This summer, miss Sakai of year 11 participated in Kyushu University's 'Kyushu University QURIES program'.

This program is an science and engineering internship program targeted at female students in Fukuoka with the objective of raising the number of female researchers.

Today, we interviewed miss Sakai on her thoughts having participated in the program.

ーPlease tell us why you chose this project and course

I chose to participate in this course as I wanted to make use of my summer holiday by studying at a university. I hope to be a doctor in the future, but going beyond the category of 'learning the sciences', I wondered how best to gain the points of view necessary for doctors going forward, and chose several placements I was interested in. In the end I was assigned to the mathematical modeling* science lab

*A scientific field of study involving taking the complicated phenomena and issues of the real world and rendering them using mathematics, to understand, predict, and solve said issues.

ーIn the five days, having been assigned to a research lab and engaging in research activities such as experiments and investigations, apparently you had the opportunity to present your findings.

Yes, the various post-grad students who taught me all came from around Asia in order to obtain their doctorates, and I was able to learn from them one-on-one, which led into the presentation.

ーHow do you plan to use what you've learned going forward?

At the beginning, I didn't have a particularly strong interest in programming, but I'd like to take advantage of it in writing essays for the IB.
In addition, while all communication with the attendees was done in English, discussing programming in English was a very fresh experience, and give me a new level of confidence in studying in, thinking in, and communicating in English.

Communicating in English on a highly technical specialised topic is an opportunity that is rarely available in a regular school. In listening to Ms. Sakai's story, her happiness in managing to communicate smoothly was plain to see.

Ms. Sakai also achieved level 1 in Eiken this summer.
In both English and in other areas, we look forward to seeing her future accomplishments.