Rakuten Technology & Innovation Awards

Rakuten Technology & Innovation Awards are awarded to individuals and organizations which have brought innovation to society through cutting-edge technologies.

Through initiatives such as these annual awards, Rakuten aims to support individuals and organizations that strive to develop revolutionary technologies and promote innovation that contributes to the evolution of society.

Gold Award

AnyTech
Innovative AI technology that analyzes water quality.

Speaker: Yoshiki Shimamoto
CEO, Founder of AnyTech Inc.

AnyTech founder Yoshiki Shimamoto started his research into the technology “DeepLiquid” 10 years ago. DeepLiquid can monitor and analyze water quality by processing video and images of the water’s surface.

Traditionally, water quality and water waste processing is handled by the employees of the water processing plants, who manually observe the water quality with chemical sensors, however the low level of accuracy of this method and the unreliable results have been an issue in the industry.

The core technology behind DeepLiquid, called “Liquid Texture Mining,” can carry out an analysis, that would traditionally take humans three days, in just one second with 99% accuracy, enabling massive cost reductions. Liquid Texture Mining also has the potential to be applied in other fields, including in the analysis of microorganisms.

Mr. Shimamoto believes that the use of a technology like DeepLiquid can both raise awareness of environmental issues and help preserve the global environment.

For their revolutionary technology and for raising awareness of environmental issues, AnyTech has been awarded the Gold Award.

Silver Award

Machine Learning Tokyo
Japan-based volunteer-driven nonprofit organization dedicated to democratizing AI

Speaker : Suzana Ilic
Founder, Director, Machine Learning Tokyo

Starting with just two members as a study group, MLT has evolved into an engineering and research community of 40-50 active contributors and 3,500 members dedicated to open source, open education and open science.

MLT works with the mission to create, grow and sustain an inclusive, collaborative and engineering focused environment for students and professionals. It facilitates opportunities to study and work on Machine Learning and Deep Learning projects and supports individuals to reach their full potential.

MLT holds regular open, inclusive and free workshops and study groups.

MLT also believes in the mission of “AI for Social Good.” They have not only been focusing on community building, but they have also developed a suspended robot in collaboration with Hackerfarm, and brought their research into the field of agriculture, in order to support farmers in Japan by automating a wide range of agricultural tasks.

For that, Machine Learning Tokyo has been awarded the Silver Award.

Leadership Award

Nozomi Ito
Founder of TRIDENT Inc.
Leading expert in the Japanese Quality Assurance (QA) community, organizer of the Japan Selenium User Community

Speaker : Nozomi Ito

Since graduating from Kyoto University, Mr. Ito has worked in test automation and the QA industry, and in 2012, he founded TRIDENT Inc. as an independent entrepreneur. Mr. Ito has been recognized for his expertise in the field of QA and has been invited to speak at numerous overseas conferences.

He is not only an expert in the field of QA, but is also greatly contributing to the community. He established the Japan Selenium User Community and proactively facilitates events and lectures. He has also published a number of books on test automation for engineers which have been highly appraised by the industry. Mr. Ito has shown great leadership through his work in building the QA community in Japan and sharing his knowledge, and for that he has been awarded the Leadership Award.

Future Technology Award

LPIXEL Inc.
Image analysis and processing technology in life science and medical research.

Speaker : Yuki Shimahara

Founded in 2014, LPIXEL is a University of Tokyo spin-off with strong expertise in life science image analysis. LPIXEL fuses artificial intelligence and image analysis technologies to develop and provide an advanced software for researchers and professionals in the life science industry, including the medical, pharmaceutical and agricultural sectors.

One of the main research developments of LPIXEL is “EIRL,” a medical image diagnostic support technology. EIRL aims to provide an accurate, accelerated and streamlined solution for medical diagnosis by analyzing the various information required for setting up a diagnosis.

EIRL aims to be the closest partner of all doctors and serve as another powerful set of eyes to provide top quality medical care. LPIXEL has shown great success in bringing AI technology to medical applications, and their work represents the future of the industry. For that, LPIXEL has been awarded the Future Technology Award.