Personal remembrance of the professor Koichi Furukawa
Last week my first academic advisor passed away. It was just two months ago when I and other alumni of his lab group heard from him that his latest work had finally been publicized. There he sounded quite happy for this achievement and even motivated toward the next goal. Throughout the last week/end after we received the sad news, lab alumnae/i were busy for coordinating memorial and funeral services, so was I even remotely from the US. During then there has been quite a few moments where I was reminded of him, what I got through the experience from his lab, and the relationship with the lab members.
Hereby I leave a note as a remembrance; it ended up being a verbose, lengthy diary post, not even meant to be a formal note at all (I didn't even study at the graduate level under him), and there's probably inaccuracy. Still, this is a honest, personal remembrance of him. And I'm writing in English so that his collaborators in the world may find this and share some thoughts for him, and also I can share with my American family hoping they can get even better understanding of why I am, through the appreciation toward him. It was him who initially guided him into the way I am now that I'm happy with. Without him I would have been a totally different person now. I still can't believe this happened just now...
For the rest of the paragraphs I'll call Dr. Furukawa as "Furukawa-sensei" as it's the common way in Japanese to call professors.
I just noticed that, despite his international presence in the research community, I can't find even a single biography of him in English online. Understandable that Furukawa-sensei was more active than other decades in 80's and 90's, where the Internet wasn't quite proliferating yet. Now here I found a passage from a book "The Quest for Artificial Intelligence", which I excerpt the entire paragraph below (with DoD updated...) Given that this article recognizes the fact that he retired and assumed the honorary position in 2008, it seems fairly updated:
To add up a little, Furukawa-sensei's primary interest during the last couple of decades seemed to have diverged to what he called Skill Science, a new genre he and his collaborators started. It's a pursuit for human's complexed physical movement using scientific approach, if I understand correctly. And he particularly applied the research result to his own cello playing (apparently he's known among research community as a cello player who always plays at conferences) and himself was the first examinee.
It was probably 1997 when I first saw Furukawa-sensei (not entirely sure...20 years passed). I was almost junior applying for his lab for junior courses (there were upper level undergrad courses tied to research labs), without thinking much. Back then I was more serious in singing than studying (typical or even below average Japanese college kid who go to college for fun. Big no-no from me now) and looking for labs that involved music. His lab was one of a few and somehow I thought of applying. I remember how generous he was for a student like me who was far from being diligent. Only things I remember during first year at the lab was that I wrote an lab internal operating manual for the then-highend model of a motion capturing sensor, and he took some undergrads to a conference in Hong Kong along with a grad student who actually presented (Ken Ueno sensei).
Later I found that he knew some undergrad students are still exploring what s/he feels passion for, so he thought guiding those students was one of his job. In my case, it worked -- I ended up getting fascinated into computer industry when I was senior and finally started going to classes. By then Furukawa-sensei was already geared more toward skill-scientific type of research than machine learning, so I don't recall much direct interaction with him, but some of his graduate students (Keiko Shimazu and Tomonobu Ozaki senseis in particular) who were working on hardcore computer science helped me, unselfishly, to get a touch of the field. Although my undergraduate program didn't require student thesis for graduation (which a lot of Japanese engineering schools did/do), I contributed to a workshop paper using C4.5 classification algorithm for webserver's access log mining and the grad students motivated me to even give a presentation. With the lack of deeper understanding in the machine learning at that time, I think I was simply fascinated by the tree representation of any classified information. Not the typical way one gets intrigued into computer science, but worked for me as a pretty influential experience over the rest of my career I suppose.
My aforementioned mentors occasionally asked Furukawa-sensei for his opinion during those period. There I learned how to interact with professors, and he was actually a renowned researcher in the world of computer science. In 1997, AIMA (Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. 1st edition), "the most popular artificial intelligence textbook in the world" (source), was published in Japanese. There was always this humongous textbook sitting on the lab's bookshelf (textbooks in Japan are typically way thinner than those in the US, but AIMA in Japanese was as thick as its original English version), which I clearly remember that I thought I would never ever even try to read this kind of book. How funny to find that later in 2010s when I went to a graduate school in Texas, I bought its 3rd version for AI class! Anyways, it was Furukawa-sensei that compiled the Japanese translation for its 1st and 2nd edition. Dr. Stuart Russell at UC Berkely, one of the authors of the original, shared with us his memory with the late professor in Berkely and in Tokyo, which got me into tears again.
From 2005 through 2008 when I was back to Keio University at its research institute, I had a pleasure to work with Dr. Shimazu again and through her I got to see Furukawa-sensei often. Whenever he came to our office in Mita/Tamachi in Tokyo, I ran to the front door to let him in and there I found him standing, always with that smile, and almost always deprecating himself like how he forgot bringing umbrella. Then we usually went to some nice restaurants for the lunch that I never went to by myself with us 3. After some industry experience I had got more sense of competitive nature in software industry and academia, or let's say simply common sense as a working adult, so I was hoping I could have had a bit more meaningful conversation with him, but I didn't. To me he looked he had any problem in his work, no political issues at his workplace (this might be true since he was close to retiring), but it's just he's way up higher level than I was. If I recall now I had still sensed that he's done in dealing with those things. In fact he must have gone through the tough time as a director at a government project called ICOT, briefly mentioned in his bio above, where the critics were divisive about its achievement. Time I shared was probably when he may have just had finally a room to breathe after the busiest moment.
In 2008 I decided to quit my work in Japan and decided to go to the US to get a higher degree in engineering (to be clear with my college degree program, Environmental Information Studies, where there was a full freedom to choose any expertise from social science to the hard science and whether you acquire thorough understanding in the specific domain or not was totally up to each student, I hadn't yet had a formal engineering training that I wanted at that time). I asked Furukawa-sensei for recommendation letters. I wonder how he thought at that time, knowing that I wasn't even his grad student nor an astonishing undergrad, and during the subsequent work I mentioned above I don't think there was any moment I impressed him. But when I formerly asked him for the rec letters at a local coffee shop near his home, he nodded, gently as he has always been to anything. We talked about my then-future plan in working in astrospace engineering and he talked about his contribution to NASDA (former Japanese aerospace agency). Then he left with a granny's bike.
Today 20 years after meeting the professor for the first time, I'm working as a software engineer in robotics, surrounded by people with background in hard science/engineering. Something I didn't have any idea back then, or even 10 years ago when I was still in web development field, a very softer side of engineering. In 2013 I co-founded a non-profit consultancy in robotics in Japan. I wasn't proud of having done so for many reasons, but I remember Furukawa-sensei encouraged me a lot, seemed even happy. I can only imagine that may be because no other lab alumnae/i started their own company (I noticed that quite a while later). That said yes, all of this toward engineering started 20 years ago when I thought of applying his lab. I didn't learn much from his classes (purely my fault), but I learned a lot through the experience in his lab and his lab pupils. Rest in peace Furukawa-sensei.
Hereby I leave a note as a remembrance; it ended up being a verbose, lengthy diary post, not even meant to be a formal note at all (I didn't even study at the graduate level under him), and there's probably inaccuracy. Still, this is a honest, personal remembrance of him. And I'm writing in English so that his collaborators in the world may find this and share some thoughts for him, and also I can share with my American family hoping they can get even better understanding of why I am, through the appreciation toward him. It was him who initially guided him into the way I am now that I'm happy with. Without him I would have been a totally different person now. I still can't believe this happened just now...
For the rest of the paragraphs I'll call Dr. Furukawa as "Furukawa-sensei" as it's the common way in Japanese to call professors.
I just noticed that, despite his international presence in the research community, I can't find even a single biography of him in English online. Understandable that Furukawa-sensei was more active than other decades in 80's and 90's, where the Internet wasn't quite proliferating yet. Now here I found a passage from a book "The Quest for Artificial Intelligence", which I excerpt the entire paragraph below (with DoD updated...) Given that this article recognizes the fact that he retired and assumed the honorary position in 2008, it seems fairly updated:
Koichi Furukawa (1942-2017), a Japanese computer scientist, was influential in ICOT's decision to use PROLOG as the base language for their fifth-generation machine. Furukawa had spent a year at SRI during the 1970s, where he learned about PROLOG from Harry Barrow and others, Furukawa was impressed with the language and brought Alain Colmerauer's interpreter for it (written in FORTRAN) back to Japan with him. He later joined ICOT, eventually becoming a Deputy Director. (He is now an emeritus professor at Keio University.)
To add up a little, Furukawa-sensei's primary interest during the last couple of decades seemed to have diverged to what he called Skill Science, a new genre he and his collaborators started. It's a pursuit for human's complexed physical movement using scientific approach, if I understand correctly. And he particularly applied the research result to his own cello playing (apparently he's known among research community as a cello player who always plays at conferences) and himself was the first examinee.
It was probably 1997 when I first saw Furukawa-sensei (not entirely sure...20 years passed). I was almost junior applying for his lab for junior courses (there were upper level undergrad courses tied to research labs), without thinking much. Back then I was more serious in singing than studying (typical or even below average Japanese college kid who go to college for fun. Big no-no from me now) and looking for labs that involved music. His lab was one of a few and somehow I thought of applying. I remember how generous he was for a student like me who was far from being diligent. Only things I remember during first year at the lab was that I wrote an lab internal operating manual for the then-highend model of a motion capturing sensor, and he took some undergrads to a conference in Hong Kong along with a grad student who actually presented (Ken Ueno sensei).
Later I found that he knew some undergrad students are still exploring what s/he feels passion for, so he thought guiding those students was one of his job. In my case, it worked -- I ended up getting fascinated into computer industry when I was senior and finally started going to classes. By then Furukawa-sensei was already geared more toward skill-scientific type of research than machine learning, so I don't recall much direct interaction with him, but some of his graduate students (Keiko Shimazu and Tomonobu Ozaki senseis in particular) who were working on hardcore computer science helped me, unselfishly, to get a touch of the field. Although my undergraduate program didn't require student thesis for graduation (which a lot of Japanese engineering schools did/do), I contributed to a workshop paper using C4.5 classification algorithm for webserver's access log mining and the grad students motivated me to even give a presentation. With the lack of deeper understanding in the machine learning at that time, I think I was simply fascinated by the tree representation of any classified information. Not the typical way one gets intrigued into computer science, but worked for me as a pretty influential experience over the rest of my career I suppose.
My aforementioned mentors occasionally asked Furukawa-sensei for his opinion during those period. There I learned how to interact with professors, and he was actually a renowned researcher in the world of computer science. In 1997, AIMA (Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. 1st edition), "the most popular artificial intelligence textbook in the world" (source), was published in Japanese. There was always this humongous textbook sitting on the lab's bookshelf (textbooks in Japan are typically way thinner than those in the US, but AIMA in Japanese was as thick as its original English version), which I clearly remember that I thought I would never ever even try to read this kind of book. How funny to find that later in 2010s when I went to a graduate school in Texas, I bought its 3rd version for AI class! Anyways, it was Furukawa-sensei that compiled the Japanese translation for its 1st and 2nd edition. Dr. Stuart Russell at UC Berkely, one of the authors of the original, shared with us his memory with the late professor in Berkely and in Tokyo, which got me into tears again.
From 2005 through 2008 when I was back to Keio University at its research institute, I had a pleasure to work with Dr. Shimazu again and through her I got to see Furukawa-sensei often. Whenever he came to our office in Mita/Tamachi in Tokyo, I ran to the front door to let him in and there I found him standing, always with that smile, and almost always deprecating himself like how he forgot bringing umbrella. Then we usually went to some nice restaurants for the lunch that I never went to by myself with us 3. After some industry experience I had got more sense of competitive nature in software industry and academia, or let's say simply common sense as a working adult, so I was hoping I could have had a bit more meaningful conversation with him, but I didn't. To me he looked he had any problem in his work, no political issues at his workplace (this might be true since he was close to retiring), but it's just he's way up higher level than I was. If I recall now I had still sensed that he's done in dealing with those things. In fact he must have gone through the tough time as a director at a government project called ICOT, briefly mentioned in his bio above, where the critics were divisive about its achievement. Time I shared was probably when he may have just had finally a room to breathe after the busiest moment.
In 2008 I decided to quit my work in Japan and decided to go to the US to get a higher degree in engineering (to be clear with my college degree program, Environmental Information Studies, where there was a full freedom to choose any expertise from social science to the hard science and whether you acquire thorough understanding in the specific domain or not was totally up to each student, I hadn't yet had a formal engineering training that I wanted at that time). I asked Furukawa-sensei for recommendation letters. I wonder how he thought at that time, knowing that I wasn't even his grad student nor an astonishing undergrad, and during the subsequent work I mentioned above I don't think there was any moment I impressed him. But when I formerly asked him for the rec letters at a local coffee shop near his home, he nodded, gently as he has always been to anything. We talked about my then-future plan in working in astrospace engineering and he talked about his contribution to NASDA (former Japanese aerospace agency). Then he left with a granny's bike.
Today 20 years after meeting the professor for the first time, I'm working as a software engineer in robotics, surrounded by people with background in hard science/engineering. Something I didn't have any idea back then, or even 10 years ago when I was still in web development field, a very softer side of engineering. In 2013 I co-founded a non-profit consultancy in robotics in Japan. I wasn't proud of having done so for many reasons, but I remember Furukawa-sensei encouraged me a lot, seemed even happy. I can only imagine that may be because no other lab alumnae/i started their own company (I noticed that quite a while later). That said yes, all of this toward engineering started 20 years ago when I thought of applying his lab. I didn't learn much from his classes (purely my fault), but I learned a lot through the experience in his lab and his lab pupils. Rest in peace Furukawa-sensei.
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| Wasn't expecting at all that visiting his lab at Kaetsu University (where he moved to after retirement from Keio) in Dec. 2014 would have become the last time I saw him in person... |
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