The last straw - 28/2/`14
Today the last company visits were made. It was a great with lovely weather. The day started with Jelmer being late because he had to explain to the lady of the hostel how one of the Australian guests was arrested that night. In a drunken mood the Aussie had bothered a karaoke bar. Luckily Jelmer could explain to the police men that he and Eelco had nothing to do with it and had actually calmed down the drunk Aussie.
The first company visited that day was Asahi Kasei Microdevices or AKM. Asahi is also one of the beer brands in Japan but this company develops and produces chips for certain niche markets. In several of this niche markets AKM is market leader, for example the market of electronic compass chips.
Next up was Waseda University were we visited the department were human-symbiotic robot systems were researched. This department made the first humanoid robot in 1973 called Wabot-1. Waseda University had a most interesting philosophy: "Realization is important, theory or simulation alone is not enough". They demonstrated this in their various setups where they used "Humanoid robots as human partners, humanoid robots as human simulators". The most interesting robot demonstrated was Schema, a robot to enhance conversations. It monitored the emotial state of the participants of a conversation and tried to involve participants that were left behind in the conversation. Because it had to make an enjoyable conversation the robot was incapable of saying negative phrases.
To finish the day and celebrate the the end of the company visits a Cantus Scintillae was held in a karaoke room. During this cantus the events of the study tour were discussed. This mainly involved the people that were 'darwinned' or people who had done some exceptional work for the study tour. All in all a great way to finish the company visits.
By: Erik de Wit