[:en]Mr. Kosuke Okada
Hometown in Japan: Osaka
Home University in Japan: Osaka University
Major & School Year: Electronic Engineering, B4
Research Host at Rice: Prof. Junichiro Kono, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Research Project Title: Modulation of optical property of carbon nanotubes applying electric field (PDF)

Why TOMODACHI STEM @ Rice University?
My dream is to contribute to the advancement of science and technology, as well as to help improve the standards of living of many people through the products I make. To achieve this, I plan to take on advanced research activities in engineering after finishing my undergraduate course. The U.S. is one of the world renowned leaders in science & technology. Therefore I think that TOMODACHI STEM will be great help for my graduate school life. These reasons are detailed below.

Firstly, I can acquire an exciting research experience. Difficult and challenging research in a new work environment will stimulate me a lot. Since I am a beginner as a researcher, this experience will train my scientific thinking ability, cultivate my imagination and creativity and equip me to do interdisciplinary researches in the future. Therefore, I would like to utilize this chance to the maximum for my future work.

Second, this program gives me an opportunity to know the United States. Japan is a technologically-advanced country. However, the U.S. has a longer history as a leading country in many science & engineering fields compared to Japan. Therefore, by participating in this program, I will be able to see the difference between Japan and the United States.

Lastly, I can also substantially improve my English communication skills through this program. English is the medium of communication not just in science and engineering, but in all fields of research. However, I cannot use English proficiently right now. I think this program will give me a good opportunity to study English intensively.

Next year I will enter the graduate school of engineering and start the path of being a researcher. At this important point of my research career, staying in the U.S. will encourage me to rid myself of the shortsighted way of thinking based on Japan only. This internship is a first step toward succeeding as an engineer in the international society.

Goals

• Training my scientific thinking ability and cultivating my imagination and creativity
• Knowing the United States and Evaluating the research environment /ethics in Japan objectively
• Improving my English communication skills intensively

Questions I have About Research or Life in the U.S. – Prior to Departure

1. How many international students are there at Rice University?

Excerpts from Kosuke’s Weekly Reports

• Week 01: Arrival in the U.S.
• Week 02: Critical Incident Analysis
• Week 03: Research in the U.S. vs. Research in Japan
• Week 04: Final Week at Rice
• Final Research Project Presentation
• Week 05: Science & Technology Policy Study Tour in Washington, DC
• Final Report

Week 01: Arrival in the U.S.

At first, I was surprised by how many international students there are in Rice University. I always encounter them when I walk around. This reminded me of how the U.S. gathers superior personnel from all over the world. And, because I found a lot of students who study using their laptop, I was very impressed. Moreover, Rice campus is also very beautiful. Such environment is good for students.

Next, as I expected, in the U.S. meat is the main dish at meals and the quantity is large. So I am very happy because I like fast food, for example hamburger, very much. But I should take care of health. Many people run around Rice and I think it is caused by such eating habit.

Moreover, “Introduction to Research and Graduate Study in the U.S.” by Prof. Kono and the “Graduate Study in the U.S. – A Japanese Student Perspective” seminars were very attractive to me. The situation of graduate students in the U.S. is of an “employee” and salary, exemption of tuition fees and so on are given to them. It is different from Japan. I think that such treatment encourages student to choose the U.S. as a research place, and for superior personnel to gather there from all over the world and contribute to development of science and technology. This is a very good cycle. As a result, I’m interested in studying at a graduate school overseas now.

Finally, I met Young. He is an undergraduate student of Prof. Kono lab and from Korea. He works very hard at his research even though he has a lot of classes. I heard that in Rice University, undergraduate students can belong to lab from anytime. On the other hand, undergraduate students in Japan belong to lab from only their senior year in general. So, I felt such system is very wonderful. There are many students from Asia in Prof. Kono’s lab and it stimulates me a lot.

Research Project Overview
Research Host at Rice: Prof. Junichiro Kono, Electrical & Computer Engineering

Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) are expected to be a next electronic material. The range of its application is very wide, from electronics to biology. So, research and development on CNT has proceeded rapidly. Unique properties of CNT are light, high strength, flexible, high conductivity, high thermal conductivity and Chemical stability. In the background, recent simulation results show that applying electronic fields to small bundles of CNTs enable us to modulate CNT bundle conductivity. In research internship, I aim to confirm this effect by real experiment. Therefore, my research project title is “Band gap control of carbon nanotubes applying perpendicular electric field”.

In the first meeting with Prof. Kono, He encouraged me to do my best at research. I study photonics in Japan too, so I was determined to make good use of that experience. In my first day, what I did were first meeting of my mentor and laboratory tour. The Kono Lab has a lot of research facilities and some facilities are shared with other laboratories. I felt it is more flexible than Japan. There is also many equipment made by Japanese makers, so I confirmed that Japan brands have researcher’s confidence in the U.S.

My mentor is Ahmed. He is a third grade student of PhD course and from Bangladesh. He guides in my research carefully. He is so kind that he always worries about me. I always eat lunch with him. He likes playing squash, so we sometimes go to gym and play it. It is very interesting!

Question of the Week
How do American people manage their health?

• It really depends on the person but typically people who want to be healthy will cook most meals at home on their own, not eat out very often (especially fast food) and will regularly exercise either at the gym or outdoors by running or joining some sort of sports team. At Rice it is very convenient since there is a nice running/walking track all around campus and there is a very good gym on campus so it is easy to exercise/work-out if you would like.

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Week 02: Critical Incident Analysis

When I took the hotel shuttle, two old couples took the shuttle too. Although, I thought they didn’t know each other, they exchanged greetings and had fun talking. On the other hand, I didin’t trying talking to them because they were not my acquaintances. Possibly, there are big difference between Japanese and American.

For example, in elevator, Japanese people are very quiet while Westerner try to talk to everyone. It is said that Japanese are cautious and Westerners don’t like silence. Moreover, according to a story I heard, Westerners tend to talk to prove that they are not dangerous. Therefore, Westerners may feel anxious if there are no conversation. But Japanese don’t talk to strangers… It is said that such difference is strongly connected with history of each countries.

• For a good overview of this topic, see “The Big Challenge of American Small Talk”

Research Project Update
At first, I demonstrated UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopy of CNT(6,6) as a preliminary experiment. (6,6) means chirality of CNT. As a result, I observed some absorption peaks. In particular, I found strong peak at in wavelength range from 450nm~500nm. This result corresponds to results of prior research.

Next, I fabricated device for applying electronic fields to CNT mixture. In the fabricated device, CNT film lies between substrates which consist of ITO, which is electrode and PET. Surface of CNT film comes into contact with ITO. And I attached gold to ITO by sputtering. Gold is connected to source meter through wire.

Finally, I demonstrated UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopy of CNT mixture by applying electronic fields. Applied voltage was from 10V to 50V. I took measurement at intervals of 10V. As a result, although I wanted to measure absorption peak shift of that due to band gap change caused by elctronic fields, I couldn’t find the peak shift. The cause of that was unknown. So, I’ll try measurement with two ideas next week. One is to change design of device for measurement. The other is to change measurement range. I’ll take measurement in infrared range.

Question of the Week
How many undergraduate students in Rice University want to enter graduate school?

• This varies over time and there is no set statistic or report that shows directly answers this question for Rice students.  Some students enter Rice as freshman planning to go to graduate school but then change their mind and decide to apply for jobs in industry after graduation. Other students have no desire to go to graduate school at first, but over time change their mind and apply for graduate study right after they graduate from with their bachelor’s degree. Still others may work for a few years after graduation (or even decades) and go back to graduate school later.  Depending on the field there are also many part-time or evening graduate programs so some people work full-time and do graduate study at night. It is much more flexible than in Japan and since students may go to graduate school at any time and at any school throughout the U.S., their undergraduate university may not be able to easily track or get complete/good data on how many of their alumni get a graduate degree.  Oftentimes, individual departments, programs, or schools report on alumni achievements. Click here to read more on graduate study in the U.S.

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Week 03: Research in the U.S. vs. Research in Japan

There are three differences I found between a U.S. approach and a Japanese approach to academic research.

Firstly, people in the U.S. differ from Japanese in time management. There are many Asian people in Kono laboratory and they experiment till late at night and go to laboratory on a holiday. In Japan, we often find such tendency. On the other hand, people in America go to laboratory early and don’t experiment until late. Moreover, I rarely see them in the laboratory on a holiday. But they get good results. From the above, I think that Asian people tend to be immersed in research without being worried about the time, and people in the U.S. tend to take on the research seriously while enjoying their private time. What makes such difference?

Secondly, in the U.S., collaboration between laboratories is very active. Some equipment is shared and I met a researcher who is registered in two laboratories and advised by two different professors. Such cooperation isn’t taken very often in Japan. I think this flexible relationship between laboratories contributes to produce good results.

Thirdly, a key difference is undergraduate student’s posture for research. Undergraduate students in Rice University don’t necessarily belong to laboratory. But, if they want, they can belong to and start to do research from anytime, even freshman year. Undergraduates in laboratory take on their research very actively. In Japan, every senior student studying engineering must belong to lab. So, there are a few students who are insincere.

In conclusion, I think that the U.S. provides a more flexible education and research system than Japan. Therefore, the research environment in the U.S. satisfies the need of motivated researchers. By learning from this, Japan should make the most of good point of Japanese, which is concentration and focus on a single thing.

Research Project Update

In this week, I demonstrated infrared spectroscopy of mixture of carbon nanotubes.

At first, I took experiment without applied electric fields. Next, I improve design of device for experiment, and by using this device, I took spectroscopy of mixture of CNTs with applied electric fields. In this experiment, I used FTIR. This is infrared spectrometer. By using this, I can take spectroscopy in the range from near to far infrared.

As a result, I couldn’t find the absorption peak shift. Next week I will change CNT sample and try same experiment.

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Week 04: Final Week at Rice University

In this week, I continued to do the experiment of CNT. In detail, I changed CNT sample. It was CNT which have (6,5) chirality. CNT(6,5) is semiconducting. By using UV-VIS-NIR spectrometer, I took the spectroscopy of that CNT with applied electric fields(0~100V). As a result, however, I couldn’t find absorbance peak shift caused by these electric fields. I think that there were two causes. One is applied electric field was so weak. The other is nullifying the field effect by leak current between electrodes. I felt the difficulty of scientific research keenly. Moreover, I found that accumulation of try and error is prerequisite to good result.

Next, I took final presentation about this research activity on Friday. It was as much as I could do to talk and I couldn’t try presentation techniques such as body language well. So, I felt it is necessary for good presentation to memorize the script firstly and practice again and again.

In conclusion, I realized the difficulty of scientific research again through this internship at Rice University. But, at Rice, there are many PhD course students and international students and they were very eager in their studies. It encourages me to do research hard in graduate school. The research activity at Rice University motivated me greatly and was very good opportunity to think about research in Japan objectively.

 

Question of the Week
How do people in the U.S. learn to give good presentation?

• It’s different at each university, but at Rice University the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership offers Communication Support to both undergraduate and graduate students.  These are the same instructors and coaches that helped the TOMODACHI STEM students with practice sessions in preparation for their final research presentations too!

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Final Research Project Presentation

On Friday, March 18 all TOMODACHI STEM students gave a research project presentation at Rice University. To via a PDF of the student’s presentation click on the project title below.

Research Host at Rice
Prof. Junichiro Kono, Electrical & Computer Engineering

Research Project Title
Modulation of optical property of carbon nanotubes applying electric field (PDF)

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Week 06: Science & Technology Policy Study Tour in Washington, DC

The visit to the JSPS Washington DC office was most helpful for me. I learned about differences between Japan and the U.S. from this event. For example, although America is tolerant of failure, even a single failure is not excusable in Japan. And, the most impressive thing is that people who have PhD are active in many types of industries in the U.S. There are many stages in which people who have deep specialization can contribute to the society in the U.S. On the other hand, in Japan, a number of people who have PhD are researcher. I think Japan should improve this situation.

In the joint day with the other TOMODACHI Met Life Women’s Leadership program, I met many female Japaense students who are active internationally. Although their majors are not science and technology, they entered graduate school in the U.S. and work hard to achieve their dreams. They looked more powerful than man.

Question of the Week
How many Japanese people enter graduate school in the U.S.?

• Each year the Institute of International Education conducts the Open Doors Survey to report on international student enrollment in the U.S. and American students studying abroad.  MEXT also publishes a similar report on the numbers of Japanese students studying overseas.

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Final Report

Through this TOMODACHI STEM program, I learned a lot of things about science and technology in the U.S. Moreover, I felt that Japan has much more to learn from the U.S. These are detailed below.

Firstly, through my research activity in Kono laboratory, I felt some things. I took research about carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes were unknown for me before. So that research was very exciting for me. Although I couldn’t produce good results in such a short period of time, I learned the importance of try and error. Next, as I shared before, many students in the laboratory worked hard at research to get their Ph.D. The situation of graduate student in the U.S. is not only “student”, but also “employee” and salary, with exemption of tuition fees and so on are given to them. But because there is severe competition, they always take research with feeling of tension. Moreover, there are many international students in Kono laboratory and in particular, students from Asia researched much harder than other students. Excellent students take their Ph.D. under such a competitive environment and play active roles in not only the field of research but also other various fields. And they help with the development of science and technology overall of the U.S. Therefore, I recognized the necessity to increase the number of opportunities for people who have Ph.D. in Japan to take active roles. Moreover, undergraduate students surprised me too. In Rice University, undergraduate students don’t have to do research in laboratory and can belong to laboratory from anytime, even freshman year. So, undergraduate students who chose to work in the laboratory were highly motivated and researched very hard like Ph.D. course student. They stimulated me a lot and I think that the U.S. has mechanisms to help dedicated students.

Next, I was impressed by participants of this TOMODACHI STEM program. They are very friendly, very active, fluent in English and genuinely like science and technology . They are interested in research and graduate study in the U.S. There aren’t many students like them around me. So, they stimulated me a lot. Because it is said that Japanese students prefer stability, I think Japan should increase the number of aggressive students like them.

Thirdly, through sightseeing at science and technology-related facilities like museums and NASA, I felt one thing. Every facility exercises ingenuity to fascinate children. There were many attractions which enable us to experience science and technology. Such effort contributes to enhance children’s interest in that and they will hope to become a scientist or engineer. As a result, I think that this leads to development of science and technology of the U.S.

In conclusion, through this program, I could acquire an exciting research experience, communicate with many highly motivated students and know a lot of things about science and technology of the U.S. From now on, in graduate school in Japan, I want to improve my research ability and English skills more and more. Moreover, I became interested in the advancement of the business of science and technology in Japan. I felt that the U.S. has promoted science and technology very well. How did the U.S. learne how to develop? Although Japanese people are full of creativity and are good at manufacturing, I think Japan hasn’t made use of that potential in Japanese people to its greatest potential. Therefore, I feel the worth of solving these issues. Although I don’t know how I will interact with science and technology in the future, this program brought about new option to me.

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