Dr. Hiroto Yasuura completed his master's degree in information science at the Graduate School of Engineering at Kyoto University in 1978, became a research associate in 1980, and an associate professor in 1986 in the Faculty of Engineering at Kyoto University. In 1991, he became a professor of the Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences at Kyushu University. He established the System LSI Research Center at Kyushu University in 2001, and concurrently served as the director of the center until May 2008. From October 2008, he was executive vice president of Kyushu University and concurrently held many important posts, such as director of the Industry-University Collaboration Center, executive manager of the Information Management Office (CIO), director in charge of information policy (CIO), director in charge of finance (CFO), director of the Industry-University-Government Collaboration Office, and director in charge of campus planning. In addition, he held important posts in a wide variety of fields outside Kyushu University, including as a laboratory head at the Institute of Systems, Information Technologies and Nanotechnologies, senior director of the Fukuoka Region for the first and second stages of the Intellectual Cluster Creation Initiative, president of Kyushu TLO Company, Ltd., director of the Social Systems Demonstration Center of the Fukuoka Industry, Science & Technology Foundation, director of the Fukuoka Asia Urban Research Center, chairperson of the Academic Exchange for Information Environment and Strategy, a member of the Science Council of Japan, and representative for the PRESTO Social Information Infrastructure of Japan Science and Technology Agency. Within the IEICE, he served as president of the Information and Systems Society, and vice president of the institute. Outside Japan, he served as vice-chair and a member of the Board of Governors at the IEEE CAS Society.

Dr. Yasuura has made brilliant achievements in a wide range of fields, from computer system hardware to software and fundamental technologies for social systems. In particular, the technology he proposed in the 1990s for optimizing system-level power consumption using variable-voltage processors is widely used as a means to reduce power consumption by processor systems. He was engaged in the development of a microprocessor for education use, KUE-CHIP2, and in the education of students at Fukuoka Institute of Systems LSI College (currently, Systems Development Technology College). He was deeply involved in the launch of ASP-DAC, the largest international conference in the Asia-Pacific region on LSI design technology. The IEICE has been co-hosting conferences with ASP-DAC, which provide opportunities for active exchanges among international researchers. He served as general chair of the ASP-DAC conference in 2003 and has been chair of its Steering Committee since then. Taking the opportunity of Kyushu University’s move to its Iyo Campus, he has been conducting demonstration experiments in collaboration with enterprises and other organizations under the far-reaching theme of how to harmonize educational systems and social systems with IT, AI, and 5G throughout the campus. He, for example, established the Smart Mobility Promotion Consortium, which targets mobility within the campus, and is conducting experiments on automated driving, AI-based traffic control, road-to-vehicle communication, and on-demand operation.

For the above highly rated achievements, he has received many accolades, such as the Young Researcher’s Award, the Best Paper Award, the Achievement Award from the IEICE, the Best Paper Award, the Sakai Memorial Award, the Best Author Award, and the 40th Anniversary Best Paper Award from the Information Processing Society of Japan, the Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration Award from the Cabinet Office, and the Minster’s Award from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. He has been awarded the title of fellow by the IEICE and the IEEE.

As mentioned above, we are convinced that his research achievements in computer systems and, by extension, the information communication field and his contribution to society through these fields are outstanding and we wholeheartedly recommend that Dr. Yasuura be designated as a fellow, honorary member of the IEICE.