Tokyo Institute of Technology publishes the latest issue of its online newsletter, Tokyo Tech Bulletin

(Tokyo, 24 February 2014) Upgrade of Tokyo Tech’s TSUBAME supercomputer is just one of the cutting edge research projects covered in the February 2014 issue of the Tokyo Institute of Technology Bulletin

PRESS RELEASE

Source: Tokyo Institute of Technology, Center for Public Information

For immediate release: 24 February 2014

Tokyo Institute of Technology publishes the latest issue of its online newsletter, Tokyo Tech Bulletin

(Tokyo, 24 February 2014) Upgrade of Tokyo Tech’s TSUBAME supercomputer is just one of the cutting edge research projects covered in the February 2014 issue of the Tokyo Institute of Technology Bulletin :
http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/news/2014/025197.html

Research highlights in the February 2014 issue of the Tokyo Tech Bulletin include:

Feature

TSUBAME 2.0 Upgraded to TSUBAME 2.5: Aiming Ever Higher
http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/research/stories/tsubame2013.html?utm_so...

Tsubame, swallow in Japanese, is the symbol of Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech). TSUBAME also stands for Tokyo Tech Supercomputer and Ubiquitously Accessible Mass Storage Environment, which is one of the world's top, large-scale supercomputers. TSUBAME 1.0 began operating in 2006 and was the fastest supercomputer in Japan at that time. In 2010, TSUBAME 2.0 was developed and began operating; its speed measured in petaflops was a first in Japan. (Petaflops is a computer's ability to do one quadrillion floating point operations per second.) TSUBAME 2.0 also achieved world-leading electrical efficiency that earned it a 2010 global rank of No. 2 in the Green500 rankings for supercomputer energy efficiency. TSUBAME was upgraded from 2.0 to 2.5 in the fall of 2013. Specifically, what changed? How is TSUBAME different from K and other supercomputers?

The Origins of the Antiviral Drug Arasena
http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/about/stories/arasena.html?utm_source=bu...
Acyclovir was developed by a U.S. pharmaceutical company in 1974 as the world's first effective antiviral drug and the developers were awarded the Nobel Prize six years later for their work. At the same time, researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) had developed breakthrough organic synthesis reactions that were needed to enable the development of other antiviral drugs.

Recent Research

Liquid-liquid phase transition for water + hydrocarbon mixtures at high temperatures and pressures
http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/news/2014/025079.html?utm_source=bulleti...
Water + hydrocarbon mixtures exhibit complex phase behavior at high temperatures and pressures. An in depth knowledge of the phase behavior for water + hydrocarbon mixtures is important for the design of the process of oil sand and bitumen upgrading using supercritical water. However, there is very little experimental data of the phase equibria for water + hydrocarbon mixtures at high temperatuers and pressures. Yusuke Shimoyama and colleagures at Tokyo Tech discovered a liquid - liquid phase transition for water + light hydrocarbon + heavy hydrocarbon mixture at a constant temperature.

Tunable negative thermal expansion materials
http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/news/2014/025103.html?utm_source=bulleti...
Negative thermal expansion (NTE) material, in which the volume contracts on heating, have attracted much attention because these can suppress the thermal expansion in structure materials.

Photo-domino effect observed in a perovskite-type cobalt oxide
http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/news/2014/024980.html?utm_source=bulleti...
Optical phase control of the electric, magnetic, and elastic properties of materials by laser irradiation can also be used for ultrafast switching of devices. However, the real space observation of the photo-induced phase change and resultant dynamics have not been fully investigated, Now, Yoichi Okimoto and his coworkers at the Department of Materials Science at Tokyo Tech focused on a perovskite-type cobaltite --Pr0.5Ca0.5CoO3--as a novel photoactive material for femtosecond reflection spectroscopy using femtosecond laser pulses.

Semantic indexing system for video search using a data-driven approach
http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/news/2014/025117.html?utm_source=bulleti...
The volume of video data on the Internet increases rapidly each year, with the majority of the data being various kinds of low quality, consumer videos, without text tags. So there is strong demand for video search techniques based on the use of image and video features--so called “content-based video retrieval” (CBVR). Nakamasa Inoue, Koichi Shinoda, and colleagues at the Dept. Computer Science at Tokyo Tech have developed a system using on a data-driven method based on the probability theory.

The Tokyo Institute of Technology Bulletin also includes updates of news and events:

NEWS

Tokyo Tech Students Win Two Major Biological Competitions
- iGEM
http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/news/2013/024411.html?utm_source=bulleti...

- BIOMOD
http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/news/2013/024463.html?utm_source=bulleti...

The International Education Forum on Environment and Energy Science
http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/news/2014/024677.html?utm_source=bulleti...

Professor Shin-ya Koshihara Honored with Humboldt Research Award
http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/news/2014/024984.html?utm_source=bulleti...

ALUMNUS ON THE WORLD STAGE
Keiichiro Sako, Architect
http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/outreach/community/alumni_sako.html?utm_...

THROUGH STUDENTS' EYES
A one-year study in Japan: From University of Zurich
http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/graduate_school/international/experience...

Further information:
Miwako Kato and Yukiko Tokida,
Center for Public Information, Tokyo Institute of Technology

2-12-1, Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan
E-mail: [email protected]
URL: http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/

Tel: +81-3-5734-2975
Fax: +81-3-5734-3661

About Tokyo Institute of Technology
As one of Japan’s top universities, Tokyo Institute of Technology seeks to contribute to civilization, peace and prosperity in the world, and aims at developing global human capabilities par excellence through pioneering research and education in science and technology, including industrial and social management. To achieve this mission, we have an eye on educating highly moral students to acquire not only scientific expertise but also expertise in the liberal arts, and a balanced knowledge of the social sciences and humanities, all while researching deeply from basics to practice with academic mastery. Through these activities, we wish to contribute to global sustainability of the natural world and the support of human life.

Website: http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/