Self Introduction

I am Bui Thi Thuy Dung, from Vietnam.

I am currently an M. Sc. Candidate in the Department of Information and Communication Engineering of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. Since all the lectures I am attending are conducted in Japanese, they're very challenging to me. I find myself spending a lot of time in preparing for lectures, understanding the given material, as well as in writing reports. For someone with my level of Japanese proficiency this comes as a big challenge. However I would also consider it an opportunity --- an excellent opportunity for me to improve my Japanese.

One can learn many important lessons when dealing with new challenges. These challenges are important in themselves, regardless of whether one eventually succeeds or not. It's more important that we face challenges, accept them, and strive for our best.

Studying in Japan not only made me more friends, I also had interesting experiences travelling around, taking photographs of scenic Japan, as well as learning more about Japanese and their culture. My other hobby is singing. I can't sing very well but I find it a good way to get rid of stress. I find myself attracted to Japanese music and this is another motivation for me to study Japanese hard.

Research Topic

I spent a year researching on the topic of "algorithms for finding association rules in data mining". There is an increasing amount of data kept in companies' databases today. Finding information from this data is considered an important task. More precisely, the relationship between database objects is considered useful information. These relationships are called association rules, and the problem of finding these rules is an important topic in the field of data mining. While association rules are simple in form, they are extremely valuable, and are useful in decision making. My research was in algorithms that are able to handle longitudinal data. We were able to show the usefulness of our algorithms through experiments in sales promotion, diagnosis, and student registrations.

At present I am researching in hand-writing recognition. While I have little grasp of the background knowledge of this field, I find it really interesting, with far-reaching applications in so many areas. In order to deepen my knowledge in this area, I am working very hard reading books and papers on it.

Thoughts on having joined the program

I find the level of this program really high. When I first met the other members of this program, I was caught speechless at the level of their Japanese. However, since the people are always willing to offer me help, I have not found communication a problem.

Even though there are a lot of thing to do in this program I find them interesting. Learning about Business Japanese and the coorporate culture of Japan helped me understand well why many Japanese companies are the best in the world. This made me want to work even harder so that I can work in Japan when I graduate.

Advice to others who are considering joining this program

To a foreign student, language is one of the most difficult challenges. Besides studying for your major, you also have to study English and Japanese.

Enjoy yourself, study hard so that you can make the most out of this opportunity.