SAKURA SCIENCE High School Program Group 5
Learning About World-class Materials Research at NIMS
On the afternoon of Wednesday, August 2, 45 high school students from the SSHP Group 5 from the Philippines and Singapore visited the National Institute of Materials Science (NIMS: Tsukuba City). NIMS is Japan's only national research institute specializing in materials science. It has achieved groundbreaking research results in substances and materials.
After receiving a welcome greeting by Dr. Uchikoshi Tetsuro and an overview of NIMS, Dr. EKSATIT a researcher, gave a self-introduction about her experience that after coming to Japan on the Sakura Science Program (SSP), She applied to the NIMS University-Linked Program (NIMS Student Program) and obtained her PhD, and has subsequently continued her research at the same organization. The Sakura Science Program has been implemented for about 10 years since its start. SSHP's students can see the program's mission has been attained in a practical form, and that it should be deepened in terms of the significance of participation of this program.
(Alumnus of the Sakura Science Program participated in the program implemented at NIMS in 2017.)
After that, the students were divided into three groups and visited the lab. In "Data Science for polymer materials," the students were given and explanation of development methods using data science in the development of polymer materials where complex elements are intertwined, and they observed this. Furthermore, after explaining that "Luminous nanoparticles" emit light when the material is nano-sized, the students actually experienced how silicon nanoparticles glow.
Also, in preparation for the coming hydrogen society, with a "hydrogen microscope," the students learned about the operand hydrogen microscope, which can visualize and observe the movement of hydrogen. Hydrogen is one of the major causes of fragility of metals. All of them were quite specialized content, but the high school students were enthusiastic to ask questions, and take notes. They seemed very impressed. This visit allowed them to get in touch with the depth of material science research and world-class research.
