From Republic of Senegal
- Name
DIALLO Elhadji Amadou Oury
- Country/ Region of Citizenship
Republic of Senegal
- Graduated from
Sup De Co Technologie - Department
Department of Computer Science and Communications Engineering (Master’s)
MEXT (Embassy Recommendation) Scholarship Student
How did you find out about Waseda University?
When I was searching for good research universities in Japan, because I’m a MEXT student, we needed to find 3 universities. At that moment I met one of my friends who graduated from Keio University and I asked him some advice. And he highly recommended me Waseda University. After that I thought that Waseda was a good choice. Because I wanted to be in Tokyo, a big city, and I really like it. At first I chose 3 universities, but after getting in touch with my supervisor I just decided to choose one university. I risked my life by choosing one.
Why did you choose Waseda University?
It’s not easy to answer, but I had a very specific research topic before choosing any universities. I found at Waseda that they have a very good laboratory which deals with my topic of interest, and after getting in touch with the professor of this laboratory, I said “why not, it’s a chance I have to take”. To be honest, it’s just after choosing the laboratory, I knew that Waseda University has very big reputation. It’s just after choosing because the most important thing for me was research that I want to do. This is because I have to spend two years doing research and I’m not interested in about general reputation only but about academic publication records. And I found that my supervisor has very good publications.
How did you get information for our program?
As I explained it, I got in touch at first with my supervisor. I found much information about admission procedures and all the requirements in his website. I got in touch with him to discuss about my research proposal when we got an improvement about the topic and he accepted me in his lab. Then he transferred my application to the Center for International Education (CIE), and I got in touch with them for official admission procedures. Then after, I started looking at the Waseda official website because I didn’t start with this way as I got all the information from my supervisor and his website.
Did you have any concerns before coming to Japan?
Off course! It’s a new culture and my main concern was the language. Because being in Japan without speaking any Japanese at all or with very bad Japanese level, I was a little bit stressed about “how can I have good experience here?”. But since I’m here I’m very lucky. Even if I have sometime communication problem but people are very helpful and they are really willing to help.
Have you had any difficulties when you started a new life here?
As I just explained it, I even knew that it is going to be challenging to live in a country. I had some difficulties in administrative procedures such as filling forms, some inquiries and some procedures because all papers and procedures were in Japanese and you have to fill most of them. Fortunately my lab mates are very very helpful and they are very nice. Every time I have forms and some inquiries, I can just print the forms in the lab and “hey guys, help me to fill this in!”. But nowadays I learn to write some basic Kanji (Chinese characters) and I can recognize my address and the date of birth etc. I can even write it by myself.
How is your life in Japan and Waseda?
It’s a life changing experience. I’m a little bit busy with my research, but I try to get control of my life and time to enjoy the life in Tokyo. And general life at Waseda, I join a Waseda club at Monodukuri Kobo. Sometime I spend my time there. It’s not my field but it’s related one. Then it’s a good opportunity for me to practice what I’m doing in my research and theory.
I spent time during summer holidays to visit many places around Tokyo, for example, Ito and Atami. I like spending my time swimming and seeing the beach with nice view and sunset. Also I went to Nagoya for one week to meet a friend. I can’t wait for the next holiday! And I like Japanese food too. My favorite one is Sashimi (row fish) with tuna or salmon. I feel little bit at home here in Japan as we eat fish and rice as main dishes in my country.
What do you do in your free time?
Generally on Sundays, I have a specific place which is a park. I really like going there on Sundays because it’s my only free day. I bring a book to a park and relax with reading a book and enjoy contemplating nature. Two or three times a week after my research, I have another nice place which is a swimming pool or a spa. I manage to go there at least two times a week. There is a big gym next to my dormitory and I get a member card.
How are the relationships with your supervisor and lab members?
I think I have very good relationships with the supervisor and all my lab members. I remember when I just arrived here, my supervisor was very welcoming. He asked me many questions. I was very surprised because it was my first time experience in this kind of discussion with one of my professors and I like this. After this they organized a welcome party for new comers and I was luckily the only one new international student. My supervisor really supports me for my research, and he gives me every time advice. He is now holding a new seminar just for international students. They didn’t have it and just had a seminar for everyone, Japanese and international students before I came here. That means now we have luckily two seminars and two opportunities. He always recommends us some new research papers to try some new ideas to give us about research topics. He is doing his best as much as he can help international students. I don’t know if there is the same in all labs, but in my lab I’m happy, I’m at home. I never feel homesick when I’m in the lab. And the lab members are all my friends! We share the time from 9.00am to 8.00pm together in the lab. Sometimes we go out together and spend our break for discussing. And they help me if I have problems and we usually share some insight about our research topic.
Outline of the research
Many real world domains have very large state spaces and complex dynamics, requiring an agent to reason over extremely high dimensional observations. Developping efficient and effective algorithms for such environments is critically important across a variety of domain. Multi Agent Systems (MAS) arise in a variety of domains from robotics to economics. In general, decision making in MAS is intractable due to the exponentional growth of the problem complexity with increasing number of agents or environment size.
The past years have seen increasingly rapid advantages in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Google Deepmind have produced spectacular results in applying Reinforcement Learning (RL) to very high dimensional and complex environments such as videogames. The AlphaGo algorithm has won against Lee Sedol in the Go game. AlphaGo is a computer agent for the Go board game that plays at human world champion level. Go was considered to be the next big challenge for AI and its solution was thought to still be years away. The succes of AlphaGo demonstrates the potential and the power of the new deep RL methods. By learning from trial-and-error, an agent or robot can adapt its behaviour in a novel or changing environment by observing the reward of its action and taking the optimal sequence of actions in order to achieve a goal state.
In this research, we will implement and evaluate the state-of-the-art RL techniques in a Multi Agent context by applying them on different atari games by using an asynchronous RL framework to reduce the large resource requirements.
The goal of our research is to explore how multiple agents controlled by autonomous learning agents interact when sharing a complex environment. Phenomena such as cooperation and competition may emerge. Moreover, the findings of this research can be applied to solve a wide range domain specific problems with little effort.
What is your career goal after your degree completion?
After this master, I want to take a PhD. I don’t know where it is going to be, in Japan or elsewhere. But I want to know at least my PhD because I promised my dad since I was young that I wanted to become a professor. Then I’m working to achieve my goal and I will do my best in my research. Even if it’s boring sometime or time consuming, I’m happy with the research and I want to become a research scientist or why not a professor.
Short message to the prospective students
in English
Studying here at Waseda University is a life changing and amazing multicultural experience which helps you to make friends from all around the world. As a graduate student, you will receive a deep research guidance from your supervisor. He will help you to master the state-of-the-art methodologies of your field. You will have the opportunity to get involved in many social events to enjoy your life as an international student.
Learn Japanese, be respectful and open minded to fully enjoy your new life in Tokyo.
in French
Poursuivre ses études à Waseda University est une experience multi-culturelle qui changera votre vie à jamais. Vous aurez l’occasion de fraterniser avec des étudiants de divers horizons. Votre superviseur ne ménagera aucun effort pour rendre votre recherche fructueuse. Vous pouvez participer aux activités organisées par les clubs pour vivre pleinement votre vie d’étudiant etranger.
Aprenez le Japonais de base, soyez respectueux et compréhensif pour mieux vous intégrez dans la vie de tous les jours.
