[No. 223] Makoto Eguchi

I am greatly honored to have this opportunity to contribute to the Keio University Alumni Raiou. I would like to express my gratitude to Professor Hiromitsu Omori of the Department of System Design Engineering for his recommendation.

At university, I conducted research on diesel engine combustion control, and I am currently employed at Honda Motor Co., Ltd. At work, I have been a data scientist for about six years, from the time I joined as a new graduate to the present, primarily analyzing large-scale time-series data. Since my work is in the information systems field, which is very different from my university specialization in control systems, I struggled at first, but now I have grown accustomed to the job and enjoy it.

In this article, by frankly reflecting on my experiences, I would be very happy if I could be of some help to prospective students aiming for the Faculty of Science and Technology at Keio University and to current students thinking about their future careers.

I spent a total of six years in junior and senior high school at La Salle Junior and Senior High School, a private school in Kagoshima Prefecture. At that time, I lived in a dormitory at an all-boys school, where the academic level of my peers was very high, creating an environment where I could concentrate on my studies. In that setting, while I was good at mathematics, I was very poor at English. In the end, even after studying for an extra year as a ronin, I was unable to get into my first-choice national university. I entered the Faculty of Science and Technology at Keio, which I had considered a backup, after that extra year. Therefore, when I first enrolled, I didn't have any clear goals for what I wanted to do at Keio's Faculty of Science and Technology, and I think I strongly felt that I had enrolled there reluctantly after failing my entrance exams.

When I first entered the Faculty of Science and Technology at Keio, I had no particular goals. However, since I was attending a private university and living alone, I wanted to avoid burdening my parents financially as much as possible, so I started a part-time job as a cram school (juku) instructor right after enrolling. It was my first part-time job, so it took time to get used to it, but because it was a job where I could use my own junior high and university entrance exam experience, I was passionate about it until my fourth year of undergraduate studies when I was assigned to a laboratory. Partly because of this, I didn't participate in any club activities, and my circle of friends remained small throughout. With a small circle of friends, I had to manage to earn credits on my own, so I also focused on my studies. In the end, my undergraduate years were consumed by my part-time job and studies, and now as a working adult, I regret not being able to devote time to hobbies and leisure. I was somewhat rewarded for my dedication to my studies when I received the "Hatakeyama Award from The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers" upon graduation, but I hope you all will learn from my example and have more fun and experience various things during your undergraduate years...

Now, at Keio, students choose their department when advancing to their second year, and I was torn between the "Department of Mechanical Engineering" and the "Department of System Design Engineering (SD)." I ultimately decided to advance to the SD department for the simple reason that "it had a cool-sounding foreign name." To put it simply, I understand the SD department to be a discipline that combines mechanical and information systems, with the aim of studying hardware and software as a whole system. A class from the SD department that particularly stands out in my memory is the "Fundamental Exercises in System Design Engineering." In this class, we could choose the content, and I selected the format of "creating something as a team." In short, the content was something like "creating an interactive game," and we were divided into three roles: "mechanism," "circuit," and "program." I was in charge of programming. At the time, my programming knowledge was limited to the basics of C language I had learned in class, but I found it enjoyable to devise and create the game screen from scratch. I would work at home late into the night, elaborating on the design to make the game more interesting. In the end, children from the Keio Yochisha Elementary School came to see our work, and I felt a great sense of satisfaction watching them have fun playing the game. Looking back, what I made was a simple thing created with C language and OpenGL, but seeing the joyful faces of the children made me clearly realize that "I want to create things that make people happy," a belief I still hold today.

Because I had always liked mathematics, my best subject in university lectures was control theory, and influenced by the System Design Engineering exercises, I had an interest in software development. For these reasons, I requested and was assigned to the Omori Laboratory, a control systems lab. After advancing to graduate school, I chose "Research on Combustion Control of Diesel Engines" as my research theme. This research theme was part of a national project called the "Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP)," specifically related to "Innovative Combustion Technology." It was an industry-academia collaboration project aimed at developing technology to improve the thermal efficiency of internal combustion engines. I belonged to the "control team" in what was a large-scale project with participation from other universities and companies. Within that project, I conducted research under the theme "Research on Diesel Engine Combustion Control Technology Using Learning Control," building various control logics in Matlab/Simulink and verifying them on a test bench owned by the University of Tokyo. My research results were published as part of the combustion control system "RAICA," one of the achievements of the SIP Innovative Combustion Technology project. The fact that my research could contribute significantly to the results of a national project was very moving at the time, and I am still proud of it today.

Also, during graduate school, I published numerous papers and participated in various academic conferences. Over the two years of my master's program, I presented at about 10 conferences in total, both in Japan and abroad. Perhaps as a result of these efforts, I was able to receive two awards upon graduating from graduate school: the "Miura Award from The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers" and the "Graduate Research Encouragement Award from the Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan." To be honest, I feel that a large part of my motivation for attending conferences was the ulterior motive of "wanting to travel to various places on business and eat delicious food," but I was able to go to places like Germany, Kumamoto, Osaka, Nagoya, and Hokkaido, and they are all fond memories now.

(Reference) SIP Innovative Combustion Technology Achievement Collection: https://www.jst.go.jp/sip/k01_publications.html

Partly because my research was related to automobiles, I became interested in car companies and participated in internships at Honda and Toyota. I thought both were good companies, but I felt I could do what I wanted to do more at Honda, so I joined Honda through a school recommendation.

However, when it came to my assignment, I was not placed in my desired department for autonomous driving control development, but rather in a connected systems department. My work mainly involves the analysis of large-scale time-series data obtained from vehicles, known as FCD (Floating Car Data). This was completely different in nature from my university specialization, and I had none of the essential data science skills like Python or SQL, so I struggled a great deal when I first joined. Initially, my preference was not met, and I considered requesting a transfer after a few years. However, I have now come to find data science interesting, and blessed with a good work environment, supervisors, and colleagues, I enjoy my job. For my own professional development, I have also obtained qualifications such as the Database Specialist certification, and I believe I am contributing, at least to some extent, to the company's work as a data scientist. Just as when I entered Keio, when I joined Honda, I initially had negative feelings, but as I continued, I found things that I found interesting, and I was reminded once again of the importance of perseverance.

I have described my experiences up to this point, and looking back on them, I believe that even if, like me, you start out without a clear purpose, without specific goals, and with a negative impression, you will surely find something that sparks your interest as you go through your student and professional life. The Faculty of Science and Technology at Keio University is fully equipped with an environment that allows for that. First, I think it's important to cherish the environment you find yourself in and to put forth your best effort within it. If you do, I believe good things will surely happen.

Finally, thank you for reading this long article. I will conclude with the hope that my experiences can serve as a reference for your future paths.