Tsukasa Hirashima received his B.E., M.E. and PhD from Osaka University in 1986, 1988, and 1991 respectively. He worked at The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University as a research associate and lecturer from 1991 to 1997. During 1997-2003, he worked in Graduate School of Information Engineering at Kyushu Institute of Technology as an associate professor. He has been a professor of Graduate School, Department of Information Engineering, Hiroshima University since 2004.
Dr. Hirashima's contributions in Computers in Education, especially, in artificial intelligence in education include modeling of problem-solving process, error-visualization for error-awareness, information filtering, question/problem generation, learning by problem posing and design method of learning game. His research activities are rich in originality, and have impacted the flow of researches on artificial intelligence in education. Because of the originality and impact, he has received four awards from major international conferences about computer and education (World Conference on Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia (ED-MEDIA1995, Outstanding Paper Award), International Conference on Computer in Education (ICCE 2001, 2002, Best Paper Awards), and Artificial Intelligence and Educaiton (AIED2009, Honorable Mention Award, top 3 papers). In addition to many full papers presented in ICCEs, his research results has been also continuously published at the two top Artificial Intelligence and Education conferences, that is, ITS and AIED as follows: AIED2009 (two full papers), ITS2008 (short paper), AIED2007 (full), ITS2006 (one full and one short), AIED2005 (one full and one short), AIED2003(one full and one short), ITS2002(full), AIED2001(short), AIED99(full), AIED97(two full and one short), ITS96(full), AIED95(two full), AIED93(full) and ITS92(full). Some of the results also published at more technological conferences, for example, UM94(full), UM96(full), IUI98(full), QR01(full), and QR08(full). In domestic in Japan, he has also received Conference Award from Japanese Society of Artificial Intelligence in 1993, SIG Research Award from Japanese Society of Artificial Intelligence (SIG Advanced Learning Science and Technology) in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2003 and 2008, Outstanding Game Award of academic section from Japanese Game Amusement Society in 2003 and 2005, Best Paper Award from Japanese Society for Information and Systems in Education, respectively.
He have continuously participated in ICCE since 1998, expect for 2004. Since 2005, he has taken important roles to manage ICCE: workshop/tutorial co-chair in 2005, workshop co-chair in 2006, PC co-chair in 2007, invited talk in 2008, and sub-conference (AIED) PC co-chair in ICCE2009, respectively. As a workshop co-chair in 2005 and 2006, he exerted himself to establish the workshop as an important and continuous pre-conference event in ICCE. He also organized workshops about question/problem generation at ICCE2006 and ICCE2007. Note that he served as PC co-chair of host country and city in ICCE2007. It was held in Hiroshima that is his hometown. Therefore, not only as a PC co-chair but also he played indispensable roles to invite the conference, organize local committee, gather sponsors, arrange conference site, and treat everything related the conference while getting full support from several domestic academic associations and his own research group members. Now he is a member of APSCE Executive Committee and Editorial Board at The Journal Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning.
In other conferences, he also served as Poster co-chair in ITS2006 and AIED2009, and PC member in AIED2005, ITS2006, AIED2007, ICALT2007, ICALT2008, ICALT2009 and AIED2009. In domestic in Japan, he is a vice-editor-in-chief of English journal and a member of executive board of the Japanese Society of Information and Systems in Education. He is also a member of trustee and editorial board of Japanese Society of Artificial Intelligence, a member of editorial board of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, and a member of editorial board of the Game Amusement Society. In addition, he is a chairperson of Advanced Learning Science and Technology SIG in Japanese Society of Artificial Intelligence. Because of these achievements and contributions, he is fully accepted as the leader of artificial intelligence in education in Japan.
Following are brief introductions of his main research topics.
Modeling of problem-solving process is one of the most important topics of the research field of artificial intelligence in education as a design basis of intelligent learning environments. The focus of cognitive model for the basis is the description of difficulties in problem solving for students because supports for the difficulties are the main facilities of intelligent learning environments. Dr. Hirashima who was the very first in the world paid the effort to build cognitive model of problem solving as a design basis of intelligent learning environments. His contributions about the cognitive model and intelligent learning environment designed based on the model were published as more than ten papers in several major international conferences at artificial intelligence in education, such as, AIED, ICCE, UM, ED-MEDIA in 1990's. He also published a part of the results at International Journal of User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction (1997). His research topic question/problem generation comes from these research results.
Error-visualization is his very original concept. His idea is to show what happen based on a student's error. Showing the happening is expected to help the student to be aware of the error by himself. Awareness of error is important factor to correct student's errors. Error-visualization is one of the most excellent ideas to promote the awareness. His first contribution about error-visualization was received outstanding paper award as World Conference on Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia 1995 (ED-MEDIA 95). He then is the first receiver of the award as Asian researchers. He have investigated error-visualization continuously and published several papers in several major international conferences at artificial intelligence in education. The results were presented at ICCE2008 as an invited talk. The newest research result about practical use of Error-visualization in junior high school will be presented at AIED2009 as a full paper(Honorable Mention Award).
Information filtering is one of the most important research issues in the current hypertext-based learning environment. He has proposed Context-Sensitive Filtering as one of the adaptive information filtering targeting browsing in hypertext. The most unique contribution of this research is a method to model the user's shifting interests from the browsing history. He also reported that the information filtering based on the context-sensitive model was better than the one based on context-insensitive model. Application for Internet is continuously investigated. His contributions for the information filtering were published more than five international conferences, such as, Intelligent User Interface, WebNet, ED-MEDIA and so on. He also published the results at International Journal of User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction (1997).
A function of question/problem generation is a fundamental component of learning environment for problem practice. He has investigated the function based on the model of problem solving process and the techniques of natural language processing continuously. The result from the viewpoint of the difficulty of question/problem with consideration about original sentences and answers obtained high evaluation and got a best paper award in ICCE2001. He organized workshops about this topic in ICCE2006 and ICCE2007. The recent research result about the relation model among problems was presented at QR08 as a full paper and the newest one will be presented at AIED2009 as a full paper.
Learning environment for problems-posing is also his very original concept. In problem-posing exercise, a student is required to make problems. Although the effect of the exercise have been accepted by teachers, because it takes much cost to check and give feedback to each problem posed by each student, it is very difficult to carry out the exercise. He made learning environment that could diagnose the problems and give feedback based on the diagnosis. Besides, he has evaluated the learning environment in elementary schools. It is a learning environment that dealt with problem-posing first in the world. Moreover, it is one of a few intelligent learning environments that are used in classrooms in elementary schools. The results are published in several international conferences, such as, ICCE, ITS and AIED. The recent result was presented at AIED2007 and ICCE2008.
Design method of learning games is his newest topic. Learning games are popular to give high motivation for learning. There are many investigations about learning games and some of them reported the effectiveness of their learning games. However, there are few researches on a method to make the learning games. He has challenged to make clear the methodology to design the learning games. As the first step of the research, he has proposed Fusion method as a method to fuse learning activities and game activities in the same activities. Then, he has implemented Problem-Posing Game and evaluated it in several classrooms in elementary schools. The first contribution was received a best paper award in ICCE2002. This research has potential to create a new movement on researches in game and learning.
As mentioned above, he is one of the most active and creative researchers in the field of computer and education, especially, artificial intelligence in education.