Title: Activities for Utilizing Mathematics in Automotive Technology Research and Future Plans
Speaker: Mitsugu Mera
Place: IMI Auditorium(W1-D-413) and Live streaming with zoom

Attendance: 34 (Students: 14; Staffs: 11; Others: 9)
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In this lecture, Dr. Mera first introduced his brief history from his internship at Mazda when he was Ph.D student to his work at Mazda. He also introduced his activities at Mazda Technical Research Center, where he belongs.

Next, Dr. Mera described his experience in the internship. When he joined internship, he actually worked on the improvement of a prediction model derived from the actual transient measurement data of engines. He introduced how his mathematical knowledge had contributed to the improvement.

In addition, Dr. Mera explained how his mathematical knowledge has been utilized in his work at Mazda, which appears in actual automobile manufacturing processes.  In one of his experiences, a result of “pure mathematics”, which were not expected to be useful in the practical manufacturing industry, has contributed to solve problems in the manufacturing process. It was very interesting to see such cases.

By following his experieces, he also explained the possibility of directly connecting the needs of Mazda with the knowledge of mathematics from the industry-academia collaboration’s point of view.

Finally, by following his experiences again, he mentioned the possibility that students studying mathematics work in a private company, even though mathematical research was not directly related to the manufacturing industry. What is nurtured at universities, what is nurtured at private companies, and what is the significance of studying mathematics at universities (the attitude to tackle something that has no right answer), etc. He gave us very useful messages, especially for students.