Students' Voices

I was very impressed with the course “Advanced Lecture in Research Skills Development” that I took in my second year of my master’s degree, and that is when I started to show up in the QREC community. Although I joined QREC quite a few years later, I was given the opportunity to take on various challenges through my hobby of BONSAI, and I was able to gain new knowledge, skills, and connections that I normally would not have been able to obtain.

I believe that QREC is a place that is open to people with a strong desire to take on challenges, regardless of their faculty, grade, or nationality. It is never too late to take action. We are waiting for your challenge.

At QREC, I participated in the Acceleration Program and worked on the development of a device that would make bonsai more accessible and enjoyable. I had many valuable experiences, but the most important thing I learned was the idea that “it is natural for the first challenge to be difficult. I myself sometimes felt depressed when I was faced with something “impossible” in my first attempt. For example, I sometimes spent several hours on a problem that an experienced person could solve in five seconds. What helped me, however, was the idea that even experienced people who can solve a problem in five seconds now took years and five seconds to do so. I also learned that while it is important to be conscious of trying to solve problems on your own, it is also important to ask for help from your peers when you “can’t do it. I realized that we can achieve greater results by helping each other and not by taking on everything alone.
I want to emphasize the importance of not being too pessimistic and continuing to take small steps forward when you feel you can’t. Through QREC activities, I have gained not only development experience, but also opportunities to grow as a team and to lower the bar for my own challenges. Through QREC activities, I was able to gain not only development experience, but also opportunities to grow as a team and to lower the hurdles for my own challenges.

Can you engage in dialogue and immersion? As the theme of the meeting suggests, KuSoukai is the best place for me, a person who is driven by an awareness of the issues facing the world, to be able to immerse myself in my own issues while being stimulated through dialogue with mentors and members.
Dialogue with unique members who have different issues to solve not only gives you a chance to discover new aspects of your own issues that you could not see on your own, but it also provides an opportunity to encounter things you did not know before. In addition, being in an environment where you have someone you can talk to about your issues will give you the courage to try your best at what you want to do, and you will move forward much more powerfully than if you were to work alone.
Finally, Kyusokai is a place where you can be who you want to be and aim to be who you want to be. There are no easy mistakes or failures in Kyusokai. We support each other’s members who are fully committed to what they aspire to, and we all aim to shine with the colors of our hearts.

Kyusokai offers an environment in which each individual can explore to his or her heart’s content the fundamental themes that go to the core of life. Through dialogue with mentors and members, you can not only expand your framework of thought, but also take practical steps toward making a social contribution.
I have been thinking deeply about the human condition through the poverty and inequality I saw in Bangladesh in elementary school, the setbacks I experienced in middle and high school, and the process leading to my self-acceptance in college. This awareness of the issues led me to connect with the concept of well-being, which describes the good existence (state) of human beings, and to set a goal of using data to clarify the development of each individual’s mental health and level of consciousness. Through my activities at Kuusokai, I have had the opportunity to not only explore my goals, but also to grow internally through friendly competition with my peers.
We look forward to meeting people with a deep awareness of and insight into the issues of life and society.

I applied because I wanted to become a person who can contribute to the creation of new value by acquiring analytical and leadership skills through practical study of economic markets.
In the game, we had a variety of market-related materials (e.g., percentages of customer segments, market forecast studies, etc.), and in the limited time available in class time, we had to decide which customer segments we wanted to market our product to, what price, advertising costs, allocation of development costs, etc. With the vast amount of materials, it was difficult for the team to make decisions at first, and we had to take a lot of guesswork. However, by communicating to team members our motivation to grab the top spot in this game and our consideration of the game, we were able to share how to read the materials so that everyone could have the ability to make decisions, and we were able to make decisions quickly with everyone’s agreement. The time spent “learning” other teams’ strategies also allowed us to learn the weaknesses of our own strategies. My team had been languishing in 5th/6th place for a long time, but in the last period, we made decisions based on our previous team considerations and the information we got from other teams, and were able to make a huge comeback and take first place.
Through the lectures, I was able to learn in a practical way the importance of management judgment, decision-making skills, teamwork building, and the importance of always taking positive action and learning from others. I think this is a very enjoyable class where students can learn through hands-on experience the concepts used in management!

Meeting Kyusokai helped me find what I really want to do. At Kyusokai, I was able to share not only the projects I wanted to work on, but also life advice and worries, and it became an important place for me. When I applied for the program, I was worried about whether or not I would be selected, but as I went through the selection interviews, I could clearly see the problems I was facing and how to solve them, and we had a very enjoyable conversation at the final interview. I was able to participate in the mentoring without any problems, although I had to participate online because my study abroad program and the Kuusokai fell on the same day. I was able to participate in the mentoring without any problems. I learned a lot from the real entrepreneurs who spoke at the mentoring, and it really boosted my motivation to start my own business. Before applying to the KuSoukai, I had a lot of trouble verbalizing what I really wanted to do, but I was able to give shape to my ideas by interviewing senior students and QREC professors who had actually been selected for the program, and I was successfully selected. If you are wondering whether to apply or not, please do not think alone. By doing so, I believe you will be able to gradually give shape to your thoughts. I look forward to meeting all of you who will be in the third term!

This is a warm place. For the aspirant, the other is not a competitor or someone to be confronted and defeated. I am your potential and you are someone else’s potential. We are a group of people who understand this. In a word, it could be abstracted as a psychologically safe environment, but I don’t want to use it easily because it would take away their good qualities. The place where people who make you think so gather is Kyuusoukai.

I am conducting research on satellite engines, and was motivated by the desire to (1) build an experimental aircraft and (2) connect our technology to the big picture of the space business, so I applied to Kyusokai and C&C and was selected for funding. After the project was adopted, we used the funds we received to develop the experimental vehicle and build its environment, and at the same time, I had the opportunity to pitch my research and business ideas to various newly formed connections. While it is a pleasure to share my vision with many people, I am often troubled by the distance between what I ultimately want to create through space engineering and the research problem at hand. In fact, if what I tell people during wall-breaking sessions, such as “If only we had a propulsion system, we could do this kind of project,” is a “dream,” then I feel that the research plans I write for research grant applications are more concrete, “highly realistic solutions,” and that continually wall-breaking to people is a constant back and forth between this dream and a realistic solution. I feel that continually wall-banging people is also a constant back-and-forth between this gap between the dream and the realistic solution. Sometimes we are faced with problems that are clearly beyond our abilities, but I think the great thing about the QREC program is that we can take steps toward long-term, essential solutions without being impatient for short-term results, and that kind of trial-and-error is encouraged.
Another attraction of QREC is that students can learn knowledge that they feel is lacking through practical activities in a classroom setting.

I want to build a device that will automatically water my bonsai!” This was the first time we were invited to participate in the Accelerator Program. At first, our goal was to create the product we wanted to build, but through the feedback we received from entrepreneurs and VCs in the Accelerator Program, we realized that our vision for the product we were working on was expanding. In addition to the grant, our participation in the Accelerator Program provided us with support in the product development environment, such as a workroom (BasE) and a machine shop, which allowed us to concentrate on development without any delays. The Accelerator Program brought together students from various faculties and graduate schools to implement various ideas, and I believe that being able to share techniques and information with each other led to the development of the product from multiple perspectives. I am very grateful to Dr. Watanabe, Dr. Kaneko, and the other people at QREC for always being accommodating and thinking together with us. I enjoyed learning about development, presentation, fundraising, etc. in a practical way with the members of the program! Even after participating in the program, I felt that the accelerator program was a big step toward realizing what we wanted to do.

Being from the countryside, I have not had much experience learning about AI, so I am glad that I could learn about AI and the industries that are relevant to today’s society in this class. What I was most interested in in this class was entrepreneurship. In the countryside, there is still a strong conservative mindset and a tendency for people to believe that “the stakes are high. However, I thought it was very good that the lecturers in this class had a positive view of the challenge of starting a new business. I am very glad that I was able to attend this class because I think this is a way of thinking that I would never have been exposed to if I had not come to Kyushu University. I was also surprised that many of the lecturers were actively involved in club activities, job hunting, programming, and other activities from their student days. I am glad that I was able to receive such stimulation because I had been a bit lazy and relaxed since I had successfully entered university.

QREC is a dojo to test your abilities. I’m late to introduce myself. I am Riki Yamagami, a.k.a. Ricky. Let me quickly tell you about QREC. In a word, it is a dojo where you can test your mettle. You have thought about what you want to do or what you are interested in, but you don’t know what to do. QREC is the dojo for you. Why dojo? You need to actively communicate with professors, students, external lecturers, and staff members to create your ideas. QREC will do its best to support you from the initial action until you give shape to your idea. Well, of course, there are those who do nothing. People who do nothing are what is commonly called “conscious people,” and I personally dislike them. Well, I am not so smart as to create a company as a 20th birthday present to myself. If you are interested in what I am doing at the company, please search for Riki Yamagami on Facebook and contact me. Finally, there are some pretty sophisticated and interesting students lurking in the QREC community, as well as in our classes. We invite you to take a look into QREC’s classes and community as well.

I joined QREC because I wanted to do something new with my remaining year of college life after my job search was over.

I feel that I have learned the following two points in particular through the activities of QREC.
・That there are many things that can only be understood by trying.
There are many barriers before an idea can take shape. It is important to give shape to ideas as quickly as possible, even on a small scale, through trial and error.
・To increase opportunities by taking lots of action.
Participating in the Co-creation Practice with Industry on Ideathon / Hackathon gave me the chance to join Accela. I also went to BasE (QREC’s co-working space), where I met people who were also committed to something, helped each other, and shared motivation.

Recommended subjects are output-based programs.
QSHOP allows you to experience making money on your own. Accelerator allows you to experience the process of starting a business based on technology. Hackathon exercises allow you to experience turning your ideas into products.

If you are wondering whether to join QREC at all, please join us! You will learn and meet many things that you cannot get in your regular classes or daily life!