Activities

Final Pitch 2022: 10 years of AppTech Course

November 25, 2022 – Final Pitch 2022 marks the 10th year of the Appropriate Technology Course. The final presentation will be held this Saturday, December 10, at 1:00 PM at the Laboratory of Advanced Research A (SOGO-A) auditorium (A110). This year, different teams focus on improving students’ lives and developing tools for a sustainable educational system.

Students of the Ph.D. Program of Human Biology, Ph.D. Program in Humanics, and Frontier Medical Science have visited places in Kanto and Kansai regions to learn more about the issues they are trying to address.

In the past six months, they have developed technology prototypes that were appropriate to the target user’s needs. They will be sharing their project’s journey and presenting its business potential. There will also be a demo showcasing user experience and how it is expected to improve the Quality of Life.


How to Get There

Laboratory of Advanced Research A [map: https://goo.gl/maps/F9iUK7YAMj3CM7oq9] is located in front of the Tsukuba Daigaku Chuo Bus Stop. It can be accessed via C10 and 10 buses from Tsukuba Center.

FINAL PITCH 2021 WAS HELD!

December 13, 2021 – The Final Presentation of AppTech 2021 was successfully held last Saturday. The online broadcast allowed students from different countries such as Bangladesh, the Philippines, Russia, and Vietnam to participate. The three teams launched their Kickstarter video and conducted a demo for the on-site and online audience.


Watch Their PRESENTATIONS

Project Story + Kickstarter Video + Public Demo + Business Strategy

Group 1 – BVAE

Because of their strong motivation to help people with visual impairment. BVAE received the Best Product Award. Judges were impressed that despite their limitations in technical skills, the group has managed to collaborate with experts to build their technology concept.

GROUP 2 – HARA STOPX

Their innovative branding strategy to raise awareness about the social issue of “chikan” or molestation in public transport made them win the Best Technology Pitch Award. The students also partnered with members of Kansei design lab and students from Future Skills, Russia to co-develop their prototypes. Their team managed to present two products having two different approaches to target potential customers.

GROUP 3 – MFDT

After their field research in Hyogo Prefecture which they have organized in cooperation with Northeast Asia for the Global Risk Mitigation Foundation, G3 focused on creating partnerships among different stakeholders in order to manufacture a working prototype. They discussed the issue with the concerned NPO and worked with people from the Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences in order to develop MFDT. The Judges have given them the Stakeholder’s Choice Award due to their impressive collaboration activities.

Final PITCH 2021 (in the MIDST of PANDEMIC)

December 6, 2021 – Final Pitch 2021 will be held this Saturday, December 11, 1:00 PM at the Faculty of Medicine Lecture Hall. Everyone is invited to this event. Three teams from the Ph.D. Program of Human Biology, Ph.D. Program in Humanics, and Frontier Medical Science will showcase the story of their prototype development to improve the Quality of Life (QoL) of their target users and how will they contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We also invited speakers that will discuss the impact of Appropriate Technology in education.

Details about the event venue:

You can also join via Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/98198943029?pwd=VlpVZ0tOajg2VEtxaWg1eDV1SXRVUT09

Meeting ID: 981 9894 3029
Passcode: apptech

THE TRAILER FOR APPTECH 2022 WAS LAUNCHED!

December 01, 2021 – The trailer video to invite students of AppTech for the Academic Year 2022 was launched. We hope more students will join us from Ph.D. Program in Human Biology, Ph.D. Program in Humanics, and Frontier Medical Sciences. We are also looking forward to welcoming guest students this year!

AppTech Tsukuba in Ibaraki University

June 26, 2021 – AppTech Tsukuba was invited to conduct a lecture and workshop at Ibaraki University, Ami Campus. The lecture was held at the Center for Food Innovation Auditorium. The 49 students who participated the event are majoring in Food Sciences and they learned about the basic concepts of Appropriate Technology and how it is different in contrast to commercial technologies. For the workshop, the students were divided into groups and were given a problem for brainstorming. During the workshop students were encouraged to apply the principle of “design for extreme affordability”.

FINAL PITCH 2020 ON DECEMBER 12

December 8, 2020 – After six months of the technology development journey, the students will present their outputs. We are glad to announce that despite this challenging year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students did their best to come up with a technology concept and its routes to commercialization (business plan).

Final Pitch 2020 is the final presentation of the Appropriate Technology Class. Students visited different places to learn more about the issues affecting people’s quality of life and built prototype technologies that they think are appropriate for the situation. During this event, students will share their motivations, technology development journey, and their vision for business opportunities. Final Pitch 2020 is open to everyone (online via Zoom). Please contact us for the Zoom Details (apptechtsukuba@gmail.com).

We invited Mr. Oshiro Yosaku from the Association for Aid and Relief Japan – Myanmar. He will be sharing his work experiences in developing countries and how simple technologies are changing the lives of people with disabilities that are supported by their NPO.

Event Details:
December 12, 2020 (Saturday)
14:00-18:00
Laboratory of Advanced Research A (Tsukuba Daigaku Chuo Bus Stop)
https://goo.gl/maps/d4ZWXnjdEapDFXmHA

APPTECH 2020 STARTS ON JUNE 12

Dear Appropriate Technology 2020 Students (and guests),

Good day, this is a message from the AppTech teaching team. This Spring Semester, our classes will be contacted online through Microsoft Teams. Below, you can find a link of invitation to the Microsoft Teams that you can access and join our online team:

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/channel/19%3a22da8ebfc9104df1a202f49ae253e42c%40thread.tacv2/General?groupId=75edecfa-eefa-4df3-a193-12b6696fb591&tenantId=9e5b5dfd-669d-4ef8-b240-4229cbf4a83d

We will have six (6) classes this semester to discuss the fundamental concept of Appropriate Technology (AppTech) as well as doing the necessary preparation for the field research activity. Our Teams meeting will be during Fridays (18:00 – 20:00) in the following schedule:

Class # 1 – June 12
Class # 2 – June 19
—No class on June 26—
Class # 3 – July 3
Class # 4 – July 10
Class # 5 – July 17
—No class on July 24—
Class # 6 – July 31

In AppTech, students develop the projects in groups. We must know each other to have effective teamwork; that is why Class #1 will be a “getting-to-know” event. For Class # 1, we request you to introduce yourself (5:00 minutes/ individual). We will use PowerPoint slides and share them via Teams. For preparation of the slides, I recommend you to add some images in order to tell your story more effectively.

Contents of Self-introduction:
1. General information about you (Nickname, laboratory, favorite food, hobbies, etc…)
2. What is your personality type based on the online test (https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test), and what do you think about it?
3. Show an image of the thing you are passionate about (anything is okay)
4. Show a picture of people you want to help (anyone is okay)

Lastly, I hope everyone will enjoy this class despite the current limitations we are experiencing due to this pandemic. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us, Irie sensei, or any of the TAs. This course has some available content online. You can visit them to learn more about AppTech and what to expect in this class.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRCbEIWeUDAi4IbcKL7Yx0w/
Website: https://www.apptechtsukuba.com

Thank you very much, and see you in class!

Best regards,
AppTech Teaching Team


(Japanese translation)

こんにちは。今春の学期では、クラスは マイクロソフトチームを通じて行われます。登録済みの学生に招待状を送信します。ゲストの学生は次のリンクから参加できます。

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/channel/19%3a22da8ebfc9104df1a202f49ae253e42c%40thread.tacv2/General?groupId=75edecfa-eefa-4df3-a193-12b6696fb591&tenantId=9e5b5dfd-669d-4ef8-b240-4229cbf4a83d

今学期は6つのクラスに分かれて、適性技術(AppTech)の基本的な概 念について話し合うとともに、フィールド調査活動に必要な準備を行います。Teamsでの授業は、金曜日(18:00〜20:00)に次のスケジュールで開催されます。

クラス#1 – 6月12日
クラス#2 – 6月19日
— 6月26日はクラスなし—
クラス#3 – 7月3日
クラス#4 – 7月10日
クラス#5 – 7月17日
— 7月24日はクラスなし—
クラス#6 – 7月31日

適性技術では、学生がグループでプロジェクトを行います。効果的なチームワークを実現するには、お互いを知る必要があります。そのため、クラス#1は「お互いを知る」ことにします。クラス#1では一人5分の自己紹介をお願いします。パワーポイントのスライドを使用して、Teamsで共有します。スライドを作成する際には、自己紹介を効果的に伝えるために自分の写真を用いることをお勧めします。

自己紹介の内容:
1.あなたについて(ニックネーム、研究室、好きな食べ物、趣味など)
2.右記リンクのオンラインテストを受けて自分のタイプを発表(https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test)また、パーソナリティテスト結果の感想(自分の性格と結果が一致しているかなど)
3.自分が情熱を持っているものについて画像を用いた説明(何でもかまいません)
4.助けてあげたい人の写真を見せてください(誰でも大丈夫です)

最後に、コロナウイルス感染拡大による様々な自粛期間中において、みなさんがこのクラスを楽しんでもらえることをTA一同願っています。授業や課題についてご不明な点がございましたら、お気軽に入江先生、またはTAまでお問い合わせください。このコースには、オンラインで利用可能なコンテンツがいくつかあります。 AppTechの詳細や、この授業で得られることなど知りたい方は下記のサイトにアクセスしてみてください。

YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRCbEIWeUDAi4IbcKL7Yx0w/
ウェブサイト:https://www.apptechtsukuba.com

本当にありがとうございました。クラスでお会いしましょう!
宜しくお願いします

Blueprint to Business

In this class we discuss a more about the applied aspect of AT and prototyping. Students were given the Prototype Expenses Form for processing the prototype financial support, list of materials, target users and blueprint sketch. This form will help the students put in a logical order their ideas and projections about their prototype. After that we had the Blueprint Presentation from the three teams. Students presented many exiting and original prototypes. The blueprints were from ranges from Dengue educational tool-kits to futuristic grape magnet-carriers. The rest of the session was focused in the sustainability of the product and how some pioneers of the field (e.g. Paul Polak; The Death of Appropriate Technology) and our guest mentor (Engr. Felix Ipanaque) succeeded with their start-up companies. Next session will be focused in the appropriateness of the products and conceptualizing the business model of each team’s technology!

Consolidating the Fieldwork Experience

Another exiting class full of discussion and ideas! In this class we set the requirements of the Final Pitch and showed examples of how senior students did it. Final Pitch is the climax of all the effort and applied ideas to team’s project. During this presentation, the actual prototype will be presented along with an explanatory poster, and presentation of their “AT-journey” video. 

Moreover, we discussed the 8 steps of AT Journey Tracker from Introduction to Business model with a special focus on Consolidation. This was done in order to clarify to the teams the crucial aspects of identifying the Issue, target Users and What could you do from them. Finally, all three teams (Manila PH, Shiga JP and Yamanashi JP) presented their field trip findings and potential ideas. The session ended up with great discussion and useful feedback exchange between the teams. We are waiting for all the teams to give a shape to their ideas and present their blueprints in the next session!

Prepping for School Year 2019

AppTech will be offered to the new Ph.D. in Humanics Program. We expect more diversity in class this school year. The classrooms were also renovated to improve the learning environment. Also, a new room (4F-308) will be available for class activities like workshop and prototype construction.

The class have also prepared some equipment and tools to make the design and construction of prototypes much easier. These include solar-powered devices, drones, Arduino computer with basic sensors, drinking water filter, and thermo-generator among others. A 3-D printer will also be available for the student’s usage. We hope to build more exciting projects this school year!