The 2021 C&C Prize Award Ceremony was held at ANA InterContinental Tokyo on November 29, 2021. The ceremony started with the welcoming speech by Takashi Miyazaki, executive director of the NEC C&C Foundation, on behalf of President Nobuhiro Endo. Next, Dr. Tomonori Aoyama, the chair of the awards committee, announced 2021 award recipients (Photo 1). The 2021 C&C Prizes were presented to Dr. Kunihiko Fukushima and Prof. Rodney Brooks.

Group A: Kunihiko Fukushima in Photo 2;
For Contributions to the Development of Artificial Intelligence with Pioneering Research that Applied Principles of Neuroscience to Engineering through Invention of Neocognitron, a Hierarchical Neural Network Model of the Visual Cortex of the Brain

Group B: Rodney Brooks in Photo 3;
For Outstanding Leadership in Introducing Subsumption Architecture for Robot Control and Promoting the Practical Use of Autonomous Robots

As shown in the program leaflet, after the congratulatory speeches, the recipients made acceptance speeches, and the ceremony ended. Followings are the pictures taken at the ceremony.

Related URL

About The NEC C&C Foundation

The Foundation is a non-profit organization established in March 1985 to foster further growth in the electronics industry by encouraging and supporting research and development activities and pioneering work related to the integration of computers and communications technologies, that is, C&C, and ultimately to contribute to the world economy and the enrichment of human life. The Foundation is funded by NEC Corporation.

The Foundation currently has two main activities. It presents the annual C&C Prizes to recognize outstanding contributions to R&D activities and pioneering work in the area of C&C. Candidates are recommended from all over the world. Each prize winner receives a certificate, a plaque, and a cash award (ten million yen per group). As of 2018, 112 prominent persons had received the prize. In addition, an Outstanding Paper Award for Young C&C Researchers is awarded annually to outstanding paper(s) presented at an international conference overseas with the support of a grant from the Foundation. Each recipient is given a cash award of 200,000 yen.

The Foundation also gives the following two grants: (1) grant to enable researchers in Japan to attend international conferences overseas to make presentations in the field of C&C and (2) grant to non-Japanese researchers in Japan.