Director of VICTORIES,
President of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
Ryoji Chubachi

 On behalf of the Vertically Integrated Center for Technologies of Optical Routing toward Ideal Energy Savings (VICTORIES) and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), I am honored to invite you to the 7th International Symposium on VICTORIES project & Workshop (WIN² 2014). AIST is one of the largest public research institutes in Japan conducting comprehensive industrial R&D. Our endeavors to achieve an eco-friendly and sustainable society through "Green Technology" has yielded many results in the fields of energy, information technology, environment, electronics, nanotechnology, materials, life sciences and so on. To ensure the continuous development of our modern information society, the amount of energy consumed in communications must be greatly reduced. AIST runs the VICTORIES project to create energy-efficient technology of Dynamic Optical Path Networks, which can handle ultra-high-definition real-time video data that will be one of the most important applications in the future.

VICTORIES is an open innovation hub that brings together researchers from organizations, including AIST, its 10 collaborating companies, and universities. These personnel consistently engage in R&D on technologies for both devices and systems through vertical integration. Japan's new industrial science and technology policy requires that AIST reinforce its efforts to serve as a bridge to successfully connect the fruits of science and technology with business. VICTORIES is a successful model of such a bridge.

Last year, AIST opened a new building "Tsukuba Innovation Arena Collaboration Center", and the silicon photonics team in the VICTORIES project was its first user. The workshop after the international symposium will be held in this new building, and workshop participants will have the opportunity to visit some of the Tsukuba Innovation Arena facilities. I hope that you will join our symposium and workshop for fruitful discussions and new findings.