Faculty
Core Faculty Members
Director General, QREC
Department of Business and Technology Management
Faculty of Economics
Field of specialization:
University-Industry Collaboration,
Management of Technology (MOT),
Entrepreneurship
○ Profile
Professor Megumi Takata belongs to the Department of Business and Technology Management of the Graduate School of Economics (Kyushu University Business School (QBS)), as well as QREC. After graduating from Kyushu University, he joined a leading manufacturing company. He earned a Master of Engineering degree from the Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University. He worked as a consultant, and then served as Executive Vice-President and COO of a technology licensing organization that is currently called TODAI TLO before assuming his current position. He also worked as the leader of the Technology Transfer Group at the Intellectual Property Management Center of Kyushu University from 2003 until2010. From 2005 to 2010, he served as Advisor to the President. In 2009, Professor Takata was a Visiting Scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States. Following his return to Japan, he took part in the establishment of QREC, belonging to QREC since 2010 in addition to QBS. From 2015 to 2016, he was Head of QBS, and in 2018 he was appointed as Advisor to the President. From 2020, he has been serving as a Vice President (Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration and Entrepreneurship Education).
He is certified as Registered Technology Transfer Professional (RTTP).
○ Message to students
Entrepreneurship is a challenge to the status quo. If you just let the days go by, nothing will change. However, if you sharpen your senses and observe things attentively, you’ll find the world is filled with opportunities. I expect that you will acquire the knowledge and abilities you will need to find your own opportunities, to accomplish what you want, and to carve out a successful life for yourself by actively participating in the classes and various programs of QREC.
○Lecture at QREC（2023）
Advanced Lecture in Core Competence Management
Advanced Lecture in Idea Evaluation
* Click here for research activities, educational activities, etc.
Deputy Director General, QREC
Professor, Startup Support Group, Academic Research and Industrial Collaboration Management Office of Kyushu University（AiRIMaQ）
Field of specialization:
Entrepreneurship,
Management strategy theory
○ Profile
Professor Shingo Igarashi graduated from Otaru University of Commerce in 1983. He earned an MBA degree from the Graduate School of Business Sciences, University of Tsukuba in 2005. Before he joined Kyushu University in 2005, he had worked for the UFJ Bank (currently called the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ). As a member of the UFJ Bank, he was engaged in research and analysis of high-tech start-ups, and supported them in their business expansion, providing support to more than 300 new companies. He has served as a board member of the Advisory Board of the Japan Entrepreneurship Education Network for Higher Education (Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry), and has solid experience in entrepreneurship education. Currently, he is a board member of the Japan Academic Society for Ventures and Entrepreneurs.
○ Message to students
It is no exaggeration to say that your future depends on the variety of experiences you acquire in your student years. As a student, you have little to lose and much to gain, so now is the time to pursue your dreams with vigor. Learn from your failures, and they will bring you to success. “Take action. Change the world.” Just give this motto a try at QREC. We only get one life, so let’s make every moment fruitful and enjoyable.
○Lecture at QREC（2023）
Introduction to Entrepreneurship (Spring quarter, Fall quarter）
Idea Lab Ⅰ
Advanced Lecture in Technology Based Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial Intention
Global Seminar（English）
Lean Startup
QREC Internship
* Click here for research activities, educational activities, etc.
Design Strategy
Faculty of Design
Field of specialization：
Interior Design, Office Design, Interior Product Design, Inclusive Design
○ Profile
Professor Yasuyuki Hirai joined the faculty of design of the Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan since 2000. He has more than 20 years of experience as a designer and design consultant, working for KOKUYO, the largest office furniture manufacturer in Japan and IDEO in USA. His expertise is in the areas of social innovation design such as inclusive design and design thinking as well as office design, both for innovative approaches to realize human and knowledge centric solutions. He received M.phil with distinction from the Royal College of Art, UK in 1990, and his design works received numerous design awards including the Red Dot Award in Germany, the Good Design Award and the Kids Design Award in Japan.
○ Message to students
Non design students tend to think that there is no relation between their study and design, or they are interested in, but they feel they cannot. Design thinking is an approach not only for designers but for all the people including non design students to discover issues and create solutions together for the design of social innovation. Observe and record what you feel strange in your daily life, and ideate solutions from your own experience. That’s the beginning of design thinking.
○Lecture at QREC（2023）
Design Thinking Project
Lean Startup
Global PBL Program
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Head of KOINE project division, Global Innovation Center
Field of specialization：
Nanoscience and nanotechnology for quantum circuits
Sustainable cooling
Value creation by open innovation
Research publications can be found here
（https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Youichi_Harada).
○ Profile
He has earned the Ph. D. degree from Department of Applied Electronics, Tokyo Institute of Technology (TokyoTech) in 1991.
After graduated from TokyoTech, he engaged in the research projects on superconducting single electronics at Chalmers University of Technology (CTH) in Gothenburg, Sweden. He moved back to Japan and joined NTT Basic Research Laboratories (NTT BRL) to establish the research on quantum computation based on his study at CTH in 1994. Eventually he was transferred to the international business section, where he dealt with several big M&As. From 2004, he established and conducted the NTT Europe laboratory as the director-general, which is located in Clarendon Laboratory at Oxford University.
After retirement from NTT in 2015, he moved at global innovation center, Kyushu University. He is currently engaged in multidisciplinary research projects based on open innovation (KOINE) and teach research skills development and data science in the spirit of entrepreneurship.
○ Message to students
Entrepreneurship is not only the activities for start-ups, but also to obtain the practical skills to enjoy and survive your social life. To do so, I will give you the research skills development in both English and Japanese and also give the introduction to data science. Wish you to be the global experts through our programs.
My details can be found here (http://www.gic.kyushu-u.ac.jp/e/koine/nanofactory.html).
○Lecture at QREC（2023）
Advanced Lecture in Research Skills Development（English）
Innovation Management
Practical introduction to Data Science
* Click here for research activities, educational activities, etc.
Professor of Department of Industrial Management, Faculty of Economics, Kyushu University
○ Profile
He was born in Tokyo in 1961 and lived in Saga Prefecture until his grandfather’s generation. He started his working life at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (currently the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). He was in charge of venture support policy during his tenure. At the age of 35, he moved to the private sector and became President and Representative Director of Tsutaya Online, Representative Director and Managing Director of Culture Convenience Club, President and Representative Executive Officer of Kanebo (seconded from the Industrial Revitalization Corporation of Japan), President and Representative Director of Maruzen (now Maruzen CHI Holdings), President and Representative Director of the Japan Human Resources Organization.
He always involved at the forefront of corporate and social change.
He graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo, completed Master program in International Relations, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University and Doctoral program in Economics, Graduate School of Economics, University of Tokyo.
Book “The Law of Decline: identity of the silent killer that undermines Japanese companies” (Toyo Keizai Inc.)
○ Message to students
Please experience the excitement and fun of getting “real seriousness” when you were a student. You will definitely understand its meaning when coming out to society.
○ Lecture at QREC（2023）
Industry Ethics
* Click here for research activities, educational activities, etc.
Academic Research and Industrial Collaboration Management Office of Kyushu University
Intellectual Property and Startup Support Management Group
○ Profile
Professor Kosuke Kaneko graduated from the Department of Physics, School of Science, Kyushu University in 2006. He received his master’s degree and Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, Kyushu University, in 2008 and 2014, respectively. While an undergraduate student he organized a software development circle, and later on while a doctoral student commercialized the circle’s activities with his fellow students at the lab developing various products together with local companies. Furthermore, he has held many ideathons and hackathons aiming to create an environment that enables co-creation between local engineers and creators. He became an assistant professor at the Innovation Center for Educational Resource, Kyushu University Library in 2014, dedicating himself to educational technology, and in 2016 became an associate professor at the Department of Fujitsu Cultivation of Specialists, Kyushu University Cybersecurity Center, dedicating himself to training of and research on cyber security human resources. He took up his current post in 2021.
○ Message to students
We live in a world known as the VUCA era, an acronym for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. We have reached a situation in which in order to survive this era a spirit of challenge and fearlessness of failure, an indefatigable spirit to overcome difficulties, an ability to flexibly adapt to social change, and the dynamism to generate new value – all of which were possessed by people we usually refer to as entrepreneurs – are essential not only for entrepreneurs but for all of us who live in contemporary society. QREC’s entrepreneurship education is not merely education for the fostering of entrepreneurs; it puts into practice entrepreneurship education in the wider sense of nurturing the power to survive in society. I really hope that through the QREC lectures students will build the foundation stones for surviving in modern society.
○ Lecture at QREC（2023）
Digital Fabrication Tutorial
Digital Fabrication with Design Thinking
Technology Marketing Game(Spring quarter, Fall quarter）
Self-discovery for career design(Spring quarter, winter quarter）
Co-creation Practice with Industry on Ideathon / Hackathon
Entrepreneurship Bootcamp
* Click here for research activities, educational activities, etc.
Robert T.Huang Entrepreneurship Center of Kyushu University (QREC)
○ Profile
Ms. Watanabe Yuka received her MBA degree from the Kyushu University, Graduate School of Economics, Department of Industrial Management. After that, she studied abroad at National Taiwan Normal University.
After working in the Semiconductor Marketing Division of NEC Corporation, the Sales & Marketing Division of Pasona Taiwan and Pasona Asia (HK) Tokyo Branch, and the Property Management Division of Kowa Real Estate Co., she started an IT consulting business with her husband while attending graduate school.
○ Message to students
For four years in Asia, I was involved in competition to acquire global engineers and management personnel. In order to increase one’s own value in the global labor market, it is necessary to acquire not only deepening expertise but also entrepreneurship, leadership, communication skills, business knowledge, and language skills such as English to supplement them. At Kyushu University, students can deepen their expertise through studies within their majors and learn complementary elements through programs such as QREC. We hope that students will actively take advantage of these opportunities.
○ Lecture at QREC（2023）
Entrepreneurship Career Design
Technology Marketing Game (Summer Quarter)
Technology Marketing Game (English)
* Click here for research activities, educational activities, etc.
Robert T.Huang Entrepreneurship Center of Kyushu University (QREC)
○ Profile
Graduated from the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, National University of Mongolia in 2012.
Completed the Department of International Management (IMBA), Graduate School of Business Administration, I-Shou (I-Shou) University, Taiwan in 2014.
D. from the Graduate School of Economics, Hokkaido University in 2021.
In 2021, he became an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of General Management, Aomori University, where he will assume his current position in 2022.
○ Message to students
Life is like climbing a mountain, and each person has his or her own way to the top. Even if things go wrong or negative things happen along the way, there is always room for any number of opportunities. Believe in yourself and take on challenges at any time.
○ Lecture at QREC（2023）
Basic Entrepreneurship Organization Science
Basic Entrepreneurship Strategic Theory
* Click here for research activities, educational activities, etc.