Shuji Utsumi

President and COO, Representative Director, SEGA CORPORATION

Shuji Utsumi is a pioneering leader with a remarkable career spanning across major global companies in the gaming and entertainment industries. After joining Sony in 1986, Shuji established himself as a key figure in the company’s rise to prominence. He was integral to the creation of Sony Computer Entertainment and played a pivotal role in launching the PlayStation business in the United States, setting the stage for one of the most successful gaming platforms in history.

He later joined SEGA as Senior Vice President, where he contributed significantly to the launch of the “Dreamcast”, further cementing his legacy in the gaming world. After joining Disney Interactive Asia, he was also instrumental in the creation of the iconic Kingdom Hearts series, an achievement that has left a lasting impact on the gaming community by creating a groundbreaking world that showcased a collaboration between Disney and Square Enix characters.

Shuji went on to co-found Q Entertainment, where he produced the legendary games Lumines and Child of Eden. After serving as President of Warner Music Japan and CYBIRD, his journey continued with his appointment as CSO at SEGA. where he played a key role in SEGA's resurgence through the transmedia strategy of Sonic the Hedgehog, before being appointed President and COO, Representative Director (current position) in April 2024.

As an advocate for lore and innovation, Shuji has been leading SEGA to become a respected global brand while continuing to empower the gamers around the world, with his unique background combining both management and content development experience from a global perspective.

Wei-Ta Chu, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Cheng Kung University

Wei-Ta Chu received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from National Chi Nan University, Taiwan, in 2000 and 2002, and received the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from National Taiwan University, Taiwan, in 2006. He is now a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. His research interests include digital content analysis, multimedia indexing, deep learning, and pattern recognition.

He won IEEE MSA-TC Best Paper Award at ISCAS 2021 and the Best Full Technical Paper Award at ACM Multimedia 2006. He was awarded Outstanding Youth Electrical Engineer Award by the Chinese Institute of Electrical Engineering in 2017, the Distinguished Alumni Award presented by National Chi Nan University in 2014, the K. T. Li Young Researcher Award presented by Institute of Information & Computing Machinery in 2012. He was a visiting professor at Nagoya University in 2017 and Columbia University in 2008. He has been an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Multimedia (TMM) since 2022 and won the Excellent Editor Award from TMM in 2024. He serves as a GC of ACM Multimedia Asia 2023, a TPC of MMM2025, TAAI 2024, MVA 2023, IEEE ICME 2022, ACM ICMR 2021, MMM 2020, and IEEE MMSP 2019.

Homei Miyashita, Ph.D.

Professor, Department Chair of Frontier Media Science, School of Interdisciplinary Mathematical Sciences, Meiji University

Born in Firenze, Italy. Studied image science at the Faculty of Engineering, Chiba University, and music composition at the Graduate School of Education, Toyama University. Received a Ph.D. in Knowledge Science from the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, where he was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Award.

Joined the Faculty of Science and Technology at Meiji University in 2007. Moved to the Department of Frontier Media Science in the School of Interdisciplinary Mathematical Sciences in 2013. Started research on taste media in 2010.

In 2020, his project “Taste the TV (TTTV),” which embodies the concepts of “taste media,” “tele-taste,” and “tele-eat” that he had been promoting, was selected for the INNO-vation program of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. In collaboration with NTT DOCOMO and H2L, he developed the “FEEL TECH” taste sharing technology integrated with the human augmentation platform. This work gained considerable attention through TV commercials featuring actress Haruka Ayase.

In collaboration with Kirin Holdings, he developed the “Electric Salt” spoon, which use electricity to enhance the saltiness of low-salt foods. This product is now available for purchase. In 2024, he received the President of Science Council of Japan Award from the Cabinet Office’s Japan Open Innovation Award. The “Electric Salt” products also won two awards at the 2025 CES Innovation Awards® in the Digital Health and Accessibility & AgeTech categories.

In 2023, he received the Ig Nobel Prize (Nutrition).