Mr. Sugii's Safecast Report
Information
お知らせ
Yuta Sugii, a second-year student of the UoA, participated in the activities of "Safecast", a nonprofit organization, and gave a presentation on his experience on campus. Safecast primarily maps radiation levels, builds sensor networks, and contributes the collected data to the people. Internationally, their activities have started gaining attention. On February 25, 2015, Safecast was introduced in a 30-minute segment on the NHK WORLD documentary program.
Mr. Sugii's activities with Safecast are as follows.
Kobe IT Festival 2014
November 28(Fri) and 29(Sat), 2014
Mr. Sugii attended the workshop "Build a Geiger Counter with Safecast members" held at Kobe IT Festival 2014. Mr. Sugii built his own Geiger counter called "bGeigie Nano". In this workshop, the attendees used their Geiger counters to measure radiation levels around Kobe city. This event received strong interest and a positive reception as the first radiation-related workshop in the Kansai region (western Japan).
Further information about the workshop, visit here.
The Geiger counter built by Mr. Sugii (Left), Measuring radiation levels in front of Kobe City Hall (Right)
Measuring radiation levels in Minamisoma City
December 29 (Mon), 2014
Safecast members including Mr. Sugii used the Geiger counters built at the Kobe IT Festival to measure radiation levels at Odaka Station located in Odaka-ku, Minamisoma, Fukushima. The Odaka district is now designated as an "Evacuation Directive Lift Prepared Area" (entering the area is possible, but overnight stays are prohibited). The measuring team went to Odaka district through National Route 6, which reopened in September 2014. The measurement data taken in Odaka district was uploaded all over the world with the support of Tomoyuki Wada from Odaka Worker's Base Co., Ltd.
Workshop held at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
March 18 (Wed) to March 20 (Fri), 2015 (Local date)
Mr. Sugii brought his Geiger counter which he built at the Kobe IT Festival workshop to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (RHIT) where he studied as an exchange student. At RHIT, Mr. Sugii held a workshop to teach local students how to make a Geiger counter. After that, Mr. Sugii measured the radiation levels of the RHIT campus and the nearby downtown area.
Also, in order to show the appreciation to RHIT for accepting UoA students as exchange students after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011; Mr. Sugii donated the Geiger counter as a symbol of friendship between RHIT and the UoA.
Richard E. Stamper, Ph.D. commented "As a symbol of continuous friendship between the UoA and RHIT; also between Japan and the USA, we will carefully use this Geiger counter."
Activity reports by Mr. Sugii. 1 2
Workshop in RHIT (Left), Mr. Sugii donated the Geiger counter (Right)
Safecast Conference 2015
March 25 (Wed), 2015
The 1st Safecast Conference and the 4th Anniversary of Safecast, "Safecast Conference 2015", was held in Koriyama, Fukushima. At that time, Mr. Sugii was studying at RHIT. In order to report the activities at RHIT, he gave a presentation from the USA using telepresence. Mr. Sugii also reported that the UoA students took the lead to attend the project using the open data. In this Conference, there were many participants including the special advisor to Office of Healthcare Policy, Cabinet Secretariat Dr. Kiyoshi Kurokawa and the Mayor of Koriyama Masato Shinagawa. In addition to these conferences, "Safecast Hackathon" was also held, and the UoA-launched venture company Eyes, JAPAN Co. Ltd. participated in it. UoA students participated in a workshop to build a Geiger counter and a Hackathon using API.
Activity Reports by Mr. Sugii here.
The 1st Safecast Conference (Left), Mr. Sugii gave a presentation from the US using telepresence (Right)
Mr. Sugii's Comment: Safecast's activities produce the most massive open data among volunteer groups in the world, and it will be expected to further expand the volume of data it produces in the future. Although what I can do now is very little, I'm glad to join this project and do my best. These projects couldn't be finished without a lot of support, so I really appreciate the cooperation of many people including Monex, Inc. Chief Technical Officer Pieter B. Franken and Jun Yamadera from Eyes, JAPAN Co. Ltd..
Before I entered the UoA, I never imagined building a Geiger counter by myself and measuring the radiation levels of the areas around me with it. From my experience measuring radiation levels, I have been able to gain standards for making decisions regarding radiation levels, and the ability to make rational decisions about radiation.
Now, I can provide my friends and family in my hometown of Kobe with objective opinions supported by data. I think these projects are very important for students studying computers; not only from the perspective of improving technical skills and knowledge, but also in terms of enhancing awareness of volunteer activities and environmental issues. From now on, I will keep participating projects like Safecast to help change the world into better place.
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