Asilla, a company that independently develops world-class behavior recognition AI, established the Human Science AI Research Team (HSAR) in February 2023 with the aim of further improving AI accuracy.
We interviewed Mr. Masahiro Wakasa, CTO of Asilla, the founder of the team, about the team's innovative ideas and technologies that will significantly change the stage of behavior recognition AI.
At HSAR, we specialize in human science, the scientific study of people. This research team includes specialists with expertise in a variety of fields in addition to their expertise in computer science. For example, you have members who specialize in "gait analysis" to improve the accuracy of gait recognition, "brain science" to scientifically study the structure of the human brain and behavior, and "human trajectory" to improve the accuracy of person identification, among other fields.
Specialist in Gait Analysis
Mr. Yap Miao Singh Robin from Singapore
National University of Singapore (B.S. & M.S.: Mechanical Engineering)
Tokyo Institute of Technology (Ph.D.: Intelligent Engineering)
Engaged in research on gait at Singapore Institute of Science and Technology and Tokyo Institute of Technology.
Engaged in research on human gait recognition at HSAR.
Brain Science Specialist
Mr. Mohammed Abdolrahmani from Iran
・University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences (B.A. Occupational Therapy)
・University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences (B.S. Occupational Therapy)
・D. in Cognitive Neuroscience, Osaka University
・Engaged in research on the relationship between behavior and brain science at Osaka University and RIKEN.
・At HSAR, he is engaged in research on behavior analysis.
Specialist in human trajectory analysis
Mr. Hesham Shehata from Egypt
・Alexandria University (B.S. & M.S.: Mechanical Engineering)
・Kyoto University (Ph.D. in Information Engineering)
・After teaching Physics at the University of Science and Technology of Japan (Egypt), he worked on human trajectory analysis at Kyoto University.
・He has been engaged in research on human trajectory analysis at HSAR.
Specialist in Biological Engineering
Mr. Santosh Kumar (Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture)
・University of Toronto (B.Sc. Biomedical Engineering)
・D. in Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto (B.S., Biomedical Engineering)
・At HSAR, he is involved in branding and university partnerships.
Specialist in Behavioral Analysis
Mr. Tran Kwong Trung from Vietnam
・Hanoi University of Technology (B.S.: Control Engineering)
・Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (M.S., Information Engineering)
・Engaged in research on behavioral analysis at HSAR
Specialist in Person Identification Analysis
Mr. Bi Duc Hung (from Vietnam)
・Vietnam National University, Hanoi (B.S. Physics)
・M.S. in Astrophysics, Hokkaido University, Japan
・Research on person identification at HSAR
Specialist in spatial information science
Mr. Nitish Jaiswal (from New Delhi, India)
・Indian Institute of Technology, Varanasi (B.S. Civil Engineering)
・University of Tokyo (Master's degree in Spatial Information Science)
・At HSAR, he is engaged in research on human footprint identification as a joint researcher at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
Computer Vision Expert
Mr. Niraj Yadav from Jaipur, India
・Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi (B.Tech: Information Technology)
・Worked on computer vision algorithms at HSAR
Computer Vision Expert
Mr. Lee Wei Chang from Taiwan
・National Zhongshan University (B.S.: Information Engineering)
・National Tsinghua University (Master's degree: Information Engineering)
・Worked on computer vision algorithms at HSAR
That's right, HSAR has researchers from Egypt, Iran, Singapore, India, Taiwan, and Vietnam, making it a research team with diverse backgrounds that transcend nationality. We expect that such a multinational team with different fields of expertise will bring forth various viewpoints and values and expand the scope of our research.
Of course, we were calling on researchers in the axis of "human science," which is different from conventional AI research, but we did not intentionally try to hire people with different nationalities or other backgrounds. We naturally gathered people who felt the value of Asilla's unique technology and who shared our vision of "bringing behavior recognition AI to the top of the world," which is the goal of this research team, and we ended up with this team. As a result, we are a diverse team with different research interests, backgrounds, and cultures. The synergy between the team members focused on AI and the team members specialized in human science is taking shape better than expected.
Each member has his or her own antennae for information in his or her field, thoroughly reads papers, and focuses on acquiring new techniques and knowledge. As such, what is considered "obvious" in one's own field is often a completely new perspective in other fields. Let me tell you a specific example. One of our members was conducting research on AI, but the results were not as good as he had expected. Just when he thought he had no choice but to give up, a member specializing in a completely different field advised him to find a different approach. That research never went away, and we are now taking up the challenge again in a new form. I feel that the advice from different perspectives, as well as the little chats, are directly applied to the research. In addition to diversity, each of us is very strict in our evaluations. Many of them are very committed to their own results. HSAR is planning to increase the number of researchers in order to further strengthen the research team. We expect that the increase in the number of members will create even better synergy and expand the scope of our research.
After completing his graduate studies at Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2018, he joined JGC Corporation. Kuwait, where he was stationed at construction sites and engaged in plant design IT work. He then joined Asilla Corporation in 2020, where he was in charge of product development related to action recognition AI, and was appointed to oversee the IVA Solutions Division, becoming Executive Officer CTO in April 2022 and Director CTO in March 2023.
