The 18th Kisoi Motohiro Award Ceremony
On Monday the 16th January 2022, International Rescue System Institute held the 18th Kisoi Motohiro Award Ceremony in Nagata, Kobe, in person for first time in 3years, at an area damaged extensively by the great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake before.
This year, the Kisoi Motohiro Award for Academic Achievement was awarded to Professor Gen Endo of Tokyo Institute of Technology, the Kisoi Motohiro Award for Technical Achievement was awarded to Assistant Professor Masahiro Watanabe of Tohoku University.
These awards recognise the outstanding achievements of Professor Endo’s “Clarifying the characteristic of High-strength chemical fiber rope and using it to the Super long multi-joint robot arm.”, and Assistant Professor Watanabe’s “Development of miniaturised robot SMURF for searching victims in debris, capable of transporting by drones”.
（Left：Prof. Endo Right: Assistant Prof. Watanabe)
This year, because of the COVID-19 disaster, the Medical Achievement Award and the Psychology Achievement Award for Researchers who worked as experts in infectious diseases and mental care was awarded.
The Kisoi Motohiro Award for Medical Achievement was awarded to Mr. Kouki Akahoshi of Japan Disaster Medical Assistance Team. The Kisoi Motohiro Award for Psychological Achievement was presented to Associate Professor/Lecturer Nomura Reika Nomura of Kyushu University.
These awards recognise the remarkable achievements of Mr. Akahoshi’s “Reduction of tragedy and preventable death of COVID-19 cluster generating in Medical Institution/Long-Term Care Service by using the support method and prctiong the technique of the disaster medical care”, and Associate Prof./Lecturer Nomura’s “Generation of a framework for continuous support by psychologists for disasters in Japan society”
（Left: Mr. Akahoshi Right： Assistant Prof. lectuer Nomura）
（Front row from left: Technical Winner Assistant Prof. Watanabe, Academic Winner Prof. Endo, Medical Winner Mr. Akahoshi, Psychological Winner Associate Prof./Lecturer Nomura, Back row from left: IRS Director Prof. Takamori, IRS President Prof. Tadokoro, IRS Vice President Prof. Matsuno, Emeritus Prof. Kitamura, Psychological Award Committee President Prof. Imura）
The recipients of the Kisoi Motohiro Awards for Academic Achievement and Technical Achievement each receive 100,000 yen prize money, a certificate and a commemorative trophy, and presented by the selection committee. The recipients of the Kisoi Motohiro Awards for Medical Achievement and Psychological Achievement each receive 100,000 yen prize money, a certificate and commemorative shield, presented by each award’s selection committee members.
The recipients of the awards for encouragement, which focus on the younger generation, are as follows. “DMS-Hokori”’s Kakeru Takano, Ryouta Furuno, and Shoutaro Morishita received the Robocup Junior IRS award, College of Industrial Technology Robot Project “TASUKE-tai”’s Nanoka Yamamoto, Miyu Nakamura, Rikuto Tabata, Hiroto Tamakoshi, Naoto Fujihara, and Takuto Uemura received the Rescue Robot Contest Award, and Takashi Tomiyama of Kyoto University Graduate School received the Award for the Study of Robotics. After the award ceremony, the winners of each award gave a presentation about their research
The recipients of the IEEE IROS 2019 Best Paper Award on Safety Security and Rescue Robotics in memory of Motohiro Kisoi are Eugenio Cuniato、Nicholas Lawrance、Marco Tognon、Roland Siegwart of ETHZ. They received their award in October 2022 in Kyoto and so did not attend this ceremony in Nagata.
Finally, the recipient of the Award for Academic Achievement Prof. Endo, the recipient of the Award for Technical Achievement Assistant Prof. Watanabe, the recipient of the Award for Medical Achievement Mr. Akahoshi, the recipient of the Award for Psychological Achievement Assistant Prof. Lecturer Nomura gave talks on their fields of research.
（Left： Prof. Endo Right: IRS Vice President Prof. Matsuno’s speech）
The ceremony closed with a warm applause for the highly acclaimed achievements in their respective fields, Prof. Endo, Assistant Prof. Watanabe, Mr. Akahoshi, Associate Prof./Lecturer Nomura, and for the winners of the Awards of Encouragement, of whom we expect will make great contributions to the future of rescue robotics.
（Front row from left: The Study of Rescue Robotics Award Mr. Tomiyama, Technical Winner Assistant Prof. Watanabe, Academic Winner Prof. Endo, Medical Award Winner Mr. Akahoshi, Psychological Winner Assosiate Prof./Lecturer Nomura, Second row from the left: Rescue Robot Contest Award [recipients: Nanoka Yamamoto, Miyu Nakamura, Naoto Fujihara, Rikuto Tabata], Robocup Junior IRS Awards [recipients: Shoutaro Morishita, Kakeru Takano, Ryouta Furuno] Third row from the left: Psychological Award Committee Presidet Prof. Imura, IRS Director Prof. Takamori, IRS Vice President Prof. Matsuno, IRS President Prof. Tadokoro, Emeritus Prof. Kitamura）