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Hiroshi Ishii, the man best known for his ideas on "tangible bits and radical atoms," and for pushing the boundaries of human-computer interaction (HCI), was at Tohoku University for a special lecture on December 3.

Ishii, who directs the Tangible Media Group at the MIT Media Lab, is a strong proponent of trans-disciplinary research as key to innovation. The way he sees it, art asks the questions, while science explains it; and design articulates the solution that technology enables. "If scientists can translate scientific ideas and innovation to a poem, painting or sculpture, or a sculptor can analyse the clay using physics, that's very beautiful."

While on a tour of Katahira campus, he spoke of Tohoku University being like a one stop shop, offering many different disciplines which students should take advantage of. "Tohoku University has everything. The only thing missing might be the system to encourage or require students to choose not only one path, but to have a balance of two or three different ones."

He later expanded on that point in his lecture, titled "Be Artistic and Analytic, Be Poetic and Pragmatic."

He told the audience of about 250 faculty, staff and students, that despite the recent global emphasis on STEM subjects - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - a truly innovative vision can only be achieved if science and technology is combined with art, design and the humanities. "Technology eventually goes obsolete, but vision survives beyond a person's life."

He shared videos of his work and highlighted the lives of two famous Japanese from whom he found inspiration - Japanese mountaineer Nobukazu Kuriki, who died in 2018 while attempting, for the eighth time, to reach the summit of Mount Everest, and Kenji Miyazawa, a poet and author who channeled the grief from his sister's death into great works of literature.

Ishii likened being creative to climbing an unexplored mountain even at great personal risk. He urged young people not to be afraid of adversity because "creativity is best fostered through struggles in both competitive and cooperative environments...hunger and passion are ultimate sources of creative energy."

Following the lecture, Ishii participated in a lively panel discussion with Professor Hajime Mushiake of the Graduate School of Medicine and Professor Mitsuyuki Nakao of the Graduate School of Information Sciences.

In the spirit of the lecture, a new interactive tool called Slido was used during the question and answer session. Members of the audience typed their questions into an app on their phones, allowing the panelists to see the questions on a big screen in real time. The panelists, moderated by Vice President Noriko Osumi of the Department of Developmental Neuroscience at the Graduate School of Medicine, then chose the questions they wanted to answer.

A popular question was how Japan can acquire a trans-disciplinary mindset. Ishii acknowledged that it would not be easy, "but if we can master one discipline in depth, every other discipline we touch, would open new doors, new ideas and new opportunities. An abundance of intellectual curiosity is the fuel needed to cross multiple disciplines."

Asked how he maintains his boundless energy and enthusiasm, he replied with a Japanese proverb: 一期一会, which means "one meeting, one opportunity." He said, "human beings have a limited amount of time on Earth, so if we want to make our vision or ideas remembered after our death, we need to take every opportunity to express ourselves."

Mushiake said he was moved by Ishii's passionate anecdotes and overwhelmed by his innovative product designs. "He was really open-minded and seemed to enjoy his discussions with the students and young researchers. I really hope his talk will ignite the fire of creativity here at Tohoku University."