With a new term starting on the 1^st of September, the school grounds, quiet over the course of the summer vacation, is once again made lively with the smiles and voices of students.
Over the next few articles, we would like to showcase the efforts of our students over the summer holidays.

To begin, we will showcase Ishibashi Taiki of year 11, who participated in an international symposium and won a "best poster award".

Taiki, who participated in last years 'Kyushu University Future Creators Science Project (QFC-SP) Primary', through further selections found himself as a research student in said project in the advanced space rocket engineering research lab under Professor Naoji Yamamoto. As one of these researchers, he participated in research regarding 'microwave discharge plasma thrusters mounted on miniature artificial satellites'. After his seniors graduated from their post-graduate courses, Taiki took over experimentation and analysis, as well as the editing of their research paper, and has, this summer, made a presentation at the 35^th International Symposium on Space Technology and Science.

The presentation went through evaluation by specialists, and was selected as one of the presentations allowed 30 seconds on the day of the symposium.

The ISTS poster section was not limited to students, and was open to participation from universities and foreign and private research institutions. Nonetheless, Taiki achieved second place after the first place winner, a student currently undergoing their PhD course.

We conducted an interview with Taiki after the symposium

ー Please tell us your thoughts having presented at the ISTS

'In the Shotgun Session (30 second pitch), I focused on succinctly explaining the appeal of this research, and while in front of the poster, I gave a presentation in English focusing on balancing understandability with scientific explanation. In the Q&A session, I received far more points and observations than I had anticipated. Truth be told, there was advice that I couldn't fully understand, but it has become a driving force for future learning. In addition, not only Japanese, but also foreign researchers visited my poster, listened to the explanation, and exchanged ideas. I strongly felt that, through this direct debate with people of a variety of backgrounds, the final result could be polished by the power of collaboration.

Achieving second place at the Best Poster Award has been a great boost, especially as this was a competition with no distinction between student and researcher, and so my interest has only deepened further, moving towards the next challenge.'

ーAnd what kind of effect has this research and these events had on you personally?

'Through receiving advice directly from my teachers and seniors in the research lab, I was able to experience the process of hypothesis and evaluation. In particular, through putting effort into methods of measurement while moving forward with experiments, I experienced success through the path of slow and gradual improvement. In addition, I've learned that research is done as a team, not as an individual.

My ambition is to realise a better world through science and technology. With this ambition in my heart, I look to further deepen my fundamental abilities, and in the future become a scientist able to contribute to society in the aerospace field.'

Mr. Taiki, congratulations!
In addition to curiosity and effort, the support of your teachers and guardians has resulted in this great achievement.

We deeply look forward to your further growth and accomplishments in the future!