Kento Kawaharazuka, Senior Assistant Professor, Department of Next-Generation Artificial Intelligence, CERIST, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo

I am deeply honored to have been selected for Hiroshi Ando Memorial Academic Encouragement Award.
I have been engaged in the design and development of legged robots that can be built by anyone using only components available through e-commerce, and in releasing everything—from hardware and software to the learning environment—as open source. I am very pleased that the series of robot developments, including the quadruped robots MEVIUS and MEVIUS2 and the bipedal robot MEVITA, as well as our efforts to build a community centered around these activities, have been recognized.
These robots are widely used in both academia and industry as educational tools that enable integrated learning from hardware to software, and as reference platforms for legged robots.

Through these activities, I will continue to contribute to the advancement and strengthening of physical AI technologies throughout Japan.