Affective Laboratory

We have a laboratory room in West 9 building, O-okayama campus, Tokyo Tech.

You will have your own desk and computer in lab room. You share the room with other members.

After you become a member of our laboratory, lab room is your base. You will spend most of your time in lab room for research activities. You tend to go to classrooms and seminar meetings from lab room, rather than directly from your home. Sometime you may want to stay overnight for your research, and may also have a party in lab. Lab room is like your "second home".

We also have an experiment room and a work room for our lab, as well as common facilities for our department, in the same building.

We do not have any "core time", that is, the specific time period you are required to work in lab every day, such as 9 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon. Except for some special tasks which you are restricted to do inside lab, you are OK to work in any places outside lab: your home, libraries, and cafe. However, it is OK as long as you bring appropriate outputs every week, commensurable for your reasonable effort for one week. Do not think that you have to do your research activity only for several hours on the day before the seminar meeting; if you do that way, your research project will soon meet with the setback.

Seminar (often referred to as "semi" [ze-mi] in Japanese universities) is a meeting session in lab, usually with your supervisor. Seminar meetings are your opportunities for learning, sharing ideas, and discussions. The seminar meetings is also a major driver for your research projects as well.

Our laboratory has several seminars weekly during semesters (except for breaks). Standard time period for each seminar is 90 min (and 45 min for each doctorate student).

Because a large number of our laboratory members are international students, we use English in seminar meetings where all members will participate (and some team meetings as well).

All-lab meeting

All of our laboratory members are required to participates in weekly all-lab meetings. This is opportunities to know what other members are doing, as well as giving constructive supports and feedbacks for others doing their research.

In all-lab meeting, we also have some special weeks called "International Days". These are our opportunities to learn about the countries our members are coming from, and also to enjoy the foods of the countries. We had had Spanish Days, Ecuadorian Days, Thai Days, Korean Days, and Chinese Days.

Dojo-Yaburi

In dojo-yaburi (= "defeating another school") sessions, we challenge other laboratories.  We visit other laboratories and present new research ideas, and ask people in other laboratory to criticize or comment on them. We conduct this dojo-yaburi sessions several times per year, depending on the availability of other laboratories.

Reading seminar

Every semester, we choose a book and read it with all members throughout the semester. The book is chosen from candidates of our common interests, by voting by all members. We read some amount of pages (e.g. a chapter) every week, and discuss about the contents.

Writing seminar

New members who have just joined our lab, including undergraduate students as well as new graduate students who are from other laboratories, departments, or universities, are required to participate in this seminar in which you will learn fundamental skills of finding articles relevant to your research topics, reading them, and summarizing them as an academic documents.

Team meetings

Our laboratory is continuously doing team projects in order to pursue our laboratory's mission, in addition to your own thesis research. You are required to participate in at least one research team. Every team has a weekly meeting through semesters.

B4 seminar

Once undergraduate (B4) students start their own research projects, you will have a weekly seminar with other B4 students and your supervisor to discuss about your own research projects as well as your mates. This is the major driver for your undergraduate research projects.

M1 seminar

In weekly seminar for master students in their first year (M1 students), you will intensively read articles relevant to your research interests. It is also a preparation for the Colloquium class where all M1 students will present the articles they read in turn and discuss.

M2 seminar

M2 seminar concentrate on the thesis research projects of the master students in their second year (M2 students) through the year. This is the major driver for your master thesis research projects.

Doctorate seminar

Seminar sessions for doctorate students are dedicated for your research projects. Being different from research seminar meetings for other students, doctorate seminar meetings are one-on-one meetings where each of you talk with supervisor individually. Standard time for doctorate seminar is 45min for each.

Retreat

Once a year (usually in September), all lab members go together to a retreat camp, usually for 2 nights 3 days. During a retreat, all lab members continue a series of very intensive discussions about missions, as well as on-going and potential research topics of our laboratory.

Senior (bachelor 4, or B4) students belong to laboratories for their undergraduate thesis projects.

Most of the students have finished their course work by the time they join lab (by their third grade). So they do not go to classes so much and spend most of time for their research activities in lab.

After you join our lab, you will learn how research activities are by participating team projects in the first semester. You will learn about the methods, tools, and procedures of our research area, and actually contribute to our research activities. You will also learn about how to find articles, how to read them, and write academic documents through a special seminar for new comers.

The students who want to continue your research in graduate school, you may also prepare for the entrance exam (usually conducted in Summer).

From the end of the first semester to throughout the second semester, you will find your own research topic for your undergraduate thesis. You will refine your research topic, plan your research project and actually conduct it, analyze, and summarize as a thesis by the end of the second semester, with weekly seminar sessions with your supervisor.

The first year of master students are rather busy taking classes. You will spend a large part of your time for course work, in addition to lab's seminar sessions you are required to participate (all-lab, dojo-yaburi, reading, and M1) and team projects as well.

If you are joining from other laboratories, other departments, or other universities, you are also asked to participate in the writing seminar, where you will learn about the fundamental skills of finding articles, reading them, and summarizing as an academic document.

Typically in the end of the first year, you will start your thesis research project. You start discussion with your supervisor first, but you will also have opportunities to receive constructive feedbacks and suggestions through all-lab meetings and dojo-yaburi.

Once you fix your research topic, you will concentrate on your research project for the most of your second year.

Doctorate students are considered as members who are dedicated to research activities.

You do not have to take much classes. Except for seminar sessions in lab, you will have much freedom for your time.

However, it does not mean that you are free and you have to work only for several hours per week.

In contrast, you are expected to bring advances in your research as reasonable outputs of your efforts for one week. That means, you are required to manage your own working time by yourself.