The Graduate School of Informatics held its Open Course 2011, titled “Information Processing Today: Smart Ways to Process Images and Sounds,” at Research Building No. 3. In this year’s Open Course, three professors from the Graduate School of Informatics discussed information processing primarily for junior and senior high school students.
After opening remarks by Dean Yoshimasa Nakamura, Professor Toshiharu Sugie explained the intentions of the course, after which the program proceeded to the lectures.
Professor Toshiyuki Tanaka presented a lecture--under the title of “Can We Scientifically Study Uncertainties?!”--on how information processing technologies, which have to do with uncertainties using probability theory, are employed to deal with various problems. Professor Shin Ishii gave a talk, titled “Seeing What You Can’t See with Computers,” in which he discussed methods for seeing what the human eye cannot see from the aspects of images and processes within the human brain. In his lecture, titled “Let’s See and Hear the Digital World,” Professor Yutaka Yamamoto discussed the principles of digital imagery and sound processing and how to improve sound quality based on the theory of automatic control.
The course was attended by about ninety participants, including junior and senior high school students, their parents, teachers, other students, and adults. Participants were actively involved in the lectures, taking notes and asking the speakers questions, and the event concluded with great success.
Lecture by Professor Yamamoto