2025 1^st Boot Camp Report

On June 9^th and 10^th, 2025 1^st Boot Camp was held as a one-night, two-day event. This gathering brought together 130 doctoral students selected for MNS program, along with 15 Highly Contributing RESEARDENT students who supported the planning and operation, and 14 faculty and staff members from Nagoya University and Gifu University.

At Boot Camp, participants from different research fields are encouraged to engage in active discussions about their research and the possibility for interdisciplinary or collaborative research while sharing meals and accommodations. Through this activity, this event aims to foster lasting exchanges and collaborations among participants, which could potentially lead to interdisciplinary or collaborative research in the future.

 

Despite the unfortunate rainy weather, students from different fields formed mixed groups to tackle the challenging theme of “Idea generation for interdisciplinary research that leverages each team member’s expertise”. This activity was designed with a focus on process rather than just the final output, emphasizing how ideas were generated, how they related to each members’ expertise and experiences, and effective communication methods. Respecting student autonomy, 15 Highly Contributing RESEARDENT students were encouraged to get involved from the planning stage and served as mentors on the day of the event, actively supporting both overall operations and group discussions.

In the post-event survey, 73% of the students reported being “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with the overall Boot Camp experience. Participants had the opportunity to interact with different group members twice, with satisfaction levels recorded at 72% and 61%, respectively. Additionally, 63% of students were satisfied with the balance of expertise within their groups, and 50% expressed interest in participating as Highly Contributing RESEARDENTs in the next year’s Boot Camp.　 Furthermore, 38% of participants agreed that they met researchers with whom they might be able to engage in interdisciplinary or collaborative research in the future. Their continued proactive engagement is highly anticipated. As a result, the Boot Camp can be considered a definite success.

 

 

• 今回のブートキャンプを通じて、専門分野の枠を超えた交流の重要性を改めて実感しました。異なる視点からの意見や考え方を取り入れることで、自分の研究にも新たな視野が広がると感じました。
• 様々な属性（年齢や研究科など）の方々と交流することができたことは貴重な経験でした。
• それぞれの専門性が確立されているなかで、各自が持っている専門性やスキルを分解して、チームとして再構築する経験が新鮮で良かった。
• It was a great pleasure to meet other fellow RESEARDENT. I learned new things from them, not only about their research but also about their culture. I also made new friends and last but not the least, our group won the Best Presentation Award!!! That was a really proud moment for all of our group members. Overall, it was a memorable journey for me which I will cherish all my life.
• I enjoyed communicating with other researchers from different fields and the process of collaboration to design a research.

 

Next Boot Camp will be scheduled to be held in November 2025.

 

Written by Masumi Terasawa, Senior Academic Specialist

RESEARDENTs in charge of survey and report: SENANAYAKE Silumin, Shan HUANG,UMEMOTO Rikuhei