space AGE space - Elderly Care in a Digitally Connected World

A central part of Society 5.0 – Japan’s vision of fully digitally connected future – focuses on how connectivity, big data and AI can contribute to solve Japan’s pressing problems in the field of elderly care. Prof. Thomas Bock, a leading German engineer in the field of building robotics, and Prof. Shuichi Matsumura, a leading Japanese engineer specializing in system design for housing and urban spaces, will talk about the potential of the digital revolution for elderly care in living environments. Questions addressed are: How can sensor technology and connectivity support care-taking? How far are we away from implementation? Which countries are taking the lead? What major obstacles need to be overcome?

Professor Dr. Ing. Thomas Bock holds the chair for Building Realisation and Robotics at Technical University of Munich. After studying architecture at the University of Stuttgart and the IIT in Chicago, Prof. Bock did his doctorate at the University of Tokyo. He is the director at the International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction in Eindhoven, the Asian Habitat Society in Beijing and the International Institute of Construction Information in Tokyo. In 2017, he received the Eugen and Ilse Seibold Prize, presented by the DFG, Germany’s national research organization.

Professor Shuichi Matsumura is teaching and researching at the Department of Architecture, School of Engineering at The University of Tokyo. His broad research interests include prefabricated houses, interface of design-construction, development of infill for home care, effective use of urban space. He was awarded the prize of Architectural Institute of Japan by Research on industrialization of housing production.