About Me:
I am Jyotirmaya Mohanta, a first-year doctoral student (D1) in the Institute of Systems and Information Engineering at the University of Tsukuba.
I am from India and completed my Bachelor’s Degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from IIIT Bhubaneswar in India.
After that, I moved to Germany for my Master’s degree at Friedrich-Schiller-University in Photonics.
I have a background in both as an Engineer and also as a Theoretical Physicist.
Now, I came to Japan in May 2024, to work under Prof. Yutaka Shikano in KAGRA-Gravitational-Wave-Detector.
In my doctoral degree, I aim to specialize in General Relativity, Quantum Optics, and Machine Learning.
My Experience in the JADE-Program:
As a foreigner in Japan, the JADE Program gave me an opportunity to experience both the cultures of Japanese and American people.
This program was conducted from May 21st to May 27th 2024, at the University of Tsukuba where around 13 students from Ohio-State-University (OSU) visited our Tsukuba campus.
Given the different cultural backgrounds, it was very interesting to know about the cultural difference in America and also in Japan.
On the first day on 21st May, I had good interaction with the OSU students and I accompanied them on the Campus tour.
They were very friendly and very much interested in the research facilities in Tsukuba.
Additionally, students of Tsukuba presented their work on the first day which was also a nice chance for me to know about the research in other departments in Tsukuba.
On 22nd May, we visited Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) where we learned about the History of JAXA and their future missions.
The OSU students prepared a presentation about the JAXA, which was very helpful and informative.
Later on 22nd May in the afternoon, we visited the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED) which was not only informative about Japan’s Environmental Conditions, but also it was really fun to experience the natural disasters in the NIED’s Simulators for Earth-Quake and Rainfall.
On 23rd of May, we visited various Engineering Departments such as Structural Engineering facility, Space Engineering, Energy Engineering, etc., and further we went to the Plasma-Research-Center which was very exciting as well.
In the evening of 23rd, I had first time experience of Japanese Archery (Kyudo) which was really fun and I also learned how Japanese Archery is different than Western Archery.
On May 24th, we visited the Empowerment studio and Center of Cybernics Research, and later in the evening I had another memorable event, i.e. Japanese Tea Ceremony.
I experienced that Japanese culture emphasizes respecting each other and every Japanese custom has a particular meaning.
It was very fun and gave me a nice opportunity to learn about Japanese Culture.
Finally, on the 27th May, I participated in final presentation with the OSU students on a topic related to Inclusive Society.
We chose a topic on Agriculture of Japan and how Artificial-Intelligence can help the agriculture sectors.
This initiative was both fun and informative.
As my final note, I want to express my sincere gratitude for giving an opportunity to experience Japanese & American Cultures, facilities/departments in Tsukuba University and also Research Centers in Tsukuba such as JAXA & NIED.
Jyotirmaya Mohanta
D1 Student