Hiroyuki Yoshikawa: The Creation of New Paradigms for Engineering
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RACE does pioneering work in a young field that hopes to reverse the tragedy of modern technology: the continuous subdivision and narrowing of science and the consequent loss of balance of society and the environment. Its activities were initiated in 1992 by Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, former President of the University of Tokyo, who proposed novel directions for the study of engineering and technology related to all aspects of man-made objects "artifacts". We share our research objectives with the Group for Research into Artifacts, supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. We set to work simultaneously to harmonize the subdivisions that exist in the academic world and which separate the different sets of learning on artifacts, and to assess the problems and opportunities --such as poverty, starvation, environmental disasters, energy shortages, and health problems-- now facing modern society. Through the lens of the problems themselves, a new way of doing engineering will emerge. The intellectual basis of RACE is thus the removal the mismatch between academia and reality, we are attacking this problem.
The objective of RACE is to establish a new discipline for the design, manufacture and use of artifacts, centered around abduction. In pursuit of this objective, RACE continues to carry out multidisciplinary research into the creation, use and systematization of the knowledge which is needed for design.

The motivation of this research program comes from the irrevocable consequeneces on our finite planet of the unexpected interactions between artifacts, consequencs that often lead to unprecedented environmental changes and major accidents.

The fact that such artifacts are created by human knowledge implies that we need to carry out fundamental research into such knowledge, and its use for the creation of artifacts, to reduce the likelihood of these unexpected interactions.

In design, an abstract concept is generated initially and subsequently embodied into a physical artifact. The concept is evaluated by the use of the embodied artifact in the real world. The thinking process which leads to the formation of such a concept is called abduction.

The objective of RACE is to establish a new discipline for the design, manufacture and use of artifacts, centered around abduction. In pursuit of this objective, RACE continues to carry out multidisciplinary research into the creation, use and systematization of the knowledge which is needed for design.