[:en]Mariko Mizogami
Hometown in Japan: Tokyo
University in Japan: Waseda University
Major & School Year: Industrial & Management Systems Engineering, B3: Junior
Host Advisor: Prof. Devika Subramanian, Dept. of Computer Science
Host Lab: Subramanian Group

Research Poster (PDF): “Delineating Pediatric Type 1 Diabetes Cohorts with Machine Learning” 1st Place: “Best Poster Presentation Award” 

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Why TOMODACHI STEM @ Rice University?
As a student who is interested in the field of Data Science and wants to work internationally as a data scientist in the future, I am really looking forward to participating in the TOMODACHI STEM @Rice University program with the following two reasons. To begin with, I would like to acquire fundamental data analysis skills by participating in a cutting-edge research experience at Rice University. When I studied abroad at the University of California, Berkeley last year, I took several Data Science courses and found myself amazed by this rapidly growing field. This experience made me aim to be a data scientist in the future; however, at the same time, I realized that the field of Data Science is still developing in Japan. As Rice University provides us with an excellent education, it would be a perfect opportunity for me to learn more about data science by conducting research there.

Second, I strongly believe that the community that the TOMODACHI STEM @ Rice University program offers me, where I can work alongside other female STEM students who are also highly motivated to pursue their academic interest in an international environment, would be very valuable to me. In my department, we have only 26 women among 130 students, and I was the only one in the department who studied abroad last year. As a female STEM major, I have realized that there are very few people who share a similar vision with me, to lead the world by taking an active role in a scientific field. As the TOMODACHI STEM @ Rice University program consists of women in scientific fields who are willing to become globally-competent scientists in the future, being a part of this community will encourage me to blaze a new trail in my field for women.

Goals

• Gain knowledge about Data Science through experiencing cutting-edge research, and get a clearer idea of what I want to learn in graduate school
• Take all the opportunities I have, and learn/experience as much as possible by getting out of my comfort zone
• Acquire professional English skills
• Experience the unique culture at Rice University

TOMODACHI STEM: Post-Program

• My favorite experience in the U.S. was… everyday life at Rice University. I loved to work at the coffee house and the library!
• While I was in the U.S. …. I wish I had more time to explore Houston, especially food places.

Excerpts from Mariko’s Weekly Reports

• Week 01: Arrival in the U.S.
• Week 02: First Week at Research Host Lab
• Week 03: Interview With a Female Researcher
• Week 04: Research in the U.S. vs. Research in Japan
• Final Research Poster Presentation
• Week 05: Science & Technology Policy Study Tour
• Final Report
• Tips for Future Participants

Week 01: Arrival in the U.S.

On February 16^th, I arrived in Houston, Texas with the other nine members of the 2019 TOMODACHI-STEM @Rice University Program. Looking outside from our bus on our way to the hotel, I was surprised how all the streets were empty. As I used to live in Berkeley near San Francisco, CA, I was expecting that Houston would be something similar to SF; however, it was not. I felt that everything is more spread out in Houston, and people do not walk outside as they always use cars. This made me realize that since the U.S. is such a huge country, each city has its own culture and sometimes those cultures are greatly different from others. Considering the situation, now I think it is reasonable that the U.S. has its unique law system, having both federal law and state laws. Not only the cities but universities differ a lot, too. At the University of California, Berkeley, where I used to study abroad, there were always a lot of students walking around the campus, whereas here at Rice I do not see them that much. In addition, while Rice and its surroundings are pretty calm and safe, Berkeley was always more crowded with protests and students’ activities. Here, again, I have learned that even though those two schools are in the U.S., their school cultures are very different from each other. (Keep in mind that the total student population at UC Berkeley is 41,910 compared to just 6,740 at Rice!)

After our arrival, we had some chances to take special orientation sessions through this program. Although all of these seminars were very helpful to understand more about the environment we have here the “Introduction to Research @Rice and Graduate Study in the U.S.” seminar by Prof. Kono was especially interesting to me. Through this lecture, I got to know more about graduate schools in the U.S., and now I am more willing to pursue my master’s degree here. Also, through the intercultural seminar by Sarah and interactions with other TOMODACHI students, I found that I am genuinely more open to changes and new cultures.

Among several optional campus events I attended this week, I would like to highlight the special talk about “Grounding NLP” by Dr. Yonatan Bisk from University of Washington. It was an event held on campus, and I decided to go there when my mentor, Justin, kindly informed me about the event 15 minutes before it started when I was working at my office. Although at first I felt a little nervous about attending this event, as I did not know anything about the topic, all my anxiety vanished immediately once the lecturer started to talk. With the clear structure and his well-organized explanations using figures and movies, the lecturer presented his research in a way that even I, the one who was completely ignorant about the topic, could easily understand. From this lecture, I learned not only about the cutting-edge research on natural language processing (NLP) but also how to present a difficult research story in an easy way, and I am so glad that I had a chance to have this experience.

On Saturday, with other TOMODACHI students, I went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. If I would be honest, I do not realy love to explore museums, however, with VERY detailed explanations from Kyoko (who is also known as the #1 museum enthusiast from Japan), it was really interesting to look around the exhibitions. I hope there will be more chances to visit museums while I am here in the States.

Initial Reflections on Intercultural Experiences in the U.S. 
In the Intercultural Seminar, we have learned some basics about cultures in the U.S. and Japan, then tried to see the differences and similarities between them. According to the seminar, culture is a complex set of shared values, beliefs, and behaviors, and it is sometimes influenced by the environment, too. The seminar was really interesting to me since it enabled me to externalize my abstract thoughts on culture by discussing with others. In this report, I would like to focus on each one of the core values from the U.S. and Japan, and how I have experienced those values in my first week in Houston.

Among the six U.S. core values that we have learned in the class, “self-reliance” was the one that I have encountered on several occasions. Self-reliance expresses the idea that Americans tend to think success should be based on one’s own performance, not on other factors such as school affiliation and family environment. When I was talking with one of my friends, he told me about how people make effort in order to “succeed” in the highly competitive U.S. society. “You will probably see a lot of students who work really hard every day, but it is not the same everywhere. Being at Rice means they have already been through some competition and know that having a successful future would not come without making effort by themselves.” This comments clearly shows that in the U.S., people think that what they receive always comes from what they have done. At the same time, discussing about the various cultures at American universities with him reminded me how competitive American society is compared to Japanese society.

While individualism is strong in the U.S., “harmonize” is what Japanese value a lot. Even though I have lived in the U.S. for a year before, I still have situations when my “Japaneseness” shows up and I try to harmonize with others. Sometimes I have agreed with others when I was actually not sure about that, just because I unconsciously tried not make anyone feel bad because of disagreements. In such situations, I felt that my Japaneseness exists deep inside my heart and sometimes it is hard to adjust to the new cultures.

Question of the Week
How do students prepare for their grad school applications while taking classes and dealing with tons of assignments?

• Excellent question to ask your mentor or any of the undergraduate students you meet at Rice! You can also refer to the Professional Development: Graduate School Resources section for more on applying to graduate school in the U.S.

Preparing for Research in the U.S. & First Few Days in the Lab 

Since I did not get any instructions about my research project when I was in Japan, all I did as pre-departure preparation was to check the website of my host, Prof. Subramanian. Therefore, I had a mixed feeling of excitement and nervousness to meet Prof. Subramanian and my mentor at the Welcome Lunch. Once I started to talk to them, I found out that they both are really friendly and have a strong passion for their research projects. Also, they have deep knowledge not only on Data Science but also on a variety of other fields. For example, when they explained to me about the project at Prof. Subramanian’s office, the professor started to talk about how ants put the oldest ones on the front when they have fights. Then, my mentor started to talk about how two kinds of ants fight against each other to expand their domains. I was overwhelmed that even though they are not experts on ants (as far as I know), they still have a lot of knowledge on it and were able to have a discussion there. From this experience, I realized that having a variety of knowledge like them can enrich my life by giving me more opportunities to talk about and deepen my basic understanding of the world.

As a research project, we are trying to create a model which can predict whether a type1 diabetes patient who is diagnosed as a Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) is likely to have DKA again. This project requires deep understandings on python alongside basic knowledge on DKA, diabetes, Github, and bash. Since DKA is a life-threatening complication, it is very meaningful to develop the model which can help doctors to better diagnose and prepare for the possible risks. I still need to learn a lot in order to work on the project but since the project is interesting and my mentor is always supportive, I would love to work hard on it. Although a month is extremely short time for conducting research, I hope to improve my research skills and be able to explain what I do in this project including the background information and methods through this experience.

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Week 02: First Week at Research Host Lab

Writing this report makes me think of the weird fact that it only has been two weeks since we came to Houston. However, at the same time, we only have two weeks left here. Although I am not fond of writing papers in English, writing this report is actually a good opportunity for me to remind myself that my time here is limited, and I need to make the most of it.

While my first week was more about adapting to life here with the help from others, this week I had more opportunities to explore everything by myself. In terms of my research, unlike most of the other TOMODACHI students, my lab does not have any set, core time when all lab members are expected to be at work. In addition, since I am doing Data Science and all I need for research is my laptop, I do not need to work at my office. I appreciate that I have it but, unfortunately, it is too cold there. However, since I am very good at procrastinating, I decided to make it a routine to arrive at campus around 9:30 am and work either at a café or Fondren Library. I usually email my mentor when I start working and at the end of the day, in order to keep him updated about my research progress and arrange meetings when needed. This week, I decided to take more advantage of this flexible schedule and participated in some extra activities such as a poster session and the Machine Learning course taught by my host, Prof. Subramanian. Attending these events enabled me to experience students’ life and meet new people, and most importantly learn more about Computer Science.

One thing I have learned this week and want to highlight is that, it may be easier to become closer to someone who is not as old as oneself in the U.S. than in Japan. Among the several reasons which make this difference, I think the existence of the polite form in Japanese (keigo) plays an important role. In Japanese, we have a polite form which is used when people talk to someone older than them or someone in a higher position. This form is used not only between students and professors or an employee and CEO, but also between students whose age difference is only one year. In general, it is hard for people to be completely open and relaxed towards someone when they use the polite form. As a result, it becomes harder for them to form close relationships with those who are not as old as them. In stark contrast, since the polite form is not used among students in English, students do not need to feel there are walls between them and older students. As we always learn a lot from someone older than us, not only from someone in our parents’ age but also from people just a few years older, I think English is more useful to build closer relationships with others and enrich one’s life.

This weekend I also attended several activities including the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra, shopping at the Houston Premium Outlets, and a tour at NASA. The Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra was especially impressive to me because in most Japanese universities we do not have a music school so we have to buy tickets and travel a long way to enjoy a symphony concert. In contrast, because they have such a great music school here at Rice, people including both students and neighbors have easier access to good music. When people talk about diversity, they tend to focus more on one’s ethnicity and gender; however, I believe that diversity in terms of one’s major and talents is also important for the environment to cultivate people’s characters.

Research Project Update
The ultimate goal of our research project is to create a model which can predict whether a typeⅠ diabetes patient who is diagnosed as a Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) is likely to have DKA again in the future. For now, we are looking at Linear Regression, Random Forest, and Gradient Boosting as models, using a variety of datasets from Texas Children’s Hospital such as demographic data and the test results of patients. There is no special equipment required for this project; however, a deep understanding of python and background knowledge about DKA and type 1 diabetes are needed. My major work will be trying to create models using different features to improve accuracy. Since my major is not Computer Science back home, I needed to do the following things as a preparation for the project. First, I searched about diabetes, DKA, and several tests used for diagnosis. Then, I needed to learn how to use bash, GitHub, and sklearn (especially the model types we use in the project) in order to understand how I am going to work with them. In addition, as the project is a continuing project, I tried to figure out what other researchers did for the project, and what has not been done yet. I will probably start creating models this week and I am really excited about that.

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Week 03: Interview With Female Researchers

As this week is the anniversary of March 11th in Japan, I would like to start this essay by talking about the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. It already has been eight years since the tragedy occurred, but the quake and all the news about the disaster of the tsunami are still vivid in my memory. When I had dinner with my roommates, Natsumi and Mana, we had a chance to talk about our experiences on that day. Whereas Mana and I were in Tokyo at the time, Natsuki was in Ibaraki and had a very different experience from us. She told us about how she did not have access to electricity and water for a week after the earthquake, and her experience of having very little for school meals for a while. This conversation made me realize that, even though Japan is a small country compared to the U.S., we still have a lot of differences inside of our country. Then, I started to think about other types of natural disasters in the world. I heard that instead of earthquakes, there are hurricanes and floods in Texas. Also, in California where I used to live, they had a serious problem of wildfires. In Shanghai, another city that I used to live, air pollution has been a big problem for a long time. Thinking about all these problems made me realize how I usually see the world through my own “lens” shaped by personal experiences and interests. Even though I knew about disasters in other countries, it somehow sounded less important to me when they were on news, since I was unconsciously paying more attention to natural disasters in Japan. Realizing this, now I feel that I should be more careful about what I see, as it may be only a fractional part of what it really is.

Interviews with Female Researchers 
As a part of this program, I interviewed a female STEM major student and professor. The first person I interviewed is a Chinese postdoctoral researcher who is majoring in biology and who wants to work either in industry or academia in the future. Another person I interviewed was a professor of Practice, Computer Science, and Engineering at Lehigh University. Her major was sociology when she first earned her bachelor’s degree, but she changed her path to her current career after due to a positive experience with her math teacher. Interviewing them was such an exciting opportunity to learn more about schools in the States and consider my own career.

I would like to highlight two topics in this report from the interviews. When I asked about their international experiences, the postdoc told me that she did not feel any difference between her current lab and her old lab, which was consisted of only Chinese students. In her current lab, she and her lab mates work together, hang out together, respect each other, and learn from each other; just like she used to do with her old lab mates in China. Also, the professor told me that there are a lot of international students and professors at Lehigh University. In addition, when asked about their experiences as women in STEM, they both told me that there are no big differences between women and others. What I found interesting was that, while the postdoc said there should be no discrimination against females in STEM from a positive aspect, the professor told me that women should make the same amount of effort as others do; being a woman in STEM does not mean that one is special so that she can benefit more that others.

When I heard that, I realized that I unconsciously tend to expect to get some benefits for being a “rare” individual in my field when, at the same time, I want to be treated equally as others around me. In other words, I wanted women in STEM to have no disadvantages because of their gender, but also expected them to have more opportunities than people around them because of their rareness. After these interviews, I now understand that equality among all genders means that no matter what people’s gender is, they receive the same rights and opportunities.  Also, when you want a certain condition, you cannot expect to be treated special as a minority and have more advantages because that can be an unequal playing field for others. Although it is hard to achieve a completely equal society because of this trade off, I am grateful that the interviews made me realize this simple fact. There is no easier way to be successful as a female in STEM without making considerable efforts, just like others do.

Other Activities in Houston this Week

Outside of research, this week I went to Chinatown, a movie, and Rodeo Houston. I was really excited to watch Camila Cabello’s performance at the Rodeo as she sounded AMAZING. Also, other the events at rodeo related to cowboy culture were very interesting to me as I had never them before. I am so glad to have such a great opportunity to experience tTexan culture, and hope there will be more chances this week, too.

Research Project Update
This week, I started to build a classifier using demographic data and some specific test results. It was sometimes hard for me as there were some codes I was not familiar with. In these situations, I searched Google and tried to figure out what was going on there, then asked questions to my mentor when I still could not understand it. Through this process, I learned that balancing self-learning and learning from experts is important for this kind of project. The process of asking questions of myself is another thing I have learned this week. When my mentor gave me instructions about the project, he explained to me some core ideas then let me explore whatever I wanted. He told me that it is essential for data science research to keep questioning the results that you get, and always consider if these results make sense. That process was something I had never done before, but when I did it I found it very interesting. This week I will probably work on more complex problems and it may be hard for me; however, I will do my best and try to enjoy the research work.

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

In terms of the cultural difference between my lab in Japan and here in the U.S., I realized that things are more flexible here. For example, whereas I used to have a weekly study seminar at my lab and saw my professor and all the lab members each week there in Japan, now I arrange meetings with my mentor and professor when needed. I think the different systems of lectures is part of the reason for this difference. In Japan, or at least at my university, we have “periods” which are 90 minutes long and start from the same, set time every day. For example, the first period always starts from 9:00 am and the second period starts from 10:40 am. Because we have such a standardized class schedule, it is not too hard to arrange a group meeting with many people. In stark contrast, in the U.S. the class schedule varies greatly, and it probably makes it harder to have a large meeting at a lab.

I truly enjoyed the past four weeks of research life at Rice. Perhaps a bit too much, as now I have a feeling of loss after leaving Houston. Among several things I will miss in Houston, the Rice campus is what I will miss the most – not just because it was pretty but also because it was a perfect environment to focus on my studies.

Final Poster Session at Rice University 

Since our last week was mostly focused on preparing for the final poster presentation, I spent a lot of time at the campus. Through the preparation for the poster presentation, I found that the better I understood the problem, the more interesting it became. Indeed, the last few days of my research was the most exciting as I was able to dig deeper into each result and discuss it with my mentor. Also, meetings with my professor and mentor gave me a clearer idea of how to present my research results in a proper way. Nevertheless, it was still impossible not to feel nervous before the poster presentation because I had never done a poster presentation in my life, even in Japanese. When the first audience member came to my poster, against all my expectations, somehow the words just came out of my mouth and I was able to have a good conversation with him. Soon, I realized that poster presentation was actually not a ‘presentation,’ but more like a ‘high-level conversation.’ Of course, it is crucial for presenters to have a deep understanding of their research work and convey information in a way which is easy for the audience to understand. However, I think gaining the audiences’ interest in one’s research work is equally important; just like when you share funny stories with your friends. Then people will make more of an effort to understand the stories.

I learned that a presentation should be interactive, not one-way, and checking the audiences’ facial expressions is very useful to make this happen. As I have an extroverted character and enjoy sharing ideas with others, the poster session was really enjoyable for me. I was so honored to be chosen for the first place ‘Poster Presentation Award’ and thankful for the kind support from Prof. Subramanian and my mentor, Justin. Their encouragement motivated me when I was down and pushed me up when I felt nervous before the presentation. As I am planning on applying to U.S. graduate school, I hope to work with someone like them in the future.

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Final Research Overview Poster

Research Poster (PDF): “Delineating Pediatric Type 1 Diabetes Cohorts with Machine Learning” 1st Place: “Best Poster Presentation Award” 
Host Lab: Subramanian Group, Prof. Devika Subramanian
Mentor: Justin Mower

Type 1 diabetes is early onset and genetic diabetes, and about 86,000 children are newly diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes every year according to IDF Diabetes Atlas 2015. One of its life-threatening but preventable complications is Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) whose main cause is lack of insulin. In our project, we collaborate with Texas Children’s Hospital and aim to build a machine learning model which can predict whether a Type 1 diabetes patient is likely to have DKA in the future.

In preparation for the project, we extracted Type 1 diabetes patients’ demographic data (such as race and gender) and lab data (test results at the hospital) and then split the patients into three cohorts. Cohort 1 is the group of Type 1 diabetes patients who have never had DKA before. Cohort 2 are patients who came to the hospital with DKA but never had it afterward. Cohort 3 are the patients we care about the most, who have had DKA several times. Since I only had a month to work on the project, I focused on finding what features make each cohort unique. Using the lab and demographic data, I built three types of models for three combinations, Cohort 1 vs. 2, Cohort 1 vs. 3, and Cohort 2 vs. 3. For each model, the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated, and important features were shown from the random forest model and gradient boosting model. After that, uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) were plotted for each combination, excluding categorical data.

From the UMAPs, I found out that distinguishing each cohort using the data I have to machine is not easy. In particular, Cohorts 2 and 3 are the least easy to separate by these methods. In addition, C-pep mean, onset age, and A1c mean/max are generally the most predictive features for cohort classification. These results make clinical sense, and I believe that they could not only help to improve the performance of the classifier in the future, but also support physicians with diagnosis/prognosis. As our ultimate goal is to create a machine learning model which can predict patients’ condition in the short-term using recent past data from a specific period of time (e.g. the past 6 months). The next step in the research will be to take a time-index account and incorporate this into our model.

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Week 05: Science & Technology Policy Study Tour

During my final week in the U.S., I visited Philadelphia and Washington D.C. as a part of this program. In Philadelphia, we had one day to explore the city, and two days at Lehigh University where we had a panel and lunch on graduate school and conducted an industry visit. Among these activities, our industry visit to Factory, LLC was the most exciting for me. Factory is a team of experienced operators with $250M of investable capital, and their main aim is to foster the development of significant equity stakes in high potential food, beverage, and pet health companies. In order to achieve this goal, they built a facility in Bethlehem, PA where companies can get abundant support and resources for their innovative activities. The type of resources varies a lot, from a kitchen where companies can try new products to a studio where they can create advertisements, and each sector has professionals who can help them work efficiently. I was deeply impressed when I visited Factory, not just because their facility was perfect for start-up companies, but also because the atmosphere they had was really fresh and full of energy. Visiting Factory made me realize that both the ability of innovators and environment to foster their work are needed in order to make innovation happen. I am so glad that I had such a great opportunity to visit one of the most cutting-edge facilities in the world.

On my last day in Washington D.C., I decided to visit the George Washington University and Georgetown University as I thought it would help me to get more ideas about U.S. graduate schools. There were mainly two purposes for my wanting to visit these schools; learning more about the programs they have and checking the atmosphere of the universities. When I visited the admissions office at each university, the staff there were willing to help me figure out which programs fit me well, and gave me a lot of useful information. This experience reminded me of what all the professors and students that I have met at Rice and Lehigh, told me repeatedly that “Do not hesitate to contact people.” Indeed, I was able to get a lot more detailed information about each school by visiting the office than just browsing websites. I learned that even though talking to people from different universities is not that common in Japan, it is one of the key skills that students should have in order to get the most helpful information. In terms of the schools’ atmosphere, it was very interesting that although both schools are located in the same city, my impressions of them were totally different. I felt that George Washington University was more blended into the city, whereas the neighborhood of Georgetown University was more like a college town. Through visiting these universities, I found that websites are just a small portion of what universities really are, and reaching out to people there and visiting schools can help us understand more about them.

Looking back on all the experiences I had in this program, there were uncountable moments when I learned more about myself, schools in the U.S., and women in STEM fields. The research experience at Rice University gave me more knowledge about the field of Data Science and the process of conducting research, and I was able to gain confidence in my work through the final poster presentation. The seminars provided by this program helped me to get a clearer idea of both Japanese and U.S. cultures and the system of graduate school in the U.S. Last but not least, interacting with my amazing fellow studnets in this program enabled me to explore other fields of science that I was not familiar with before. This gave me a greater variety of ‘lenses’ to see the world. This whole program taught me that focusing more on our similarities than our differences, such as gender, ethnicity, and majors, can enrich our lives by providing more opportunities and reducing conflicts. I would like to thank everyone who has helped me to have such an amazing experience. Now that I have come back to Japan, I am willing to share my experience with others and keep polishing my ‘lenses’ throughout my life.

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Final Report

Thinking back, my experience at TOMODACHI STEM program, the program was full of new experiences and excitement. Personally, I feel that there were three key takeaways from this program. The first was that I was able to broaden my perspective towards the future. For example, visiting Dow Chemical and having a conversation with people there enabled me to understand how people decide their career paths. Some of them took a Ph.D. and started to work in the industry after that, others started their job in other countries or in other positions but ended up working as where they are now. Hearing these stories made me realize that there are varieties of career paths and there is no reason to follow the ‘common’ path; even though following mainstream is a big culture in Japan. In addition, talking with female professors at Lehigh University was a great opportunity for me to think about my future as a woman in STEM. Through these conversations, I learned it is possible to keep a good balance between one’s work and life.

Gaining confidence in what I am interested in was the second take away I would like to highlight. Before I joined this program, I knew that I was interested in Data Science, yet, I was not 100 percent sure if I had enough interests and competence to conduct data science research on the international stage. However, having had hands-on research experience at Rice University, now I can say with confidence that I am eager to study Data Science and use these skills to solve real word problems. Although there were some hard times when I got stuck or could not get the results I expected, I truly enjoyed learning new data analysis techniques and discussing the results I got with my mentor and host professor. I still need to learn more to be a Data Scientist in the future; however, I am so glad that I was able to confirm my interests in Data Science through this program. In that sense, I think this program is a perfect opportunity for undergraduate students to figure out their interests and what they want to do in the future.

The third take away was all the information about graduate schools in the U.S. that I got through seminars and conversations with graduate students and professors at Rice. After coming back from my year studying abroad at UC Berkeley, I started to think about going back to the U.S. for my graduate studies. I spent a vast amount of time trying to figure out the admission systems in the U.S., types of programs offered, and what I needed to do to prepare to apply. However, since there were not many Japanese students who earn their graduate degrees in the U.S., it was pretty hard to get qualified information. In the TOMODACHI STEM program, we had a lot of opportunities to learn about graduate schools in the U.S., not only from professors but also from graduate students and university staff. It was such a precious experience that I was able to get qualified information from people who actually belong to a graduate school in the U.S., as I got far more information about U.S. graduate schools during this four-week program than I had on my own in the past half year.

Overall, this program was very meaningful to me as it enabled me to broaden my perspective about my future and, most importantly, to encourage me to pursue a master’s degree on Data Science in the U.S. I also appreciate all the support and encouragement I got from others throughout the program. Words are never enough to explain how much I have learned and grown in this program, but I would keep them in my memory and moving forward towards my next goals.

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Tips for Future Participants

Pre-departure Tips: Make sure to spend enough time on packing! I did it in the very last minute and it was quite rough for me.

Working with your Research Lab Tips: I would say do not be afraid to ask questions because you are worried  they may sound stupid or simple. It is totally fine to ask questions, and I am sure that your professor and mentor are willing to help you with your problems. However, please do some research on your own before you ask questions if possible, as you may not want to ask questions which can be easily answered by Google-sensei.

Language Study Tips: I think the best way to improve one’s English skill is to talk with native speakers. There are always nice people who would love to talk to you and learn about a different culture from you. Find those people and practice English by talking to them. Texting with native speakers is also a good way to learn English and some abbreviations which are used a lot in a daily conversation, but you may have never learned in classes.

Living in Houston: DO NOT FORGET TO BRING YOUR UMBRELLA! It rains really hard sometimes, and you would never be able to survive it without an umbrella. Rice University has a student-run coffee house on campus which provides you cheap but amazing tasty beverages. Also, there are a lot of events going on campus, so constantly check the website (and bulletin boards in campus buildings for flyers) and schedule your free time there.

What to eat in Houston and DC?: I really enjoyed the food in both cities! Install the yelp app on your phone and find your favorite restaurants. In Rice Village, Hopdaddy and Torchy’s Tacos were really nice. My roommates and I bought Soumen and Mentsuyu as an easy and tasty meal to cook, it worked out pretty well.

What gifts to bring/buy?: From Japan, I brought some Japanese snacks to the U.S. I also bought American snacks and small cosmetics as gifts for my family and friends when I returned to Japan. Make sure that your souvenirs will not be too heavy…

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