meaningful interactions for individuals and between people in a digital society.

#HCI #CSCW #Human-AI collaboration

0 student voices

The lab studies the design of network protocols and the performance evaluation of communication systems.

The Computer Network Lab studies the design of network protocols and the performance evaluation of communication systems. In the faculty introductions of the College of Media Arts, Science and Technology, the lab is listed as a lab in the field of Internet Science. Recently, the lab has been working on reducing power consumption of enterprise networks, flow distribution in SDN, detection of DoH traffic, and other topics. Associate Professor Shigetomo Kimura is also listed as a cooperating faculty member in the College of Information Science.

#Network protocols #Performance evaluation of communication systems #Information networks

0 student voices

The lab studies how information spreads on social media by analyzing networks.

The Social Network Lab studies the mechanisms of a complex society by focusing on the connections between people. The lab analyzes large-scale data from the Web and social media to investigate how information flows and spreads. Its research topics also include identifying influencers and methods for curbing the spread of misinformation such as fake news. For fourth-year undergraduate graduation research, the lab accepts students from the College of Media Arts, Science and Technology and the College of Information Science.

#Network science #Computational social science #Social network analysis

0 student voices

A lab that uses computers to calculate mathematical expressions and solve wasan (traditional Japanese mathematics) geometry problems.

The Computer Algebra Lab studies computer algebra, which is the algorithms for handling mathematical expressions on computers, and its applications. One application is research that revisits computational geometry problems from wasan (traditional Japanese mathematics) and solves them again with modern computer algebra. For example, for polygons inscribed in a circle, the lab derives by computation formulas that express the radius and area of the circumscribed circle in terms of the side lengths. In the course "Theory of Computer Algebra Systems" in the School of Informatics, College of Media Arts, Science and Technology, students learn algebraic computation algorithms using computer algebra software, and their application to computational geometry.

#Computer algebra #Computational geometry #Cyclic polygons

0 student voices

A lab that uses metadata to manage and preserve information resources on the internet.

The Metadata Lab works on research using metadata in order to distribute and manage the wide variety of information resources on the internet. Metadata is "data about data," and the lab's website explains it by comparing it to the label on a can. The lab aims to attach metadata to digital content so that its contents remain understandable one year, ten years, and 100 years from now, making access and management easy. The lab welcomes students who are interested in the idea of "getting hands-on and making something!" Students who want to be assigned to the lab must have an interview with a faculty member.

#Metadata #Digital archives #Linked Open Data

0 student voices

A lab that designs hybrid intelligence, which combines human and AI knowledge.

The Hybrid Intelligence Design Lab aims to establish a science and technology of designing "hybrid intelligence," which combines AI, humans, and big data. The lab's stated goal is to solve difficult problems facing humanity, such as disaster prevention, health, education, the environment, hunger, and poverty, by bringing together the intelligence of people and computers. Led by its students, the lab develops Crowd4U, a crowdsourcing platform, and carries out research that uses it. The lab's website also introduces it under the name "Morishima-Ito Lab."

#Crowdsourcing #Human computation #Integrated intelligence

0 student voices

A lab that explores the mechanisms of databases and information retrieval.

The Data Systems Engineering Lab studies implementation technologies for next-generation database systems, as well as theory and applications that support information retrieval. Its listed research areas are database systems, knowledge base systems, educational systems in networked environments, information retrieval, and knowledge discovery. The faculty's research topics include efficient search methods for high-dimensional data, structuring information based on conceptual relationships, and knowledge discovery. In the College of Media Arts, Science and Technology, the lab is listed under the field "information management, sharing, retrieval, and discovery on network media."

#Database systems #Information retrieval #Knowledge discovery

0 student voices

A lab that explores how language comes to be by studying communication between AI agents.

The Multi-Agent Learning and Language Understanding Lab researches the question "what exactly is language?" from a computational perspective. Within the framework of multi-agent reinforcement learning, the lab builds systems in which multiple machine-learning agents acquire communication from scratch, and analyzes the conditions and mechanisms under which it becomes language-like. As ways of approaching this question, the lab also studies learning methods that promote the establishment of cooperation and norms, and methods for interpreting the internal mechanisms of AI. In April 2026, the lab changed its name from "Machine Learning and Language Understanding Lab" to "Multi-Agent Learning and Language Understanding Lab." For graduation research, the lab accepts students from the College of Media Arts, Science and Technology and the College of Knowledge and Library Sciences.

#Multi-agent reinforcement learning #Emergent communication #Social dilemmas

0 student voices

The lab is also introduced as the Fusion Intelligence Design Lab and the Morishima-Ito Lab.

FusionComp Lab is a University of Tsukuba lab that is also introduced under the names Fusion Intelligence Design Lab and Morishima-Ito Lab. Doctoral, master's, and fourth-year undergraduate students belong to the lab, under faculty members including a Professor, an Assistant Professor, and a Project Assistant Professor. The lab's website also has pages for projects, research achievements, and news.