[No. 61] Yoshihiko Kido

I currently work as a patent attorney, primarily focusing on the acquisition of intellectual property rights such as patents and trademarks. As those who have seen patent application documents may know, they use very difficult language and are written in what you might call a rigid style. I hope to convey the wonder and excitement of the Keio University Faculty of Science and Technology to all of you, but having grown so accustomed to drafting such formal documents, I'm not sure if this will be well-written...

Having studied at Keio University since the Keio Futsubu School (junior high school), I commuted to Hiyoshi Station for a total of 12 years: six years in junior and senior high school, four years in university, and two years in graduate school. Since I was 24 when I completed graduate school, I had spent half of my life in Hiyoshi by that point. Hiyoshi is a student town, so as you might expect, it has an abundance of inexpensive and delicious restaurants and set-meal diners. Having commuted there for 12 years, I visited quite a few of them, and the quality was consistently high. In fact, I still occasionally go back on a Saturday, craving the flavors from that time. Isn't it one of the attractions that if you attend the Keio University Faculty of Science and Technology and continue through the master's program, you can be in this environment for six years? (This is rather trivial information, but I've included it from my own perspective, as I believe past contributors to the "Jukuin Raio" [Keio University alumni Relay Column] have already fully conveyed the other charms of Keio University.)

Now, let me introduce one thing I was passionate about during my student days. It was helping out as a coach at the swimming school of my alma mater, the Keio Futsubu School, which I mentioned earlier. About 50 coaches, ranging from high school students to alumni over 60, taught swimming to nearly 200 students in the sea at Tateyama, Chiba Prefecture, for about five days and four nights. The Keio Futsubu School is an all-boys school, so of course, the alumni are also all male. Consequently, a beach filled with around 200 men has not a shred of beauty... On top of that, we were so busy preparing for the next day's operations that we barely slept, swam for kilometers alongside the students, and got severely sunburned. It was a series of truly exhausting days.

However, the sight of senior students teaching junior students to improve their swimming, working alongside the Keio Futsubu School teachers to liven up the swimming school, was the very embodiment of Keio University's spirit of "Keio Gijuku Shachu cooperation."

With the Keio Futsubu School teachers and fellow swimming school coaches.

Of course, I did put some effort into my studies as well. I was in the first-ever class of the Department of System Design Engineering. Since it was the inaugural year for the Department of System Design Engineering, the professors were also very enthusiastic, so I have some memory of studying hard in a situation where lab reports were tough and there were no past final exams. Looking back, I feel that no other department had such rich interaction between students and professors, and I'm glad I chose the Department of System Design Engineering.

From the fourth year of university onward, students are assigned to a research lab to conduct their graduation research. I was in the Nagashima-Nagasaka Laboratory in the Department of System Design Engineering, where I researched measurement techniques for thermophysical properties. Specifically, my research theme was the non-contact measurement of liquid viscosity using a laser. To be honest, when I first started studying at the Department of System Design Engineering, thermophysical properties was not a field I was particularly interested in. However, by the time I had to decide on a lab, my interest had gradually grown, and once I started the research, I was able to appreciate its appeal even more.

There were times I pulled all-nighters for experiments for my graduation thesis and master's thesis, but the professor's personality and the lab's atmosphere and environment were fantastic, and presenting at academic conferences was an invaluable experience. There were times I found it tough, but looking back now, I think it wasn't so bad after all. The Keio University Faculty of Science and Technology has many research labs, allowing you to challenge yourself with a variety of themes. I also chose a lab in a field different from what I had initially imagined when I enrolled, but I am extremely satisfied with my choice. Having such a wealth of options can be said to be one of its charms.

Currently, my work is centered on my duties at the patent office. As a patent attorney who frequently encounters new inventions and technologies, what I learned at the Faculty of Science and Technology has been personally useful in enabling me to grasp technology relatively quickly. I feel this is because the most important thing I learned in the Department of System Design Engineering and in my research lab was "how to approach things."

If I were to use an analogy, I think of what I learned during my student years as being like a computer's operating system. Having completed graduate school in 2002, I believe it's because I have an OS called "KEIO 2002" installed that I've been able to successfully run various application software out in the world. Incidentally, I was recently blessed with the opportunity to teach a course on intellectual property rights at a university. I've come to realize how difficult it is to teach young students, and I now reflect on how truly challenging it must have been for the professors in the Department of System Design Engineering to guide us...

I hope to continue doing my best so that I can give back to society, even in a small way, what I learned at the Keio University Faculty of Science and Technology.