Kyushu University COI promotes research to help build a vibrant and sustainable society, in four fields: mobility, energy, industrial mathematics, and ICT.
Considering the role our research will play in the COVID era, this proposal addresses our focus in the future.

It has been a few months since the unprecedented, once-in-a-century infection COVID-19 spread worldwide. As of June 2020, the infection has spread to 6.8 million people around the world.

As we wait on vaccines and effective treatments, countries have each taken various measures. In Japan also, we had a safer-at-home period of two months. This slowed down the spread of the infection here, yet it hindered our economy during this period.This caused a secondary damage in our society: the suspension of economic activities.

Therefore, we are moving forward in a COVID era, a world in coexistence with COVID-19. In Japan, as safer-at-home restrictions were lifted, the government announced a “new normal.” As we move on to the COVID era, we can be sure to expect major changes to our lifestyles that we took for granted until now. In business, a remote work style has quickly become commonplace.

University education has also rapidly transitioned to online learning. People now reconsider the weight and value of their actions, and limit non-essential outings or travel.

We believe this change will largely affect our social life, even in post-pandemic times.

First, in the mobility perspective, the spread of the novel coronavirus infection has suspended or shifted large parts of people’s lives (especially into online platforms). As a result, we can conclude that people have started to reevaluate the necessity of normal activities such as in-person meetings, hands-on experiences, and travel.

The Mobility Group by no means wish to impose a new lifestyle. Rather, through communication and collaboration with stakeholders and residents, we strive to plan and implement a sustainable travel method that reflects the new lifestyle. We have been involved in developing a citizen-engaged transportation system using Green Slow Mobility, a citizen-participated and inclusively designed EV minibus, and a multimodal information service system that allows people to select different transportation methods.

To contemplate on the weight and value of travel, and to then transition to a new lifestyle, can have a major effect on energy as well. Suspension of factories, safer-at-home policy, remote work, and store closures in the restaurant industry has caused a large drop in demand for electrical power. For this reason, in spring, unconventional caps were put on renewable energy output such as solar panels, and electric power was inevitably wasted.

To resolve this issue, COI has been researching how to produce, store, and utilize renewable energy as hydrogen. Hydrogen can be produced with water and electricity through electrolysis. The resulting hydrogen generates electricity and water by causing a reverse electrolysis reaction in the fuel cell. In addition, since no carbon dioxide is emitted during this process, renewable energy can be stored as hydrogen, and when necessary, generated through the fuel cell to achieve an environmentally-friendly energy system.

In the future, along with changes in work styles such as remote work, we can predict to see more office decentralization. Hydrogen energy can be utilized as a power supply facility for medium-sized energy consumption at offices and businesses.

If more renewable energy + hydrogen energy can be used as power sources for satellite offices, more environmentally friendly and local energy production/consumption will become feasible, in harmony with the shift to a new lifestyle.

Additionally, a power source independent from large power plants is an effective technology that ensures business continuity in natural disasters. This is crucial for companies to plan ahead along with COVID countermeasures. The Energy group will continue to work toward the implementation of such technology in order to realize “local energy production and consumption.”

The Mathematics-for-Industry Group has been working on the research of demand forecasting based on big data analysis used for both mobility and energy (as previously mentioned). This area of study requires a high precision demand forecast to implement cost reduction and work efficiency.

However, the recent COVID situation has changed the way people think and act, and in some cases, former prediction methods no longer apply. For example, in power demand forecasts, closures of factories and public facilities, remote work, and store closures in the restaurant industry have dramatically changed the electricity consumption patterns. Thus, it has become difficult to obtain high precision predictions using the conventional power demand forecasting model.

Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new forecasting model to accommodate environmental change, such as infectious diseases warning levels. However, there are no data on how environmental change from COVID affects the forecast.

Thus, instead of extending the conventional machine learning, we anticipate the need to create a model that incorporates human “wisdom” - such as in physical or statistic models.

The Mathematics-for-Industry Group aims to build a flexible yet general forecasting model that uses statistics and mathematics, applicable in sudden environmental change.

We have mentioned how changes in the way people think and act, triggered by the COVID situation, affects mobility, energy, and their demand forecasts.

The ICT Group has been working on research that supports the smooth transition to a new lifestyle. In this modernized information society, people are constantly showered with information. It is no exaggeration to say the people make decisions based on their choice of information. Popular false news can quickly cause a social phenomenon, as seen in the panic buying of toilet paper.

On the other hand, informatization has made us aware of things we couldn’t see before. For example, analyzing communication data from CO2 sensors or Wi-Fi can determine an area’s people flow, or the congestion degree.

Thus, the ICT Group uses a sensor to measure the congestion degree at Ito Campus and a bus stop at the nearest station, to develop a Traffic Condition Visualization System to encourage commuting at different times. We plan to install sensors in areas that are prone to congestion such as inside the bus or cafeteria.

We believe this will encourage more voluntary social distancing when people use public transportation or gather in public spaces. Also, with the given information, behavioral patterns of users can be accumulated.

In a joint effort with the Mathematics-for-Industry Group, we may forecast future congestion. With the help of the Mobility Group, we may suggest an alternate public transportation method. In this way, the ICT Group aims to provide ICT monitoring that conforms to the COVID era.

In this proposal, from the perspectives of the four groups at Kyushu University COI, we have discussed future outlooks based on various research that will support the new lifestyle.

COVID-19 has caused immense damage to our society, but it also gave the humankind an opportunity to reassess our previous lifestyles and habits.

At Kyushu University COI, as the way people think and act further diversifies, we aim to pursue the realization of a sustainable and co-evolutionary community during the COVID era.

■Traffic condition visualization system

About itocon, a bus stop congestion visualization app
itocon app