AI is a part of our everyday lives, encompassing chatbots, smart recommendations, and image generators, but do our students truly understand how it works?

 This is Apirak Sang-ngenchai, and I am teaching 2nd year students in the "Fundamentals of AI" class. In our class, we focus on an active learning approach that helps students understand the fundamental concepts behind AI through engaging with the topic. Instead of just listening to lectures, students explore the world of AI through a variety of fun, interactive activities.

 We started with the basic questions: What is AI? What is machine learning? And how can a computer see and recognize an object? Rather than explaining everything through slides, we used activities that sparked curiosity and brought these topics to life.

Here are some of the tools and activities we used:

• Chat with Eliza: A simple AI chatbot that mimics a therapist. This helped students understand rule-based AI and how early AI systems communicated with users, unlike ChatGPT or Co-pilot, which provide a smarter and more diverse range of information nowadays. It also led to fun and thoughtful conversations about how AI can seem “smart” even when it doesn’t really understand us.
  Link: https://web.njit.edu/~ronkowit/eliza.html

• Google Quick, Draw: A game where students draw objects and the AI tries to guess what they’re drawing. This activity introduced the concept of unsupervised learning techniques and pattern recognition, showing how machines learn from massive amounts of human data.
  Link: https://quickdraw.withgoogle.com/
  
  
• Teachable Machine: An easy-to-use website where students can train their image or human body key points recognition models. Students quickly grasped the idea of training data, labels, and model accuracy, as well as the concept of supervised learning techniques, while having fun with creative experiments.
  Link: https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com/
  
  
• Google Colab Coding: We also introduced students to basic Python coding on Google Colab. They ran simple machine learning scripts, changed parameters, and observed how the results changed. This provided them with a hands-on introduction to machine learning algorithms without requiring a complex setup.
  Link: https://colab.google/

 Through these activities, students didn’t just learn about AI; they also gained practical experience. They experienced how it works. They learned that machines require training, that data is important, and that results aren’t always perfect. Active learning also helped create a lively classroom atmosphere where students helped each other, shared discoveries, and reflected together. In the end, they weren’t just learning about AI. They were learning how to learn actively, a skill that will be valuable across all disciplines no matter what the future brings.

Apirak Sang-ngenchai

 Hello, this is Hitoshi Kihara, I am in charge of some of the Math classes at ICT. I am going to introduce the Math Battle that was held on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025, for the 2nd year Calculus class.
 In our regular Calculus classes, each student creates a problem and its solution based on the day’s lesson, and in pairs we check each other’s work.
 This event, held just before the midterm exam, was designed as a comprehensive review. I turned our usual activity into a team-based competition. The team that created the most problems and solved the most problems from the opposing team within the limited time would be the winner.
 This was my first attempt at holding a Math Battle, but the students participated with remarkable focus and enthusiasm.
 It was impressive to see them trying to create problems that were as challenging as possible so the opposing team couldn’t solve them. Also, it was impressive to see their determination as they worked through the other team’s problems, attempting to solve them by trial and error.
 Of course, due to the limited time, some problems and solutions had minor flaws. However, many students also came up with truly excellent problems.
 Below is an example of one such problem.

 At first glance, this problem may look long and complicated, but if they apply what we've learned in class, the solution is actually quite simple. That said, solving it does require accurate calculation skills. It’s a truly excellent problem, packed with multiple mathematical elements within just one question.
 During the Math Battle, there was a friendly and lively atmosphere with both the problem creators and solvers being all smiles. But it’s funny, isn’t it? If I gave a similar problem on the midterm exam, I’m pretty sure I’d be met with endless complaints and a much more brutal atmosphere. Anyway, the answer to the earlier problem is 1 over 184,756. What an incredible number! Hmm … maybe I’d better not include it on the midterm after all. Well then, until next time!

Create problems for each team

Solve the problem created by the opposing team and have the original creators check your answer

Hitoshi Kihara

Hello! This is Hiroko Takeda, a 3rd year student who loves shimaenaga (a bird called long- tailed tit). It is now the middle of the 1st semester. I am getting used to the classes. There are no serious science subjects such as math yet, so I am spending my days at a fairly relaxed pace. In this journal, I would like to introduce a little bit about my life in New Zealand.

Letter to Grandma
Getting used to life in New Zealand, I decided to send a postcard to my grandmother and went on a little journey to find one that would give her a sense of New Zealand. First, I went to a souvenir shop. However, I could not find any postcards that caught my eye. I also visited another souvenir shop, but I couldn't find anything there either. Then I went to a bookstore, but still could not find any. Finally, I found a postcard with cute illustrations of a kiwi and a fantail (New Zealand birds) at another bookstore called “Paper Plus”.

After I finished writing, I took the postcard to the bookstore where I bought it, and the staff helped me by putting a stamp and a blue sticker on it. Then I put it in the postbox in front of the store, and that was it!! It hasn't arrived yet, so I'm still waiting eagerly.

Green! Birds! Sore muscles!
I went to the Dunedin Botanic Garden, which is a little north of the school. The first place we went to was the greenhouse. It was really interesting to see plants that I don't usually come across. My favorite area was the one with the cacti lined up.

After that, we sat on a bench with a nice view and ate lunch. The sun felt warm, and it was one of those moments that made me think, “This kind of holiday is really nice.”　Then we decided to go to a place we found on the map that was supposed to have lots of birds. There were many colorful birds there, and I remember feeling very uplifted. I forgot the names of each bird, but I’ll post some photos of my favorites.

After walking for a long time on a road with lots of ups and downs, I ended up with sore muscles. It made me realize that I’m not getting enough exercise. Walking takes time, but it’s the one way I can always rely on to get around. I want to build up my stamina so I can walk for longer periods.

The Way to School
If someone asked me whether I prefer dogs or cats, I would answer “cats” without hesitation. However, the pet at my homestay is a dog. That made me a little sad, but I often see cats on my way to school, which is really soothing. I got so excited that I started taking pictures on the spot, but some people saw me and I felt a bit embarrassed… Maybe I should tone it down a little from now on.
Actually, a friend told me that there are wild hedgehogs in this area. I haven't encountered one yet, but I really want to see one.

There have been many things I’m not used to, but I’m surprised at how well I’ve been managing. I’ll keep doing my best from now on, too.

Hiroko Takeda

This is Michihiro Hayashi, Engineering Design teacher at Kanazawa campus. Today, I would like to share my experience attending SID Display Week 2025, an international conference held in San Jose, CA, USA, from Monday, May 12th to Saturday, May 17th, 2025.　

Our school contributed two presentations to the conference, titled “Hyper-Realistic SDR/LDR Image Reproduction Proposal Needing Just Approx. 1/30th Exposure of Conventional SDR Image and Global-Tone Mapping, or 1D-LUT, in UHDR Environments Regardless of Time of Day” and “Research on Individual Differences in Ability to Recognize Obstacles Employing Binocular Stereopsis and Development of Stereoscopic Test Video Sequences for Analyses”

Both of our presentations were presented using the poster session format.
For more detailed information on each presentation, please refer to the following.
https://researchmap.jp/Sakuichi_Ohtsuka/published_papers/50160420
https://researchmap.jp/Sakuichi_Ohtsuka/published_papers/50160352

The first presentation, given by Prof. Sakuichi Ohtsuka, was about an image processing technique that makes photos taken with digital cameras appear more natural. The culmination of the research was a series of beautiful photographs produced with this image process technique. These images, printed on large-format paper, looked remarkably natural and attracted a great deal of attention from attendees. The second presentation, given by 5th year student, Ema Miwa, demonstrated a video for evaluating binocular stereoscopic vision. She brought playback equipment to the venue so that attendees could actually view the video, and prepared printed materials with a pair of images for stereoscopic viewing as part of her presentation. This presentation also led to active discussions with attendees in front of the poster.

Since the venue was the San Jose Convention Center in California, I traveled from Kanazawa with Ema and Prof. Justin Han, taking connecting flights from Komatsu to Haneda, then to Honolulu, and finally to San Jose. With multiple flight connections, we had to go through several security checks, immigration procedures, and customs inspections, making the journey quite hectic. It was my first time in Hawaii since my honeymoon, but due to the transfer procedures, I had very little time to enjoy the scenery. However, I do remember how dazzling the sunlight was. After arriving in San Jose, we met up with Prof. Ohtsuka, who had traveled separately. We discussed the upcoming presentation and he showed us around the area near the hotel.

Since San Jose is not a tourist destination, we rarely saw other Japanese people outside the conference venue. It is located near Silicon Valley, the city is home to the headquarters of many IT companies such as Google, Adobe, PayPal, and Zoom. For transportation within San Jose, we used both the light rail and Uber. When taking the light rail, we purchased tickets from the automated machines at the stations. There were no ticket gates or inspections, so we could simply board the train. On the other hand, since cars are the main mode of transportation in San Jose, there were many Ubers available. Using the dedicated app, we could easily call a ride. The drivers were friendly, and we were able to travel conveniently and safely.

During our stay in San Jose, we had the chance to meet one of Prof. Justin’s high school friends. When we mentioned that he teaches 'Applied Physics' at school, his friend seemed genuinely surprised at how accomplished he had become. It made me wonder—what kind of student he was back in high school?

At the conference, time flew by as I listened to other participants' presentations and checked out the latest tech exhibits from companies. After finishing our presentations, we departed from San Jose the next morning and returned to Komatsu using the same connecting flights as on the way there. After safely arriving in Kanazawa, I suddenly had a craving for Kanazawa curry for some reason. The next SID Display Week is scheduled to take place in Los Angeles from May 3rd to 8th, 2026. I hope to continue my research activities and student mentorship with the goal of presenting my work there once again.

*Prof. Ohtsuka’s presentation has been uploaded to YouTube @charbax
Please search for “Paper: ICT Kanazawa Hyper-Realistic SDR/LDR Global Tone Mapping 1/30x Exposure” to watch it.

Hello. My name is Hamish Barnetson, a new English teacher at ICT. Nice to meet you all! I’m from the UK. I was born in Scotland but moved around a lot as a child, so I am used to changes. I also went to boarding school when I was 7 years old, so I know what it’s like to be away from home! I have lived and worked in Japan for over 10 years in several regions including Tokyo, Saitama, Chiba and Niigata. I recently moved to Hakusanroku Campus with my family, and we are really enjoying living here so far. I am looking forward to meeting all the staff and students here.

So far, it has been really interesting to see the students participating in classes that are basically all in English. They seem to be making good friends and trying their best with all the new information. They are enjoying some friendly competition in classes, and getting used to interacting, working together and presenting their ideas in English.

As I mentioned, I have a family here so you might see them wandering around campus sometimes. Please say hello to them if you get a chance. I’m glad they can be in such an international environment and meet people from many different countries. Plus, what a great place for outdoor activities! I hope to get involved in some outdoor activities with students in the future.

Anyway, I will try my best to help the students with their English skills, and I really hope they enjoy their time here. I encourage them to use English as much as possible in my classes. It is usually challenging at first but after a while it should start to feel more natural hopefully.

Let’s enjoy this first year together at ICT!

Hamish Barnetson