Accuracy Improvement of Mineral and Geothermal Resources Exploration by Increasing Reflectance Spectral and Spatial Properties Information of Satellite Image Data

Speaker

Prof. Katsuaki Koike

Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University

Bio

Katsuaki Koike received a BS (1986), MS (1988), and PhD (1995) in Mineral Science and Technology (Engineering and Mathematical Geology) from Kyoto University, Japan. In 1988, he became a research assistant in Engineering Geology at Kumamoto University and in 2005 a professor in the field of Hydro- and Geosphere Environmental Sciences. He is a professor in the Laboratory of Environmental Geosphere Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering at Kyoto University from 2011 and an honorary professor at Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB, Indonesia). He has participated in many research projects including an international geothermal project with Indonesia from 2014. His interests cover Mathematical modeling for resource distributions using geostatistics and geoinformatics, Remote sensing for resource exploration, and Applied geophysics and geochemistry for integrated imaging of geological structures. He is especially interested in using these methods for the spatial and genetic classification of mineral, geothermal and groundwater resources. He has been awarded best paper prizes from the Japan Society of Remote Sensing; the Mining and Materials Processing Institute of Japan (MMIJ); the Japan Society of Geoinformatics, etc.; ITB Award; the Frontier Research Prize of the Japanese Committee for Rock Mechanics; and the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology: Awards for Science and Technology, Research Category. He served as the president of the Japan Society of Geoinformatics, a vice president of MMIJ, a councilor of International Association for Mathematical Geosciences (IAMG), etc.

Perspectives of operational weather radars in Japan heading to climate change adaptation

Speaker

Prof. Eiichi Nakakita

Professor, Emeritus Kyoto University

Bio

Eiichi Nakakita is a Special supporter to the president and Professor emeritus of Kyoto university and previous director of Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University. He is also an adviser of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and a member of River and a member of the Council for Infrastructure of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism. He won research awards from Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Japan Society of Hydrology and Water Resource, and Meteorological Society of Japan.

After graduating from the Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University in 1985, he worked as an assistant and associate professor at DPRI, and associate professor at the Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, and finally as professor and director since 2004 and 2020, respectively. He is a doctor of engineering. During this time, he concurrently served as a visiting associate professor at the University of Iowa and a visiting research professor at the National University of Singapore.

His specialty is radar hydrology and hydrometeorology. He has been engaged in heavy rain / flood forecasting using weather radar and assessment of the impact of climate change on the disaster environment for many years, and is also engaged in disaster investigations at home and abroad such as Hurricane Katrina. He was also the chairman of the Japan Society of Civil Engineers Hydraulic Engineering Committee. He has been leading disaster prevention research that combines civil engineering and meteorology.

Speaker

Prof. Avik Bhattacharya

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Synthetic Aperture Radar processing for GPR

Speaker

Prof. Motoyuki Sato

Professor, Emeritus Tohoku University

Bio

Motoyuki Sato received the B.E., M.E degrees, and Dr. Eng. degree in information engineering from Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, in 1980, 1982 and 1985, respectively. Since 1997 he has been a professor at Tohoku University until his retirement in 2023, and currently he is Professor Emeritus of Tohoku University and Guest professor at Higashi Nippon International University. He is CEO of ALISys Co., Ltd, which he established in 2019 His current interests include transient electromagnetics and antennas, radar polarimetry, ground penetrating radar (GPR), borehole radar, electromagnetic induction sensing, GB-SAR and MIMO radar systems. He developed GPR sensors for humanitarian demining, and they are used in mine affected countries including Cambodia and Ukraine. He served the technical chair of GPR1996 in Sendai and the general chair of IGARSS2011 Sendai-Vancouver. He is a life fellow of IEEE and a fellow of IEICE.

The current status of ALOS-4

Speaker

Mr. Yukihiro Kankaku

ALOS-4 Project Manager, Space Technology Directorate I
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

Bio

Yukihiro Kankaku (Hyogo JAPAN, 21 February 1979) received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in electrical and electronics engineering from Chiba University, Japan, in 2001 and 2003, respectively. He developed the L-band SAR sensor onboard ALOS-2. After that, he also developed the L-band SAR sensor for ALOS-4 and is currently the project manager of ALOS-4 and mission manager for ALOS-2in Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Infrastructure for Sustainable Future

Speaker

Mr. Keizo Fujiwara

Executive Officer, General Manager of Solution Development Dept. Synspective Inc.

Bio

Keizo joined Synspective in April 2022 to apply his expertise and create innovations in the space industry. He was appointed Executive Officer and General Manager of Solutions in October 2022. Prior to joining Synspective, he worked for Microsoft, where he was responsible for the development and launch of many of the company’s online products. He later became the Senior Program Manager of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Solutions and Services, overseeing the development and commercialization of AI models and related systems. He was also instrumental in popularizing pioneering chatbots in the Japanese market. Keizo studied electrical engineering at a technical college. After completing his BA, he completed his MS in electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Irvine.