The "Future Environment Laboratory" established by Kyoto College of Computer Science (KCGI) and Kyoto Computer Gakuin (KCG) in collaboration with Nihon Unisys, a major IT service company, held an "Idea Workshop & Hackathon" at KCGI Kyoto Station Satellite and KCG Kyoto Station School on January 27 and 28, 2018.In this contest-style event, KCG students were divided into teams and demonstrated their creativity by making full use of technology while learning the design method of human-centered design for practical situations that companies tend to face.Staff from the Future Environment Lab, including Nihon Unisys and KCG Group faculty members, provided support.
In preparation for the event, the students had the opportunity to receive guidance from Ms. Yuko Sakamoto, an HCD-Net certified Human-Centered Design expert from Nihon Unisys, on Human-Centered Design, a method for understanding users deeply through interviews and behavioral observations, and designing solutions that are close to the users.
(Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo), a video production company that has handled many commercials for large corporations, played the role of the user.After an introduction of the company by Yomitsu Odagami, Director and General Manager of the Creative Division, and Yusuke Watanabe, Producer, they explained to the students about their work, touching on the flow of video production, the composition of the staff and their respective roles.
The students formed a team of three or four people, and at the idea workshop on the 27th, they competed to set up a problem and an idea to solve it, and the winning team was selected. At the hackathon on the 28th, the team members reassembled and worked on the implementation of the winning idea from the first day.Each team worked on their tasks in a serious but friendly manner.
The judging criteria are: for the idea, whether the user would be happy with the system, whether the point of view for setting up the problem is good, and whether the solution idea has a sense of the future; for the implementation, whether the idea is realized, whether the system is easy to operate, and whether the design and functions have a sense of the future.In addition, the key point is to make a presentation to the client about the ideas that the team has developed and the contents of the deliverables.The students did their best to explain their team's performance and appeal points to HAT.The winning team in each of the idea and implementation categories received a cash prize from Hutt.The participating students were able to experience an environment and atmosphere similar to that of an IT company, and seemed to feel that they were able to acquire even more practical skills.
In February 2017, the KCG Group concluded an agreement on academic and research cooperation and industry-university collaboration with the General Technology Research Institute of Nihon Unisys, with the aim of fostering the next generation of IT personnel through industry-university collaboration.The students, who will be the leaders of the IT industry in the future, will use their flexible ideas and creativity to conduct a variety of research and academic collaborations with researchers from IT companies.We plan to hold various events in the future in which many students can participate.
