Mr Akira Senju, Group Leader of the Cultural Diplomacy and Art Business group currently runs "SENJU LAB" to promote artistic creation which goes beyond the faculties of art students; to raise awareness of the rights of artists and nurture entrepreneurs.

We are pleased to announce that the students of “SENJU LAB” won the Best Award, the TDK Prize at the “EDGE INNOVATION GROOVE AWARD” (hosted by MEXT) held in Tsukuba City on 3 June.

This award is a business plan competition for science & technology × music. In the first session, participants who meet for the first time, team up in groups to create a business plan and pitch it to the judges within a limited time frame.

Ms Mio Adachi (a third-year Master’s student in the Department of Musical Creativity and the Environment) and Mr Yuichi Yogo (a fifth-year student in the Department of Composition) went through to the final session, with their proposition of a service called "My Melody”. Based on the concept that "everyone is a composer", this app and IoT device allow anyone to easily compose music and enjoy music in their living space. There were excellent ideas from other competitors but team "My Melody" won the Best Award, TDK Prize.

The team “ALL-Grades” which included Mr Takuto Muromoto (a second-year student in the Department of Composition), also went through to the final session and they were awarded the J-WAVE Prize (Music Award) for their idea to create a system for a new relationship between music and people based on the concept of “play the place”.

In future, we can look forward to seeing collaborations between young artists and researchers across different fields of expertise.