−Table of Contents
NEW (2025/06/13) Discussion report (must)
NEW (2025/05/30) Update (Advice to students)
From: Liang Zhao Subject: [FWI] (important) About your stay with FWI Date: Fri, 30 May 2025 14:59:24 +0900 Hello members of FWI, I am writing you to share some important information. First, I have decided not to accept Chinese student for this year except for those who already has had my offer. This decision has already been posted to the homepage of our website. Second, please read carefully the "Public information at FWI". I want to make it sure that everyone understand and follow Japanese rules (even if you may have different opinions), especially international students as the proverb says, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Third, I strongly ask everyone to focus on research when you are with this group. Here is Kyoto University, a place famous for the quality of research. This is especially important to international students as you need to do better than average Japanese students in order to get respect from the Japanese society. For the last issue, I plan to put more efforts in supervising your research and will ask you follow my suggestions strictly in doing research (unless you do better than me). Roughly speaking, to get the PhD degree in 5 years (from the first year of master course), I consider usually students needs to work 8 hours (or 4 hours if you have a lot of lectures) a day. This include Saturdays and weekdays in the Summer/Winter/Spring vacations.
Public information at FWI
Schedule
Discussion report (NEW)
- Every time before and after a discussion with Prof. Zhao (including both group meetings and personal discussion), please fill this report (Explanation in English).
General rules
Three fundamental rules in Japan (according to an interview on Prof. Masashi Haneda)
- ルールを守る / Follow the rules.
- 人に迷惑をかけない / Avoid to trouble others.
- 空気を読む (KY) / Read between the lines (Direct translation: Read the atmosphere).
Be on time
- Speakers shall arrive 10 minutes before to prepare the meeting (open the door, prepare the projector, air conditioner, light, curtain, tables, chairs, etc).
- Non-speakers arrive 5 minutes before. You can help the speakers in preparation.
- Gonna to be late? Send an email to ML before the seminar. If you are going to be absent, please inform Prof. Zhao at least one day before.
- Reply an email in the same day you received it. If you cannot reply, then reply (in the same day) with statement when you will reply.
My advice to Chinese students
Hints in doing research
- (Must) Find the literature from high-quality databases Web of Science and SCOPUS (Google scholar is considered a low-quality database). See https://www.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/erdb/13505 for how to access those paid service.
- How to write business email（in Japanese）https://tech.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/nxt/column/18/00667/032800002/
- How to write a research paper: https://aw.gsais.kyoto-u.ac.jp/research/template-of-a-research-paper
- How to do research (in Chinese） https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/85pGxXidvCDXgM9_S73WYQ
- 美国教授写给被开除的中国学生的信（中文, Chinese） https://m.jjl.cn/case/218000.html
On paper and slides
- Paper should follow the format for QE (see a template in LaTeX). It can be incomplete but should be prepared carefully. Please submit the source file (or a compressed archive if there are more than two source files) and a PDF.
- Presentation file contains the slides. If you modified the slides after uploading, please re-upload it again.
- Uploading is done by Media Manager. Please name your file as date-name-filetype.ext such as 20170410-liangz-slides.pdf.
- Put time, event information, slide numbers in your presentation.
- Add citations of the information (even in the presentation file) that are not your own works.
- Analyze or demonstrate how your research is related to what you introduced and why your research may help.
- Always submit documents one day before the deadline, since you may miss it due to some unexpected happening on the deadline day.
Meet Prof. Zhao
- Ask for an appointment one week before (two weeks preferred)
- For recommendation letter, prepare a draft first then ask one week before the deadline.
- For reviewing a document, contact at least three days before the deadline.
Convenient tools
- (MUST) Reference management software, e.g., Zotero.
- (MUST) Use docker with Linux for reproducibility of your research. Read this tutorial.
- English proof, translation, and refine your article with ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com → ask it to refine an article).
- Convert documents between various formats → pandoc
- You can create a personal namespace user:yourname (e.g., user:liang) and put all your documents (paper, slides, other files) in that namespace by the Media Manager. See an illustration.
- Use Linux instead of Windows/Mac OS for professional works. I like Linux Mint (MATE edition) and dual boot Linux + Windows/Mac OS.
- Use latex instead of Word for professional writing. You can learn latex in 30 minutes and/or use Overleaf.
Resource
- kwisper (professors only)
- Big Data Mining and Analytics : open access and free (2024/07/18)
- Python 入門 (喜多先生著 https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/handle/2433/245698)
- (obsolete by ChatGPT) English Grammar Check (Please submit your document after this check): https://www.grammarly.com
- (obsolete by ChatGPT) Translation (Use it if you are not sure about your English): https://www.deepl.com/translator
Contributor wanted!
xournal++ is a good software for handwriting based lectures. It works for Linux, macOS and Windows 10, and is open sourced. We can contribute to this project by translating its interface into Chinese and Japanese languages. Volunteer wanted!
Hu, Rongqing donated 100 surgical masks to Toichi lab.