Takanori Shibata

Ph.D. in Electronic and Mechanical Engineering, Nagoya University, Takanori Shibata is a Senior Research Scientist at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan, having been a research scientist at the Artificial Intelligence Lab., MIT, and a visiting research scientist at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, University of Zurich. He was Deputy Director for Information and Communication Technology Policy at the Japanese Government Bureau of Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy from 2009 to 2010. His research interests include human-robot interaction, robot therapy and humanitarian de-mining. He was certified by the Guinness World Records in 2002 as the inventor of a seal robot named Paro, the World’s Most Therapeutic Robot. His awards include the Robot of the Year award from the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Outstanding Young Person in the World award from the Junior Chamber International, and the Japanese Prime Minister’s Award.