We are delighted to announce our fourth and final keynote speaker for this year’s NISO Plus conference. Dr. Norihiro Hagita will introduce us to the Japan Science & Technology Agency’s Moonshot Program 1, for which he is Program Director.
The JST Moonshot Program Goal 1 aims to overcome the challenges of a declining birthrate, aging population, and associated labor shortage by realizing a society in which human beings can be free from limitations of body, brain, space, and time by 2050. In his keynote, Dr. Hagita will address his team’s plans for developing core technologies related to cyborgs and avatars — ‘Cybernetic Avatars’ — that enable the expansion of human physical, cognitive, and perceptual abilities.
In addition to his role at JST, Dr. Hagita is Chair and Professor of the Art Science Department at Osaka University of Art. He also serves as the research supervisor in the JST CREST research programs on intelligent information processing systems, creating co-experience knowledge and wisdom with human-machine harmonious collaboration, and is a member of Science Council of Japan.
“We are looking forward to hearing from Dr. Hagita during the NISO Plus Conference,” said Todd Carpenter, NISO Executive Director. “His participation highlights the global nature of the conference, as well as the breadth of the technologies that information standards support and impact. While our community often tends to focus on the practical aspects of information exchange, it is important to regularly reflect on the broader impacts of our work. Dr Hagita’s Moonshot project is a perfect example of potentially world-changing research being supported by information technology and information exchange.”
NISO Plus 2021 is a digital-first, fully virtual global conference taking place across multiple time zones over the course of four days. It aims to capture the spirit of the inaugural NISO Plus, an in-person conference held in Baltimore in February 2020, with a focus on innovation, education, and conversation.
Dr. Hagita’s keynote is scheduled for February 24, 9.30pm EST (US/Canada)/February 25, 11.30am (Tokyo) — more information can be found on the conference website. Registration for NISO Plus 2021 is now open – please check niso.plus or follow @NISOInfo for more program and speaker updates.