Takeshi SAGA


"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together", from African Proverb

Demonstrations

Selected Publications 

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Int'l Journal (w/ review)

Int'l Conference (w/ review)

Biography


Born in 1997 in Aomori, Japan.Graduated National Institute of Technology, Hachinohe College (NIT, HC), 2013 - 2020.Received master's diploma from Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), 2022.Received Ph.D. diploma within two years from Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), 2024.
2013 - 2020 : Undergraduate of National Institute of Technology, Hachinohe College, Japan2020 - 2022 : Master candidate of Nara Institute of Science and  Technology, Japan2020 - 2022 : RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP), Japan2022 - 2024 : Doctor candidate of Nara Institute of Science and  Technology, Japan2023 - 2024 : JSPS research fellow DC2, Japan2024 - : Post-doc researcher at ISIR, Sorbonne University, France

Research Interest

Keywords: automatic assessment of human communication, multimodal interaction, communication support

Current theme: automatic generation of nonverbal behavior

Nonverbal behaviors are pretty crucial in human communication, making it natural and usable for human interlocutors. However, current automatic gestures on virtual agents have the following limitations: generation quality, generation time, semantic alignment with verbal contents, and reciprocal interaction with others. Although image generation models evolve rapidly, gesture generation models can be applicable to control real-world robot behaviors as well; therefore, they are more generic approaches.

Past theme 1: automatic assessment of human language and behavior


To communicate with people, we use languages, body gestures, and facial expressions. Although it is crucial to live in human society, we have to learn through daily lives. However, even for adult people, communication can be difficult and annoying. Especially, communication in working place or school is troublesome. 
  • Computer-aided communication support
One solution to acquire better communication skills is social skills training (SST) which is a type of behavioral therapy. Since the number of therapist is not enough to provide SST for everybody who want to take it, we are developping automated SST system in TAPAS project. Specifically, I'm in charge of its automatic assessment of language and behavior, which is vital to provide appropriate feedback.
  • Automatic analysis of human communication
Comparing physical disorders, investigating characteristics of psychiatric or developmental disorders is more difficult since we cannot directly see what is happening in their brain. To disentangle these complex symptoms caused by those disorders, I am working on their computational analysis based on machine learning techniques. Especially my current interest is in thought disorder, a group of symptoms observed across those disorders.

Research Budgets

NAIST Fellowship (科学技術イノベーション創出に向けた大学フェローシップ創設事業 創発的先端人材育成), FY2022

JSPS Research Fellowship for Young Scientist DC2 (日本学術振興会 特別研究員 DC2), FY2023-FY2024, terminated in the end of FY2023 due to the early graduation of the PhD course

Awards and Activities

Student Council President at Junior High School, 2012 - 2013

6th TOBITATE (JP, EN) student brand manager at NIT, HC, 2018 - 2019

Best presentation award at graduation research presentation in NIT, HC, 2017 and 2019

Best interactive student presenter (優秀学生インタラクティブ発表賞) at HCG-symposium (Domestic), 2020

NAIST outstanding student (令和4年度 奈良先端科学技術大学院大学優秀学生), FY2021

Fully exempt from repayment of JASSO student loan (日本学生支援機構 奨学金 博士前期課程 返済全額免除), 2022

Financial assist for inter-university exchange from the foundation for NAIST (NAIST支援財団 大学間交流活動支援), 2023

Language Proficiency

Test of English and International Communication (TOEIC) 810 points, 2018

Society for Testing English Proficiency (Eiken) grade 2

and just started learning French...

Programming Languages

Python, Java, C++, C, Scratch (for Arduino)

Technical skills

Skills for general purpose

Machine learning with small datasets using scikit-learn

Deep learning using PyTorch

Image processing using OpenCV

Skills for Human behavior analysis

Embedding-based analysis using BERT or similar approaches

Natural language processing for spoken language

Voice analysis using Praat

Visual human behavior analysis using OpenFace2.0 or OpenPose

Completed Programs

Internship at PIRoS in ISIR, Sorbonne university (France) with Catherine Pelachaud, '23 Apr. - '23 Jul.

Internship at Active and Attentive Vision laboratory in York University (Canada) with John Tsotsos, '18 Sep. - '19 Mar.

8th period member of TOBITATE young ambassador program, '18-'19

Tradition and Communication Cultural program in Singapore, March 2015 and September 2016

Internship at NTT-ME, focusing on Fibre Optic Cables, 2016

Cool Japan Seminar (Joined as a member of organizers), 2015

And more.

Professional Societies

Currently, I'm not a member of any professional societies

Cultural and Sport activities

Track and Field Captain in NIT, HC, 2017

2 Time Tohoku Track and Field 800m (2'08) top eight finalist

International Friendship Club Vice President in NIT, HC, 2017

3 Time Cultural Ambassador for visiting Malaysian and Singaporean students

Contact & Links

E-mail: takeshi.saga[at]isir.upmc.fr

Laboratory HP

Google scholar

Note(Japanese only)