Future Vision & Leadership

My long-term academic vision is to bridge the gap between fundamental principles and next-generation computational paradigms. By leveraging unconventional substrates, ranging from hysteretic materials to fluid dynamics, my objective is to pioneer embodied intelligence systems and optimize for energy efficiency, adaptability, and form-factor so as to overcome the limitations of traditional silicon-based architectures.

Concurrently, my research in generative design, applied electromagnetics, and machine perception aims to seamlessly integrate these novel computational mechanisms into real-world engineering applications. I am deeply committed to leading interdisciplinary research initiatives that translate theoretical breakthroughs into scalable hardware technologies, such as in autonomous robotics and 3D visualization technologies. Through dedicated mentorship and cross-institutional collaborations, my goal is to cultivate a dynamic "research and deployment" ecosystem that empowers the next generation of scientists and innovators to build impactful, human-centric technologies.

Patents

Multiview 3D Display Technology Patent filed via the University of Tokyo's TLO. Details currently undisclosed pending publication.

Research & Publications

Neuromorphic Systems

Physical dynamics, reservoir computing, and learning-enabled control for soft, embodied machines.

Hysteretic Reservoir

Hysteretic reservoir dynamics

Journals & Conferences
F. Liu, C. Caremel, T. D. Ta, Y. Fan, F. Dai, Y. Kawahara, and M. Kamezaki. "Sensor-Informed Modeling of Pressure: Peltier-Temperature Hysteresis in Phase-Change Pouch Actuators." IEICE Society Conference 2026, N-1-30, Hokkaido University, Japan, Sep. 2026.
F. Liu, C. Caremel, T. D. Ta, Y. Fan, F. Dai, Y. Kawahara, and M. Kamezaki. "PhysRes-MPC: Predictive Control for Phase-Change Actuators." IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft 2026, Workshop), Kanazawa, Japan, Apr. 2026.
C. Caremel, K. Nguyen, A. Nguyen, M. Huber, Y. Kawahara, and T. D. Ta. "Modeling The States of Liquid Phase Change Pouch Actuators by Reservoir Computing." IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Hangzhou, China, Oct. 2025.
C. Caremel. "Generalizing hysteretic circuits to chaotic circuits as physical reservoir computers." Differential Equations for Data Science (DEDS 2025), Kyoto, Japan, Feb. 2025.
C. Caremel, Y. Kawahara, and K. Nakajima. "Hysteretic reservoir." Physical Review Applied (APS), 22, 064045, 2024.
Code Repository: KawaharaLab/PhysRes

PhysRes is an open-source, extensible framework designed to tackle the prediction of complex time-series data and control the behavior of soft actuators using the paradigms of physical reservoir computing.

C. Caremel, Y. Kawahara, and K. Nakajima. "A novel framework for physical reservoir computing." Dynamics of multicellular systems and applications in machine learning (MCML 2024), Kanazawa, Japan, Oct. 2024.
Echo State Network for Soft Actuator Control

Echo state network for soft actuator control

C. Caremel, M. Ishige, T. D. Ta, and Y. Kawahara. "Echo State Network for Soft Actuator Control." Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics, Special Issue on Science of Soft Robots, Vol. 34, No. 2, Tokyo, Japan, Apr. 2022.
Work-in-Progress
Liquid Reservoir Computing: Ongoing research with Prof. Hirofumi Notsu and Dr. Thomas de Jong on modeling the hydrodynamics of vortices for computation.
Physical Reservoir Computing For Soft Actuators: On-going research with Liu Fante (Master Course student, Kawahara lab) on leveraging and extending the PhysRes framework with the aim of controlling soft actuators behavior.
Dissertation
C. Caremel. "Neuromorphic networks for prediction applications." Doctoral dissertation, Keio University, Keio Associated Repository of Academic Resources, Tokyo, Japan, Aug. 2019.

Spatial Computing & Computational Sensing

Spatial perception and estimation through monocular vision, remote sensing, and learned physical-field models.

Spatial visualization and perception

Spatial visualization, perception, and learned field models

Journals & Conferences
X. Li, C. Caremel, S. Feng, and Y. Kawahara. "Boundary-Aware Video Depth Estimation for Far-Field Object Preservation." IEICE Society Conference 2026, B-15-52, Hokkaido University, Japan, Sep. 2026.
Y. Honjo, C. Caremel, K. Takaki, Y. Noma, Y. Kawahara, and T. Sasatani. "Magnetic field estimation using Gaussian process regression for interactive wireless power system design." arXiv:2510.19277 [cs.HC], 2026.
Y. Honjo, C. Caremel, Y. Noma, K. Takaki, Y. Kawahara, and T. Sasatani. "Magnetic Field Prediction for Wireless Power Transfer Systems Using Gaussian Process Regression." IEICE Tech. Rep., Sapporo, Japan, Nov. 2024.
Y. Honjo, C. Caremel, Y. Kawahara, and T. Sasatani. "Suppressing Leakage Magnetic Field in Wireless Power Transfer using Halbach Array-Based Resonators." IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 23, Issue 1, pp. 94-98, Jan. 2024.
Y. Honjo, T. Sasatani, C. Caremel, and Y. Kawahara. "A Halbach-Array-Based Resonator for Suppressing Leakage Magnetic Field in Wireless Power Transfer Systems." Asian Wireless Power Transfer Workshop (AWPT 2022), MO-3-O4, Kyoto, Japan, Dec. 2022.
C. Caremel, W. Guo, K. Senda, D. Takada, K. Tsubouchi, and Y. Kawahara. "Neural Network-Assisted Semantic Segmentation Of Vegetation Via Close-Range Remote Sensing." Japan Geoscience Union Meeting (JpGU), Tokyo, Japan, May 2022.
Work-in-Progress
Monocular Depth Estimation And Generative Models For 3D Reconstruction: Collaborative project with Xinyu Li (Master Course) and Shuyue Feng (Doctoral Program) focusing on novel techniques for image generation and 3D modeling.

Robotics, Digital Fabrication & Autonomous Systems

Generative design, computational fabrication, robotic actuation, and autonomous sensing systems.

Soft robotics and smart materials

Soft robotics, computational fabrication, and autonomous systems

Journals & Conferences
S. Feng, C. Caremel, and Y. Kawahara. "Sketch2Topo: Diffusion-Model-Based Topology Optimization Using Hand-Drawn Inputs as Condition Constraints." In Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26), Article 599, pp. 1–5, New York, NY, USA, Apr. 2026.
S. Feng, C. Caremel, and Y. Kawahara. "TopoStyle: Supporting Iterative Design with Generative AI for 2.5D Topology Optimization." arXiv:2604.21315 [cs.HC], 2026.
C. Han, C. Caremel, K. Taniguchi, H. Murakami, K. Koike, K. Higashioka, Y. Toshima, Y. Akashi, and Y. Kawahara. "Acquisition and Visualization of HVAC Data by Autonomous Mobile Robots." Proceedings of the 30th CAADRIA Conference, Vol. 3, pp. 29-38, Tokyo, Japan, Mar. 2025.
Y. Li, R. Takahashi, W. Yukita, K. Matsutani, C. Caremel, Y. Iwamoto, S. Lee, T. Yokota, T. Someya, and Y. Kawahara. "Plug-n-play e-knit: prototyping large-area e-textiles using machine-knitted magnetically-repositionable sensor networks." Proceedings of the Nineteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '25), Article 56, pp. 1–7, Bordeaux, France, Mar. 2025.
Z. Chen, C. Caremel, and Y. Kawahara. "A Simulation Study on Temperature Control of a SMA-based Ring-actuated Glove for Thermal Comfort." IPSJ Technical Report, 2022-UBI-76, No. 35, pp. 1-6, Nov. 2022.
Autonomous systems for data acquisition

Autonomous systems for data acquisition

Thermo-haptic feedback

Thermo-haptic feedback interface

G. Chernyshov, K. Ragozin, C. Caremel, and K. Kunze. "Hand motion prediction for just-in-time thermo-haptic feedback." ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST 2018), 52:1-52:2, Tokyo, Japan, Nov. 2018.
Shape memory alloy wire actuators

Shape memory alloy wire actuators

G. Chernyshov, B. Tag, C. Caremel, F. Cao, G. Liu, and K. Kunze. "Shape memory alloy wire actuators for soft, wearable haptic devices." ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp 2018), pp. 112-119, Singapore, Oct. 2018.
C. Caremel, G. Liu, G. Chernyshov, and K. Kunze. "Muscle-Wire Glove: Pressure-Based Haptic Interface." Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI) Companion 2018, 52:1-52:2, Tokyo, Japan, Mar. 2018.

Lectures

Data-Driven Space Design for Co-Creation (2024–2026) Series of lectures for the workshop organized by Prof. Taniguchi and sprung from our research on data visualization and acquisition with mobile autonomous robots.
Department of Architecture, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
Computational Fabrication (2026) Series of lectures for the workshop co-organized with Dr. Ali Shtarbanov (MIT Media Lab) focusing on computational fabrication and generative design methodologies. Part 1: From Topology Optimization To Autonomous Manufacturing Ecosystems. Part 2: Morphological Computing In Physical Systems.
Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo

Academic Activities

  • Reviewer for Scientific Reports (Nature Portfolio)
  • Reviewer for IMWUT (Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies)
  • Reviewer for IEEE ISMAR (International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality)
  • Reviewer for IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
  • Reviewer for UIST (ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology)
  • Member of the Reservoir Computing Seminar Group led by Prof. Kohei Nakajima (2023-2024)