Japan and US exchange students

This summer 14 U.S. undergraduate students, including three from Rice, did research in Japan, and eight Japanese undergraduate students came to Rice to do research. The exchange was made possible through the Nakatani RIES: Research and International Experiences for Students Program. While abroad, RIES fellows participate in language, cultural and communication training and conduct a hands-on research internship in a leading science or engineering research host laboratory. The program helps Rice achieve its strategic initiatives to promote international engagement and cultural understanding and to enhance research. RIES serves as a catalyst for U.S. and Japanese students interested in future graduate study and research and contributes to the development of a generation of globally engaged scientists and engineers who have the technical and culture skills to contribute to future international research collaborations. The Nakatani RIES Program is organized by the Nakatani Foundation and implemented by Rice’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Nakatani fellows and their university affiliation are (from left):

Front row: Toshihiro Takada (Ritsumeikan University), Soya Miyoshi (Tohoku University), Yunong Wang (Toyota Technological Institute), Ayaka Yoshida (Waseda University), Sasha Yamada (University of Hawaii, Manoa), Mayssa Gregoire (St. Joseph’s College), Brinda Malhotra (Carnegie Mellon University) and Hiromi Miwa (Keio University).

Middle row: Tatsuya Tanaka (Waseda University), Haihao Liu (Rice), Chandni Rana (University of Florida), Erica Lin (Brown University), Ronald Ballouz (University of Texas at Austin), Takuya Kurihana (University of Tsukuba) and Nobuyoshi Hiramatsu (University of Tokyo).

Back row: Brianna Garcia (Rice), Daniel Gilmore (Purdue University), Shweta Modi (Cornell University), Benjamin Kaiser (Bethel University), Nickolas Walling (Rice) and Youssef Tobah (University of Texas at Austin).

Not pictured: Donald Swen (Willamette University).

Photo by Jeff Fitlow