SOMAT Webinar Series Spring 2025
Theme: Digitalization in Norway & East Asia
ABOUT: SoMaT is an INTPART (Research Council of Norway) project that investigates sociomaterial transformations in Norway and East Asia from a Humanities-based Science & Technology Studies (STS) framework on three thematic areas: sustainability, digitalization, and diversity. This is the 2nd webinar series, focusing on digitalization is set for spring 2025 and will consist of 3 episodes.
1st Webinar: March 31st (Monday), 9AM-10:30 AM CET 2025 Zoom link (10 min each presentation + 5 min Q/A)
Meeting start: 4PM in Japan/Korea, 3PM in China, 9AM in Norway
SOMAT ongoing work
09:00-09:05 Welcome, by Roger Søraa and Cheng Yu, NTNU
09:05-09:20 Norwegian University of Science and Technology: Roger Søraa, “Working towards fairness in artificial intelligence worker management”
09:20-09:35 Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology: Heesun Shin, "Robot Hyodol and the Digitalization of Eldercare in Korea"
09:35-09:50 Tsinghua University: Can Xu, “When Automation Becomes a Burden, Rethinking ‘Digital Formalism’ in China's Water Environment Governance”
09:50-10:05 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences: Jiang Yu, “To Deepen the Value-Creating Collaboration under Digitalization”
10:05-10:20 Institute of Science Tokyo: Xinru Zhu, "From Metal to Digital: The Evolution of Type Technology and Its Impact on Individuated Reading Experiences"
10:20-10:30 Final remarks & discussion: How can these topics lead to cross-pollination and collaboration?
There are three thematic areas for our upcoming webinar series: sustainability, digitalization, and diversity. We will have one webinar series for each topic.
The first webinar series on sustainability started in Spring 2024 and will have three episodes. You can find the detailed program here.
We are planning the first Autumn School Series in Tokyo this October! Are you ready to embark on a life-changing academic experience? Join us at the SOMAT-project Autumn Graduate School in Tokyo from September 30 to October 04, 2024!
This autumn school's main target is master's students, and it is open for PhD students in both Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Equality and Diversity students. We invite you to apply to participate in this unique opportunity.
Not only will you gain international experience, but you will also attend courses taught by prestigious professors and communicate with other brilliant minds from our partner universities. Don't miss out on this chance to broaden your horizons and expand your knowledge! The project will cover flights, transport, and accommodations.
Contact your university project manager!
Deadline for application: 23rd of Feb 2024
We cannot wait to share the exciting news with you! SoMaT Project had its first successful kick-off event in Tokyo with all four partners. We had the honor to have Her Excellency Ms. Kristin Iglum, Ambassador of Norway to Japan kick off the first day!
You can find our below agenda for our 2-day kick-off:
To read more about the event, read this blog post from TiTech Nohara Lab!
Kayoko Nohara
Dazhou Wang
Wei Hong
Chihyung Jeon
The RCN-funded LIFEBOTS-Exchange-Extended (LEE, 2020-2023) project brings together Norwegian companies and public organizations with academic experts to envision the future of robotics in the healthcare sector and expand the impact and reach of the EU-funded LIFEBOTS Exchange (2019-2025) Project.
In March 2023, our LEE project, including partners Ålesund Municipality, an SME Jodacare that develops smart glasses devices, and an industry consulting firm PA Consulting, went on a study trip to Japan; the first stop was Tokyo to visit our SoMaT partner Kayoko Nohara's Lab at TiTech together with our KAIST partner leader Chihyung Jeon who happens to have his sabbatical year at University of Tokyo.