The Kyoto College of Guraduate School of Informatics (KCGI) will hold a workshop on August 8, 2025, titled "Let's make a movie of the story of Mars Settlers using Generative AI and Digital Mandalas!was held at the Hyakumanben Campus of KCGI Kyoto, where participating junior high and high school students experienced the results of the graduate school's research.
This workshop was held as part of the "Hirameki☆Tokimeki Science: Welcome to the University Laboratory - KAKENHI" program, which allows elementary, junior high, and high school students to directly experience cutting-edge research results conducted at universities and research institutes under the "KAKENHI" program sponsored by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (KAKENHI).
At the beginning of the lecture, Professor Aoki talked about what motivated him to become a researcher and his efforts to promote astronomy education, hoping that young people will become interested in research and feel the joy of "getting it".He then explained what and how generative AI is doing and how we must respond to it, and introduced digital Mandala, a platform under development to support learning in the AI age.
In the workshop, the participants were divided into groups, and each group started by showing the images they had brought and explaining why they had chosen the images they had brought.The participants were very serious, as they were required to confirm the environment of Mars, not merely to imagine it, and to show it clearly based on rational reasons.We considered not only the essential conditions of life, such as the environment, including temperature and air quality, food and water, and how to secure a power source, but also the recreational activities that we need to enjoy our lives.The walls of the "Innovation Room," which was designed and set up as a place to generate new ideas, were filled with ideas.Then, after inputting the discussion into the digital Mandala, the AI wrote out the story and further modified it to create a story that brought together everyone's ideas.
During the presentation, each group explained the concept of the story and viewed the AI-generated video from the story.From the same starting point, each group produced a completely different story and applauded each other loudly.Participating junior and senior high school students commented, "I was glad I could enjoy learning," "The creator's humanity is reflected more than I expected," and "I thought I would like to do research myself in the future.At the closing ceremony, each student was handed a "Future Doctorate" by KCGI President Yoichi Terashita.