Innovation Practice 2021

Reviving Saijo’s Sake District with Bicycle Sharing Innovation

【Workshop Outline】
This year’s Innovation Practice course will focus on Saijo’s Sake District, a tourist destination near Hiroshima University that attracts as many as 200,000 people during the annual Sake Festival. Sake or nihon-shu is Japanese rice wine. Saijo has been described as “a mecca of sorts for Japanese sake connoisseurs” with eight breweries clustered around the area. However, Sakagura Dori (“Avenue of Sake Breweries”) is not a place that the 12,000+ students who study at Hiroshima University frequently visit, despite ongoing efforts to revitalize the area.

Due to COVID-related limitations, the course will be offered fully online. We will conduct “virtual” fieldwork and stakeholder interviews. The primary language will be English with some Japanese assistance. If you are interested in getting some hands-on practice in developing innovations combining business with social issues, this is the course for you. It is also a great way for international students to experience the local Japanese culture and business community in East Hiroshima. As part of the course, we will work with a no-code programming platform called MIT App Inventor. The platform is currently used by thousands of people worldwide to develop and deploy smartphone apps without having to write code.

【Course Schedule】
The contents/program schedule of the workshops may be subject to change.

#1　October 6, 2021        Orientation / Individual and Groupwork
#2　October 13, 2021      Team building / Project work / Repaid prototyping
#3　October 20, 2021      Project work / Virtual fieldwork
#4　October 27, 2021      Project work / Stakeholder interview / Prototyping
#5　November 1, 2021　  Project work / Stakeholder interview / Prototyping
#6　November 10, 2021　Project work / Stakeholder interview / Prototyping
#7　November 17, 2021　Project work / Project work / Presentation Prep
#8　November 24, 2021　Final Presentation and Reflection

【Eligibility】
Graduate students and postdocs enrolled at the HIRAKU Partner/Member Universities*
*Hiroshima University, Yamaguchi University, Tokushima University, Ehime University, Gifu University, Kagawa University, Kochi University, Naruto University of Education, Okayama University, Shimane University, Tottori University, National Institute of Genetics, Hiroshima City University, Hiroshima International University, Kochi University of Technology, Prefectural University of Hiroshima, Ritsumeikan University

Note 1: This workshop will be held as a part of the Common Graduate Courses, “Innovation Practice.”
Note 2: If we receive an excessive number of registrations, we may select the participants by lottery.

【Facilitator】
MAKINO Emi, Associate Professor, Industry-Academia-Collaborative Center

【Idea Providers (Proposing Company)】
We will be working with a nascent university startup which has developed an innovative app-based bicycle sharing service. Students of the course will work in teams to consider how might a peer-to-peer bicycle sharing service bring more students to Saijo’s Sakagura Dori.

【Registration】
・For doctoral students enrolled at Hiroshima University, this is a credit-bearing course that counts as a Common Graduate Course. Doctoral students should register via Momiji. You can find the course by the “Innovation Practice”.

・For those doctorate students other than the above, please send an e-mail with title “Request for Registration to Innovation Practice 2021” and fill in the following in the contents: 1. University/School/Field, 2. School Year, 3. Name, 4. Phone #, to Global Career Design Center, Hiroshima University (wakateyousei[at]office.hiroshima-u.ac.jp).*Please replace [at] with @.

・If you are a master’s or bachelor student and would like to audit the course, please email the main instructor, Emi Makino (Associate Professor, Startup Initiatives Division) by email (emakino[at]hiroshima-u.ac.jp) *Please replace [at] with @.

【Inquiries】
Emi Makino (emakino[at]hiroshima-u.ac.jp) *Please replace [at] with @.
Startup Initiative Division, Office of Research and Academia-Government-Community Collaboration, Hiroshima University

【Host】
“Home for Innovative Researchers and Academic Knowledge Users (HIRAKU)”
under Building of Consortia for the Development of Human Resources in Science and Technology
(Program for Developing Next Generation Researchers) by MEXT

【Co-Host】
Office of Research and Academia-Government-Community Collaboration, Hiroshima University
“Hiroshima Entrepreneurship Program”