Greeting

Pioneering the Future of Academia and Society
Through the Data-Driven Cycle

The University of Osaka aims to become a “data-driven university” that utilizes data to solve various social issues through ICT by implementing DX (Digital Transformation) across multiple areas including education, research, and management.
To strongly promote this initiative towards realizing a data-driven university, we established the “D3 Center” (pronounced as “D-Three Center”, hereinafter referred to as “the Center”) on October 1, 2024, as a new organization centered around the “Cybermedia Center” (hereinafter CMC), which has long supported the construction and operation of information infrastructure both inside and outside the university, and the “Institute for Datability Science” (hereinafter IDS), which explores new scientific methods through datability, namely research DX through data.

The letters “D3” embed the initial letters of three aspirations/keywords that represent the Center’s establishment purposes: “Digital design” (digitizing and making information usable), “Datability” (analyzing and making vast amounts of advanced data accessible), and “Decision intelligence” (supporting various decision-making processes)—precisely expressing our envisioned mission.
First, data utilization fundamentally requires the collection or generation of appropriate and vast data (big data). This is “Digital design.”
Next, we need to analyze the acquired big data. This is “Datability.”
Then, we must utilize the information obtained through data analysis. This becomes “Decision intelligence.”
It is our belief that the university will only be truly “data-driven” when all of these processes function effectively and connect smoothly.
In this era, computing and data utilization have become essential in all academic fields, and we must develop not only the environment but also human resources for this purpose. Therefore, data-driven initiatives have become an urgent matter, making our mission extremely important.
To realize these missions, we established the Center as an organization comprising 15 research divisions and approximately 70 researchers, through the merger and collaboration of two organizations: CMC, established in April 2000, which has pioneered supercomputing and ICT infrastructure, befitting its “cyber” name; and IDS, established in April 2016, which embodies “datability” and has been responsible for promoting the use of big data generated in various fields from everyday social life to cutting-edge science.
Through this establishment, we at the Center have built a research, development, and education system within a large framework that could be called a continuous collaborative “circle” for data-driven initiatives, encompassing data generation/collection, data analysis, and data utilization. This enables comprehensive support for data science, and we will actively contribute to promoting data-driven development in research and education not only within our university but also outside the institution.

October 1, 2024
Daisuke Furihata
Director, D3 Center
The University of Osaka