Overseas Student Internship Program (OSIP) Experience

Matsue National College of Technology (MNCT), Japan

23rd July – 14th October 2012

Life in Matsue



Matsue National College of Technology

The place that I had my internship was at Matsue, Kosen. Many people do not really know where this place is but what I can tell you is that it is a peaceful and quiet city. It is a place where you can go sightseeing.

The company or rather university that I was attached to is Matsue National College of Technology (MNCT). During these 3 months, I have gained more knowledge in different areas such as IT skills and Japan tradition and culture. Other than that, I also got the opportunity to explore around Matsue.

Work Assigned

The work scope for my internship is to learn Java programming skills and creating a website to share about my life in Matsue. The website included the information of the places, activities, Java and a photo gallery that showed my experience in Matsue.

I first started with learning Java and it was not as new as what I thought since there are some similarities with PHP which I learnt. I am glad that I get to learn a new skill which will be useful for my major projects or even in my future work. My training adviser will also spare some time to teach me on Java and gave me a book to guide me and learn. Though there might be some language barrier but still we managed to communicate. One of my lab mates is from Laos, he knows how to speak English. Therefore most of the time he would help me to translate for my teacher to understand.

Index page of my website

Tanzaku near the girl dorm’s entrance for Tanabata Festival

Firework taken during the Suigo-sai Festival

Coincidentally during these 3 months, we get to experience their Suigo-sai festival (Firework Festival), Tanabata festival (Star festival) and Kosen festival (School festival). The suigo-sai festival is one of the well known festivals in Japan. In Matsue, people will gather at the Lake of Shinji and everyone sitting together to watch the firework.

 As for the school’s festival, it is my first time taking part. It is a big event of the school and students will set up stalls selling foods, exhibition or involve in various performances. This festival allows me to try out the local Japanese foods and experience how Japan’s school festival is like. All the students are very enthusiastic and spend lots of effort preparing for the festival.

My page about the school’s festival (Kosen Festival)

Places We Shopped and Ate at

Matsue Castle

Kaguraden, Izumo Taisha’s shrine

AEON, the shopping mall in Matsue

Other than just doing work and learning, we also had fun. Our kind Japanese friends brought us to the well-known Matsue Castle, Izumo Taisha, Kura Sushi shop and Kamiyo Soba shop. On our own, we also explored around, we went to the Koura beach and AEON.

We also got to taste the delicious local food such as ramen, sushi, udon, takoyaki and yakisoba.

Okonomiyaki and Takoyaki, well-known in Osaka

Kura’s  Sushi

Char Siew Ramen

People in Matsue


Personally I found that the people in Matsue are very patient and kind. As foreigners, we tended to have some problems in communicating with them. Nevertheless, they are very patient to repeat or try to express their ideas to us until we understood.

Teachers and students we got to know for this internship

The students at Matsue are also very friendly and outgoing. They seldom reject people.


Other than that, when we went shopping, the staff in the shop always wear a smile on their faces and greet us politely.

Overall, this trip is really fruitful and I wish that I have the chance to come back here again.


Written by Wong Li Tene

Overseas Student Internship Program (OSIP) Experience

Matsue National College of Technology (MNCT), Japan

23rd July – 14th October 2012

   

Robot Programming

In this OSIP, I was assigned to Control Engineering Department in the Matsue National College of technology (MNCT) where I was assigned to assemble robots and write codes to move the robots. I also had to write documentation for the codes that I created and lastly is to prepare a document for education purpose. Firstly, I tried to assemble the beginner robots using one of the software called RoboPlus Task, and from the sample codes, I tried to learn and understand how the codes made the robots move. Next, I assembled the intermediate robots using RoboPlus Task and RoboPlus Motion, and also from the codes I learnt and understood how the codes made the robots move. Next, I also learnt how to use RoboPlus Manager, how to manage the parts of the robots.

Next, I also learnt 2 theories of Robots which are Forward Kinematics and Inverse Kinematics. Forward Kinematics refers to the use of the kinematic formulas of a robot to compute the position of the end-effector from specified values for the joint parameters (Point X and Y). While, Inverse Kinematics refers to the use of kinematics formulas of a robot to computes the joint parameters (Motors’ angles) that achieve a specified position of the end-effector. I try to understand the theory by using Excel to generate the answers from the formulas given.

Next, I also learnt to use the another software called Embedded C and write simple codes for Forward and Inverse Kinematics to run the robots which are tested using 1 motor, 2 motors and 3 motors. I also wrote Document Guide for Forward Kinematics and Inverse Kinematics after I had finished my codes. Next, I also wrote codes for controlling 3 motors using keyboard inputs by the users, and after that, I also wrote a guide for it. Lastly, I wrote a guide for educational purpose for the Japanese Students in the school (3rd Grade students) with the help from a teacher.

However, when writing the codes, I met some difficulties such as the codes were not able to run where there are some errors. When I had difficulties in the codes, I would ask my lab mates and teacher-in-charge about the mistakes that I made and they would explain to me where I was wrong and guided me.

I enjoy my 3 month OSIP in Japan. It was fun, interesting and meaningful to me. I also learnt about the culture in Japan where it is very different compare to Singapore. I also experience some festivals in Japan such as Suigo-sai and Tanabata. From this experience, it allows me to prepare for my future such as becoming more independence, able to familiarize with a new place, people, things and language.

Written by Lim Kah Ee Esther

Overseas Student Internship Program (OSIP) Experience

Matsue National College of Technology (MNCT), Japan

23rd July – 14th October 2012

I was sent over to Matsue, Japan, on a Student Internship to study robotics. This was a 12 week program, and it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve ever gone through. I mean, how often is it that you get to play with Lego-like toys AND still have it count towards your internship? Well, that was exactly how it felt like for the first two weeks. Using Bioloid parts from Robotis, I created several different sample robots, loaded in their respective sample codes and watched them work.

This was just to get me familiar with building and programming the robots. Now the difficulty level increased a little. After the 3rd week, I built a simple robot arm, and had to program it from scratch. I was taught Kinematics and Inverse Kinematics, and had to be able to construct programs that allowed the robot arm to move given either angles of the joints, or coordinates within its reach.


Kinematics and Inverse Kinematics were basically trigonometric equations used to tell the robot what to do, but I hadn’t touched it in three years, so I was more than a little rusty. Kinematics, or Forward Kinematics, was about telling the robot what angles to achieve in its joints, then have it display the coordinates. Inverse Kinematics, obviously, is the reverse of this.

One of the difficulties I had was the simplicity of the code I used, Embedded C. It could process floats, but not display them. This was a little annoying at first, because I’d only see integers and wonder why I should have gotten decimal points. The solution we eventually arrived at was to concatenate the integer, a full stop, and the decimal part multiplied by 100 to become and integer. This wasn’t foolproof, as we had problems with decimals like .01 and .06, but it was the best we could do with such a simple language. I wasn’t too thrilled with that. Anyway, during the last month, I had to create an experiment task for the October intake of students. It was a simple report, and my supervisor guided me through.

Looking back at this internship and comparing it to my friend’s, I now see that it was not too difficult. It had its difficulties along the way, but I would have appreciated something a little more challenging. However, this has brought me one step closer to my career goal of experiencing all non-obsolete programming languages at least once.



Written by Wesley Jace Tan