Activity Report of Open Application Course vol.5
First step in constructing a Materials Asian Network
Report from Mie University
Five Indonesian students from the Master Study Program at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) were invited to an exchange program held at Mie Univ. from October 16 to 25, 2017.
Based on the "surface interface nano-materials design method" developed by Mie Univ., the exchange program invites Asian graduate students with a strong interest in related fields to conduct joint research with graduate students at Mie Univ.
After arriving at Mie Univ., Indonesian students attended an opening ceremony. The next day, they had an orientation on program contents and other details of their stay in Japan. Students receive an explanation on materials science and materials design methods. They also attended a lecture on first-principle calculation methods.
Through cooperation from students in the master's program for physical engineering at Mie Univ., Indonesian started their learning from basic exercises for using UNIX computers. Examples include creation of shell scripts for file input and program execution, and creation of programs for data processing.
From the third day of the program, a discussion was held with Mie Univ. graduate students to exchange opinions on materials design for ultra-thin film nano-scale structures intended for use as materials in energy-saving devices. Students set a joint research theme on band structures for magnetic ultra-thin films and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Magnetic-ultra thin film is a key material for next-generation spintronic devices. Calculating band structures for various materials made it possible to achieve a systematic understanding of properties. It was also possible to observe perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in ultra-thin film.
In the second half of the program, students toured a laboratory (Imanishi Group) in the Graduate School of Engineering and a laboratory (Miyake Laboratory) in the Research Institutes for Excellence on Materials Science and Advanced Electronics Created by Singularity. Students received an explanation on the history and prospects for battery research. They also manufactured actual lithium batteries inside of a chamber and rotated a windmill that powers miniature light bulbs by using advanced air secondary batteries. Everyone enjoyed the experience.
Students also received an explanation on nitride semiconductors. They visited a clean room to observe the process of crystal growth for nitride semiconductors and manufacturing for optical devices. This allowed students to directly experience advanced technology for optical electronics. Additionally, they participated in an international workshop held by the Graduate School of regional Innovation Studies at Mie Univ. and made a courtesy visit to the Dean of the Graduate School of Engineering.
Through interaction and social events, Indonesian students also formed personal relationships with faculty and students at Mie Univ. On Saturday, the group visited Kyoto. On Sunday, they were scheduled to visit Ise City—unfortunately, they were forced to remain at their hotel due to the record rainfall caused by Typhoon Lan.
On the final day of the program, Associate Professor Nugroho from Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) visited our school. Students held an MIE-ITB Joint Workshop to present their results. It was a successful end to the program.
Although ten days was an extremely short time, we succeeded in taking the first step towards the final goal of the program: the construction of a next-generation Materials Asian Network. Also, we succeeded in starting joint research between the two universities. In closing, we would like to express our gratitude to the Sakura Science for providing us with this invaluable opportunity.