Valuing both the dream she wants to fulfill and an education that fosters a broad perspective. Balancing research and real-world experience to support people's futures.

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From Gakushuin Girls' Senior High School, a private school in Tokyo

She says that since high school, she wanted to engage in activities not limited to just studying and took on various challenges. She pursued a path in science and engineering to convey the appeal of mathematics and the joy of its real-world applications. Her goal is to become a teacher. With a strong will to balance both her research and her dream, she has been active, supported by those around her and taking advantage of the university's flexible environment. How did she manage her busy days and navigate her time from her undergraduate years to her master's program? We asked about the driving force behind her ability to balance her research life with her work as a part-time instructor, and about her life at the university.

[*] Academic year at the time of the interview (November 2020).

I attended a combined junior and senior high school. For my club activity, I was in the Blockflöte Ensemble club, where we played recorder ensembles. We were active about three days a week, which was quite a lot for a cultural club. While I was a member, we were very dedicated, even competing in the national competition and winning a silver prize. I was immersed in it for a total of six years, starting from junior high.

Besides that, I was on the class representative committee and served as the chairperson. This committee is different from the student council; its role is to gather opinions and requests from each class. It involved tasks that supported the daily lives of students, such as leading homeroom and organizing the class for events. Thanks to my experience as class chairperson, I had to hold a microphone in front of a large number of students, and although I was originally shy and prone to blushing, I eventually got over my stage fright.

Wanting to avoid my precious high school years being solely about studying for entrance exams, I considered two options: either advancing internally since I was at an affiliated high school, or applying to another university through admission by designated school recommendation [*1]. Also, since I had always been good at calculations and loved math, I had a vague dream of becoming a math teacher. To be honest, at first, I didn't have any strong preferences, as long as I could get a teaching license.

Math is a subject that people either love or hate, but my reason for pursuing a science-related path was my desire to convey to others not just pure mathematics, but also the fun and importance of its applications. Therefore, I wanted to go to a university with a faculty of science and technology that offered a wider range of fields and options applicable to manufacturing and society, so I applied to Keio University through admission by designated school recommendation. After enrolling, when it was time to choose my department in my second year, I chose "Gakumon 2 (now Gakumon C [*2])," which I felt matched my interests.

[*1] Admission by Designated School Recommendation: This is a recommendation-based admission system based on recommendations from the principals of designated high schools. We seek unique students with outstanding achievements beyond academics. Every year around June, we send the application guidelines to the high schools we request recommendations from. For details, please check with your high school's career guidance counselor. Applications are typically around November.

[*2] Gakumon 2: At the time of her enrollment in 2016, this "Gakumon" allowed students to advance to one of three departments: the Department of Mathematics, the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, or the Department of Information and Computer Science. For students enrolling from the 2020 academic year, the name was changed to "Gakumon C (Information, Mathematics, and Data Science Field)," and the Department of Biosciences and Informatics was added as a possible department to advance to.

Having attended an all-girls' school, I was initially anxious about the Faculty of Science and Technology, where the ratio of male students is high. However, once I enrolled, because there were fewer of us, the female students quickly became friends and a sense of unity was born. Of course, it's also an environment where we can learn alongside male students on friendly terms.

Also, I had the impression that science and engineering students were busy, but I feel that I have more control over how I use my time than I imagined. I took French classes, which I was interested in, and also challenged myself with the French proficiency test. It was inspiring to see the diverse people around me pursuing their own specializations, like someone doing a long-term internship at a company that runs social media alongside their studies, or someone who loved filming and studied abroad for a year to learn video production. In that environment, to fulfill my dream of becoming a teacher, I started taking teacher training courses in my second year and was able to obtain my teaching licenses for junior high/high school mathematics and high school information technology [*3] by the time I graduated.

[*3] Teaching License: The types and subjects of teaching licenses that can be obtained upon graduation from the Faculty of Science and Technology or completion of the master's program at the Graduate School of Science and Technology vary depending on the student's department or major. Please check the Teacher Training Center website for the types and subjects of teaching licenses that can be obtained in each department and major.

In addition to the field of human-computer interaction, which I am researching, you can learn about and research technologies that are becoming familiar in our daily lives, such as robotics, CG (computer graphics), VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), telecommunications, and autonomous driving. Computer science often involves collaboration with other fields like medicine, so I think a key feature is that the knowledge you gain is easy to apply in society.

From the second year onwards, there are few required courses and a relatively large number of required electives, so it's an environment where you can create a schedule according to your interests and convenience, making it easy to focus on things other than your major. Although it's a department with many male students, research requires diverse perspectives to identify inconveniences and problems in daily life and figure out how to solve them, so being able to succeed regardless of gender is also unique to the Department of Information and Computer Science.

Courses I took in my fourth year, like "Special Lectures on Information and Computer Science," and "Advanced Topics in Information and Computer Science A" in the Graduate School of Science and Technology, were fascinating because I could hear from people working on the front lines, such as company employees and researchers. I was amazed by the cutting-edge technology and could also hear about what it's actually like to work within those companies and their structures, which helped me imagine what it would be like after entering the workforce.

Also, on a personal note, I got the idea for my later research theme at a welfare facility I visited as part of my teacher training program. The trigger was spending five days on-site for nursing care training, where I interacted with people who had difficulty with movement and communication due to disabilities. For example, I thought it would be great if people could communicate by giving interface functions to everyday objects like cushions. Being able to experience the situation firsthand, identify a problem, and even come up with a concrete idea for a solution gave me confidence, and I believe it's a skill that will be useful in the future.

Based on the idea I got from the nursing care training I just mentioned, I have been developing a cushion-based interface since my fourth year as an undergraduate. This research began with the idea that it would be helpful if people with severe disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, could communicate using everyday objects. Existing remote controls have small buttons and can be difficult for some people to operate, so I thought that if they could control home appliances through gestures like pressing, hitting, or lifting a cushion, people with disabilities could use them too. The system involved attaching an accelerometer to the cushion cover, reading the values for each gesture performed on the cushion, and using machine learning to recognize them. Currently, I am conducting research on recognizing gestures using a smartphone instead of an accelerometer. By using a familiar smartphone, I hope to reduce implementation costs and develop something that is easier for more people to use. Furthermore, by utilizing the data from the smartphone attached to the cushion, we can expect future applications in developing exercise programs for the elderly and in rehabilitation settings.

The Yuta Sugiura Laboratory has as one of its themes the improvement of people's lifestyles. It was appealing that the research is centered on everyday objects and living spaces, so the results are visually easy to understand. Also, the lab is divided into two spaces: an experiment space that resembles a living area where we conduct research demonstrations, and a desk area where we organize our research findings. The place where you spend three years from your fourth undergraduate year through your first and second years of the master's program is very important. A comfortable environment was one of the key points in choosing a lab.

The supportive environment, which takes into account my desire to become a teacher and provides research support, is also very reassuring. During my undergraduate years, there were periods when I couldn't go to the lab due to student teaching practice, so Associate Professor Sugiura gave me advice on my research plan and was very considerate of my time and mental well-being. Currently, I am working as a part-time instructor at a junior and senior high school, and I balance this by adjusting my class and research schedules.

Another feature of the Sugiura Lab is that we start research early. Many other labs start research around September of the fourth year, but the Sugiura Lab starts at the end of April, so I was able to make progress on my research quickly and even participate in an international conference during my fourth year.

In early February 2020, I attended an interface-related conference in Australia called TEI (Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction). I participated in the Work-in-Progress category, where I gave a demonstration and spoke one-on-one with attendees. I received a lot of ideas, and it was very stimulating. At the same time, I realized the inadequacy of my English skills and recognized the need for English proficiency. However, there are aspects that are naturally strengthened by reading papers for research. I have opportunities to speak English with international students in the lab, and we often present in English during meetings. Therefore, I don't think you need to worry too much before enrolling. Personally, I now use an iPad for all my classes and for reading papers, and I have my own methods, like writing directly on slide materials or immediately looking up unfamiliar English words in papers.

I hope to use my experience as a part-time instructor to become a full-time teacher. There are discoveries and joys in teaching others, and I believe it's a job that relates to the future—where a teacher can draw out and support students' hidden abilities, just as I experienced, and as a result, those students can thrive. In the Department of Information and Computer Science, few people get a teaching license, so I'm sometimes told that it's unusual. It was tough to take dozens of extra credits in addition to my department's courses, but I think I was able to do it because the Department of Information and Computer Science allows for relatively flexible scheduling. I want to become a teacher who is trusted by students, utilizing not only the knowledge I gained at the Faculty of Science and Technology and the Graduate School of Science and Technology, but also the process of observation and critical thinking cultivated through my research.