This is the Fourth Issue of the Annual Review of the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Aizu. The University of Aizu is one of the major open channels to the world, including but not limited to the international computer science community. The University of Aizu is a new university that opened in April 1993, as one of the first universities in Japan with all faculty positions open to the world, and the first university in Japan dedicated to the discipline of computer science and engineering. Close to 60% of the faculty is non-Japanese with 16 different nationalities. They came here to build up a new computer culture in Aizu, which hopefully is something more than a collection of multiple cultural backgrounds of the faculty. Our goal is symbolized in the logo with the phrase ``to Advance Knowledge for Humanity". Computer culture is meant to include synthetic worlds in computers. The synthetic worlds go beyond simple mapping of various real worlds into computers, but are also realizable in real worlds through computer controlled machines. In only four years since the university's opening, this fourth issue of the Annual Review, as were with the first, second, and third issues, shows more results towards the goal of the University of Aizu.
I hope you enjoy this issue and give us your opinions and comments. We invite you to join us in various capacities to enjoy this melting pot of numerous cultural, political and economic differences. E-mail is one way to enhance the cultural fusion. Our faculty's e-mail addresses are listed in the Author Index and e-mail Address section of this annual review.
With my warmest regards to all of you,
March 1997. Tosiyasu L. Kunii, Dr. Sci. President