学生の木村 正子さん（博士前期課程2年、ヒューマンライフデザイン領域、宮田研究室）が15th International Conference on Knowledge, Information and Creativity Support Systems (KICSS 2020)においてBest Discussant Award（2nd position）を受賞しました。

　The 15th International Conference on Knowledge, Information and Creativity Support Systems aims (KICSS 2020)は、知識科学、情報システム、システム科学、創造活動支援システムに関する分野における国際的な研究者間における技術と知識の交流を図ることを目的とした国際会議です。 同会議は、ナレッジエンジニアリングと科学、情報技術、創造活動支援システム、複雑なシステムモデリングの分野における幅広い研究トピックを提供するもので、学術界、政府の研究機関、産業界の多くの研究者らの関心を集めています。
　今回、KICSS2020は、11月25日から26日にかけて、オンラインで開催されました。

■受賞年月日
　令和2年11月26日

■研究題目、論文タイトル等
A Comparative Study of the Effects of Clapping Hands Sounds and Gesture Presentation During Online Meeting

■研究者、著者
Shoko Kimura, Susumu Kunifuji, Takayuki Ito (Kyoto University）

■受賞対象となった研究の内容
To prevent the spread of COVID-19, face-to-face meetings have moved online to avoid human contact. Although the online format has made it easier for people to participate in meetings, consensus building in meetings has become increasingly more difficult since the speakers are in different locations. Notably, there is a difference in the way people applaud in online meetings. In addition to clapping and making sounds as in face-to-face meetings, people have turned to new methods of communicating online, such as clapping and gesturing on the screen. For this study, we categorized online meetings into four categories: "with applause," "without applause," "gesture/mark presentation only," and "with applause and a gesture/mark." We then compared the effect of applause with the emotional information read from each person's face through microexpressions. The results indicate a significant difference in feelings of sadness as an effect of applause and gestures, which had a positive effect, facilitating future online communication.

■受賞にあたって一言
I would like to express my sincere gratitude for winning the Best Discussant Award at the wonderful KICSS2020 international conference. This award was given to me for using D-Agree, an online AI discussion system for oral presentations and papers, in which an AI agent analyzes the content of human text conversations and guides the discussion in a more positive direction. I enjoyed using D-Agree as if I was playing a social networking service or an online game, and I had more meaningful discussions with professors, researchers, and students than I would have at a real face-to-face international conference. We were able to practice and experience that D-Agree can be used as a great AI agent system. In the future, AI agent technology will continue to improve and will become an indispensable part of human life. I am also studying AI agents with the dream of making communication smoother and conversations more natural. This award is one step closer to my dream. At last, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Emeritus Kunifuji, Professor Ito of Kyoto University, my supervisor Professor Miyata, Senior Lecturer Xie, Miyata laboratory members, Professor Nishimoto, my research colleagues in Tokyo　Ayaka Fujii and Kenichi Ito from The University of Tokyo, my friends and classmates at the Tokyo Satellite, and all the people who always support my research. Thank you very much.

令和2年12月11日