The 13th Kisoi Motohiro Award Ceremony

The 13th Kisoi Motohiro Award Ceremony

On Tuesday the 16th January 2018, International Rescue System Institute held the 13th Kisoi Motohiro Award Ceremony in Nagata, Kobe, an area damaged extensively by the Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake 23 years before.

Wasada University’s Prof. Hashimoto Kenji was awarded the 13th Kisoi Motohiro Award for Academic Achievement. This award recognises the remarkable achievement of Prof. Hashimoto’s “Research into Legged Robotics for Disaster Response, Capable of Varied Mobility.” in the research and development of next generation disaster prevention technology and rescue systems.

(Left: Prof. Hashimoto) (Right: From the left, Mr. Kisoi (Uncle), Mrs. Kisoi (Mother), Vice President Matsuno, Director Takamori, Prof. Yuta, Prof. Hashimoto, Prof. Suzumori, President Tadokoro.)

The recipient of the Award for Academic Achievement recieves 100,000 yen prize money and a certificate. They will also recieve a commemorative trophy (created by Art Glass Club ) from the selection committee members.

In addition, the Award for Encouragement, aimed at the younger generation, was introduced. The winners of the RoboCup Junior IRS are “Intergrated Circuit”‘s Kanehiro Rio, Nishizawa Eiji, and Yazu Karen. The winners of the Rescue Robot Contest Award is Kinki University’s “Rescue HOT Kun”.

The winner of the award for the Study of Rescue Robotics is Fujita Masahiro (Tohoku University Graduate School). The winners of the IEEE RSJ IROS 2017 Best Paper Award on Safety Security and Rescue Robotics in memory of Motohiro Kisoi are, Prof. Suzumori Koichi (Tokyo Inst. of Technology), Takeichi Masashi (Honda R&D), Prof. Endo Gen (Tokyo Inst. of Technology), Nabae Hiroyuki (Tokyo Inst. of Technology).

The winner of the Award for Technical and Academic Contribution is Prof. Yuta Shinichi (Tsukuba University).

The winners of each award gave a presentation on their research.

Finally, a lecture was given by Prof. Hashimoto, winner of the Award for Academic Achievement, on his research subject.

(Left: Prof. Hashimoto’s Lecture  Right, Top Row: Mr. Doi, Preseident Tadokoro, “Intergrated Circuit”‘s Mentor Mr. Nakashima, “Rescue HOT Kun”‘s Mr. Ito, Mr. Fujita, Vice President Matsuno. Front row: Prof. Yuta, Mr. Kisoi, Mrs. Kisoi, Prof. Hashimoto, Prof. Suzumori, Director Takamori)

The ceremony closed with a warm applause for Prof. Hashimoto’s highly acclaimed achievements in the research and development of rescue robot systems, and for the winners of the Award of Encouragement of whom we expect will make great contributions in the future of rescue robotics.