Graduates in their 30s who made a career change

Mr. MURAI Takashi

PROFILE
Communication in Science & Technology Education & Research Program (CoSTEP)
Center for Open Education
Institute for the Advancement of Higher Education, Hokkaido University

Completed the Master Program of Innovation for Design and Engineering in 2015.

There is a place for people who want to get together to work.

I want to capitalize on the work experience I acquired to make social contribution.

Since I was an undergraduate student, I dreamed of becoming a faculty member teaching web design. After working as a web designer for over a decade, I started to think about obtaining a master's degree at AIIT and apply for a faculty position at a university. Following the 2011 earthquake, I decided to use my skills to make a social contribution, which gave me the motivation to change.

Acquisition of different perspectives in appreciating the value of design.

I acquired my web design skills practically through work. Because of this, acquiring different perspectives and to academically consider design through classwork in the first year was a fresh experience for me.

One example was that by studying a method of quantifying odors that people perceived differently from one person to another, as well as the process of refining the design for users to operate properly without descriptions, I obtained the criteria for objectively evaluating my own skills.

The classes at AIIT mostly involve group work. The density of PBL in the second year, where students complete a project with the same assigned members throughout the year, is nothing like any other.

I formed a team with students in their 20s and international students who had just completed their undergraduate studies. We worked on the development of bio-automatic toilet for pets to reduce the burden on pet owner. After many discussions to share ideas, we divided the roles to materialize the concept. Although the work often does not go as planned, the best part of PBL projects is for the members to work collectively to recover and to create deliverables that are recognized by society. Through these experiences, I learned to develop an important mindset and the attitude to proceed with a project in a group.

Conveying the learning method at AIIT to young students.

Upon completing the program at AIIT, I was new to my post at the Communication in Science & Technology Education & Research Program (CoSTEP) at Hokkaido University. As a faculty member with practical experience in web design, I am exploring the possibilities of communication in science and technology through the use of websites.

When I teach students, I try to encourage them to use their hands to acquire the ability to create deliverables that can be accepted by society. It was the education I received at AIIT, and I also follow the example of AIIT's faculty members even in the concept of the classroom.

As a researcher, I am working on a study of expressing changes in web design, which I was involved in for many years, using an evolutionary tree. Although this research is quite primitive, it was awarded the good presentation award at the Japanese Society for the Science of Design this year. Also, the mindsets for conveying specialized areas to society and the criteria for measuring quality, which I learned at AIIT, are used in this research. Today, in parallel with my job as a faculty member, I am exploring design from an academic perspective as a student in a doctoral program.