An engineer at the University of Tsukuba
Sankai earned a PhD in engineering from the University of Tsukuba in 1987. He rose from research fellow at the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science to assistant professor, associate professor, and professor at the university's Graduate School of Systems and Information Engineering.1
He is executive research director of the university's Center for Cybernics Research and a visiting professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.1
Founding Cyberdyne
He founded Cyberdyne on June 24, 2004, as a university venture to turn his research on cybernics, the fusion of people, robotics, and information systems, into products. The company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2014.2,3
HAL, the wearable robot that reads the wearer's bioelectric signals, is now approved or certified in more than 20 countries, according to his message to investors.3
Public programs
Sankai was selected for Japan's Funding Program for World Leading Innovative R&D on Science and Technology from 2010 to 2014, and was a program manager of the Cabinet Office's ImPACT program from 2014 to 2018. He is a program director of the Cabinet Office's SIP program.1
Links
Sources
Photo: Cyberdyne, Message from the CEO.
