Research

Message from the Director

Center for Digital Intelligence and Transformation (CDIT) is an initiative by a group of researchers in Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Onsen Health Academy (OHA) Association in Beppu, and Food Roads Organic Network (FRONe) association in Kagoshima with their global collaborative partners to promote open digital innovation in the region especially in the areas of HEAT - Health, Environment, Agriculture, and Tourism. To accomplish this task, CDIT is blessed with APU's resourceful multinational student community and researchers, venture business entrepreneurs, and ambassadors for international markets, amongst strong backing by the dedicated research and industrial partners in Japan and overseas.

CDIT will address highly timely need of the region, through which industries in Kyushu can expand globally by adopting state of art digital technologies to enhance and innovate new products and services. CDIT also focuses on the JSLIP (Japan Sri Lanka Joint Comprehensive Partnership) initiative to foster industrial collaboration between Beppu and Kanoya Cities in Japan with Kandy City Sri Lanka. CDIT plays a core in AP-HEAT-IT consortium to incubates digital disruption technologies for its collaborators with the support of diverse international student and faculty body who can promote global technology fusion profusely. In that, CDIT can share seamlessly among its core partners OHA, FRONe, Asian Natural Medicine Research Collaboratory (ANMRC), and JSLIP to promote open innovation in the region especially in the areas of HEAT - Health, Environment, Agriculture, and Tourism.

April 2019 (Renewed April 2024)
NISHANTHA Giguruwa
Director, Center for Digital Intelligence and Transformation (CDIT)

Purpose of the Center

Disruptive Digital Technology Innovation that creates a base for the next big wave of enterprise disruption is a paradigm that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) technologies augmented by enhanced information resource authoring, sharing, and visualization via human-computer mutual interaction. In that, fast-emerging digital ecosystems and the businesses that power digital disruption are already straddling markets and blurring industry boundaries and transform knowledge into wealth through synergetic effects of digital open research and innovation.
CDIT focuses in empowering societies and industries in the region to upgrade some of the most HEATed business areas in this year- Health, Environment, Agriculture, and Tourism.

Main activities AY2021

New Projects

A. Initiate WOW-Space Human Resource Framework Development Project

Collaborator: WoW Space Corporation, Food Roads Organic Network Association

WoW is a framework system developed by CDIT to essentially harmonizes collective efforts of machine intelligence and human intelligence scattered geographically with different capabilities, skills, preferences, and availability to achieve common objectives at high accuracy, low cost and reduced production time. CDIT links with APU’s Business Start-up sector (and potentially with other universities e.g., KEO University) to form a novel human resource development platform on WOW framework. The novel WOW-Space HRD framework comprises:

• WoW-Academy that provides a semantic content model for sharing and production of didactic content. Fine grain learner behavioural analysis engine is designed to integrate AI based customized learning.
• @Work and STEM platforms are dedicated to for distributed human agents to linkup with the needs of the industry (especially in Japan) to work through micro-task crowdsourced style. Industry in Japan can promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) human resource development in the region and communicate with the potential foreign workers via a cross language translation platform.

B. Agro-photonics system for container-based strawberry production in Japan

Collaborators: Rentec Corporation, Life Corporation, and Food Roads Organic Network Association

On the success of WOW agroclimatic monitoring system for container-based mushroom production, a new challenge is taken to produce Strawberries inside containers. In contrast to production of mushrooms inside dark containers, strawberry demands research engagements to handle complex hydroponics system that deals with sensitive controlling of light, and liquid fertigation.

• Development of LED system modules research on understanding the best wave-length mix of light for sustainable strawberry production.
• Remote monitoring of container-based strawberry production system using the WoW agroclimatic platform and sensor/actuator enhancements.

C. DRONE usage for industry

Collaborators: WoW-Space Corporation

The emerging demand for using DRONEs in the field is associated with travel-path aware system programming and enforcing policy level controls at system software level. Human resource training and devising new application for using Drones is another important aspect.

• Linking up with Drone Training schools to provide a Drone Operation Licence program for students in APU and get students involvement to promote drone-based activities in the Oita-Prefecture.
• Development of Drone-Maps for public and private spaces according to laws and policies in Japan.

DELIVERABLES 2021

• Nishantha Giguruwa, Malcolm Cooper: Sharable Content Model to Landscape Education Business, Asia pacific Conference, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University Dec 2021
• Cooper, M., Calderon, R, & Von Feigenblatt, O. (2021) “Teaching Negotiation in the Business Sector: Methods, Models, and Challenges.” Journal of Business and Entrepreneurial Studies 6(4).
• Rouault, Frank & Pardo, Phillip & Cooper, Malcolm & Claster, W.B. (2021). Confusion: An Exploratory Conversation on Meaning and Tools to Address Confusion at Work. Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences (JAPSS) Volume 11 Issue 1 April 2021, ISSN 1944-1096.

Researchers