Applying skills honed in research of astrophysics to the area of sensing

I was aspiring to be a researcher of astrophysics in academia. However, this feeling changed after going through two great earthquakes in my life. Seeing how drastically earthquakes can shake the society, I changed my mind that I want to bring values to the society from my research. So I began my search for a researcher position in the private sector by participating in university-organized matching events that connect doctoral candidates and companies.

The reason for choosing NEC is because I had the great impression that NEC was putting a lot of effort into research activities in academia. Many NEC research papers have been accepted at top-class international conferences related to AI and machine learning. NEC also holds one of the largest numbers of patents in the world. So, I applied for a position at NEC with an interest in NEC’s competitive research achievements and technological prowess that have a strong presence in the world.

While I started out from a totally different field, i.e. astrophysics, looking back, I realized that the essence of my research in the doctoral course―observing interstellar medium in galaxies using radio waves and revealing the mechanism of star formation―was based on phenomena understanding. The basic flow of research starts from analysis using observation data, to understand why and how phenomena is occurred. Thinking that this process has something in common with sensing, one of NEC’s areas of research, I applied for a research position in this area and joined the company.

I almost stumbled on some differences in the first year when I joined NEC. At that time, I started the research to identify damaged parts on a bridge and quantifying their damage level as a next step of anomaly detection. Then, I had no knowledge of civil engineering and structural mechanics. I wasn't even aware of bridge structure then. I caught up by reading papers, discussing with a professor at universities conducting collaborative research, analyzing the actual measurement data, and carrying out structural mechanics simulations.

Once I managed to catch up and learned the specific expertise of the field, I didn't feel that there was a huge difference from what I used to do in the research of astrophysics. There were many similarities in the process to understand the phenomena from observation data, which helped me quickly get on track. In fact, my research paper about this topic in the first year at NEC was accepted at a top-class international conference in structural health monitoring.

Flexible research environment supported by NEC as a brand

Since I originally came from the field of astronomy, what I want to tell students who also have a basic science background such as physics, is that there is no need to hesitate to pursue a career as a corporate researcher. For both researchers in corporations and academia, the process to understand phenomena and to solve issues, analyzing observed data, referring basic principles and laws with your own knowledge is the same. You should be able to apply your abilities that you have developed. In fact, there are many active researchers in NEC who was specialized in astrophysics or other fields of basic science. If you are interested, I would like you to take on the challenge.

Regarding a characteristic feature of research at NEC, it would be the accessibility to fields that you cannot enter usually, while you can do during demonstration experiments and other opportunities. For example, in the collaborative research with an expressway service provider, I entered a service personnel-only passageway for a huge bridge at a port to install sensors while cars were passing through underneath. It was very thrilling but exciting experience.
 
This may be possible thanks to the branding of NEC. Fortunately, many people in Japan find NEC credible and the name is also known abroad at international conferences, which facilitates worldwide promotion of your technologies and developments. As goals, the laboratories also
 promote submission and publication of research papers for international conferences and journals in addition to future business contributions.

NEC also has multiple overseas laboratories that offer opportunities for discussion with their members. In fact, I was on a two-week business trip to NEC Laboratories America, also to participate in an international conference, just last week before this interview. (Related link) NEC Laboratories have an environment open to the world, which can be a great advantage for your research.

The Laboratories also have this rule called the “20% time” (Note). It means that as long as it’s within 20% of your work time, you can work on research that you like. This attractive offering enables you to flexibly expand and deepen your research driven by your own interest.