A theorist pursuing “theoretical research” in discrete mathematics

Associate Professor Kazuhisa Makino
(Department of Mathematical Informatics)

　“Mathematical engineering” is a promising academic discipline with wide application to information content, genetic information, brain science, software, and robots.  Associate Professor Makino specializes in discrete mathematics, algorithm theory, and optimization as foundations that support a wide variety of applications, and is a theoretical researcher who strives to solve problems through studying these theories.

　Associate Professor Makino is highly regarded for his work and received the AAAI Outstanding Paper Award in 2002 for abductive explanations (complementary reasoning) as a part of discrete enumeration research.  This is a problem in which “hypotheses are presented when a conclusion is known.”  For example, if a car does not run, why does it not?  Causes are enumerated for this question: it is an engine failure, or some part is broken.
The original purpose of mathematical engineering is to develop solutions by modeling the nature of phenomena and it is an important academic field to give answers to what an industry asks for. However, Associate Professor Makino’s research approach is very clear – solely academic.  He is a theorist who says, “I would like to dedicate myself to theoretical research to pursue the essence of things while young.”
“Discrete mathematics and algorithm research is especially like a puzzle. Even a non-expert can understand a problem, and it seems it can be solved with a simple method.  But it cannot.  That is what intrigued me.”

　Another pillar of discrete enumeration is dualization of logic functions.  There are two ways of expressing a given logical formula and a solution is sought by converting from one expression to another expression.  This dualization problem is a basic problem with wide application as in mutual exclusion in distributed systems, data mining, learning theory, and mathematical programming as well as game theory.  For Associate Professor Makino solving difficult problems is a motivation in life and his pride.  This explains the fact that he is a researcher in academia.