TOKYO - June 1, 2018 - Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. (NRI) (TOKYO:4307) a leading provider of consulting services and system solutions, and a parent company of ASG Group Limited (Perth, Australia), today announced that NRI started to implement a trial project for developing robotics business in the field of distance education with Charters Towers School of Distance Education in Queensland, Australia.

Queensland government delivers distance education services through seven state schools of distance education which were established to provide a schooling service for geographically isolated and other home based students with limited educational choices.
Additionally, schools of distance education provide services to enhance learning opportunities by offering a wider range of subject choices for mainstream school students (for example, due to limited number of Japanese language teachers, schools of distance education can also provide Japanese language classes for schools in such major towns as Brisbane) and providing a service for by choice home based learners and students in a range of alternative education centres.

In Australia, it is estimated that about from twenty thousand to twenty five thousand students use distance education services, and Charters Towers School of Distance Education is providing services for two thousand and two hundred students.
At present, distance education services provide PCs and tablets displaying texts, pictures and generating voice with headsets. It is hard for teachers to see students' conditions, level of understanding and environment for study, and it is too hard for the students to talk and play with other students.

NRI will introduce a communication system with movable face-to-face communication robots (Figure 1) which provide the teacher and the student with free angle views of the other and move. In other words, the robots are able to create a virtual classroom combining schools in remote areas and major towns, and also provide opportunities to go to their classrooms virtually for geographically isolated and/or physically handicapped students.
The new system makes it easy to provide classes for group, enabling teachers to keep tabs on student's concentration and level of understanding from their expressions and behaviors, eventually improves the quality of education.
Students can naturally have irreplaceable and precious experiences in their childhood like making friends, chitchatting on the latest fashion and so forth in break time between classes.
To sum up, our system will bring various communication opportunities in group life.

NRI started the trial project in June, 2018, and plans to complete it in August, 2018, aiming to go live with the service in early 2019, as well as to take the future possibility of application to the field of healthcare and agriculture into consideration.

Photo : (From left)Mr. Takuhito Sakata, Senior Corporate Managing Director of NRI and Mr. John Clark, Principal of Charters Towers School of Distance Education, shaking hands at the ceremony

About NRI

NRI is a leading global provider of system solutions and consulting services, including management consulting, system integration, and IT management and solutions for financial, manufacturing, retail and service industries. Clients partner with NRI to expand businesses, design corporate structures and create new business strategies. NRI has over 13,000 employees in its offices globally including New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore, and reports annual sales above US$4.4 billion.For more information, visit https://www.nri.com/en/service/fis/at-a-glance

About Charters Towers School of Distance Education

https://charterstowerssde.eq.edu.au/Pages/Default.aspx
The School was the first Distance Education School to open in Queensland in 1987 and still leads in the use of technology to enable communication with our students and their tutors. We use traditional means of communication like mail and telephone as well as audio-teleconferencing, video, and the Internet to cross the barriers of distance and create the bonds of a school community. Students in the school are spread throughout the state, country and world.

About Charters Towers Regional Council

http://www.charterstowers.qld.gov.au/
Charters Towers is one of the most beautiful inland cities in Queensland located 130 km south-west of Townsville. Charters Towers became a gold rush town when gold was discovered in December 1871. During the 1880s and 1890s the town grew and prospered. It was a sign of the extent of local business activity that one of Australia's few regional stock exchanges was established at Charters Towers in 1890. Today, Charters Towers is known for its large number of elegant and historically significant buildings most of which are located on Mosman and Gill Streets. In this area and in the surrounding streets there are over 60 buildings of historical significance.
[source:http://www.greatbarrierreef.org/destinations/charters-towers/]
In the 2016 Census, there were 11,876 people in Charters Towers (R) (Local Government Areas). Of these 49.5% were male and 50.5% were female. Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people made up 8.7% of the population. [source:http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/LGA32310]