As part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for Educational and Scientific Cooperation between Imperial College and Waseda University (Japan), the Mathematics of Planet Earth Centre for Doctoral Training (MPE CDT) has this term welcomed visiting PhD student Mr Keiichi Watanabe. This was followed by a visit from Prof. Martin Guest (Waseda Universty, Department of Mathematics).
The MOU was signed with the aim to work together to explore the possibilities for cooperation in education and research, including sharing best practices and undertaking joint research and educational activities. Part of this cooperation is also the exchange of graduate students for study and research.
Keiichi Watanabe Experience
Keiichi arrived in September 2018, having been drawn to the CDT given its focus on weather prediction and climate change, and the opportunity to take lectures that enable students to acquire relevant mathematical and computational techniques. This fits well with Keiichi’s research topic, which looks at multiphase flows of vapor and liquid in atmosphere and ocean, and his desire to learn relevant techniques.
His first experience was the Kick-Off Camp (KOC) at Reading University. Detailing his experience at the Kick-Off Camp, Keiichi said:
The KOC was interesting and stimulating for me because I was able to listen to various talks related to climate change and interact with other students who have different backgrounds from me. Moreover, the KOC includes not only academic events but also non-academic events and these events allowed me to communicate with senior cohorts within the CDT. Conversations with them were extremely interesting and it was a good opportunity to obtain knowledge of research topics that I had not heard of before.
Now going into to his final month at the CDT Keiichi is attending core courses, including Partial Differential Equations, Dynamical Systems, Data and Uncertainty, and Numerical Methods; courses which he describes as ‘very helpful to understand the background of weather prediction and climate change’. As already highlighted from his Kick-Off Camp experience, Keiichi outlined that the peer-to-peer interaction that the programme facilities is an aspect he most enjoys:
Discussion with other cohorts is always exciting and enables me to find “new things” because they have other academic backgrounds and there is enough space to have a discussion in the MPE CDT suite
Visit from Prof. Martin Guest
As part of the collaboration, we also recently welcomed Prof. Martin Guest who visited Prof. Darryl Holm and Prof. Dan Crisan in order to discuss matters arising from the preparation of the MOU and future Imperial-Waseda activities.
He was given a tour of the MPE Centre for Doctoral Training by Prof. Crisan and was glad to meet Keiichi Watanabe, who was settling in after taking part in the kick-off activities in September. The main activities in common shared by Waseda’s Super-Global group and Imperial’s MPE group lie in differential equations and fluid dynamics. Prof. Guest’s research focuses on geometrical aspects of differential equations, and he was able to discuss this with Prof. Holm during his visit.
