Galari is an innovative art frame that uses internet-connected electronic paper technology, similar to that found in e-readers like the Amazon Kindle. With a wooden frame and photo mat, Galari blends seamlessly into any home environment, avoiding the gadget-like feel of LCD displays. The displayed art can change regularly, and additional information such as weather or traffic updates can be included.

Kyoto Startup Summer School is a two-week entrepreneurship program for aspiring entrepreneurs around the world. The program contains many lecture and workshop modules such fund raising, pitching, technology trends, marketing, design thinking, lean startup, all taught by experts in the field. Conducted fully in English, the since its launch, over 100 participants from 40+ countries have joined the program, making it one of the most international entrepreneurship program in Japan.

I lead the ME310/SUGAR program at the Kyoto Institute of Technology where students from two different universities work together to deliver an innovative product/service concept for corporate partners. I'm responsible for acquiring corporate sponsors, coordinating with partner universities, and teaching and coaching student teams. I also run multi-day workshops on design thinking for organizations and companies around the world.As part of the KYOTO Design Lab, I head the entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship group where I coordinate relationships with external organizations in design innovation and entrepreneurship, and host workshops both internally and externally.

SUGAR is the leading network of academics and corporations for human-centered innovation for products, services and business models. The objective is to solve real world problems with an interdisciplinary approach. Students follow a practice-based learning methodology based on Design Thinking to uncover user insights, develop creative solutions, and practice a range of design innovation techniques. In 2016 more than 20 universities from all over world participated in this program together with over 40 companies. www.sugar-network.org

I teach multi-day modules focusing on R&D and Innovation management to students with varying experiences and backgrounds.

Yocondo is a semantic product search engine that helps people find the right products as if they are interacting with the world's most knowledgeable shopkeeper. I joined Yocondo few months after the startup company was founded and conducted user interviews to better understand user behavior and guide the user experience and feature development. In addition, I created the communication strategy and pitch deck for Yocondo and presented the startup at Web Summit in Dublin and Slush in Helsinki.

I created an internal innovation team at Panasonic's European R&D headquarter and hired and managed a group of designers, engineers, and businesspeople to work concept innovation projects using Design Thinking philosophies and methodologies. In addition, I connected with different universities and innovation consultancies to benchmark their capabilities and managed external projects. Project topics, both internal and external, included automotive, healthcare, elderly care, connected appliances, internet of things, kitchen and cooking, and parenting.

I co-started a new design program in Paris where students from all walks of life come together to experience design and innovation first hand. In the two academic years that I was there, we ran multiple full-year innovation projects with Stanford University, Aalto University, and Hasso Plattner Institute for multi-national French and International companies. I also taught a shorter one-semester course on design thinking to second-year Masters students and hosted various workshops in France and Japan.

In my return to ME310 (see below) as the Executive Director, I acquired corporate partners as student project sponsors and raised more than $1.6 million over two years to support the course. I also coordinated the academic partnerships with other universities and regularly interfaced with professors and instructors from Germany, Finland, Switzerland, France, Mexico, and Colombia. As an ambassador of the Stanford-IDEO design methodology, I gave presentations and ran workshops to both academic and corporate audiences in the US and abroad. For more information about the course, visit http://me310.stanford.edu/.

As a member of the Connected Infotainment and Consumer Electronics team, I researched and presented new products, services, and technologies and their implications on the automotive market. We were responsible for conceptualizing future automotive architecture and services based on current trends and future forecasts, and I supported the team by prototyping new user experiences in the automobile pertaining to audio video and consumer electronics integration. I was also the main HMI designer for the prototypes in our team.

ME310 is a graduate level project course at Stanford University where students undertake product innovation challenges presented by global corporations. As a course assistant, my task was to support the student teams by providing the right resources for design, prototyping, and documentation, coach the student teams through the Stanford-IDEO design process, and organize a community of students, alumni, faculty, and industry coaches.

I was part of the Concept Prototyping Team at Synaptics, responsible for creating new interface experiences using Synaptics technologies. My individual project for the internship was to design an innovative controller for the next generation video game consoles. At the end of the internship, I delivered a form and function prototype of a simplified motion based controller for novice users, several months before the Nintendo Wii controller was announced. The design process included market trend identification and extensive user studies to develop insights on emerging customer needs. I also helped the team develop new concepts for wireless keyboards, portable media players, mobile phones, and automotive stereos.

As an undergraduate research assistant, I supported the graduate student researchers by designing, fabricating, and maintaining mechatronic and haptic devices to run experiments. During my first summer, my lab partner and I created a fully operable two degrees of freedom haptic device that met the requirements of the professor. In my two years, I worked on both the mechanical system and the software controller. In addition, I developed some laboratory assignments for the Dynamic Systems course.

As the assistant photo editor, I was responsible for managing the staff photographers and delivering the photographs requested by the different sections (e.g. News, Sports, Entertainment, etc.). During my tenure, I helped manage the newspaper transition from film to digital, fundamentally shifting the way photographs were taken, processed, selected, and delivered.

Summer after my freshman year in college, I taught English in a rural town in China to children aged six to fifteen. Through this experience, I wanted to better understand the culture and mentality of the fastest growing nation in the world. I also acted as a conversation partner to the adults in the community.

I was one of the founding members for a new start-up company in Kyoto that sold antique kimono (traditional Japanese garments) and accessories online. My responsibilities included developing the i-kimono.com website and the internal inventory database. I also helped develop the company workflow process from inventory acquisition to auction listing and shipping. As the sole English speaker in the company, I handled all the non-Japanese customer relations.