For successful completion of the ALP, the students need to pass two tests called the “Qualifying Examination (QE).” In 2015, 19 1st-term Students (in the second year in master’s program) took on the first challenged the first “QE1.” The main task, which remained the same as that in the previous year, was to compile a review or research proposal on either a cross-disciplinary study or a collaboration between mathematics and sciences. Careful evaluations were carried out with focusing on whether the students successfully learned comprehensive perspective by participating in our unique curricula such as the “Interdisciplinary Lab Visits” and the “Frontier Mathematical Sciences I, II”.

The Program Faculty as well as researchers from collaborating corporations acted as examiners in the oral test. One examiner from the research institute of a major corporation said that he/she was “astonished at the sheer amount of intriguing presentations. These students had proved that they were able to canvass the research trend of an entirely different field in a very short period of time.” The examiner further elaborated that “researchers in corporate laboratories not only need to be motivated in a wide range of disciplines but must also be equipped with mathematical analytic skills.” In this regard, the examiner believes the QE of the program is “extremely noteworthy” as it focuses especially on interdisciplinary study and mathematics–sciences collaboration. Moreover, one student who wrote on the topic of cross-disciplinary fusion thought that “the greatest reward of taking QE1 is that it erased my initial resistance in reading articles from different fields.”

Photo:Result debriefing of the QE1 test. Evaluation is given directly to the students along with comments.