[:en]2018 Yukari Sakano[:]

[:en]Yukari Sakano
Hometown in Japan: Kamakura
University in Japan: Waseda University
Major & School Year: Applied Mechanics & Aerospace Engineering, B2
Host Advisor: Prof. David Alexander, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy Host Lab: Rice Space Institute
Research Poster (PDF): “Exploring the cis‐lunar environment for space infrastructure development”

Why TOMODACHI STEM @ Rice University?

My future dream is to be active internationally in the field of space projects. Through this TOMODACHI STEM Program, I would like to participate in research internship at one of the laboratories in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. I believe this experience is essential for me to make my dream come true, for three reasons.

First, I can study at the cutting edge of space science. As Rice is the first university to establish a department of this field and has some research connections with NASA, this university has a great reputation in this field. Second, Iʼd really like to know more about the purpose of what Iʼm going to do. That is to say, Iʼm majoring in Applied Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering at my university in Japan, and learning means of some space prove project. This experience may provide me with knowledge of how data collected by spacecraft is used in actual research. Finally, I desire to acquire English culture and language at higher level. As the field of space science is spread all over the world, this is an absolute minimum skill. Iʼd like to communicate with many people and broaden my cultural value. I hope to enhance my English skill to the level I can discuss equally with native English speakers in academic settings.

Goals

  • Make maximum efforts in this opportunity to study the cutting edge of space science.
  • View the field of space project from an Astronomical viewpoint.
  • Communicate with many people and broaden my cultural value.
  • Enhance my scientific and academic English ability.

Excerpts from Yukari’s Weekly Reports

Week 01: Arrival in the U.S.

“Beautiful”-this is my first impression of Houston. I was surprised that Houston has so many faces that I’ve never thought. In a residential area, there are many kinds of beautiful houses surrounded by a lot of green. On the other hand, in the Texas Medical Center, where so many skyscrapers are stacked, includes beautiful and highly designed buildings that change colors at night or have a unique structure I’ve never seen. However, the most beautiful thing I found in this city of Houston was Rice University. Designed based on red brick buildings and green nature that contrasts with and emphasizes the blueness of spring sky. All of them are completely beautiful and I wish I could study here forever!

In contrast to the beauty of this city, there are many times I felt stressed this week in English conversations. When I had to communicate with native English speakers, such as at the welcome reception, I often found myself acting so passively and concentrating on listening to their talking. So, I decided to be conscious of becoming more positive to speak up myself as the first step. After doing that, I’m feeling that my opportunities to have conversations are increasing. I’m looking forward to making more friends, now.

Meeting NASA Astronaut Leland Melvin ~ Yukari Sakano

After arriving Houston, there were many seminars; some that were required and some that were optional. For example, the required intercultural seminar was what I’m felt has been most useful for this stay. This seminar focused on American and Japanese core values and I think it reduced my culture shock and gave me some criteria to evaluate my experiences by. I also went to a Rice Space Institute seminar, ”Living the Uncommon Life”. This was a seminar by NASA Astronaut Mr. Leland Melvin and his discussion of his career was so interesting. At the end of this seminar, I had a chance to talk with him in person. I shared with him that my dream is to become a space engineer and he gave me some words of encouragement. I was so happy and also so motivated.

This weekend, I went roller skate with all participants on Saturday at Discovery Green Park and went to NASA on Sunday. Both of them were so fun, but visiting NASA was especially interesting for me. At first, I was on a bus tour. I was so excited because I could see an operation room, mock-up space modules, and rocket engines. Then I looked around exhibits. As Mars and Lunar exploration are parts of my theme, I was so motivated to do research and also to study hard to make my dreams come true.

Initial Reflections on U.S. vs. Japanese Culture
In the beginning, reflecting on the intercultural seminar, I felt I’ve already encountered some situations that were influenced from U.S. core values. For example, three days after arrival, I visited my lab for the first time in order to discuss the theme of my paper with my professor. Then, when I asked about what I would do in the next few weeks, my professor said, ‘It is up to you. This is your paper.’ I thought this reflected the U.S. core value of “self-reliance” or “control”;  things I learned about during a seminar on U.S. values. This fact motivated me to complete my paper perfectly. After that, in addition, my professor let me communicate with other professors working in the same building. Every time I greeted these professors, I was happy and so surprised that they were so friendly and helpful to a new undergraduate student. Of course, it is partially because of politeness, but “equality” or “Speaking up” are also partially reasons for this. If I were more of a professional newcomer, these conversations could be an important opportunity to form new relationships and connections with others in my research field.

Based on these experience, I thought that the U.S. approach could be more ideal to produce results in many diverse research fields. The former values lead to Americans being highly motivation and the latter help Americans form relationships with new people in their fields. Not only that, some values I didn’t mention are also effective. “Capitalism” may help as it is a shared goal and “Law and order” let us to reduce wastes of time by unnecessary thinking. Also, the values of “Speed/Efficiency” can also be reflected in the examples I gave because you can easily form new relationships quickly in the U.S.

On the other hand, most of Japanese values seem more inefficient than that of the U.S. Especially “Kata” or “Ba” or “Wa” is Japanese original concept, which is difficult to translate in English. But, of course this is not always bad things. For instance, when it comes to cooperation or interaction, these values will work a positive to foster shared understanding. So, it seems to be dependent on the way of applying them to different situations.  For these reasons, I think what is most important is be careful about maintaining a balance and being flexible when I am encountering new people and situations. Of course, my conclusion may be influenced by Japanese value of “Ba”…

Preparing for Research in the U.S.
My host lab and research theme were decided in December. Briefly explaining, my theme is “cis-lunar infrastructure” and this is a concept of building an activity base at lunar vicinity and making it a foothold for further deep space exploration. This month, president Trump declared a policy initiative to return humans to the Moon, followed by missions to Mars and beyond. So, this theme has been gathering interest from many countries. Based on these situations, I started to read articles and papers to understand the overall concepts. After that, I studied to understand individual keywords provided by my professor by using books or some workshops conducted by JAXA.

On my first day in the lab at the Rice Space Institute I met with Prof. David Alexander and I talked with him about how to proceed with my research. As my purpose is to write a paper about it, I learned a lot of things about how to write a paper. As my project member is only professor and me, my mentor is the professor. I would like to make the most of this chance by asking efficient question in a positive manner.

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Week 02: First Week at Research Host Lab

Usually, I wake up at 8:00 every day and arrive my lab at about 9:00. I’m always at the university for 9-10 hours each day. I have a meeting with my professor for about an every other day at 1:00PM. On the days I have a meeting with my professor, I spend the morning preparing for the meeting. As time passes, I feel conversational ability is gradually improving but an academic conversation with my professor is still very difficult. Coping with this difficulty, I found it is so meaningful to use some graphical images or structural tables in order to show what I’m going to say. Therefore, I organize what I did/want to do next and make these visual aids in the morning. During the meeting, my professor always gives me such important advice about the points I am discussing. So, I’m desperate not to miss anything that he says. Soon after that, I make a plan for what to do during the next meeting. I spend most of my other time executing this plan. Through my experience doing research so far, I feel this process of “making a plan” is such an important step for doing research.

The back entrance of Fondren Library ~ Yukari Sakano

As I mentioned in my first week’s report, my professor told me that this research was up to me. This means I have to manage everything, such as the quality and quantity, of this paper. For this situation, I am keenly aware of the importance of planning and looking ahead. Finally, I’m going to write a paper about “cis-lunar infrastructure”. (I’ll explain about this concretely in the next section.) In order to complete this, my main work is reading papers or articles about this field and writing the paper. That is to say, I spend most of my time at my desk in the lab. When I feel it is hard to concentrate on all day long, I sometimes walk to the Fondren Library and work there. There are many desktop PCs with large screens and the temperature is usually a bit warmer, so the library is my favorite place at Rice University.

Dinosaur fossils at the HMNS ~ Yukari Sakano

This weekend, we went the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It housed many kinds of things, for example, replicas of wildlife in Houston, gemstones, and jewels, but I was so impressed by two things: the fossils of ancient creatures and a planetarium. The former begins in Cambrian and end with the evolution of human beings. The evolution is expressed so systematically and all of the fossils are so dynamic that I forget the time while I was looking around. On the other hand, the planetarium was so interesting. The title was “Dark Universe” and focused on dark matter and dark energy in the space. This theme included the expansion of the universe and redshift, which relate to my research theme. Beautiful and dynamic images further drove my interest in the universe. Along with NASA, which we went to last week, I felt so motivated by these outings to do my research.

Nearby Museum District Metrorail Station, there are a lot of other museums. I would like to know more about the background of construction of the museums in the Museum District.

Research Project Update
My project theme is to research “cis-lunar” infrastructure. This is the concept of building an activity base at lunar vicinity and making it a foothold for further deep space exploration. I’m going to write a paper about the latest state of thinking on creating a vision for cis-lunar development.

At our first meeting, my professor showed me the three steps to complete this project. They are an outline, detail, and writing. In the outline, based on knowledge from papers, I defined what I’d like to highlight through this paper. At the same time, I decided an overall logical structure. Then in the “detail” part, we think about knowledge of which fields should be enhanced and develop a more detailed structure of each section. And finally writing is just writing.

When we discuss this paper, sometimes I think in a too large a frame or too narrow a view. At such times, my professor often corrects my way of thinking. Not only that, he always advises me to add a flavor of opinion from my original viewpoint as a Japanese female engineer. My research is not including any experiment or data analysis. So, if I write without any clear vision of my own opinion, the paper should be just a summary of other papers. So, I’m feeling this viewpoint is an essential part of my research.

In my first week, we confirmed my overall structure and outline, and completed almost all detail. So, I’ll spend all the rest of my time writing. As this is my first time to write a paper, even in Japanese, I’m struggling with everything included in this research. However, as this theme is so interesting and my professor gives me great advice, I’m so enjoying this process. I’ll study hard to complete and make my paper as good as possible.

I have no particular question for the research, but I felt difficulty in using words for writing a paper. For example, it is said that using “as” or “so” for indicate reason should be avoided. “As” I often use them in conversation or these usual writing, I desperately choosing the words.

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Week 03: Interview With a Female Researchers

This week, I spent most of time in my lab or the library. So, I couldn’t participate in any particular big events. Instead, I would like to write about small fun I found in my daily life in Houston.

Visiting the Rice Farmer’s Market ~ Yukari Sakano

On Tuesday, I went to Rice University Farmer’s Market that is held in the parking lot near the Rice football stadium. At the market, I could find fresh pecan nuts, which I was looking for all time after I arrive Houston. I knew, these nuts are not only delicious but also have high nutritional value. So I bought them as soon as I found them. When I bought them, I had a little conversation with the farmer who sold nuts to me, and it turned out that he has been in Japan to enjoy skiing at Niigata. I was happy to find something in common with him. I learned these little conversations are one aspect of the culture in America, dyrubg tge first week, and I think this is such a beautiful cultural aspect. This was just a conversation for a few minutes, but this is a kind of special thing for me.

Shopping in Rice Village ~ Yukari Sakano

Then, on Saturday, I want to the Rice Village shopping area for the first time. As I arrived just at 17:00 (5:00 PM), and most of the shops close by 18:00 (6:00 PM), I didn’t have much time to look around. However, I could see various types of stores and the famous chocolate shop. As there were so many cute and fashionable shops, I found it so difficult to decide what to buy as souvenirs. Moreover, the chocolate ice cream I ate at the chocolate shop was also delicious.

St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Houston ~ Yukari Sakano

Finally, I went to St. Paul’s United Methodist Church and participated in a worship on Sunday morning. As my junior and high school was Protestant, I felt a bit nostalgic when I sang hymns or listened to the pastor speaking. Not only that, the stained glass and architecture was so beautiful, so I could take a lot of photographs.

Although I couldn’t visit many famous facility in this week, I think can find many hidden beauties in this Houston city, this week.

Research Project Update 
This week, I was coping with my paper all day. My work is roughly divided into two parts, collecting information and writing a paper. In order to discuss my theme, ‘cis-lunar infrastructure’, I have to know many facts or news in many fields; not only science or technology, but also law, politics or human sciences. Collecting information is sometimes very tough as I have to learn about the fields which are not in my field of study. However, I think this is the most interesting aspect of this theme and what I’d like to emphasize at my presentation, or paper. If we hear the term “Space development”, what we often associate with it is something in the field of technology, such as rockets or the space station, and so on. But, through this research, I became more aware that the variety of fields working in the area of space development are much more diverse that I had imagined before.

From next week, I’ll start to prepare for my presentation. As there is enormous information related to this theme, it will be hard to construct a logical consistent and succinct poster. I’ll do my best to make an attractive presentation.

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Week 04: Research in the U.S. vs. Research in Japan

Actually, my lab has no fixed rules as the members of my project are only myself and my professor. Moreover, as I mentioned in my first week’s report, my professor said to me that my project was really up to me. So, I proceeded with my work basically on my own thoughts, and if I have a question, I asked my professor via email or set-up a meeting with him. During these times, my professor answered my questions so kindly and I was always supported by these answers.

My research was not something like conducting an experiment or correcting some data, which I will do in Japan in my future. So, I can’t compare research in Japan and that in the U.S. However, I think the fact that I always have to keep staying in a general viewpoint and not be too specific in order never to lose my position in overall big picture of my paper is a special aspect of my research.

From Monday of the last week, I started to prepare my poster presentation. My first impression was that the work was so difficult as I have so many things I wanted to include. Not only that, even after I struggled with making the explanation concise, I found a gap between the usual summary and preparing a summary for presentation as I practiced it. Finally, during the actual poster presentation, I also found there was a gap between what I’d like to say and what the audience would like to know. These gaps were tough things, but they also must be very effective hints of things I should do to prepare for my next presentation in other situations.

With Prof. David Alexander ~ Yukari Sakano

After I finished the preparation for my presentation, my professor and I discussed how to complete the paper and confirmed my schedule for working on this after I return to Japan. I also go to attend a special talk hosted by the Rice Space Institute on nutrition in space, with my professor that evening after the poster presentation. He gave me a paper cutter and a pen as souvenirs and said, “You are already a student of Rice University”. I was so happy and impressed so much.

I’m will miss Rice University so much, especially working with Prof. David Alexander. I would like to thank him and will continue to work hard on the paper.

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Final Research Poster Presentation

Host Advisor: Prof. David Alexander, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy Host Lab: Rice Space Institute
Research Poster (PDF): “Exploring the cis‐lunar environment for space infrastructure development”

Yukari Sakano at the Final Poster Poster Presentation.

My final research title was “Exploring the cis-lunar environment for space infrastructure development”. My host lab was the Rice Space Institute, and host professor and my mentor was Dr. David Alexander.

My topic was to summarize the overview and potential impacts of projects of cis-lunar infrastructure, a space-based gateway in the vicinity of the Moon. In order to do that, I correct a lot of information from articles, papers and other writings. Then I decided a structure, and start to write the main body. In conclusion, I emphasized the importance of “government-private company-education relationship”, “cross field relationship” and “international relationship”.

Throughout this experience, I can acquire so broad view to oversee the space industry and realize concretely what kind of technology, knowledge or landscape will be require to participate in this industry in the future. Based on these view, I’ll study hard in my department of mechanics and aviation, after I go back to Japan.

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Week 05: Science & Technology Policy Study Tour

This week, we visited Lehigh University and Washington D.C. At Lehigh University, we had many kinds of lectures, and I was most impressed by a workshop on positive psychology. Before this lecture, we took the StrengthsFinder Assessment which showed us our 5 strongest features. Through the workshop, and from my StrengthsFinder results, I was able to think more deeply not only about how to make use of my strengths but also how to cope with others who have different strengths. In addition to that, I got to know with a senior (B4) female undergraduate student at Lehigh who is about to enter graduate school in the U.K. I was encouraged by realizing there are other female students who are going to experiences challenge by studying abroad similar to the things we experiences in the U.S., even though our home countries are different.

In Washington, DC, we visited many offices, such as the U.S-Japan Council (USJC), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), and JAXA. Among these offices, I was most interested in the visit to JAXA. As my future dream is to engage in the space industry as a Japanese engineer, everything we learned there was so important for me. Not only that, some parts of the lecture overlapped with my project at the Rice University, so I was so interested. As there was only two afternoons for free time in DC, I took advantage of this time to visit the Air and Space Museum twice. All of exhibitions were so awesome and I think I will never forget seeing Voyager and Curiosity, especially.

Through all of these experiences, I think this was a very good opportunity to think about my future. Although I’m still not sure whether I will go to a Japanese or American graduate school, through this program I was able to catch a lot of useful information to help me this decision in the future. For example, I felt environment of American universities is more friendly but they are more competitive than Japan. After I come back to Japan, I’ll gather more information about Japanese graduate school, and then be better able to decide the best way to make my dream come true.

Finally, I’d like to mention about my personal feelings about staying in the U.S. as a Japanese student . As I really like Japanese food and don’t like eating greasy thing, food was the biggest difficulty I felt. So, the first thing I felt after arriving back home to Japan was how much I appreciated the really good taste of Japanese food. For these reasons, if I have chances to stay a long time in U.S. in the future, I have to find a way to get basic Japanese ingredients and cook on my own. On the other hand, most things except food was so comfortable for me and I have a strong desire to visit this country again.

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Final Report

When speaking to a family member, what would you say were the most important things you learned from the TOMODACHI STEM program?

Through the TOMODACHI STEM Program, I was able to build so many important relationships with mentors. First of all, my host professor, David Alexander, knows a lot about the space industry and gave me not only many resources to learn about this research field but also a new kind of viewpoint to see this industry. These things will be so valuable in order to think about my future, and I’d really like to keep in touch with him after this. In addition to that, meeting with other nine participants was also an important experience for me. All of these were such good students, both of STEM and English, and being with these students encouraged me to want to continue to learn.  Since many of them are older than me, it also gave me an insight into things I will have to think about in the future and what steps I can take now to prepare. Moreover, beginning with the program organizers, I was able to gain a lot of connections with those who are active in academia in the U.S. This experience has given me a lot to think about in regards to my future career and international opportunities.

When speaking to a professor, what would you say were the most important things you learned from the TOMODACHI STEM program? How might this experience make you a better graduate student in the future?

I thought, as one of my purposes of this program, I’d like to learn more about the commercial and educational status of the U.S. space industry. Through this program, I was not only able to achieve this purpose, but I also broadened my horizons around the world. I had only considered the space industry from the perspective of Japan and field of engineering, however, now I realize that this has great value in each scientific field and it is important to consider issues within the space industry from the perspective of non-engineering fields too, such as politics, economics and law.

In addition to increasing my general knowledge of the field, I now know I have to increase my specialization become more active in this research field in the future. For these reasons, I’m really eager to study hard in the field of engineering,

When speaking to a future employer, what would you say were the most important things you learned from the TOMODACHI STEM program? How might this experience make you a better employee in the future?

Before I face to this situation, I’m going to increase my specialty, as I mention in the former part. And, to summarize the experience in this program, I think I can say that I greatly increased my general understanding of the industry. So, I’d like to emphasize that I have both general knowledge and specialization in research to a potential employer. That is to say, I can make a decision under many kinds of viewpoints, responding to the context of each situation.

When speaking to a student at your university, what would you say were the most important things you learned from the TOMODACHI STEM program? Why should other undergraduate STEM students in Japan apply for this program?

In many departments of Waseda University, students are only able to be assigned to a research lab at the beginning of senior year; this might be too late for highly motivated students. If we just passively stay in Japan, we can’t know how to make use of what we are learning, to increase the number of future options, or compete with those who at the top level in the same field around the world. The TOMODACHI STEM program helped us experience these things first-hand and provided us with a strong and and enduring motivation.

What is one final question that you still have about the U.S. or research in the U.S.?

Why is the system of undergraduate participation in research so good in the U.S., where students can start to do research even in high school or their freshman (B1) year? And why is this not the case in Japan?

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Tips for Future Participants

Pre Departure Tips
It is so efficient to get to be used to manner of writing both email and academic documents. These are different from usual conversation in aspects of permitted vocabulary or often used expression. These knowledges make every of work to be done smoothly and prevent us from wasting times.

Working with your Research Lab Tips
Asking about the scale of the project is important. My project consisted of only me and my professor, and I did basically designed my own project based on discussions and meetings with my professor every couple of days.

As a result, I can acquire an ability of project management and be in close touch with my professor in person. However, at first, I was a little worries as some of other participants had a graduate student mentor, or many other people to consult with. Every situation has its own possibility to make us grow up. So if we can know what situation we will be exposed to, we can make a strategy of how to make the most of the chance.

 Living in Houston and Rice University
As there is a lot of green, it is very comfortable to walk inside/around the campus. So, those who like exercising should bring some sports wears for running. This is very easy way to stay refreshed during this program. On the other hand, the weather is so unstable. It is highly recommended to bring clothes for all seasons, including a rainy season.

Language Study Tips
If we divide language studying into reading, writing, speaking, and listening, what the most expected to be increase through studying abroad is probably listening. Actually, I’m strongly felt that my speaking skills improved a lot. However, I think, this improvement comes from learning to not be so hesitant to speak in English. That is to say, I realized that I can never speak more sophisticated English than I can write. So, those who have only studied English as a subject under Japanese education, as me, should practice writing in English a lot with plentiful and sophisticated English expressions. This can also help increasing your speaking ability.

What to eat in the U.S.?
Texas food is always so greasy. And all American breakfast includes no vegetables. So, those who suffer from digestive trouble, must bring medicines for it and be careful what to eat.

  • Yes, breakfasts in the U.S. do not have vegetables typically.  Instead, you are more likely to find fruit, such as bananas, apples or cut up melons, than vegetables. Many Americans who want to stay healthy also eat yogurt and granola or oatmeal for breakfast as rice is not served as a breakfast food. However, since the hotel rooms during the research internship at Rice University all have kitchens, students can prepare what they prefer for breakfast each day such as rice and vegetables. For more, see our Food in the U.S. page.

What gifts to buy in the U.S. to bring back to Japan?
NASA goods!!!!

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