Tohoku University

The Individual Research Training Senior (IRT Senior) Course is an advanced course of the Individual Research Training A (IRT A) course in the Tohoku University Junior Year Program in English (JYPE) in the fall semester. Though short-term international exchange students are not degree candidates at Tohoku University, a similar experience is offered by special arrangement. Students are required to submit: an abstract concerning the results of their IRT Senior project, a paper (A4, 20-30 pages) on their research at the end of the exchange term, and an oral presentation on the results of their IRT Senior project near the end of the term.

This course provides an overview of fisheries science. It focuses on the fundamentals of fisheries science as it relates broadly to marine biology, from molecules to ecosystems. The course is divided into two sections: Topics on Marine Ecology and Oceanography, and Topics on Physiology, Biochemistry and Genetics of Aquatic organisms.

Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) allow us to describe many natural phenomena and are therefore essentially important in many scientific areas. This course introduces the standard and most common tools to solve differential equations, particularly Laplace transform and linear algebra method. 

This course provides an overview of the fundamentals in probability and statistics. It aims to provide a good understanding of the methods of probability and statistical analysis of data. Students will be able to use these statistical methods for their own studies and later in professional practice. 

Cells are the structural and functional units of living organisms. Understanding the basics of cell biology is essential for studying all areas of life sciences and any related branches of natural sciences. The main objective of this course is to learn the essential principles of cell biology by learning how the living cells are made and operating from a molecular perspective: especially, how DNA, RNA and proteins cooperatively work inside the cells to allow the maintenance, replication, and responses to stimuli. This course covers the textbook Essential Cell Biology together with Biology B, which will be held in the spring semester. 

Upon finishing this course, students will have a solid grasp of the structure of cells and how they replicate themselves, exert cellular functions and communicate with each other. More concretely, the course introduces intracellular structure and molecular dynamics inside cells, mechanisms of DNA replication, repair and recombination, gene expression and its regulation, and cellular signaling. In addition, the course also features the research topics of the instructors, all of whom are young biologists/biochemists in FRIS, so that students can get a glimpse of cutting-edge sciences. 

This course teaches basic knowledge of the programming language python, as well as data analysis skill via empirical application. 

This course aims to provide:

1. An understanding of the basic knowledge of the programming language python
2. An understanding of the basic machine learning methods, i.e., regression analysis.
3. An understanding of the data analysis process including data pre-processing, analysis, and the interpretation for the results based on real data.

To study the basic knowledge of molecular biology, biochemistry and structural biology and to understand biological phenomena at the molecular level, students will learn the following contents.

1) Structures and chemical properties of nucleic acids
2) Structures and chemical properties of amino acids and proteins
3) Biochemical methods for analyzing DNA sequence, amino acid sequence, protein structures and functions
4) Mechanisms of enzyme catalysis 

This course aims to provide students with deep insights into the structures and physiological functions of nucleic acids, proteins and other important biomolecules. Also, students will understand molecular mechanisms of several important enzymes. 

An exploratory culture course, Japanese Culture B is offered for foreign students to learn about and share insights into various aspects of living in Japan. The course comprises three basic approaches: discussion of certain cultural aspects of the country; reading literature, and fieldwork at places of cultural significance. Those who took Japanese Culture A in the fall semester should take Japanese Culture B in the spring semester since they make a pair. Culture B and D courses overlap in part due to the nature of certain special events taking place during the semester.

The goal of the course is to provide students a new perspective of Japanese culture by examining the interconnection of various elements, including the history and culture of Tohoku Region; rebuilding effort from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and certain ways people have expressed themselves on different occasions. 

The course comprises of lectures and discussions accompanied by fieldwork opportunities. Twelve years after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, disaster prevention and mitigation has come to hold an important place in the culture of this nation. The Japanese Culture class has been contributing to this cause since soon after the 2011 event and will continue to do so during this semester as well, albeit in a small way.

This course provides individual research training for students in the Junior Year Engineering Program through the experience of belonging to a specific laboratory at Tohoku University. Students are assigned to a laboratory with the consent of the faculty member in charge. They participate in various group activities, including seminars, for the purposes of training in research methods and developing teamwork skills. The specific topic studied depends on the instructor in charge of the laboratory to which each student is assigned. The methods of assessment vary with the student's project and laboratory instructor. Students submit an abstract concerning the results of their individual research each semester and present the results near the end of the program.

This course studies Machine Learning, an important sub-area of Artificial Intelligence. It is designed to help students understand some key technologies such as linear classifiers, support vector machines, decision trees and neural networks, through the process of applying them to actual data and developing Python programs. 

This course aims to instruct students on machine learning and basic skills on data processing. Students will be expected to read and write Python programs and modules by the end of the course.