Former director at NTT R&D to explore market potential of research, including attribute-based encryption

NTT Research, Inc., a division of NTT (TYO:9432), today announced that it has named Takashi Goto as head of its Technology Promotion Team, a group set up to help productize well-developed research concepts. Mr. Goto was previously a director in the NTT R&D Planning Department and before that a senior manager and senior research engineer at the NTT Information Network Laboratory Group. He joined NTT Research on July 1, 2022, succeeding Dr. Kei Karasawa, who has taken an executive position at NTT R&D in Tokyo. Mr. Goto will join the executive team at NTT Research, where he will be responsible for exploring the market potential for technologies under development at NTT Research, as well as NTT R&D. One of the first targets for commercialization is attribute-based encryption (ABE), a form of cryptography that allows for sharing data while preserving the data owner’s privacy.

The mission of NTT Research is to conduct basic research tied to long-term goals, rather than specific product or service roadmaps. Yet, along the way, the company’s researchers may generate technologies that have market potential. The purpose of the Technology Promotion Team is to test that hypothesis by interacting with a range of stakeholders involved in the commercialization of invented technologies or byproducts. Mr. Goto’s task will be to interface with NTT operating companies, potential end users, possible third-party partners and standardization bodies. Technology promotion also involves feasibility studies, use-cases, competitive analysis, proof of concept (POC) demonstrations and related efforts.

“We are very pleased to welcome Takashi Goto to our team in Sunnyvale,” NTT Research President and CEO Kazuhiro Gomi said. “He is a talented engineer and manager with significant experience at NTT R&D and a keen interest in technology promotion, making him a perfect fit for this important role.”

A leading candidate for commercialization, ABE was Introduced in 2005 in a paper co-authored by NTT Research Cryptography & Information Security (CIS) Lab Director, Brent Waters. Two years ago, that paper was recognized with an International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) Test of Time Award. To date, NTT Research has been talking with NTT operating companies, on the assumption that ABE solutions could address security and privacy needs in the health care, medical, financial, education and government sectors. In November 2021, NTT announced an agreement with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), which includes conducting a POC platform of ABE aimed at making the UTS internal systems more secure. NTT Research is planning a hackathon event around ABE, aimed at showcasing innovative ABE-related applications. Mr. Goto is currently engaged in planning that event.

“I have long been interested in creating value and introducing NTT’s superior technology to Japan and the world, so I am very excited about my new role at NTT Research,” Mr. Goto said. “My near-term plans include providing technical support for a commercialization project in Australia, evaluating recent technologies through the hackathon and improving the process of intellectual property management.”

In addition to ABE, other NTT Research-related technologies with potential commercial byproducts include applications of multiparty computation (MPC), another area of research for CIS Lab cryptographers, and implementations of the coherent Ising machine (CIM), a quantum computing-related technology that is an area of focus for the NTT Research Physics & Informatics (PHI) Lab. Supporting Mr. Goto at NTT Research are Mr. Fang Wu, a consultant and technology veteran, formerly with NTT Global Networks, NTT America, Lucent and Bell Labs; and Dr. Yannis Rouselakis, a software architect specializing in cryptographic technologies. To advance NTT Research’s core scientific mission, the company, unique among industrial laboratories, has advanced an “open lab” vision and over the past three years has established more than 20 relationships with premier research organizations in the U.S., Japan and around the world.

About NTT Research

NTT Research opened its offices in July 2019 as a new Silicon Valley startup to conduct basic research and advance technologies that promote positive change for humankind. Currently, three labs are housed at NTT Research facilities in Sunnyvale: the Physics and Informatics (PHI) Lab, the Cryptography and Information Security (CIS) Lab, and the Medical and Health Informatics (MEI) Lab. The organization aims to upgrade reality in three areas: 1) quantum information, neuroscience and photonics; 2) cryptographic and information security; and 3) medical and health informatics. NTT Research is part of NTT, a global technology and business solutions provider with an annual R&D budget of $3.6 billion.

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@NttResearch named Takashi Goto the head of its #Technology Promotion Team. Previously, Mr. Goto was director at the NTT R&D Planning Department and senior research engineer at the NTT Information Network Laboratory.