OMU News

Hiroyuki Sakuragi, Vice President OMU, Prof. Masahiro Tatsumisago, President OMU, Prof. Andreas Dengel,
Prof. Koichi Kise (from left to right)

On June 30, 2022, OMU signed a cooperation agreement with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), laying the foundation for the establishment of a “DFKI Lab Japan” the first proposed DFKI lab outside of Germany.

DFKI already had a successful working relationship with Osaka Prefecture University, which OMU has graciously reaffirmed. Signing the cooperation agreement is the first step towards establishing an official DFKI branch at Nakamozu Campus. 

“DFKI's planned strategic expansion to Japan is based on a long-standing good partnership with Osaka, Japanese institutes and companies and a common philosophy: to use artificial intelligence for the benefit of people and society. We look forward to expanding our cooperation with Japan, as a high-tech country and like-minded partner, even further in international competition and deepening it in topics relevant to the future,” said Professor Dr. Antonio Krüger, CEO of DFKI.

“The partnership between OMU and DFKI began before the OMU merger, and it developed through years of collaborations in fundamental and practical research in the field of artificial intelligence. With this cooperation agreement, I am certain that the bond between OMU and DFKI will be even stronger, and we will work more closely together to transfer our knowledge and technologies to practice, as well as fostering young researchers and students,” announced OMU President Masahiro Tatsumisago.

"With the DFKI Lab Japan, we want to intensify the existing good relationships and cooperations with Japanese universities, research institutions and companies, consolidate them in the long term and establish the DFKI brand even more strongly in Japan. After the worldwide pandemic made international exchange difficult in the last two years, we are all the more pleased to finally be able to take the next step on this path. With Prof. Dr. Koichi Kise, we have succeeded in gaining a renowned Japanese AI researcher as a link, who has also known DFKI very well for decades," said Andreas Dengel, Managing Director of DFKI Kaiserslautern and OPU Distinguished Honorary Professor.

Professor Koichi Kise, of the Graduate School of Informatics Department of Core Informatics and long standing DFKI research partner was selected as the potential director of the “DFKI Lab Japan” project. The focus of the joint research will be the development of smart cities, smart universities, self-education, teaching, and medical applications.

“We have been working successfully with Professor Dengel and the DFKI for more than 25 years, promoting joint research and the exchange of personnel. That we are now launching the first DFKI Lab outside Germany at our university is a milestone in our cooperation. I look forward to our exchange becoming even more active and to positively impacting society internationally with our joint research - by jointly advancing the development of human-centric AI technology,” said Professor Koichi Kise.

Reference
https://www.dfki.de　

　University President Masahiro Tatsumisago (left) shakes hands with DFKI Executive Director Andreas Dengel (right), after signing the cooperation agreement.

Dignitaries outside the new DFKI Lab Japan,from left to right,DFKI Lab Japan Director Professor Koichi Kise, DFKI Executive Director Andreas Dengel,University President Masahiro Tatsumisago,and Consul-General at the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Osaka-Kobe Mr.Martin Eberts.

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