Department of Human and Social Informatics

Summary

The Department of Human and Social Informatics seeks to develop professionals who can elucidate human psychology, consciousness and sensation, community and market, by the use of informatics. In addition, our aim is to foster professionals who can create new value through the use of information science and technology towards human beings and society, by revolutionizing interpersonal relationships and the way in which society works.
For organizations such as modern enterprises and government, handling information appropriately is important for fulfilling the responsibilities of citizens and society. In the information society, people who are capable of managing organizations and planning institutions, by considering the value and influence of information, and ethical aspects of information, are essential. It is also necessary to fully understand the signi¬ficance and danger of information or misinformation spread globally through mass media and social media. In the globalized environment, intellectuals who can understand the uniqueness in society and culture are also becoming necessary. Furthermore, we need the ability to consistently manage the design, development and operation of the system taking into account the social information infrastructure which the organization depends on, as well as the system contents based on the design.
In this department, such personnel are required to possess the following knowledge and abilities:

  • An understanding of the value of information in the organization and organizational ethics related to information
  • Model building abilities based on society’s informative understanding, and abilities to provide services
  • An understanding of the characteristics of mass media and social media
  • Communication skills to effectively explain and disseminate information
  • Legal and ethical understanding of information security
  • Management ability to understand differences between society and culture, and the ability to mediate stakeholders

Intellectuals with such knowledge and abilities are expected to contribute our society in careers such as project managers who connect users, technology developers at companies, stakeholders who intervene between citizens and experts at public offices, and content providers of mass or social media.

 

Faculty Members

13 Faculty Members of Department of Social informatics, Graduate School of Informatics
7 Faculty Members of Department of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences, Graduate School of Informatics

Prof.  TACHIKAWA, Masashi* MARUYAMA, Yasushi*
Assoc. Prof.  KAWAMURA, Noriyuki*
*Graduate School of Environmental Studies

Divisions

Division of Social Informatics

At the Division of Social Informatics, students learn social informatics, information philosophy and ethics, media research, sociology, and the likes, to become intellectuals who can build a better relationship between information science and technology and society.

Curriculum

Philosophy of Information
Information and Ethics
Information Aesthetics
Welfare Philosophy of Information Society
Information Arts
Information Society and Design
Social Media for Tourism and Community
Visual Information Processing
Museum Exhibition Informatics
Media and International Society
Media Studies
Contemporary Society
Risk Governance

Division of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences

Students learn the basic conceptual framework of cognitive and psychological sciences to capture human characteristics from multilayered viewpoints such as individuals, society and culture, evolution, brain, computational models, and so on. Students also acquire the skills to understand, elucidate, and predict human cognition and feelings quantitatively through experiments, surveys, data analysis, and simulations. Based on the skills, students will be further cultivated to have the abilities to create attractive “environments” (goods, services, institutions etc.) for humans and to analyze and solve problems in the modern and future society in an evidence-based way.

Curriculum

Science of Mind
Human and Machine Intelligence
Special Lecture on Cognitive and Psychological Sciences A1・A2
Special Lecture on Cognitive and Psychological Sciences B1・B2
Cognitive Psychology A-D
Social Psychology A-D
Brain and Mind A-B
Cognitive Science A-F
Experiment of Psychology and Cognitive Science 1・2
Data Analysis for Cognitive and Psychological Sciences
Introduction to Psychology 1・2

 

An example of the pictogram detection task in a psychological experiment. Participants are asked to detect one target pictogram from among thirty six pictograms. There are two types of pictogram colors (white objects on the black background or black objects on the white background) to investigate which coloring enhances pictogram detection.

Major research issues in our program include human behavior and psychological precesses both at the individual and group levels
Joint lecture on Mass Media in Japan and Thailand organized by Chulalongkorn University and Nagoya University

 

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