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About FIRST

　The Laboratory for Future Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Technology (FIRST) was established on April 1,
2016, by merging five research organizations: the Precision & Intelligence Laboratory, the Imaging Science and
Engineering Laboratory, the Quantum Nanoelectronics Research Center, the Structural Engineering Research Center, and
the ICE Cube Center. FIRST aims to contribute to the realization of a prosperous future society by creating innovative
industrial technologies through the integration of various research fields such as mechanical engineering, electrical
and electronic engineering, material engineering, information engineering, environmental engineering, disaster
prevention engineering, and social sciences.

　One of its predecessors, the Precision & Intelligence (P & I) Laboratory, was a research organization formed
in 1954 through the merger of the Research Laboratory of Precision Machinery (founded in 1939) and the Research
Laboratory of Electronics (founded in 1944). In addition to producing numerous research results, the P & I
Laboratory produced two Japan Academy members, Professor Issaku Koga (research on quartz crystals) and Professor
Takashi Nakata (research on gear engineering and automatic control) and made significant contributions to the
development of industry and academia. Japan’s roots in numerical control technology for machine tools, the machines
used to make machines, are well known. Recently, Professor Emeritus Kenichi Iga, former president of the Tokyo
Institute of Technology, has received international acclaim for his research on the invention and practical
application of surface emitting lasers. The Imaging Science and Engineering Laboratory was established in 1954 as the
Graphic Engineering Laboratory, a pioneering research facility among Japanese universities. It was renamed the
Photomechanical Engineering Research Institute in 1964, the Image Information Engineering Research Institute in 1974,
and then the Imaging Science and Engineering Laboratory in 2010. The laboratory has conducted research from a new
perspective that captures information handled in various forms in information-related technologies, and deals with a
wide range of information processes such as input, conversion, storage, display, transmission, and processing. The
Quantum Nanoelectronics Research Center was established in 1994 as the Research Center for Quantum Effect Electronics.
It assumed its current name in 2004, and has contributed to the development of new technologies and industrial
applications of nano-optical and electronic devices. Joining these research institutes and centers are the Structural
Engineering Research Center of the Institute of Applied Ceramics, originally founded as the Laboratory for Building
Materials and the first laboratory attached to the university in 1934, which researches urban disaster prevention
engineering and has led the filed in advanced earthquake-resistant engineering such as seismic isolation and vibration
control structures, and the ICE Cube Center, which has promoted the development and industrial application of 3D
integrated circuits and other technologies, thus creating a research organization that accelerates interdisciplinary
research and its social implementation.

　FIRST consists of 14 research groups (research cores) of about 10 researchers each. Each research core conducts
interdisciplinary research through close collaboration among researchers in different fields and deepens basic
technology research in specialized fields such as information engineering, electrical and electronic engineering,
optoelectronic engineering, mechanical engineering, control engineering, bioengineering, materials engineering,
environmental engineering, and disaster prevention engineering. The Biomedical Engineering Research Core plays a
central role in the activities of the Research Center for Biomedical Engineering, a network-based collaborative
research center supported by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) since
2016. In the Advanced Research Infrastructure Sharing Promotion Project, we promoted the consolidation and sharing of
cleanrooms scattered throughout the campus to improve the efficiency of research and education, and provided advanced
experimental equipment to researchers and students. The Urban Disaster Prevention Engineering Research Core have
played a major role of the Multidisciplinary Resilience Research Center.

　Full-time FIRST faculty members are also affiliated with the university’s schools, where they teach undergraduate
and graduate courses and provide research guidance for bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees.

Interdisciplinary research areas of the Laboratory for Future Interdisciplinary
Research in Science and Technology (FIRST)

About FIRST