Activity Report of Open Application Program 2023 vol.18 (Course A)
Learning about data science for sustainable social infrastructure management
Report from Department of Civil Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology
Professor. Michael Henry
| Counterpart: | Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology, Iligan City, Philippines Dr. Joel G. Opon, Dept. of Civil Engineering and Technology |
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| Period: | January 14-20, 2024 |
| Location: | Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, JapanToyosu Campus, Research Building |
| Participants: | SIT: 14 graduate students, 1 research student (10 different nationalities), MSU-IIT: 2 graduate students, 3 undergraduate students (all Filipino nationality) |
Summary:
In this program, students from SIT and MSU-IIT gathered to learn and practice how data science can be used to solve sustainability issues in various social infrastructure management fields. PhD students from SIT presented five research topics to study during the program: sustainable corporate governance, road safety management, bridge management, lean construction, and pavement management. Four lectures were also given on data gathering, data analytics, and data-driven infrastructure management.
Participants were then separated into five groups, with one PhD student leading each group and mixing students from SIT and MSU-IIT. They were provided with a dataset from each field and were tasked with planning a data analysis to address a practical problem in each field. By practicing analysis techniques using actual data, participants were able to acquire knowledge about how to they can contribute to tackling infrastructure management issues by working together to find the value embedded in both simple and complex datasets.
At the conclusion of the program, groups presented the outcomes of their analyses and discussions were held among all participants. The participants from MSU-IIT also shared their experiences during the week-long study period in Japan. It is expected that, after completing this program, participants will be able to apply the acquired knowledge in their own countries to tackle both research and practical problems.
