Our laboratory aims to understand phenomena in business, society, and science & technology using data-science methodologies, generating new insights across these domains. We focus on machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, and network analysis, while also pursuing foundational research on these methods.

Our analyses cover diverse datasets including large-scale scholarly corpora, social media, corporate transaction and M&A information, patent data, urban mobility datasets, and review texts. We are also among the first to analyze large language models (LLMs) via inverse learning and to utilize LLMs in the analysis of scientific and social systems.

Students are encouraged to choose their research topics autonomously, leading to a rich variety of themes. Active collaboration across domains is a defining characteristic of our research environment.

We also collaborate with external organizations such as the Technology Informatics Social Collaboration Program and the NEDO/AIST Science-Technology Trend Forecasting Project, emphasizing societal impact and engagement with broader research communities.

Science of Science

We analyze how scientific knowledge and technological innovation emerge and diffuse through papers, patents, and corporate activities. Social factors such as diversity and gender are also key themes in this rapidly growing field.

Recent Research Highlights

  • Measuring global advancement and delay of research topics
  • Modeling science ecosystems centered on fundamental researchers
  • Understanding mechanisms of policy citations to scientific papers
  • Analyzing leading researchers in the circular economy domain

Computational Social Science

We analyze human behavior and online interactions using large-scale data. Our work includes Google Maps and Twitter (X) analysis, LLM-based social data analytics, and studies on techno-economic interactions using firm networks and patent information.

Recent Research Highlights

  • Tracking structural changes in political communities on Twitter
  • Understanding urban interaction patterns using Google Maps data
  • Analyzing scientists’ social media use and research impact
  • Distance characteristics in regional-bank-centered transaction networks
  • Evaluating corporate portfolio strategies using patent-space models

Natural Language Processing

We develop advanced methods such as inverse learning, model composition, and training-data distillation to understand how language models acquire generalization and reasoning abilities. We also pursue improved transparency, safety, and efficiency, while exploring new frameworks that use LLMs as autonomous agents.

Recent Research Highlights

  • Analyzing training data of large language models via inverse learning

Research Highlights