Background of this program

Outline of g-RIPS-Sendai 2019

• June 17th to August 9th, 2018. (8 weeks)
• Venue: Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR), Tohoku University, Sendai city, Japan
• Sponsors: Toyota Motor Corporation, Fujitsu Laboratories, NEC Corporation
• Host: Research Alliance Center for Mathematical Sciences (RACMaS), Tohoku University
• Co-hosts: Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR), Tohoku University, iTHEMS, RIKEN, Tohoku Forum for Creativity, Tohoku University, Institute for Pure & Applied Mathematics, UCLA
• Number of partipants: 8 students from US and 5 from Japan in 2019.

Projects

• TOYOTA-1 – ：Design for the next generation mobility service in suburban areas - Mobility service for university campus
  


• TOYOTA-2 –：Design for the next generation mobility service in suburban areas - Mobility service for hospital guests
  


• FUJITSU - Resolving real-world issues by "Digital Annealer"
  


• NEC - Combinatorial optimization using quantum annealing
  

Activities during the program

• Opening Day: Explanations for projects by industrial mentors (IMs) from sponsors.
• Mid-term presentation: Members present their progress to IMs.
• Project’s day: Final presentations to IMs and discussions.
• Site visit (TOYOTA team): Tsukuba University (Tsukuba) and TOYOTA MEGA@WEB (Tokyo)
• Site visit (FUJITSU team): Fujitsu laboratories (Kawasaki)
• Site visit (NEC team): System Platform Research Laboratories (Tsukuba)
• Japanese language and culture course for US students.
• Collaborative research work on weekdays and free time for weekends.

Voices from participants

• The program 2019 g-RIPS in Sendai was amazing. My impressions of the program are all positive. I have to admit that I was a little worried about conducting research in a different country; the first reason is being in a different country, and the second being my first research. But it turns out that I had nothing to be afraid of because everyone I worked/interacted with was helpful and friendly. The research itself was insightful. Having prior background in optimization helped with understanding the main problem. Some colleagues/friends do not have much optimization backgrounds, so being able to provide insight allowed for easier communication throughout the program. When working with the Japanese students, I did not find any difficulty in communication. They spoke English very well, and so I felt there wasn't a language barrier at all.
  The administration was very supportive. If we had any questions, it would be taken care of promptly. Furthermore, it was very nice that the program regularly checks up on us asking if we need anything to help us with our respective projects. In terms of logistics, the program provided everything needed for my two-month stay. Being located in the center of Sendai and next to the main shopping district kept me busy visiting every store. Moreover, the shopping district help the biggest Tanabata festival in Japan. Being able to experience so much culture in a short time was amazing. Overall, the program was amazing. I wouldn’t miss an opportunity to do this program again.





• The g-RIPS-Sendai 2019 program gave me the opportunity to work on an interesting, applied, socially important problem, develop my scientific communication and mathematical skills, and enjoy a new city and culture for the summer. Working on a team with Japanese and American students from a variety of academic backgrounds was challenging and rewarding, and our diverse perspectives contributed to a better model and more interesting project. Our industrial mentors allowed us to design our exact research question, but provided a complex and social relevant system to study. Our site visit allowed us great insight into the system. Seminars, coffee breaks and Japanese language and culture classes allowed us to join the AIMR and Tohoku University community for the summer. Our academic mentors provided support for the project and the midterm and final presentations gave us the chance to improve our scientific communication skill.





• My impression of g-RIPS Sendai 2019 was incredibly positive. From this program, I was able to apply some of the skills that I have harnessed in my graduate program to a real world project, while working on a multidisciplinary team. I feel like I have gained great insight working on an optimization project, which is outside of my field of interest. I feel like this experience helped me gain great exposure and learn new techniques and skills that I may apply in the future. I also believe that the seminars throughout the program were excellent ways to gain further exposure to diverse research, and I appreciated the Japanese language class offered weekly, as it was very helpful for communicating in simple interactions. These classes also encouraged me to want to pursue studying Japanese on my own. Overall, I think the program was very well administered and I am happy to have had the experience working on a project in a different culture.





• g-RIPS-Sendai-2019 was an excellent opportunity - I had the chance to explore a new culture, learn how industry-focused research differs from academia, network with high ranking members of industry and academics alike and on top of all that I expanded my technical skillset and have become a far more competitive candidate on the job market, receiving multiple interview requests based on the experiences I gained at g-RIPS. I cannot recommend this program enough!


• The g-RIPS-Sendai program was such a wonderful and valuable experience and great opportunity to work an industrial research project (Toyota) in Japan. Every team member has different disciplines and this is my first time working the research project with people who do not have strong background of mathematics, but it is very interesting to collaborate with them because we have very different perspectives of the project and it helped us to see the bigger pictures. Overall, this research program helped me to grow as a better researcher and connected with a lot of people.

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