Group including UoA students selected for Google Impact Challenge
Information
お知らせ
Google Impact Challenge was held on March 26, 2015 (Thursday). At the competition, Fukushima Internet Television, a non-profit organization (NPO), was represented by Yuta Kimoto (3rd year undergraduate), who took to the stage to present and discuss their project, "Suicide Prevention Safety Net." Kimoto's presentation was extremely well received by the judges and the group's booth display received numerous favorable comments from visitors.
While NPO Fukushima Internet Television was not selected as one of the four award winners, as one of the 10 finalist organizations it will be receiving financial and technical support from Google and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI).
Comment from NPO Fukushima Internet Television Student Representative Yuta Kimoto (3rd year student)：
"While we didn't win an award, it was announced that the six finalists who didn't win would all be receiving financial support. Everyone at the venue, including ourselves, were both surprised and delighted. Each of the finalists here today presented extremely meaningful plans. The fact that we will all be receiving financial support is a sign of the high hopes the sponsors have for us. A great number of people supported us during the general voting period. We would not have got this far without everyone's support. You have my heartfelt thanks. However, our activities are just getting started. From this point we will buckle down and collaborate with people from inside and outside of the university to develop our 'Suicide Prevention Safety Net.'"
Mr. Kimoto making his presentation (left), Members of the team with President Oka (right)
Project Planned by UoA Students shortlisted as "Google Impact Challenge Japan" Finalists
Fukushima Internet Television (*1), a nonprofit organization run mainly by UoA students, was shortlisted as one of the ten finalists of "Google Impact Challenge (*2)" on Monday, March 16, 2015.
Nonprofit Organization Fukushima Internet Television is a student-run organization aims at broadcasting current reality of Fukushima worldwide. Origin of this organization is outcome of discussion which dealt information delivery from Fukushima. It was committed by UoA faculty, administrative staff, and students in October, 2012. In February 12, 2013, The organization was registered as a corporation entity by the Fukushima prefecture in February 12, 2013. So far, their projects include namely "Yae Gourmet (2013)", "Made-In-Fukushima Sekaimeshi (2014, *3)."
Google Impact Challenge invites innovative ideas from nonprofit organizations for tackling social-wide issues by technologies. Google launched this program in Japan after running in India, Brazil, UK, USA, and Australia. The ten finalists were selected based on the criteria including technology/innovation, scalability, and feasibility.
The proposal from the Nonprofit Organization Fukushima Internet Television is namely "the Safety Net for Suicide Prevention" which focuses on suicide issues in Japan. Comparing with the seven countries of G7; the Group of Seven, Japan holds the highest youth suicide rates. Approximately half the number of death cases in youth has been caused by suicide. To improve suicide prevention, this project will rebuild the networking of support bodies for suicide prevention, those who intend to commit suicide, and local community.
The public will be invited to vote for the four ideas that most inspire them during Thursday 16 - Wednesday 25, March, 2015. The four winners will be chosen by the public and the judging panel. It will be announced on March 26, 2015. Google will provide 50 million JPY grant funding to each winner.
Yuta KIMOTO, 3rd year undergraduate,
Principle student of Nonprofit Organization Fukushima Internet Television
"So far, various activities have been done for sending out information on Fukushima. Meanwhile meeting was set with chief officer of an organization which runs the call center for counseling. We learnt the surroundings of suicide among youth in Japan. This experience is the origin of this proposal. " 
