Hello,

I’m Matsuo, a second-year master’s student in the hydraulic engineering research lab.

I attended a hydraulic engineering seminar held from December 11th (Monday) to December 13th (Wednesday). Both Yogi, a second-year doctoral student in our lab, and I participated as presenters at the seminar!

It was the first academic conference for both of us in Japan, so we were quite nervous.

Yogi gave his presentation on the morning of December 12th (Tuesday).

The topic was “Three-dimensional flow effects to simulate flows in a strongly curved channel with partly emergent rigid vegetation.”

Yogi expressed his thoughts as follows:

“It was a tremendous opportunity to present in front of esteemed researchers, and the discussions we had about research were quite enriching. I came to realize that Japan fosters a fantastic research atmosphere, witnessing numerous individuals engaged in discussions about their research even after the conference concluded.

Moreover, our time in Osaka was delightful. We explored the local cuisine and visited renowned landmarks, which added to the overall experience.”

I presented in the afternoon session on December 13th (Wednesday). Interestingly, similar to my experience at the IAHR conference, I found myself presenting on the final day in the last session again.

I wonder if there’s some kind of curse that makes me end up presenting on the last day every time, it’s quite amusing.

The topic of my presentation was ‘An Attempt to Accelerate Flood Flow Analysis Using the Mean Component Acceleration Method.’

I was incredibly nervous and stumbled through my presentation; my script was all over the place. I couldn’t answer questions on the spot, making it a pretty rough presentation overall. However, after the session ended, I had a chance to talk to the professor who asked questions, and they seemed to understand my points. So, I guess I barely made it? It was a close call.

I really want to overcome my nervousness when presenting, but I suppose practice is the only solution.

I had planned to enjoy Osaka after the presentation, but I was quite tired, so I ended up having a late lunch and hurried back home.

As a last-ditch effort, I’ll share a picture of my final meal in Osaka.

Thank you for reading.