Project Team

This is an interdisciplinary collaboration between rising researchers in dialogue systems, machine learning, linguistics, learning science, and cognitive science. In this project, Professor Yasuyo Sawaki of the Faculty of Education and Integrated Arts and Sciences, Associate Professor Yusuke Kondo of Waseda University Global Education Center, and Professor Emeritus Michiko Nakano have agreed to study English education and language test design from their expert perspectives, and Waseda University Academic Solutions Corporation (Akira Miura, President and Representative Director; https://www.w-as.jp/) has resolved to jointly provide learning content and experimental environments. The knowledge of Japanese-English speech recognition, previously accumulated via joint research with Dr. Satoshi Kobashikawa, Senior Researcher at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) Media Intelligence Laboratories, will also be utilized. Young researchers at the Perceptual Computing Laboratory, represented by Mao Saeki, Hiroaki Takatsu, and Takao Watanabe are engaged in research and development of multimodal dialogue systems for the project. In addition, an international support team comprising Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University (cognitive modeling), Choitek LLC (VR/AR technology), Intelligent Framework Laboratory Co., Ltd. (crowdsourcing technology), Alt Bridge Technology Co., Ltd. (data security), etc. will also join the project.

Principal Investigator

Dr. Yoichi Matsuyama, the principal investigator, obtained his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the Graduate School of Fundamental Science and Engineering at Waseda University in 2014 and was employed as a post-doctoral fellow (special faculty) at Carnegie Mellon University for four and a half years. He has led various research and developmental projects on conversational AI, such as the Socially-Aware Robot Assistant (SARA), which is an official virtual assistant at the World Economic Forum in Davos, an educational tutoring agent (US Science Foundation grant), and joint research projects with Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft. In 2019, he was appointed Associate Research Professor at Waseda University. In the same year, his group was selected for the “Commercialization of Media Services Utilizing Socially-Smart Conversational AI” grant under the “Program for Creating Start-ups from Advanced Research and Technology” (START) offered by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), amounting to a total of approximately $ 1M.

Business Promotion

This project was funded by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), Japan (funding name: “Online Language Learning Assistant Support that Grows with humans”).  WERU Investment Co., Ltd. (Tadashi Takiguchi, President and CEO) serves as the Business Promoter of the project to build an ecosystem of research and development and for human resource acquisition in Japan and overseas.

Principal Investigators

• Yoichi Matsuyama: Associate Research Professor, Waseda University
• Shungo Suzuki: Assistant Research Professor, Waseda University

Language Assessment and Dialogues System Team

• Hiroaki Takatsu: Automatic Assessment System, Assistant Research Professor, Waseda University

• Masaki Eguchi: Automatic Self-Learning Task Generation System, Assistant Research Professor, Waseda University

• Mao Saeki: Spoken Dialog System, Research Associate, Waseda University

• Ryuki Matsuura: Diagnostic Assessment System, Research Assistant, Waseda University

• Fuma Kurata: Spoken Dialog System, Research Assistant, Waseda University

• Chihiro Tsukahara: Data Analysis, Research Assistant, Waseda University

• Kento Inatomi: Automatic Assessment System, Waseda University

• Chih-Hao Wang: Grammatical Error Identification, Research Assistant, Waseda University

• Ryo Takagi: Test Design, Research Assistant, Waseda University

• Weronika Demkow: Crowdsourcing Quality Management

• Yasuyo Sawaki: Professor, Faculty of Education and Integrated Arts and Sciences, Waseda University

• Yusuke Kondo: Associate Professor, Global Education Center, Waseda University

• Ralph Rose: Associate Professor, Center for English Language Education in Science and Engineering, Waseda University

• Oscar J Romero: Research Scientist, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

• Christian Lebiere: Professor, Psychology Department, Carnegie Mellon University

• Ankit Dangi: Research Engineer, Machine Learning Department, Carnegie Mellon University

Conversational AI Platform Development

• Hiroaki Takatsu: Dialogue Systems, Research Scientist, Waseda University

• Teppei Nakano: DUCTS Framework, Intelligent Framework Laboratory Inc. 

• Susumu Saito: Crowdsourcing Framework, Intelligent Framework Laboratory Inc. 

• Kenshiro Ueda: Crowdsourcing Marketplace, Intelligent Framework Laboratory Inc. 

• Tomohito Yamazaki: Online Learning Platform, Yamazaki Project Research and Development

• John Choi: Character Engine, Choitek LLC

• Hiroshi Tamate: Web Development, Tamatebox Creative 

Data Collection and Annotation

• Takahiro Miyajima: CEO, Alt Bridge Technology Inc.

• Jun Nagatani: System Administrator, Alt Bridge Technology Inc.

• Hikari Konishi: Experimental Operation, Alt Bridge Technology Inc.

• Yusuke Totsuka: Experimental Operation, Alt Bridge Technology Inc.

Collaborators

• Satoshi Kobashikawa: Senior Researcher at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) Media Intelligence Laboratories
• Hiroyuki Igawa: Director, Waseda University Academic Solutions Corporation
• Yukihisa Nakao: Director, Waseda University Academic Solutions Corporation
• Nobuki Tajima: General Manager, Language Education Department, Waseda University Academic Solutions Corporation
• Mariko Yokota: Language Education Department, Waseda University Academic Solutions Corporation
• Yukari Mizuno: Language Education Department, Waseda University Academic Solutions Corporation
• Michael Balderi: Head Tutor, Language Education Department, Waseda University Academic Solutions Corporation
• Michael Teague: Deputy Head Tutor, Language Education Department, Waseda University Academic Solutions Corporation
• Hinnie Banno: Senior Tutor, Language Education Department, Waseda University Academic Solutions Corporation
• Seiko Ohya: Education Department, Waseda University

Technical Advisors

• Tetsunori Kobayashi: Professor, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University

• Tetsuji Ogawa: Professor, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University

• Shinya Fujie: Professor, Department of Advanced Robotics, Chiba Institute of Technology

• Michiko Nakano: Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Education and Integrated Arts and Sciences, Waseda University

Art Direction

• Jun Nakagawa: Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Tokyo City University

• Taiki Watai: Art Direction, Media Artist

• Jun Inagaki: Videography, Media Artist

Business Promotion

• Tadashi Takiguchi: President & CEO, WERU Investment
• Keisuke Kikuchi: Head of Investment, WERU Investment
• Kiichiro Ichinose: Head of Research and Business Development, WERU Investment

Administrative Support for Research

• Kaname Kikusato: Manager, IP and Research Collaboration Support Section & Business Incubation Section, Waseda University
• Junichi Kubota: Technical Coordinator, IP and Research Collaboration Support Section & Business Incubation Section, Waseda University
• Madoka Kuniyasu: Secretary, Perceptual Computing Laboratory, Waseda University
• Mari Kanae: Comprehensive Research Support Division, Waseda University
• Ayako Shimizu: Comprehensive Research Support Division, Waseda University