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Objectives of the Department of Informatics (Master’s Program)
Why a Department of Informatics?
The Department of Informatics was established to promote the academic discipline of informatics and turn out the kind of specialized professionals that are in high demand in this age of complex information technologies. Students acquire skills that combine perspectives from both information science and technology and information society studies with the aim of solving issues being faced by Japan and today’s global community.
Our working definition of a “specialized professional” is a person who has built a foundation of extensive knowledge in the areas of informatics and information society, and has advanced knowledge and research capabilities in a specialized field. This person also has the ability to apply that knowledge, adapt it within a professional environment, and communicate well, thus being prepared to make a positive working contribution to the future structure of our advanced information society.
Faculty of Informatics Integrates Humanities and Sciences
Progress in information science and technology is unrelenting and the rapid adoption of technological advances brings about dramatic real-world change. Throughout history, societal transformations have been spurred on by science and technology, and today, IT innovations have an immediate impact on the public and have been responsible for transforming the way we communicate in our daily lives.
The Faculty of Informatics at Shizuoka University was established in October 1995 to conduct educational research on such progress in information science and technology and the transformations they have brought to modern society from the new perspective of informatics—an integration of the humanities and sciences. The faculty was established because of the need to train individuals to build an information-rich society in which there is no discordance between people and information science and technology. The education provided includes not only high-level academic skills but also trains individuals how to understand people, societies, and cultures. Students are also given well-balanced training in information literacy and learn how to maintain a proper moral perspective on information that the future will require.
Mission of the Graduate Department of Informatics
In March 2002, the first students graduated from the former Graduate School of Informatics as specialized professionals and potential researchers. The Faculty of Informatics is fulfilling its role as an incubator of professionals who are prepared to work in a society suddenly awash in information-based technologies. Nonstop innovation and progress in information science and technology, along with the consequent changes taking place in society, are giving rise to critical problems that are slowing down desirable information-age developments. This situation involves two important aspects.
Overcoming the IT Mismatch
The first is a mismatch between information technologies and the people and societies who use them. As the number of user segments expands, problems will continue to grow worse at the individual level—such as the strong need for user-friendly interfaces, the danger of a widening gap in access to information, and the risk of individuals being overwhelmed and alienated by the flood of available information. At the societal level as well, all kinds of problems are in urgent need of solutions. These include: software-induced changes to the structure of industry; the safety of electronic transactions; large-scale information system security and network security; the relationship between the Internet and existing laws; copyrights for multimedia; the roles and changing environments of office work, publishing, the mass media, libraries, and education, etc.; and changes in the structure of human networks. Further concerns stem from infringements of privacy and human rights, the dangers of a society where information is managed by others, cultural and social friction across generational and racial gaps, and other pressing factors. Researching these issues and finding solutions are urgent tasks that are being far outpaced by IT developments. As a result, solutions to the problems lag far behind and seem unable to catch up.
Creating a New Information Culture
The second aspect is the accumulation and utilization of the information itself, and the creation of a new information culture. Educational research on information science and technology in the past focused on information containers and tools, neglecting what to do about the content itself—the information—except for the topic of large-scale database structures. It is easy to imagine how, via the internet, a growing number of people in the future will have the capacity to transmit information, leading to an even bigger explosion of information flowing around the world than we have today. We are thus faced with the issue of how to store high-quality information and whether or not to make that information available to everyone. Making such decisions will determine how we build information into our society and culture. Research will need to be done to build superior techniques and social systems for creating, supplying, distributing, and using information, and for creating an information culture that is of high quality in actual practice.
Computer Science and Information Society Studies Offer Multiple Perspectives
These two aspects belong to one problem—a problem that cannot be solved by educational research in information science and technology alone. To handle the problem requires a broader perspective that incorporates both academic hypotheses from computer science and pragmatic suggestions from information society studies. A graduate-level educational research organization was needed to integrate the two disciplines and reach across the existing boundaries between academic domains.
The current graduate-level Department of Informatics is just such an organization—one that promotes academic advancement in informatics research through both scholarly proposals and social calls to action.
For Working Professionals and International Exchange Students
The advanced information society that we inhabit today requires individuals both at the local and international levels who have advanced IT knowledge and practical abilities. They must be able to both understand and adapt flexibly to the rapid changes taking place in our social systems. The department actively recruits individuals from the working world—corporate employees and members of the public—who wish to become specialized professionals with a knack for understanding IT and its social implications and applications. For such individuals the department has established a special enrollment system and continuing education program (Refresher Course for Professionals).
The department also actively recruits exchange students to extend the opportunity of educational research internationally in recognition of the increasingly borderless, global nature of information and the world we live in. The department has a special enrollment system and curriculum for such students.
Meeting Societal Demands
Computerization and globalization are the key words that characterize today’s modern era. The advanced information systems of industrialized nations are made possible by computer and computer network technologies. The Internet and other types of networks have inevitably led to society’s globalization. In such an environment, we consider the societal expectations of the department to consist of three elements.
1. Advancements in information science and technology
2. Advancements in information society research
3. Advancements in the integration of the humanities and sciences
1. Advancements in information science and technology
This means the social expectation of a response to computerization and globalization in terms of science and technology. Computers, which started out as mere calculators, are becoming media devices that handle all of our personal information. Multimedia and virtual reality lower the barriers between computers and human beings and expand the potential applications for computers. People throughout society expect a university to make advances in scientific and technological research regarding such aspects of computing that support these kinds of information-oriented expressions in society—from basic to applied research in human interfaces and many other areas.
2. Advancements in information society research
This means the social expectation of a response to computerization and globalization in terms of the humanities and social sciences. Computers and computer networks are used not only in production, distribution, and financial systems, but also in various aspects of politics, political administration, education, and culture. Such computerization and the consequent globalization of society have irreversibly changed people’s lifestyles and moral compasses in modern industrial society.
Society requires that advancements be made in social research on information-oriented topics to analyze and gain an understanding of the various problems that may arise in the shift from an industrial society to an advanced information culture.
3. Advancements in the integration of the humanities and sciences
This means the social expectation of shared knowledge, technical skills, and awareness regarding science and technology and the realities of the world today among information science and technology researchers and information society researchers alike. The Department of Informatics has created a common foundation that integrates computer science and information society studies. Students learn to conduct educational research from a perspective that integrates the humanities and sciences, which gives them the literacy they will need in tomorrow’s information world as researchers, university professors, or highly specialized professionals. As a more complete shift takes place to an information-based society and accepted ideas must be reappraised, a multifaceted approach is urgently needed.
Working with the Local Community
Shizuoka Prefecture is promoting itself as a hub for information industry and is pursuing the following types of initiatives to this end.
Hamamatsu City, where the Department of Informatics at Shizuoka University is located, already promotes various information-oriented initiatives such as: a “knowledge cluster,” “telecommunications town framework,” “teletopia plan,” “regional informatization center,” and “high-definition city plan.” Under the auspices of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, the city also has two research centers that conduct R&D related to information networks. There is also a “multimedia pilot town framework” being implemented. The field of informatics is an important element in these initiatives, and the department’s role is expected to grow in both scope and importance as society continues to become more dependent on advanced information technologies.
Not only Hamamatsu City, but also the City of Shizuoka is promoting a “teletopia plan,” “high-definition city plan,” and “new media community framework,” among others. Regional informatization opportunities throughout Shizuoka Prefecture are expanding.
Additionally, the eastern part of Shizuoka Prefecture has a concentration of information industry businesses, while throughout the prefecture, especially in the western part, which hosts a traditional manufacturing industry, the conversion of the industrial structure to software-based operations is highlighting the need for the Department of Informatics to train and produce skilled information engineers and specialized professionals.