From Thao Pham, D1 student
33rd Sensor Symposium this year was chosen to hold in Hirado island where a beautiful and historic location full of interesting museums, Christian churches, white sandy beaches and an imposing castle in Nagasaki prefecture from 24th to 26th October.
Sensor Symposium has been the leading conference for the researchers in sensors, MEMS and their application systems in Japan with the long development since 1981. With the academic supports from Tanaka sensei and Yoshida sensei, I highly appreciated a great chance to attend this conference. Actually, it was more difficult to reveal how eager I was because it was the great opportunity not only to approach the other researches in the Japanese universities and Taiwan universities, but also to understand Japanese history.
The conference activity was started with the invited talks from the important professors, and welcome party. Introductions of young researchers from various universities was also interesting part in this party. In additional, follow the schedule of the conference, Japan and Taiwan International Exchange Symposium was also held with the attendance of famous professors in Japan and Taiwan. Key information for connecting and collaborating between Japan and Taiwan, in general, and between the particular laboratories also shared in this forum.
My presentation was on the first day of the conference, and I felt slightly nervous at the previous time before it happened. However, according on the tips and strongly encouragements from all sensei, Tanaka sensei, Yoshida sensei, and Suzuki sensei, I gave my presentation quite well.
On the last day, Awards in 33rd Sensor Symposium was announced. Yukio Suzuki sensei and coauthors was honored with Outstanding Technical Paper Award for "Fabrication of Deep TSV in Laser-Erased CMOS LSI Multi-Project Wafer for Surface Mountable Integrated MEMS" presented in IEEJ 33rd Sensor Symposium. The paper "Fabrication and Verification of a Stacked-Assembled Device with Seesaw-Electrode Type Tactile Sensor and Sensor Platform LSI" coauthored by Toyota Central R&D Labs, Toyota Motor and us was selected for Outstanding Poster Award in IEEJ 33rd Sensor Symposium. The top author was Hata-san at Toyota Central R&D Labs.
Beside on the conference time, I also had time for investigating the history and travelling to some famous places in Hirado. As searching before, the first place which I was chosen for visiting is Hirado Dutch Trading Post (平戸オランダ商館, Hirado Oranda Shōkan). This trading post was set up as the base of operations of Dutch East India Company in Japan in 1609 after De Liefde (charity), the first Dutch ship, to reach Japan in 1600. This trading post was reconstructed in 2011, and inside it is an excellent museum that chronicles the history of Japanese-Dutch relations and explains how international trade and commerce was conducted at that time. I also found a Dutch-Japanese lady there. And the second place, St.Francis Xavier Memorial Church was the next spot where I decided to visit. It is home to some interesting Christian churches dating back one hundred years or so. Anyway, I believe that you will find out another interesting thing on this beautiful island when you come there.
Once again, I would like to send my highly appreciation to the great supports from Tanaka sensei and Yoshida sensei for my opportunity to attend this conference. I think that I received many things from 33rd Sensor Symposium, such as new connections with other younger researchers from various universities, Tokyo university, Ritsumeikan university, etc.
