Student interview｜Yumiko Bito

Cross-Disciplinary Learning Opens the Door to Social Simulation Research

―― Thank you very much for your time today. Bito-san, you have been a member of Systems Innovation since undergraduate school; why did you choose this department?

Before I chose to go on to higher education, I was wondering which department I should enter, so I took a variety of classes in the faculty of arts and sciences without caring whether they were related to my major. Among them, I found the simulation class and the social psychology class interesting.

Department of Systems Innovation's strength lies in social simulation, or the study of using programming to represent models that run on computers to understand and predict social phenomena. I decided to go on to higher education because I felt that my interest in interdisciplinary and broad-based learning matched the research themes at Department of Systems Innovation.

―― I see. Were there any classes that made a lasting impression on you during your undergraduate years?

There is a required class in the Department of Systems Innovation simply called "Project". In the first semester of the third year, we created a quiz application. For the project, I used a programming language which was new to me, and I struggled with the task of revising the project to reach the "best version" that was feasible by the deadline, but it was a lot of fun. I was able to discover new things by taking the user's point of view into account when creating the app, such as "this feature would be more useful" and so on.

―― Practical classes like that sound interesting. Are there any classroom lectures that caught your interest?

The Department of Systems Innovation has a relatively high degree of flexibility in its courses. I have completed two programs that are based on a specific theme.
One is the "Mathematical and Data Science Education Program", which was accredited by taking courses in statistics, programming, machine learning, and other courses related to information technology.
The other is the "Media Contents Education Program". This program covers a wide range of courses from information processing classes related to media, such as audio, image, and natural language processing, to classes that get to the root of "creativity".
In both cases, I often went to classes offered by other departments and faculties. I was able to take classes that were interdisciplinary in the humanities and sciences, and I feel that my interests have broadened.

―― By the way, do you belong to any clubs?

During my undergraduate years, I belonged to a karate club and a kimono club. In the karate club, we worked on kata, kumite, and weapons training. Even though I was too nervous to show my ability on the first day of the competition, I was able to improve my personal best by learning from my mistakes and not giving up on the second day.
In this way, I acquired mental strength through karate. I now hold a second-degree black belt and have a record of seven kawara-wari (roof tiles split by hand), ha ha.
In the Kimono club, we wear kimonos and go out to gardens, temples, and shrines. I am now able to dress myself, and I like to think of new ways to dress in a blend of Japanese and Western styles.

―― So you belong to a very Japanese club. It is wonderful to be able to learn more about Japanese culture!

―― What kind of research topics do you deal with?

One of the themes in my laboratory, Kanno Laboratory, is "Cognitive processes in communication when multiple people are performing a task" Our goal is to build a method for efficient information transfer. We model "mutual beliefs", inferences about what information members participating in a joint task have, what the other person thinks, and what he or she thinks of the other members, and evaluate the efficiency of communication using indices such as the number of utterances. I am currently in the process of reading papers on previous research and deciding on a research theme. Since cognitive processes and methods for modeling them differ from study to study, I often have difficulty understanding the assumptions, but I find it interesting to be exposed to various interpretations of cognitive processes.

―― What are your future plans?

Through my experience developing apps in class and in my thesis, I found it rewarding to solve problems through IT and programming. I am now looking for work at an IT company, especially SIer (System Integrators) as my first choice.

―― Finally, do you have a message for younger students?

In Systems Innovation, we do simulations in various fields such as physics and society. Because there are few required courses and it is easy to take classes from other faculties, I would like those who want to learn and research freely and broadly beyond the boundaries of academic fields to enter Systems Innovation.
I believe that engineering is an academic discipline that is dedicated to "making things that are useful to people".

I realized that the scope of its research is broader than I had imagined. If you are wondering about your career path, please try to get in touch with various studies. You may make new discoveries and encounters.

―― Thank you very much!

*This interview was organised and edited by members of the Scool of Engineering Public Relations Office TA Ttime!

Interview and writing by Yuki Ishihara
Photo / video by Eriko Yamada, Yuki Tsuji