09:41 Saturday, March 12, 2022 (GMT+9) Time in Minami Ward, Sakai, Osaka

Hi, this my very first blog post. Who's gonna be reading this--my friends? Or could be myself in the future, looking back my past days in Germany.

Who am I?

I'm Kanta, a senior undergrad of Osaka Prefecture University (which is gonna be merged into Osaka Metropolitan University.). I will spend my whole final year at a research institution called DFKI a.k.a. German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence.

I will live there from March 23rd 2022 to March 22nd 2023. If you happen to be in somewhere in Europe or Germany, pls hit me up via my LinkedIn and let's have some coffee, or grab some beer---probably more like a German style!

What brings me to Germany?

Three important foctors that brings me to Germany:

(a) My strong interest in research of state-of-the-art AI technology

I have involved with AI technology as a part-time engineer; I've been always in the developing side rather than research field. Developing softwares is one of the most exciting things in my life. However, I've been always interested in research after belonging to my current lab. The whole process---making proposals, having discussion, hypothesis and carry out experiments to prove/disprove my hypothesis---turned out very exciting. DFKI is one of the best research institution of AI field, so it's an honor and pleasure to visit DFKI.

(b) Collaboration between OPU/OMU and DFKI/TUK for two decades.

I belong to Intelligent Media Processing Lab of OPU. Our professor has been collaborated with DFKI/TUK for two decades, which brought me such an amazing opportunity to visit DFKI. Here I appreciate my professors and whom may concern in TUK/DFKI and OPU/OMU.

By the way, a new DFKI branch will be located in my university. https://www.dfki.de/en/web/news/lab-japan-opu Currently DFKI have several branches in Germany, and it's a very first moment that DFKI opens its branches outside Germany.

(c) Scholarship---last but not least!

First and foremost, money is a big issue. Fortunately, my professor applied for JASSO scholarship----kinda governmental scholorship. This offeres me 80,000 JPY --- approx. 680 usd, or 625 euro --- per month. Sharing my life including financial aspects is one of my missions in German. I hope that my stories will help would-be international students in German as my senpais' blog helped me.

This blog is under development, as you clearly see

Many things remain undone about this blog, but done is better than perfect. So let's call it a blog!
I have to grab some good ramen with my frind from now. So, I stop writing here. Have a nice day!