Senior x Junior Talk Session: Faces of Fujitsu Researcher (Security Version) Part 2

We’d like to focus now on giving future members of the Fujitsu research team some advice. Let’s start by talking about the main differences between student research and corporate research?

For me, one major difference is how conscious I am of giving back something to society. It is important to be aware of specific products and services, working on applied research. This leads me to think more deeply about the research I am conducting now than when I was a student, giving consideration about how to make the most of technology and how it can be used by people in the real world. This has a big impact on the subject matter I am researching.

I remember that after I joined the company, it was the influence of my senior team members that made me become gradually more aware of how our research and development can be useful to society. What was your experience?

There is one important thing that stands out for me. Our research can genuinely reflect customer feedback. For example, there are a variety of ways to conduct research with a tangible outlet, such as collaborating with business divisions, actually having customers use the product, or releasing something as a product. In the real world, a major difference is that research needs to be fast. If we conduct research that genuinely reflects world needs, we need to do this with a sense of urgency, identifying the most important research topics for our future society and producing results rapidly.

I also believe that conducting research that reflects the needs of the world is important. Speed is vital to deliver research results to the world. At university, I worked so hard on papers and presentations at academic conferences that I was not really aware of the direct benefits of my research.

When I was a student, I did research in pure mathematics and worked on things that did not yet have answers, without being too deeply conscious of whether my research could be used in products. With regard to the field of active AI use in companies, updates are fast, and the associated AI security updates are extremely important. This brings with it a sense of urgency to ensure that users can use AI safely and securely. It is also important to keep abreast of competitors and global trends. We need to factor in user requirements as well as corporate strengths and competitor activity in order determine where to strengthen focused research. In corporate research, it is necessary to discern this sense of speed, and I believe that this is very different from student research.

The real advantages of corporate research, as I see it, are the ability to use cutting-edge technology and equipment combined with being able to conduct research with abundant resources. In my case in particular, I was one of the first to be allowed to use a Digital Annealer as a cutting-edge piece of equipment. I am also able to receive funding for joint research with university professors. In addition, there are many researchers involved in a single research project, and we can consult with experts in various fields outside of just our group, which allows us to conduct research on a large scale. In addition, I feel that it is important to be aware of global trends and technological outlets in corporate research. I think that being able to conduct world-changing research on this sort of scale is also a major advantage.

There is no doubt that the investment in equipment for research is an enormous overhead. I felt that being able to conduct research with the support of corporate resources was one of the big differences compared to when I was a student. As a researcher, I am very grateful for that.

By the way, I heard that you participated in the Fujitsu’s research intern program when you were a student. Did your impression of the company change from when you were an intern compared to being an employee?

Well, my lab professor during my school days was originally a researcher at Fujitsu. I became interested in the company and applied for the internship on the basis of what he told me about Fujitsu’s research activities. Before the internship, I was concerned about whether my student research would be accepted and whether I would get along well with the employees. I needn’t have worried! The atmosphere was very good, with lots of different researchers working in various fields, and I could consult with them anytime I had a problem. There was also lots of interaction among young people outside of the groups they belonged to.

I certainly had some concerns before joining the company, but in the event there were more senior employees I could consult with than expected, which was very helpful. What advice can you give future students who are interested in internships? Can you share your experience?

During my internship, the main research theme was set in advance by an employee in the research department I was joining, and this was carried out over a three-week period. In addition, I had the chance to talk to employees about topics that interested me. Incidentally, if you have a specific field that you want your internship to focus on, there is a possibility to request this in advance and they will certainly listen to it. In addition to biometric authentication research, which was my main theme at the time, we discussed cryptanalysis, which was my own university research theme, and considered improvements based on research papers that had been conducted at the laboratory in the past. It was very encouraging to have the opportunity to interact with a variety of employees during my internship, as well as meeting with senior employees from different research groups. This was invaluable when I actually joined the company. I believe that the introduction of my own research topic during my internship helped them remember me, enabling them to call on my cryptographic research on digital annealing and other projects.

How would you assess your achievements on completing your internship period?

In addition to the main theme, I was able to propose improvements to the research I had conducted at the institute in the past. Looking back now, I think we were able to conduct our research really efficiently. I was very grateful to have an environment where I could consult with experts in various fields when I had technical difficulties.

Would you say that you are still benefiting today from your internship experience?

Yes, I think so. Especially when I get stuck in my research, I try to consult with experts in that particular sector. Fujitsu not only has researchers but also people working in the field, such as sales and system engineering, so I can consult with a variety of people. I visited some of the field teams when I was conducting research on cyber security at the time. I interviewed a variety of people, including those in departments that monitor communications on internal networks and those who propose security products to customers, to gather information on real issues faced by people in the field and to solve those issues through research. I believe that being able to solve issues actually being faced for real is very beneficial.

Jumpei and Toshiya, how do you see your future career path?

I would like to combine trust research and cryptanalysis. Since there are many unknowns in trust research, I would like to find future use cases quickly and create technologies. For cryptoanalysis, we plan to consider using quantum computers as well as annealing computers.

In the future, we would like to advance our research shifting the emphasis from the research level to the practical level. We also want to disseminate and share good technologies with various communities, rather than keeping knowledge and findings within a single company or in Japan. In preparation for this, we would like to accelerate practical research that is closely related to actual products and services, rather than just closing our research down at the end. Although I am a researcher from a single company, I am also involved in leading world-class research through joint projects with Ben-Gurion University in Israel and other joint research, bringing back overseas research and discussions to Japan as needed to activate the Japanese research community and improve the research in the AI security industry as a whole.

You both have wonderful career goals. I, too, would like to continue my research and become an expert in the field of cryptography and related trusts, etc., so that I can bring my research results to the world. My team is currently working on a research project that will bring our research results on to the global stage, and I hope to be able to collaborate with overseas companies in the future to advance our research.

Fujitsu's research environment is somewhere you can say what you want to do without hesitation. I want to promote interesting research with people who are intellectually curious and can absorb an interest in many things and at many different levels.

Before I came here as an intern, I had quite a hard, results-oriented image of Fujitsu's research. But after my internship and working here for four years, I now have a very diffferent impression, as there is a lot of interaction among the younger employees. First of all, I would like to encourage anyone to apply for an internship so that you can get a real feel for the atmosphere within the company.

When I joined Fujitsu's research organization, I sensed a real feeling of people with expertise in various fields coming together to conduct research. Compared to a laboratory, I feel that I am exposed to research fields that I had not experienced before and am enriched by this experienced. I feel that one of the attractions of Fujitsu's research is that I can conduct my own research and be stimulated by other inputs. It’s a great experience!