Round-table Talk by Professors at the Faculty and Graduate School of Social Data Science
October 3, 2022
After a long period of preparations, the Faculty and Graduate School of Social Data Science will at last open in April 2023. We brought together the professors at the Center for the Promotion of Social Data Science Education and Research to discuss their perceptions of prospective students, human resources to train, and the future of the Faculty and Graduate School of Social Data Science.
Toshiaki Watanabe, Professor and Center Director
Field of study: Statistics
Research: Econometric analysis of finance using Bayesian statistics
Naohiro Shichijo, Professor and Center Deputy Director
Field of study: Materials science, science and technology policies
Research: Data-driven analysis of complex phenomena in engineering and society (science and technology policies, scientometrics, computation materials science, management of technology)
Chihiro Shimizu, Professor
Field of study: Economic measurement
Research: Producing economic statistics using big data from government and private sectors
Atsushi Hiyama, Professor
Field of study: Human augmentation engineering, mixed reality, robotics
Research: ICT platforms for facilitating social participation by diverse human resources to enrich the super-aged society, construction and social implementations of VR systems to activate mind and body
Yoshimasa Uematsu, Associate Professor
Field of study: Statistics
Research: Developing methods to analyze large-scale economic data
Ryo Kato, Associate Professor
Field of study: Marketing science
Research: Marketing analysis using complex statistical models combining diverse data
Atsushi Keyaki, Associate Professor
Field of study: Information access technologies
Research: Developing technologies for information retrieval, information recommendations, question-and-answer, and dialog systems to present the information users are looking for
Shinichiro Shirota, Associate Professor
Field of study: Statistics
Research: Using Bayesian statistics and spatial statistics
Susumu Nagayama, Associate Professor
Field of study: Business administration
Research: Creativity, Concepts, Well-being
Haruaki Fukuda, Associate Professor
Field of study: Cognitive science
Research: Clarifying human cognitive functions through the information science approach
Hirotsugu Seike, Research Associate
Field of study: Informatics/information networks
Research: Performance/security evaluation and real-world applications of blockchain and other distributed systems
Q1: What kind of students are you looking for?
Watanabe: Hitotsubashi University is a university for the social sciences, in other words, the humanities, but the Faculty of Social Data Science will add a science component. There will be plenty of opportunities to learn and use mathematics after enrolling, so I would like to have students who are at the very least not afraid of mathematics. We have appended the term “social” to signify data science premised on social science applications. To take stock prices as an example, I would like to have students who are not only interested in modeling the fluctuations and describing phenomena in mathematical terms, but who also take an interest in the economic context of stock market fluctuations and other phenomena.
Shichijo: Social data science is a new branch of learning that goes beyond the limitations of the conventional social sciences and natural sciences. The faculty is like a startup in the sense that it is something new. I would really like to have students who are spirited and tenacious and keen to develop this new field together.
Kato: I want students who are interested in both mathematics and humanities, and who want to apply what they learn to business.
Seike: Blockchain and other distributed systems, which are my areas of expertise, are applied to cryptocurrency, Ethereum and so on, but related technologies are making steady progress. I want students who are not intimidated by the speed of technical innovation, but motivated to learn new technologies and to apply their skills to analysis.
Shirota: Social data science is a new field with many undeveloped domains. There are many related topics and I think that students who enjoy discovering new issues, and defining and resolving problems on their own will learn a lot.
Shimizu: There have been incidents where national statistics have been distorted by irregularities. Statistics must not be arbitrarily influenced. A high sense of ethics is required when producing statistics. I want students with a high sense of ethics and ambitions to create new value by acquiring data science skills.
Hiyama: I want students who are keen to design the society in which they live. Especially students who want to learn about system design that makes full use of technology and allows technologies to function well in society.
Nagayama: Perseverance is essential to achieve results in any field, so I would like to have students who are inquisitive and tenacious.
Uematsu: Since data analysis methods have a mathematical foundation, I would like students with a high level of basic academic skills, especially mathematics, who also want to study fundamental theories.
Fukuda: First of all, people who are interested in human beings. It is possible to understand human society at the brain level, the individual level, the social level, and various other levels. No matter which level is targeted by analysis, I want people who have both a humanistic and scientific interest in the complexities of human beings and who are motivated to develop their understanding.
Keyaki: I want students with an interest in information access technologies. Students who are keen to learn new knowledge and skills and who have the ability to communicate closely with the faculty. Asking the faculty for help in case of problems or concerns is also a skill and one that is extremely important for deepening the learning.
Q2: What kinds of roles do you want human resources from the university to play in society?
Watanabe: Some time ago I was at an international conference where I participated in a session on economic forecasting using natural language processing and machine learning. When I asked the presenter about the reasons for the phenomena reported in the presentation, the reply was “I can’t answer that because I am a data scientist not an economist.” I think that we can only call it science when we have the ability to analyze and understand results. I would like the faculty to train human resources who understand both data science and social science from a broad perspective.
Shichijo: I would like the faculty to produce human resources who will have an impact on society. I want to educate human resources to master both the social sciences and the data sciences and to be able to function on the frontlines of society, such as creating data-driven policies for the civil service or making strategic decisions at companies.
Kato: Data collection methods and theoretical applications vary with goals and conditions. Approaches to problems can be completely different. In this light, I would like to educate human resources to be flexible and to try new ways of doing things without any sense of reluctance.
Seike: Information technology is undergoing rapid changes. Superficially chasing after technologies that are continually changing requires a lot effort. However, as long as you have a solid core discipline, it is possible to use it as a foundation for responding to changes in a flexible manner.
Shirota: The faculty is for a select few. I would like to foster a sense of growing together through collaboration between students in the same year and in different years. I would like the faculty to turn out human resources who continue to interact after graduation and who take the initiative when networking.
Shimizu: I think that working close to fifty years will be the norm for students in the future. Of course, cutting-edge technologies alone do not unlock the future, but the world is changing rapidly and we need to have lifelong learning skills. If you know how to learn, you will always be able to accurately understand, design, and resolve social and corporate issues.
Hiyama: I would like to turn out large numbers of human resources who can make full use of social data science to start up new businesses and implement social system designs that improve the lives of people.
Nagayama: Students at the faculty learn approaches to resolving social issues while making use of data. I would like to develop the kind of human resources who know how to use this approach to take up the challenge of solving social issues.
Uematsu: These days there is such an abundance of tools for data processing that anyone can, to some extent, do the work. However, I want to train students at the faculty to understand the essence of statistics, to acquire the skills to analyze data with specific intentions in mind, and to play an active role in society.
Fukuda: I think that the functions of a university are to broaden the potential of the students we send out into society and to determine their areas of expertise. Personally, I stand on the side of broadening the potential. I want this faculty to teach ways of thinking that students did not learn until their high school years and I want them to play an active role in society.
Keyaki: I want our students to develop into human resources who are skilled at drawing in the people around them and to create wonderful things as a team. Students at the faculty will acquire a wide range of interdisciplinary knowledge beyond the humanities and sciences. In graduate school, they will acquire specialist knowledge. They are expected to become human resources who can work on their own, but no matter how exceptional they are, there is a limit to how much one person can do on their own. I want the students to become human resources with the ability to get others involved.
Q3: What kind of place would you like the Faculty and Graduate School of Social Data Science to become?
Watanabe: Other universities have also started to establish data science departments, so we need to highlight the unique features of the faculty. The most important feature of the faculty is that the studies combine both social science and data science. I hope that this will be recognized by society and attract many students, so that people in the civil service and the corporate sector participate in and conduct joint research. I would like to develop both the faculty and the graduate school in constant awareness of the points of contact with society.
Shichijo: I would like the faculty to be open to the outside and to have an international character. We will function as a hands-on venue that attracts diverse stakeholders, including government, the private sector, and private citizens, to discuss and resolve issues. In these ways, we will develop learning through relationships with the outside world.
Kato: As a faculty that uses data to resolve social issues at corporations or public institutions, I think it should be a place where both alumni and current students can come together to carry out research. In that sense, I would like the faculty to function as a hub or a base where alumni can return any time.
Seike: I want the faculty to be a place where students are able to freely consult professors and resolve issues.
Shirota: Project-Based Learning (PBL) will deal with problems in the real world. I would like the faculty to be a place for creating a virtuous cycle where students take the initiative and identify new issues, research approaches to solutions, and advance the research after getting feedback on their results from companies or other stakeholders.
Shimizu: The faculty will start out with a team of 18 professors plus students. I would like the team to turn into an alumni organization for lifelong learning where students can return after graduation to brush up their skills as needed and then return to their positions in society. By doing so, I hope that the team will become one that is competitive at the international level.
Hiyama: I would like it to be an organization that undertakes practical research with a sense of the reality on the ground not only for faculty and students, but also for people working in business or public services, and for the citizens who benefit from social policy.
Nagayama: The academic world has a tendency to be pressured into goals such as the number of peer-reviewed papers or global rankings, but we will be able to produce good results if the teamwork skills of the professors at the faculty function organically. Consequently, I would like the faculty and the graduate school, including the students, to be extremely friendly. People say that what makes life worth living is the friends one keeps until the end. I want the faculty to be a place where groups of friends come together.
Uematsu: The faculty is a small organization with 60 students for each year, and 21 students for each year in the Master’s program. I would like to create an environment of friendly competition with little distance between faculty staff and students.
Fukuda: I think the students also decide what kind of faculty and graduate school we will become. In any case, I want to work hard to turn the faculty and graduate school into a place with social impact where there are many students with strong personalities.
Keyaki: The faculty of Social Data Science brings together professors who work in a variety of academic fields. I would like to use this advantage to create a place for friendly collaboration between the members. I think it is extremely important to nurture an atmosphere of respect for each other’s fields.
