Report on attendance at Waseda-Tsukuba Leading Summer School 2015
The Waseda-Tsukuba Leading Summer School 2015 was held over the two-day period Saturday, August 1 and Sunday, August 2, 2015 at the studio of the Waseda University Graduate Program for Embodiment Informatics. This event, a joint program between the Waseda University Graduate Program for Embodiment Informatics and the Ph.D. Program in Empowerment Informatics (EMP), was participated by seven EMP students. During the event, participants were grouped into six teams, three of which took part in a debate. The team of first-year students Yasunari Asakura and Ishac Karlos won as the most persuasive debaters.
he winning debate team of Asakura and Ishac
This summer school program conducted jointly with Waseda University was an excellent opportunity to be inspired by many people through debating in English and interacting with other students at the studio where the Graduate Program for Embodiment Informatics is based.
In the debate on the question “Are Leading Program activities necessary?” we argued the negative position. Arguing on the psychological grounds that such activities were not necessary because what we do comes from spontaneous motivation and considering rebuttals through mock debates conducted within our team, it proved a chance to take part in lively discussions. To argue our side in the debate efficiently, we used an online text editor for close sharing of information in real time. We were able to achieve strong teamwork from preparation of materials prior to the debate through taking minutes during the debate and sharing information on how the debate unfolded and rebuttal arguments.
Although in the debate I argued from the point of view that Leading Program activities are unnecessary, I believe that exchange activities among different programs such as this summer school are highly meaningful as opportunities to test one’s own abilities and positive stimulus for future research activities. The experience of debating in English helped me to work to improve my abilities to look at a single issue broadly from multiple perspectives and to express myself in English. These are skills essential to human resources who will develop fields of knowledge on the world stage in the future, and this experience gave me a strong feel for the need to improve these abilities diligently in the future.
The ice breaker session on the first day
For me the main objective of going to a Summer School is to learn about something new and exciting. This year’s Summer School for Leading Students at the University of Waseda delivered just that. As the theme of this Summer School was debate, Saturday we started with a refresher in debating skills, before we set out to prepare for our important debates on Sunday. The debates focused on significant topics such as whether attending leading graduate school events should be compulsory and whether the master thesis for leading students should be abolished. For the last debate we were given a fun topic, as we were asked to discuss the resolution stating that leading students should have a boyfriend or girlfriend. Even though the topic was less serious than the other two, our team did not take the challenge lightheartedly. We were affirmative of the resolution, so we had to defend the honor of students living a private life next to their research.
We had to see the problem from multiple viewpoints and anticipate the moves of our opponents. We effectively separated our time into short brainstorming sessions in which we tackled each issue that we could find one by one. Then we divided the research preparations within the team to optimally benefit from parallel working. Aristotle described three elements of strong rhetoric: Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Ethos refers to credibility of the speaker, Pathos to emotion and motivation and Logos refers to logic. We tried to find vs from these three elements to support our cause.
Finally the debate arrived, and we did our best to reach triomf. Our opponents were very strong, relying on a defence focused around the freedom of choice of students to have a boyfriend or girlfriend, the costs involved and the time required. During the debate our excellent preparation allowed us to counter each argument given by the opposing team. Finally, we were rewarded as winners of the debate.
I really enjoyed the experience of attending the Summer School, and I was thankful for witnessing all of the interesting debates, as well as participating in a debate against a well prepared opponent. The students from Waseda University have done a great job preparing for the event, and all the attendees showed great skill in the art of debate.
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Group work (collecting information) on the first day
This summer school was held in the studio of the Waseda University Graduate Program for Embodiment Informatics. The room was very stylish, like something you’d see in a movie or TV drama. At first, I was overwhelmed by the atmosphere.
I was placed on a team with students from Waseda University. We argued in the debate the position in the affirmative to the statement “A master’s thesis is unnecessary to a Leading program.” After spending a day researching the literature and discussing the subject, in the actual debate on the next day we proceeded with the argument, based on redefining the objective of Leading Programs, that they should be reformed so that the time spent on a master’s thesis should be devoted to other activities. Although it was challenging to take part in lengthy discussion and debate as an international team, it proved a very stimulating experience, as I became friends with international students and we were able to share information on subjects including our own research, our courses, and everyday living.
The debate on the second day