2021 Portraits of Student Diversity at Keio

Sugiyama led a group of around 120 students in AY2021 as a representative of the KEIO 2020 project, which was launched to support Team GB & ParalympicsGB, which includes the British Olympic and Paralympic teams. However, many of the welcome events and support activities planned for team practices were not possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even so, he made every effort to provide hospitality from afar, keeping in mind the "Home from Home" mentality he learned on his own visit to the UK.

One of KEIO 2020's big ideas even went viral. Sugiyama had his team make origami medals with a two-dimensional code, which students presented to athletes. The code linked to a video of students, local store owners, and British citizens, all showing their support for the team. "I feel like I've had to learn how to act as a leader and keep moving forward amid difficult times," he says. Sugiyama has a voracious appetite for research and won the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award for the Satellite Design Contest he participated in as a third-year student. He is now pondering how best to use his area of expertise in control theory. "I want to contemplate the relationship between technology and society in graduate school," he says.

(Original article published in Portrait in the Winter 2022 (No. 313) issue of Juku.)

Ueda was selected as one of 21 Super Creators for AY2020 as part of the annual MITOU Program (Exploratory IT Human Resources Project), which is held by the Information-technology Promotion Agency, Japan (IPA) in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to discover young creators who can create new added value through innovation in IT. "There are structural limits to what software can do to address the increasing sophistication of malware and other computer viruses," says Ueda. "So I developed a hardware-based security mechanism that can detect advanced malware in real-time by tracking only the memory space that needs to be analyzed." Despite only having studied security for less than a year, he is calm and collected about his accomplishment, saying, "I still have plenty of work left to do." He reflects on school life at SFC, saying, "There was no room for passivity at SFC, which enhanced the quality of my education." He plans to continue his research after graduation.

(Original article published in Portrait in the Autumn 2021 (No. 312) Issue of Juku.)

Kurita fights the good fight as the first female head student manager of Keio's 144-year-old judo team, the oldest in Japan. She is also responsible for all behind-the-scenes operations, including tournament participation procedures, negotiations with internal and external parties, and liaising with alumni. "I like the atmosphere of the Keio Judo Team because here everyone from beginners to national champions, all of whom help each other improve. I hope to make the voices of both male and female athletes and student managers heard and bring the team closer together." Though COVID-19 forced the team to stop practices for more than four months last year and cancel signature events like summer and winter training, there is no reason to be pessimistic. "Now is the time for building a solid foundation," she says. "Through our daily training, I hope to pass on the spirit and traditions of the team to the next generation of members." After graduation, she plans to pursue research in media and social psychology. "Whether it's athletics or academics, I'm always giving 100%."

(Original article published in Portrait in the Summer 2021 (No. 311) Issue of Juku.)

*These articles appeared in the 2022 Winter (No. 313), 2021 Autumn (No. 312), and 2021 Summer (No. 311) issues of Juku.
*All affiliations, years, and titles are current as of the time of their respective publication.