JAIST NEWSLETTER

NO.3 2020

WINTER EDITIONHAPPY NEW YEAR 2021
Dear Readers,
Welcome to the Winter edition of JAIST Newsletter!
This third issue will introduce our university’s academic
achievements as well as recent happening. Moreover, wewould like to highlight our excellence in employment andinternational activities which includes interactions withthe locals. Our beloved alumni will also share about theirmemorable time at JAIST and we will also be introducing
some of the club activities available in JAIST. Hope you
have a good time and enjoy this Winter.
Cheers!		

GREETINGSFROMPRESIDENTMINORUTERANOFORNEW YEAR2021

LATEST NEWS OF OUR UNIVERSITY
JAIST-VIETNAM 20 TH
COLLABORATION ANNIVERSARYJAIST-Vietnam Collaboration

JAIST Newsletter Editorial Team

JAIST-Vietnam Collaboration

Greeting from JAIST president

On Tuesday, January 5, 2021, New Year’s greetings weregiven by the President, Minoru Terano, where he lookedback on the hard work by the faculty and staff to support
and cooperate with measures against the new coronavirus infections since spring 2020. Various commemorative
events were held, such as the 30th founding anniversary ofJAIST. He also mentioned the results of efforts such as “research capability analysis”, “international public relations”,
and he will continue to support the further development ofresearch and human resource including JAIST international Seminar House, which will open in April 2021 with thepurpose of holding seminars and small symposia with students and other researchers from Japan or abroad which
will lead to research collaboration with other universities
to further attract outstanding students. In his New Year’s
greeting, he wishes all the members of the university aprosperous year ahead.

The ceremony took place online on December 12, 2020
due to the circumstances of COVID-19. Our president, Minoru Terano and his associates joined it from JAIST campus
with other participants from several Vietnam National Universities including Hanoi and other campuses. There areover 300 alumni from Vietnam in JAIST.
MR. ATMAJARECEIVED BEST PAPER & PRESENTATIONAWARD IN THE INTERNATIONALCONFERENCE
Mr. Atmaja, Bagus Tris, a doctoral student in Akagi labof Human Life Design Area, received Best Student Paper and Presentation award in the 1st Biennial International Conference on Acoustic and Vibration 2020
(ANV2020) with the paper titled “Evaluation of Error andCorrelation-Based Loss Functions for Multitask Learning
Dimensional Speech Emotion Recognition”. The conference was organized to discuss on various acoustic andvibration topics and its application to promote researchadvancement in this area.

PROF. NGUYEN, MINH LE’S GROUP,INTELLIGENT ROBOTICS AREA, ACHIEVED
THE HIGHEST PERFORMANCE ON TASK2
AND TASK4 OF THE COLIEE COMPETITION.

COLIEE 2020 is the 7th Competition on Legal Information Extraction and Entailment. This competition includes tasks on statutelaw and case law which is aimed at finding AI techniques for dealing with legal case retrieval problems. Prof. NGUYEN, Minh Le’s
group achieved the highest performance on Task2 and Task4 withthe work titled “Deep Learning for Legal Processing” on November 16, 2020. They proposed deep learning-based methods forautomatic systems of legal retrieval and legal question-answering which its characteristics help to overcome data scarcity andachieves better performance to aid in tackling related problems
in information retrieval and decision support in the legal domain.
JAIST NEWSLETTER NO.3 2020 : WINTER EDITION 1

Admission Guide / Scholarships / Employment Information

ADMISSION GUIDE FOR OCTOBER 2021

JAIST looks for students who possess a strong will and a clear sense of purpose in pursuing study and research in the fields of advanced
science and technology based on Knowledge Science, Information Science and Materials Science, who are also capable of expressing
their own ideas logically and have an attitude to make efforts to produce mutual understanding through discussions. The application information for both Master’s and Doctoral Program 2021 is shown as above illustration. And, JAIST also open “Examination for Admission
on Recommendation for Overseas Residents”. In this examination, applicants can pass the selection process without traveling to Japan.
Similarly, there is also some application information for Non-Degree Seeking Students: Research students, special visiting students andvisiting students.
*due to novel coronavirus outbreak, we will temporarily only accept applicants who are residing in Japan, application for enrollment will be accepted from August.

SCHOLARSHIPS

2 JAIST NEWSLETTER NO.3 2020 : WINTER EDITION

Students can apply for special financial aid from JAIST including reduction of entrance fee and tuition; Exemption
or Reduction System in case of Disasters; Scholarships as
JAIST Scholarship (Benefit-type), Doctoral Research Fellow (DRF) and Ph.D Qualifyng Examination Scholarship;
Employment-type Financial Aid (Salary for assignment) as
Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant and Laboratory Assistant; Research Promotion as The Japan Society for thePromotion of Science (JSPS); JAIST Grant for Off-Campus
Research and Research Grants for JAIST Students/Internship Grant Program; as well as Student Loans.

Enrollment / Scholarships / Employment Information

EMPLOYMENTINFORMATION& CAREEROPPORTUNITIESThere are various events for supporting ca-reer formation and job hunting conducted bythe Career Support Office. Many Japanesecompanies require applicants to have highJapanese language skills, which are essentialfor job hunting in Japan. The basic year-roundschedule concludes:- Preparation Seminars for Job hunting- Financial aid- Career Counseling- SPI Mock Exam
- Internship- Job interview training- Corporate Seminar on Campus- Career Service Office – Reference Room
- JAIST’s unique Career Support System- JAIST Original Resume- Tokyo Satellite Facility(more details check https://www.jaist.ac.jp/english/careersupport/support/index.html)

CENTER FOR INDUSTRY-ACADEMIA-GOVERNMENTCOLLABORATIONThe center promotes collaboration not onlywith companies but also with public research
institutes and government agencies as a window for collaboration with society and industry
and as a base for innovation creation.

Community Collaboration Promotion Center
The center promotes diverse collaborations with local governments,
NPOS, local organizations, and individuals. It contributes to local
communities by utilizing the university’s research and educational
capabilities.

The mascot for JAIST is a chameleon named Jai-leon. Its creation was triggered by the proposal
from a volunteer staff. Jai-leon shares the same birthday as the founding anniversary of JAIST,1st October. Jai-leon charm point is the blue pattern on its back which resembles the JAIST
logo. Jai-leon like strolling around JAIST. Jai-leon is very intrigued on cutting edge technologies and loves being around lively places. As it is a chameleon, its special skill is the ability tochange its colors. This symbolizes the education system here in JAIST, as students are encouraged to pursue classes from different faculties freely in order to create students with intellectualtoughness.

DID YOU KNOW ?
JAIST NEWSLETTER NO.3 2020 : WINTER EDITION 3STUDENTS INTERVIEWInternational Exchange
Dr. Tejkiran, Graduated Ph.D. Student in Material Science Program

Mr. Tejkiran, Alumni

I was introduced to JAIST from someof my seniors who visited JAIST fromsakura science program and it got
me interested to continue my study
in JAIST. Initially, I wanted to come toJAIST for doing my PhD, but back in India, the graduation is in April. Hence, I
came to JAIST as a researcher first andexperienced the work culture in theMaterial Science lab. During this time,
I approached for the MEXT scholarshipwhich then luckily got approved. I finally started my PhD program in October

2017. One thing that is very crucial
is the ambience of your working
place and that is one thing that I love
most about JAIST, it is very peaceful and quiet where you will be freefrom distractions or worries. Anotherthing worth mentioning is the highresearch quality in JAIST as there arevarious instruments and sophisticated equipment’s available for a material scientist.

JAIST is quite diverse as JAIST has a lotof international students from various
countries which allows you to connect
with different people, while at the sametime allowing you to experience the local Japanese culture. JAIST is the bestplace for doing research as well as pursue my passion for photograhy and it
has the community where I can connect
with many people, the beautiful natureand its ambience that you can enjoy“ I can say that you will not be disappointed with JAIST.”

Dr. Günter Ellrott, Currently Ph.D. Student in Material Science Program

Mr. Günter, Ph.D. StudentI got to know JAIST through my sen- JAIST has a broad range of equipment For example, I used the 3D printer insei whom I met at a conference. Go- that is not usually available in many order to make some models to explain
ing abroad, and especially Japan has other universities. For me as a physi- 3D structures for my research. Anbeen a dream of mine for a long time. I cist, I was very surprised at the range other highlight is joining the Yosakoi
then applied for a one-and-a-half-year of instruments that we have at our club in Awazu, where I participatedscholarship by MEXT. I only happen to disposal. One good facility that JAIST in some performance with the Japcome to JAIST because my sensei was is the FabLab. FabLab is a very good anese members. I highly encourage
here, however, most of the students concept where you can use machines other students to find some activities
come to JAIST because they know the for your personal project. You only pay outside of JAIST to interact with theprofessors they want to work with. for whatever you use.
locals people.
When I arrived, I was surprised thatJAIST was so far outside of any city
“Going abroad really teaches you a lot of new perspectives
area.

and important experiences as a researcher. “Photo by Nazhif Rizani

COLLABORATIONWITH NIEA
NIEA( Nomi International Exchange Association) is
an organization that creates an atmosphere whereforeigners and local Japanese can learn and experience each other’s languages, culture and traditions,and make friends through shared experiences andother fun events and activities. NIEA’s members hostvarious activities and events, aiming at improving
multicultural coexistence by means of providing opportunities for everyone to communicate freely ina comfortable atmosphere. JAIST students can join
FREE JAPANESE CLASS provided by NIEA in JAIST,Iwauchi Community Center, Terai District Public Hall,and Neagari Learning Center. The class will give us agreat opportunity to improve our Japanese communication skills with local Japanese people more practically.

Japanese Class by NIEA

Photos by NIEA

One special program, which is VOLUNTEERING AS AN ENGLISH ASSISTANT TEACHER IN
PRIMARY SCHOOLS around Nomi City, was just started in October 2020. This program isintended to help the local primary schools in Nomi city where the international students willconnect with local teachers and local community centers in introducing and sharing diverse
cultures of different foreign countries to the kids through the communication in English.
At the same time, we can learn and experience authentic Japanese primary school life byassisting the kids of different grades.

CLUB ACTIVITIESWINTER AROUND JAIST

Futsal Circle

Either you love football, or it grates
on you. This club provides an excellent opportunity to meet otherinternational students. We meet forthree hours a week on Tuesday evenings and form groups to practiceand play futsal at the JAIST Gymnasium in Ishikawa Campus. Everyone
has a chance to play, each match isplayed out for 5 minutes, and theplayers will be rotated throughout
the team, creating a novel experience in each match. The clubmembers are varied in nationalities
such as Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai,Chinese, and European.

Futsal Circle
Photo by Punyawee Anunpattana

English assistant in primary school

JAIST NEWSLETTEREDITORIAL TEAMCONTENT EDITORSJAIST Ishikawa Campus

JAIST Badminton Club
Photo by Tuan Vu HoDESIGNERS

JAIST Badminton Club

The attraction of badminton has been
claimed as being an active team sport,
where you are always thinking of thedestination of the shuttlecock, andthe great feeling when you smash it
to the opponent’s side to score points.
This club is eager to let everyone practice and enjoy playing badminton foraround three hours every Thursday
evening at JAIST Gymnasium. We
gladly welcome newcomer to join ourclub as our experienced players are
happy to guide the new members.
Let’s all enjoy ourselves together!
Currently, the club has more than 20
members from various nationalities.

4 JAIST NEWSLETTER NO.3 2020 : WINTER EDITION

Nazhif Rizani
Htun Pa Pa Aung
Gao Naying
Gao Yuexian
Liu Chang
Zhang Zeliang

Punyawee
Anunpattana
Sagguneswaraan
Thavamuni

Lead Editor
Kang XiaohanSUPERVISORJAIST Ishikawa Campus
Photos by Gao Yuexian

Hiroyuki Iida