Professor Shigehiro Hashimoto is Doctor of Medicine from Kitasato University in 1987, and Doctor of Engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1990. Professor Hashimoto was Research Associate at the School of Medicine, Kitasato University, (1981-1989), Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine, Kitasato University (1989 -1994), Associate Professor at the Department of Electronics, Osaka Institute of Technology (1994-2001), and Professor at Osaka Institute of Technology (2001-2011).
 
He also was the Creator of the first Department of Biomedical Engineering in Japan at Osaka Institute of Technology (2005) and Director of its Medical Engineering Research Center (2005-2011). He is the current Associate to the President and Dean of Admissions Center of the Kogakuin University, Japan (2012-) Professor Hashimoto experienced internship in Research Center for Artificial Heart in Free University in Berlin, Germany in 1977.

Multidisciplinary learning has been discussed in relation to cross- cultural understandings. “Biomedical engineering” is exemplified for the multidisciplinary field. “Biomedical Engineering” is the multidisciplinary research area, which includes biology, medicine, engineering, and others. Several learning programs have been tried in the biomedical engineering field: in Japan, in Thailand, and in USA.

Some of them are cross-cultural student seminars on biomedical engineering. In the group work, students are divided into the small cross-cultural groups. Each group finds a problem, methods to solve the problem, contribution to the society. Presentations are made of slides in reference to information in the internet. They have learned how to communicate with students, who has not only variety of studying backgrounds but also variety of cultural backgrounds. The training awakes in students several points: thinking from a different point of view, using various communication tools. The process extends the communication skill, and helps cross-cultural understandings.