The DAIKIN-UTokyo Lab. held its 1st Collaborative Research Forum at the University of Tokyo’s Koshiba Hall on Wednesday, May 11, 2022 as a hybrid event with some participants present at Koshiba Hall in-person and others participating online.
A total of 195 people from both the University of Tokyo (“UTokyo”) and Daikin Industries, Ltd. (“Daikin”) attended the forum (121 from UTokyo and 74 from Daikin / 70 on-site participants and 125 online participants). Of the 17 social cooperation programs and 56 joint research projects of the DAIKIN-UTokyo Lab., which have produced some results through the past three years of activities, nine social cooperation programs and three joint research projects made a total of 18 presentations (12 oral presentations and six poster presentations) at the forum. Lively Q&A sessions and discussions also took place during the forum. The participants from the two organizations interacted actively with each other, as well as among the researchers, during breaks at the venue and even after the end of the forum.

Nearly 90% of the respondents to the post-event survey said that they were satisfied with the forum. The following are some of the feedback received:　
– By listening to the presentations on themes in related technological fields, I was able to understand the individual themes and at the same time get the whole picture.
– The lively Q&A sessions were conducted from a unique perspective of professors from UTokyo. I gained a deeper understanding just by listening to the questions and answers.
– I was impressed by the lively presentations by young faculty members and researchers.
– This event is an ideal opportunity for related faculty members and Daikin engineers to meet and exchange information. I hope that it will be held regularly in the future.

We used a digital signage system for the poster presentations to accommodate the hybrid nature of the event. In relation to this, we received comments from both on-site and online participants that it would have been better if there was a way for them to see what each other was doing. We will take your feedback into consideration for the management of future forums. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we decided to hold the collaborative research forum onsite with sufficient infection prevention measures in place, and as a result, it allowed 70 people to participate in-person. The lively exchanges that took place at the venue gave us a sense of the possibility of further joint research and reminded us of the importance of face-to-face information exchanges and discussions. We would like to thank all the participants and all those who helped make this event possible.

Secretariat of the DAIKIN-UTokyo Lab.