IBM Japan researcher Chieko Asakawa. (Mainichi)
"This research field is headed for limitless expansion. But when I joined the company more than 20 years ago, it felt like I was all alone," says Asakawa, holder of a University of Tokyo Department of Engineering PhD and known as "The Boss" among her team.
Only a handful of the some 400,000 IBM employees worldwide are chosen each year for the title of IBM Fellow -- which comes with the promise of a salary on par with company executives -- and at present only 75 hold the honor. There have been a total of 218 recipients since the award's inception in 1963, and Asakawa is the fifth Japanese to hold the title -- following Nobel Prize for Physics holder Leo Esaki -- and the first Japanese woman.
Asakawa, a native of Osaka Prefecture, lost her vision in an accident when she was 14 years old. The determined Asakawa studied English literature in university using Braille, gaining a keen sense of the importance of making academic materials available in Braille in the process. She was given a chance to help address this problem when she joined IBM in 1985, and was given work related to developing a Braille translation system.
The popular rise of the Internet starting at the beginning of the 1990s proved to be a major turning point in her career, vastly expanding the limits of her research.
"With the advent of the Internet, which allows for the gathering of so much information from all over the world, the disabled gained a close point of contact with society," says Asakawa, whose Internet-related research came to fruition in 1997 with the development of text-to-speech software.
Asakawa went to the Fellows award ceremony in Armonk, New York, with her eldest daughter and enjoyed exchanging ideas with the eight other recipients.
"After talking to the other Fellows from so many different disciplines, I wonder what new ideas I will have," muses Asakawa. "IT aimed at the visually impaired should also have applications for the learning disabled." [rc]
Copyright 2009 The Maininichi Newspapers
June 27, 2009
JAPAN: IBM researcher Chieko Asakawa awarded prestigious Fellow title
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OSAKA, Japan / The Mainichi Daily News / June 27, 2009
"Fellow" is the name of IBM's highest technical honor, awarded for "sustained and distinguished technical achievements in engineering, programming and technology," according to their Web site. Chieko Asakawa was chosen for this honor on June 1, for her team's work in developing information technology systems to assist the elderly and the vision impaired -- despite being blind herself.
IBM Japan researcher Chieko Asakawa. (Mainichi)
"This research field is headed for limitless expansion. But when I joined the company more than 20 years ago, it felt like I was all alone," says Asakawa, holder of a University of Tokyo Department of Engineering PhD and known as "The Boss" among her team.
Only a handful of the some 400,000 IBM employees worldwide are chosen each year for the title of IBM Fellow -- which comes with the promise of a salary on par with company executives -- and at present only 75 hold the honor. There have been a total of 218 recipients since the award's inception in 1963, and Asakawa is the fifth Japanese to hold the title -- following Nobel Prize for Physics holder Leo Esaki -- and the first Japanese woman.
Asakawa, a native of Osaka Prefecture, lost her vision in an accident when she was 14 years old. The determined Asakawa studied English literature in university using Braille, gaining a keen sense of the importance of making academic materials available in Braille in the process. She was given a chance to help address this problem when she joined IBM in 1985, and was given work related to developing a Braille translation system.
The popular rise of the Internet starting at the beginning of the 1990s proved to be a major turning point in her career, vastly expanding the limits of her research.
"With the advent of the Internet, which allows for the gathering of so much information from all over the world, the disabled gained a close point of contact with society," says Asakawa, whose Internet-related research came to fruition in 1997 with the development of text-to-speech software.
Asakawa went to the Fellows award ceremony in Armonk, New York, with her eldest daughter and enjoyed exchanging ideas with the eight other recipients.
"After talking to the other Fellows from so many different disciplines, I wonder what new ideas I will have," muses Asakawa. "IT aimed at the visually impaired should also have applications for the learning disabled." [rc]
Copyright 2009 The Maininichi Newspapers
IBM Japan researcher Chieko Asakawa. (Mainichi)
"This research field is headed for limitless expansion. But when I joined the company more than 20 years ago, it felt like I was all alone," says Asakawa, holder of a University of Tokyo Department of Engineering PhD and known as "The Boss" among her team.
Only a handful of the some 400,000 IBM employees worldwide are chosen each year for the title of IBM Fellow -- which comes with the promise of a salary on par with company executives -- and at present only 75 hold the honor. There have been a total of 218 recipients since the award's inception in 1963, and Asakawa is the fifth Japanese to hold the title -- following Nobel Prize for Physics holder Leo Esaki -- and the first Japanese woman.
Asakawa, a native of Osaka Prefecture, lost her vision in an accident when she was 14 years old. The determined Asakawa studied English literature in university using Braille, gaining a keen sense of the importance of making academic materials available in Braille in the process. She was given a chance to help address this problem when she joined IBM in 1985, and was given work related to developing a Braille translation system.
The popular rise of the Internet starting at the beginning of the 1990s proved to be a major turning point in her career, vastly expanding the limits of her research.
"With the advent of the Internet, which allows for the gathering of so much information from all over the world, the disabled gained a close point of contact with society," says Asakawa, whose Internet-related research came to fruition in 1997 with the development of text-to-speech software.
Asakawa went to the Fellows award ceremony in Armonk, New York, with her eldest daughter and enjoyed exchanging ideas with the eight other recipients.
"After talking to the other Fellows from so many different disciplines, I wonder what new ideas I will have," muses Asakawa. "IT aimed at the visually impaired should also have applications for the learning disabled." [rc]
Copyright 2009 The Maininichi Newspapers
