Speaker - Shoji Kajita

Shoji Kajita is currently a Professor of Kyoto University in Japan with two appointments, one in the IT Planning Office, a part of the Institute of Information Management and Communication, and the other in the Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies. Professor Kajita received his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in Information Engineering from Nagoya University in Japan in 1990, 1992, and 1998 respectively. At Nagoya University, he served as a Research Associate in the Graduate School of Engineering from 1995 to 1997 and an Assistant Professor in the Center for Information Media Studies (CIMS) from 1998 to 2001. During his work at CIMS, he localized WebCT into Japanese and took the role of WebCT evangelist in Japan as a means of promoting the use of ICT for teaching and learning. From 2002 to 2008, he was an Associate Professor at the Nagoya University Information Technology Center, where he developed the Nagoya University Portal and a next-generation Course Management System for Japanese universities. These works were contributed to the Jasig and Sakai communities for use with uPortal, CAS and the Sakai CLE. His contributions to Jasig and Sakai reflected on the participation in annual (formally semi-annual) Jasig Conferences since 2002 and Sakai Conferences since 2004. Before joining Kyoto University in 2011, his most recent position at Nagoya University was that of an Associate Professor in the Information Strategy Office, a part of the university's Information and Communications Headquarters. He currently serves on the Board of the Apereo Foundation.