This section introduces what graduate students at UTokyo-IIS think and feel through their daily research activities, extracurricular activities, and daily life.

I was admitted being a master student and joined the Takamiya Makoto Lab. and UTokyo-IIS in 2022 autumn but didn’t come to the Lab. until August in autumn 2023 due to COVID-19 limitation. My research topic is gate driver IC on power devices such as IGBT and SiC (Silicon Carbide). Power devices are widely used in different areas, and gate driver IC, which functions as controlling, is a key part in power device utilization.

I haven’t done the research of integrated circuit before, so everything is new to me in the Lab. It was a tough time in the beginning of the research and thanks to the help to my professor and everyone in the Lab., I managed to master the experiment gradually. The research on IC design differs from my thought before. There is more work to do after design and fabrication of the chip. It takes lots of time to do measurement and evaluate a new chip as internal signal is unable to detect and there will be lots of noise when doing high voltage experiment.

UTokyo-IIS occupies in a separated area Komaba campus, bringing in a quite area differs from the campus accompanying with lots of students. People I encounter here are mostly researchers, leading to a busy but chill life pace. I often come to the Lab. at around noontime so that I can sort out some of my work at home after waking up and leave for dinner in Shimokitazawa at around 19:00. There are sometimes activities held by UTokyo-IIS such as the firework party in star festival. Studying abroad is enjoyable to me, the everyday life in UTokyo-IIS is defiantly a significant part amount it.

Text: 周 浩熹 (Haoxi Zhou)
Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems, Graduate School of Engineering, UTokyo
Department of Informatics and Electronics, UTokyo-IIS
Makoto Takamiya Lab., M2