Tomomi Ota
Japan
CAREER Enrolled in April 2009; Completed master’s degree in March 2011
Currently, I work from morning to evening as a reporter for a company called ITmedia, and then from evening to morning on my own studying the “Micromouse” and working with the “Pepper” robot. You can see some of my work with Pepper on a YouTube channel called “pepper days.” I’ve developed programs that caused the robot to mix natto (fermented beans), sing, dance, and even take a ride with me on the shinkansen. I recently had the opportunity to speak to the “Japan SF Convention,” a gathering for science-fiction fans around Japan, at “PRESENTING JAPAN,” a public-private forum to communicate Japanese culture and technology to the world, and at other events about living with a robot as a partner.
In Japan, there is an adage: “What you learn when you are young stays with you for life.” I think that we receive a large part of that, a unique spirit, during our time at KMD. All of my current activities can be traced back to the KMD ethos: being straightforward and honest, understanding my core competencies, and understanding that social design and policy are always a part of technology, the part that we ourselves create. When I joined KMD, I gained many fathers. I also gained friends around the world.
(This article was written in March 2016.)