Below is a study abroad experience report from Miyako Mizuna (2nd year master’s student, School of Fundamental Science and Engineering), who was able to go to Sheffield, UK, to study at The University of Sheffield. This study abroad experience was possible due to support from Waseda University’s Top Global University project “Waseda Goes Global”, referred to as TGU below.
Miyako MIZUNA
- Study Abroad University: The University of Sheffield
- Country/Region: Sheffield, UK
- Visiting Period: August 2022 to October 2022
Reason for applying
I chose the Department of Applied Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering because I became interested in the aerospace field after my first flight in the second year of junior high school. I was attracted to cutting-edge space development, so I studied at the University of California, Davis in the U.S. from the fall quarter of my second year. I was planning to stay for one year, but due to a pandemic of the COVID-19, I had to suspend my study six months after my departure and returned to Japan. At that time, I was getting used to life in the U.S. and was planning to take more classes that I was interested in the spring quarter. Since then, I had been concerned that my first stay in a foreign country had ended halfway, and I wanted to study abroad if I had the chance to go. Few years later I was assigned to the Iwase Laboratory and knew SGU’s Overseas Student Dispatch Program. I thought it would be a good opportunity to study abroad again before graduating my university, so I decided to apply for this program.
Research
I was working on a self-folding origami robot that grasps by applied magnetic field under Dr. Shuhei Miyashita, who has a laboratory in the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering at the University of Sheffield. Before my departure from Japan, I devised a design that changes its shape by a pattern of folding and cutting lines. After my trip to the UK, I applied this design to an actual origami robot made of copper sheets. A heat-shrinkable film in the structure enabled the entire structure to fold itself with the folding and cutting lines. It also succeeded in grasping an object by adjusting the degree of deformation according to changes in the magnetic field. I am currently writing a paper to submit to a journal.
Laboratory
The laboratory was open only from 8:30 am to 6 pm on weekdays and I did experiments with PhD students. When I was in Japan, there were no core hours in the lab and I could work at any time, so at first it was difficult to get used to working efficiently and concentrating while open hour. I was able to advance my research not only with the help of two other students working origami-related research, but also with the help of the other students around me. The members of the laboratory were very close and we always had lunch together downstairs. I was very happy that some students made a birthday cake for my birthday.
Group photo for Miyashita lab
International exchange
After work on weekdays, I went out for dinner with lab members and went sightseeing in Leeds with master students. It was a good memory that I went to a restaurant with about 20 people to celebrate after a master student’s presentation before graduation. Before returning to Japan, I went to a Christmas market in York with my lab members and enjoyed sightseeing for about half a day. The lab members were very international, including British, Chinese, French, Italian, Turkish, and Egyptian, so it was interesting to see the differences in values and cultures.
Celebration for master students
Share house
I stayed in a share house about 15 minutes-walk from the university near the main street for 3 months in Sheffield. It was not a bad place to live and my housemates were very friendly. After returning home, I spent time in the kitchen talking with master students, post-doctoral students, and working adults about the day. It was a good way to relax after a hard day’s work. The share house was a three story apartment with seven private rooms and one new resident moves in every week. It was very interesting to have conversations with housemates of various nationalities with different backgrounds. When they found out that I was Japanese, many of them happily talked about their favorite Japanese comic books and animation. That made me happy and proud to know that Japanese culture is being transmitted even to a distant country.
Share house I lived
Sheffield city
Sheffield is a relatively large city in the UK and the center of the city was bustling with shopping malls. Many of the buildings are brick and have a long history and the cityscape is very beautiful. On the main street, there were many restaurants of various cuisines such as Japanese, Mexican, Chinese, Indian, and so on. Trams and buses were available, and it was easy to get to other cities by train from Sheffield station. In the central market, there were not only meat and seafood, but also cakes, sweets, craft goods and so on, which cheered me up every time I visited. Sheffield Cathedral has beautiful stained-glass windows and just looking up at the ceiling in the majestic atmosphere was very relaxing. I often saw squirrels in a small park and enjoyed relaxing in nature. It was a very comfortable area with a mix of modern and old mood.
Buildings and tram
City Center
Sheffield Cathedral (outside)
Sheffield Cathedral (inside)
Differences
The most interesting differences from Japan were the food, climate, and lifestyle. The main meals in the UK were sandwiches and other breads and I sometimes missed Japanese noodles and white rice. It was difficult to find dishes that suited my taste, but the pies with meat fillings, scones, and fish and chips that I bought at the market were delicious. As for the weather, it was cloudy and often rained lightly, so it was difficult to keep up with the mentality without being dragged down by the gloomy skies. Lastly, I was surprised at the lifestyle of the researchers, which is very efficient and concentrated on short periods of time. Perhaps because of the importance for human rights, the hours when they can work in the laboratory are fixed, and supermarkets have short opening hours on weekends. I was interested in the new schedule of working efficiently on weekdays and taking a good rest on weekends.
Future goal
I stayed in Sheffield for three months mainly for research, but I learned not only the results of my research but also various things such as different lifestyles and ways of thinking. By interacting with people from different backgrounds, I became aware of my own opinions and values, which I had not noticed before, and I feel that my self-understanding has deepened. I learned the importance of expressing myself in a considerate but unreserved manner, as the people around me were very sincere when I tried to speak to them, even in poor English. Even so, I had a hard time due to misunderstandings caused by the language barrier, so I’ll continue learning English in the future.
I would like to continue my research to improve my skills while keeping in mind my own tolerance level. To realize my goal of working abroad, I would like to work for a foreign manufacturer or cooperate with local people on overseas business trips and contribute to society in the aerospace field.
