Professor Keisuke Tanaka completed his doctorate at Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, School of Information Science in 1997. First working for NTT Information Communication Laboratories, he then joined Tokyo Institute of Technology, Graduate School of Information Science and Engineering as an associate professor in 2001. Since 2017, he has been a professor at the School of Computing, and in 2018 he became director of the Cybersecurity Research Center.With advances in the use of information and communication technologies, threats to cybersecurity have grown more critical, and human resources in information security have been insufficient to address the situation. As described in the Proposal for Reinforcing Cybersecurity Measures (Japan Business Federation, February 2015), industry-academia collaboration in the development of cybersecurity human resources is also of great importance.
In response to these social needs, Tokyo Institute of Technology launched, in collaboration with industry, Progressive Graduate Minor in Cybersecurity in April 2016. The program allows graduate students at Tokyo Tech to gain practical knowledge in cybersecurity, while also taking advantage of the university’s strengths in the theoretical fields of information and communication. An on-campus survey has shown the program’s curriculum to be well balanced, in accordance with the Guidelines for Visualizing Skills for Human Resources in Security Operations (Japan Network Security Association, January 2019).
Since 2015, Professor Tanaka has played a central role in the overall design and management of the program. This includes overseeing the content of all courses in the core curriculum, which consists of 12 credits of 6 courses, and coordinating with instructors and partner companies. Approximately 300 students take the 6 core courses every year, and about 30 students complete the program annually.
The program is in its fifth year, and is now recognized as an exemplary education initiative, being featured in academic journals and magazines, showcased by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and acknowledged with education awards from Tokyo Tech. In spearheading the design and management of this education program, Professor Keisuke Tanaka has proven himself to be highly deserving of the Distinguished Educational Practitioners Award.
