Hitachi, Burton and Tokyo Skytree - 12/2/'14
The day started with congratulating Mattanja with his birthday. Some of the group members bought him a nice gift from a sex shop in Akihabara. After a nice breakfast on the go (salmon with egg salad) we started our trip at Tawaramachi station. after one and a half hours of public transport we arrived at the last station at 9:30, so we had 10 minutes to buy some coffee.
After that it was time to head to Hitachi. Once we arrived at the impressive Hitachi campus Roelof arranged the guest passes so we could enter the premises. It looked like a park with a couple of large buildings. The main building looked very empty. We were guided to a presentation room for a couple of presentations, after that a lab tour was planned.
The first presentation was about a new type of sensor comparable to an electrocardiogram. This sensor is called magnetocardiogram and is used for non-invasive heart measurements. The device uses 64 SQUID(afkorting) sensors. the device can be used to discover heart defects more accurately than an ECG, since an ECG is often subject to disturbances.
The second presentation was about e new type of sensor that uses a FET to sequence DNA strands. The device uses the drain current to distinguish the different nucleotides. The chip uses 4-9nm nanopores with a gate around it. The DNA is pulled through the nanopore using an electric field, that way the DNA can be sequenced.
After the presentations it was time to visit the cleanroom, where we got a short presentation of the devices that are produced. The research presented there was on ultrasonic transducers using MEMS. After the cleanroom we had a very short tour of the showroom, this contained some exhibitions that were not turned on so it wasn't really impressive.
After a quick photo the journey continued to the Tokyo Science Museum to visit a 3d display company called Burton. The travel was very long, so we had to lunch on the go. The last part of the journey was on an automated train which had no driver! Instead of the driving position there was a empty compartment with a large window from which we could see the port of Tokyo. Once we arrived at the final station, we got lost and headed deep into the industrial area. This meant that this would be the first time we got late at a company.
The company burton is a small company which is situated inside the Tokyo science museum. We arrived late, but luckily the company was flexible enough to readjust the programme. First there was a short introduction, after that the group was divided into 3 groups and seperately visit the 3d display. The other two groups were writing down questions and possible applications. Of course the first application we thought of was a musquito killing machine. But there were also some serious applications. The 3d display itself was an impressive feat of engineering. After the questions were answered the best possible way, the applications were discussed. That was the final part of the presentation from burton.
After that visit to Burton a guided tour was planned. But the tourguide got an unexpected phone call. So we returned to the lobby, and we were surprised to meet the dutch ambassador who wanted to have a little chat with us. After a group photo and a nice conversation, the museum tour continued. Funnily enough the museum had some exhibits of the places we visited. for example there was an exhibition of the shinkai 6500 which we saw 2 days ago at Jamstec. It also contained a piece of the super kamiokande detector that we will visit in the coming weeks. At five o'clock it was time to leave the museum. The plan was to take the subway to Asakusa and then meet at about eight 'o clock at the Tokyo skytree. In the meanwhile we found something to eat near the skytower and drank some beers. The restaurant containted a vendingmachine with tickets for different dishes. These tickets were handed in at the counter, and your dish was prepared.
Once everybody arrived at the skytree, we could start our acend to the top floor to enjoy the impressive sight of Tokyo. The lights of the city reached as far as the eye could see. We were able to pinpoint the exact position of our Hostel.
After the visit to the skytree we went back to Asakusa some people went to drink some beers in a bar, and some people went to the Hostel. All in all it was an nice day with some interesting companies.
By: Robert Grootjans