Asanobu Kitamoto

Asanobu KITMOTO earned his Ph.D. in electronic engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1997. He is now Director of Center for Open Data in the Humanities (CODH), Joint Support-Center for Data Science Research (DS), Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS), Professor of National Institute of Informatics, and SOKENDAI (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies). His main technical interest is in image processing and pattern recognition, but he also works on developing data-driven science in a wide range of disciplines such as humanities, earth science and environment, and disaster reduction. He received Japan Media Arts Festival Jury Recommended Works, IPSJ Yamashita Award, and others. He is also interested in trans-disciplinary collaboration for the promotion of open science.
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I am interested in developing "data-driven science," or an approach to create value from analysis of large scale data, in various academic disciplines. My goal is to discover new knowledge or create new communities through the construction of relevant research infrastructure including large-scale databases by developing data analysis, search, and visualization algorithms based on visual and spatial information processing technology adapted to the characteristics of target data. For example, in the field of meteorology, I built one of the largest databases about data related to typhoon and meteorological disasters from the past to the current with seamless search and access to heterogeneous and massive data, which is now considered as real-time disaster information service based on big data technology, attracting a large number of people. In addition, I have been extending the data-driven science approach to a wide range of disciplines such as global environment and humanities domains, and from now on, I am planning to apply it to research infrastructure for humanities as a part of the activity in Center for Open Data in the Humanities (CODH) at Joint Support-Center for Data Science Research, Research Organization of Information and Systems (ROIS). This kind of research is related to “open science” movement, which promotes openness and sharing of scholarly information across disciplines as leverage to transform the style of academic research, so I am also involved in research projects based on trans-disciplinary collaboration.