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K-State Today

Division of Communications and Marketing
Kansas State University
128 Dole Hall
1525 Mid-Campus Drive North
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-2535
vpcm@k-state.edu

April 11, 2022

Masaaki Mizuno retiring after 35 years

Submitted by Wynne Reichart

After 35 years of dedicated service, Masaaki Mizuno, professor of computer science, will retire on Aug. 5.

Mizuno obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degree in electrical engineering at Keio University in Japan as well as a secondary master’s in computer science from Pennsylvania State University. He graduated with his doctorate in computer science from Iowa State University in 1987. Later that year, he joined Kansas State University as an assistant professor of computer science.

From 1987 to 2022, Mizuno served as an assistant, associate and professor in the computer science department. During his tenure, Mizuno taught several, core undergraduate- and graduate-level computer science courses. He was also active in research, advising four doctoral students and numerous master’s students. Mizuno’s research interests are in the areas of distributed computing, synchronization, operating systems, real-time embedded systems and cybersecurity systems. His research projects have been funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation and private industry.

Mizuno’s research was always focused on the integration of theory and implementation. During the 2006-2007 academic year, he took a sabbatical leave to work at Hitachi Ltd. in Japan, where he installed a real-time operating system for Hitachi’s vehicle dynamic control system, which was used in the Nissan Infinity. During that time, he also installed a real-time operating system on the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot kit and made it available through an open-source license. The system is used by many universities in Europe, Asia and the U.S. for real-time embedded systems courses. Mizuno also received the William L. Stamey Teaching Award of the College of Arts and Sciences in 1991 and the Department of Computer Science Undergraduate Teaching Award in 1997.

The Carl R. Ice College of Engineering and computer science department wish Mizuno and his wife, Kyoko, all the best in retirement. Written memories and well wishes can be sent to csadmin@k-state.edu by 5 p.m. on May 6.