20th WINGS-PES Salon was held.
Report by:
- Satsuki Okumura (Department of Advanced Energy, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences)
- Qirong Zhu (Department of Complexity Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences)
- Satoshi Tajima (Department of Environmental Systems, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences)
1. Overview of 20th Salon of Excellence
Date: Friday, July 29, 2022, 15:00 – 17:00
Place: Zoom (online)
The 20th Salon of Excellence aimed at gaining new knowledge by listening to introductions of laboratories in different fields and are divided into two sections. In the first section, the hosts gave introductions of their labs in the engineering field. In the second section, the participants were separated into breakout rooms for practicing briefly introducing their research topic. In preparation for the Salon of Excellence, hosts conducted a questionnaire survey and received feedback from the participants that they wanted to learn about research topics that students participating in the Salon of Excellence from programs WINGS-PES and Spring GX are doing. In order to provide an opportunity to learn about each student’s research in a limited time, the organizers set a time limit of two minutes per person to introduce their research. The salon was characterized by the following points.
● In the first section of the salon, introductions of two laboratories are made respectively, and in the second section, exchanges are made among participants in breakout rooms.
● In the breakout room, each participant gave a two-minute introduction of his/her research.
● The focus was on the research topics of the participants, who were active in a wide range of fields.
This paper reviews the Salon of Excellence based on the questions raised during the meeting and the results of the questionnaire. Figure 1 is a group photo of the salon. There were 72 participants.
2. Part 1: Introduction of Laboratory
2・1 Introduction of Laboratory 1 (Okumura)
In the beginning, Okumura gave a 15-minute introduction of research from Ohsaki Laboratory. The laboratory deals with engineering issues of electromagnetic energy conversion equipment and uperconducting energy. The lab mainly focuses on the application of superconductors. The presenter illustrated the research history, the characteristics and properties of superconductors, and specifically the following four themes were introduced as:
● Electrification of Aircraft: Potential Application of Superconducting Technology
● Ultra-low loss superconducting magnetic bearing (SMB) for artificial satellites (operated at 4 K order)
● Renewable energy utilization and next-generation railway systems
● Numerical analysis of electromagnetic fields, including the effect of superconductivity
Each example was explained with diagrams and videos. Besides explaining about lab’s research, a lab tour was conducted with a guiding video of the building where the laboratory is located and the laboratory were shown on video. During the Q&A session (about 10 minutes), questions were asked about the feasibility of electrification of airplanes and the current research status. The organizers was pleased that the participants were interested in the deeper aspects of our research.
2・2 Introduction of Laboratory 2 (Zhu)
For the second presentation in the first section, Zhu gave a 15-minute introduction of the Shinoda-Makino Laboratory where she studies in. Shinoda-Makino Lab mainly focuses on tactile perception using ultrasound while themes of projects are diverse and interdisciplinary. The presenter xplained why tactile perception is necessary in the VR AR environment where advanced visual and auditory devices are already available. She also explained how to reproduce and reconstruct the sense of touch, and the advantages of using ultrasound to reproduce the sense of touch. Among various researches on tactile sensation, the following three themes were illustrated in detail as:
● Displaying the sense of roughness of different textures
● Creating sensations of warmth and cooling using sound absorption reduction and ultrasonic waves
to accelerate vaporization of room temperature water mist.
● Utilizing balloons as suspended interface
Each example was explained with videos and diagrams. It was a good opportunity to introduce what the lab is doing as audience asked a variety of questions and proposed several suggestions in applying.
2・3 Questionnaire Results
In the questionnaire for the first session, many participants commented, “It was good to know the atmosphere of different laboratories” and “I learned a lot,” and we believe that the session was generally well received. Since there are few opportunities to get introduced to research topics in other fields, we thought it was important to use the Salon of Excellence to learn about research ideas and methods in other fields to encourage mutual academic communications and idea exchanges. On the other hand, there were comments such as “I think Slido should be introduced for questions. This time, the question-and-answer session was onducted by raising hands, but we felt that Slido, with anonymity, would have made it easier for audience to put forwards questions. It would be good to consider the introduction of Slido for Q&A sessions in the future. Many participants commented on the online lab tour using video, saying, “It was interesting to learn about the research of labs in different fields and the inside of the building,” “It was especially valuable to see the facilities of other labs,” etc. We considered using Zoom for the lab tour, but considering the communication situation, we decided to use video instead. We are glad that the tour went smoothly.
3. Part 2: Research Introduction Training
In the second section, all participants gave a two-minute presentation on their research in a breakout room. The section was designed and set to summarize their own research and improve their skills in introducing personal research to general audience. Many participants prepared slides to explain their research, and many participants felt that the lively discussions are good with comments such as “It was good to hear about and discuss research in other fields” but also there were comments about “The time was too short” and “Time allocation was difficult. “The comments revealed that many of the participants sensed difficulty in practically introducing their research in a concise manner in two minutes. We believe that the seminar was effective as an exercise in summarizing personal research. Since there were some breakout rooms in which time allocation was uneven, the organizers feel that a facilitator should be decided to lead the discussion in each breakout room. In addition, although English was used for all the breakout rooms, a better grouping of the breakout rooms should be devised to improve the breakout room if the list of participants and their language preferences were known in advance.
4. Concluding remarks
For the salon, as a new trial, we focused that participants were limited to introduce their own research in two minutes as we think it is important for researchers during academic or social activities to introduce their research in a simple and easy-to-understand way within a short period. While in real conversations, many participants found it difficult to summarize their research, so we think it was effective as an exercise to summarize their research. And apart from slides, it would be good if online poster presentations using Vice, etc. are available in next salons.