Meet the participants - Caroline

Hi! I'm Caroline, and I'm originally from Glasgow in Scotland. I come from an engineering background, with my main areas of specialty including electronics, signal processing, communications, and biomedical applications. For more background information, please see my LinkedIn page.

I moved to Southampton just under a year ago to pursue a PhD in the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research. My research is sponsored by Philips Medical, and involves detecting changes in lung health through audio speech processing. This could mean that lung health would be monitored through the use of a microphone and analysis software, which would be especially useful in monitoring chronic conditions such as Asthma and COPD.

While studying at Southampton, I have been taking Japanese lessons with the Language department. Learning Japanese is a lot of fun, and I try to work hard, but I still don't think I'm very good! I am looking forward to getting the opportunity to practice my language skills with the Japanese students in Bristol, and hopefully I will improve enough to make my way around Kyoto!

I am really excited to be a part of this program, as one day I'd love to live and work in Japan. I'm sure I'm going to meet a lot of interesting people, both from Japan and the UK, and I hope I can build links that will aid in both my own and the other participant's future researching careers.

When I am not researching or studying Japanese, I usually spend my time reading fantasy/sci-fi novels, or playing computer games. However I am trying to be more active and taking advantage of the (occasional) good weather by cycling to and from University.

I will leave you with a picture of my in one of my favourite places in Scotland, Loch Lomond. If you have any questions, please leave a comment, and I will be happy to hear from you.

Thanks for reading!

読んでいただきありがとうございます！

Meet the participants - Katie

Katie Plant

In 2009 I joined the Transportation Research Group as a Human Factors researcher on the ALICIA aviation project funded by the European Union. ALICIA aims to develop new and scalable cockpit applications to extend aircraft operations in degraded visual conditions. My role is to provide Human Factors expertise to other partners in the project through experimental design solutions and supporting evaluation trials. Alongside this I am undertaking a part-time PhD looking at pilot decision making from the psychological perspective of Schema Theory. More information about my education and work history can be found on my LinkedIn page

I applied for the RENKEI opportunity because the chance to go to Japan was too tempting to resist (I've always wanted to eat ‘real’ sushi!) I have always loved to travel and experience new cultures. I was fortunate enough to do my undergraduate placement year in Sydney, Australia. Since then  various international conferences and European meetings have allowed me to see a bit more of the world, but Japan will be something entirely new to me. Travelling aside, I feel genuinely privileged to have been selected for RENKEI. In my application I wrote that “collaboration is often cited but rarely achieved”. I am most looking forward to the collaborative elements of the program. The opportunity to meet other researchers, both from the UK and Japan, and to have the chance to foster real partnerships and research opportunities will be invaluable. RENKEI requires its participants to be ambassadors for their country; I feel lucky and proud to live in the UK and will take great delight in showcasing the ‘Best of British’.

I will be attending the RENKEI program with my 'Human Factors hat' on. Human Factors is a research discipline with people and technology at its core; it provides the theories and tools to model the impact of the technological changes faced by societies today. Specifically, I work in transport human factors and I think there is lots of scope to explore cross-cultural differences in this domain. For example, Japan has the lowest car usage of all the G8 countries but is one of the most densely populated. I am interested to see what lessons can be learnt in relation to modal shift. It will also be interesting to see the influence of  Japan's collectivist culture, for example in relation to communications on flight decks.  

When I’m not at work I can be found running around the village lanes of Wiltshire and participating in Saturday morning parkruns (give me a spare two minutes and I will try and persuade you to sign up , it's brilliant). This then allows me to indulge in my favorite past time; drinking a glass of red wine with good friends or a good book. Simple pleasures! 

If you want to keep up-to-date with my RENKEI experiences (and general life musings) via twitter I’m @klplant1

Welcome to the RENKEI program

What is RENKEI?

RENKEI is a new Japan-UK partnership to expand university and industry ties in the fields of science and technology. RENKEI was launched by the British Council at their ‘Going Global’ conference in March 2012. The intention is that the program will enable higher education institutions to engage more fully with economy and society. Twelve, research focused, UK and Japanese Universities will participate in the program to strengthen links with industry via knowledge transfer and research collaborations.

RENKEI means collaboration in Japanese and will allow universities to play a more central role in the economy and wider society, as well as equipping graduates with the skills to succeed in a global marketplace. The three key aims of the program are:

1.       To develop future research leaders with  the skills to lead collaborations between different disciplines and cultures

2.       To facilitate the formation of active collaborations between participants to achieve tangible outcomes

3.       To develop a sustainable network of researchers across Japan and the UK

Click here to read the full British Council press release issued for the project launch

The participating universities are:

UK	Japan
University of Bristol	Kyoto University
University of Leeds	Kyushu University
University of Liverpool	Nagoya University
Newcastle University	Ritsumeikan University
University of Southampton	University of Tohoku
UCL (University College London)

2013 program

In 2013 the program will be delivered in two parts. The first will be hosted by the University of Bristol in July and the second by Kyoto University in December. The theme for the 2013 program is Urban Sustainability and Resilience. More information can be found via the RENKEI website.

This blog will document the 2013 program from the perspective of the participants from the University of Southampton. We hope you find it interesting and informative, please feel free to leave comments or get in touch if you would like to know more.