Hello. My name is Michihiro Hayashi, advisor of the Design & Fabrication Club.

On September 12 and 13, we participated in the 31st J-FACE Annual Conference of the Japanese Academy of Facial Studies, “Forum KAOGAKU 2026,” held at Kanazawa Institute of Technology.

The forum featured a wide variety of research and exhibits related to the human face. Topics included makeup, facial impressions, facial recognition, the faces of robots and animals, and portrait illustration. The conference included 29 oral presentations, 25 poster presentations, six demonstrations, and five corporate exhibits, with a total of 175 participants from across Japan.

From ICT, fourth-year student Rinse Okiyama gave a poster presentation on gaze perception and the Mona Lisa effect. The title of the presentation was “Facial Image Synthesis Inducing the Offset Mona Lisa Effect (oMLE) from Stereoscopic Photographic Images.”

To briefly explain the research, when we look at a person in a photograph or painting from different angles, we may sometimes feel as though the person’s eyes continue to look directly at us. This phenomenon is commonly known as the “Mona Lisa effect.” In this study, differences between images that produce the Mona Lisa effect and those that do not were experimentally examined by processing photographs of real people.

During the summer vacation, Rinse Okiyama worked intensively on preparing for the presentation. She served as the model for the images and took part in repeated photo sessions over several days, as well as image evaluation experiments.

She presented the results in a poster session at the conference. Many participants came to hear about the research, and lively discussions took place in front of the poster. In everyday research activities, students mainly have opportunities to discuss their work with their supervising teachers. At the conference, however, Rinse Okiyama was able to exchange ideas with faculty members from other universities, researchers from companies, illustrators, and many other people with different perspectives.

At the closing ceremony, Rinse Okiyama received the “Suganuma Award,” named after a former president of the Japanese Academy of Facial Studies.

She also had the opportunity to have her portrait drawn by an illustrator at the venue.

This year’s conference was held locally, but I hope that in the future she will continue to take on new challenges and actively present her research not only throughout Japan, but also internationally.

Design & Fabrication Club
Advisor: Michihiro Hayashi

 

Hi, my name is Ady Rohizam, and I am a 1st year student from Malaysia. During my summer break, I had the opportunity to take part in my first-ever go-kart competition on August 8th, 2026.
The event was Round 4 of the Rookie Rush Karting League 2026, organized by PROJECT KAR7ING. I competed in the Junior category. For this competition, I drove a 270cc engine (cubic centimeters) Sodi RX8 go-kart, which could reach a top speed of around 60 km/h on the straights. We were provided with separate karts for qualifying and the race.
Karting has many different types and classes of karts, and I am still very new to the sport. This was my first real experience competing on a track.
Qualifying was a difficult start for me. I struggled with the grip of the rear tires and spun out around five times. During my third hot lap, one of my friends spun in the middle of the track, and I unfortunately bumped into him. Luckily, I was not seriously injured and managed to continue.
Despite the difficult session, I qualified 11th out of 16 drivers.
Starting 11th on the grid, I was quite nervous. The red lights came on one by one. Then, suddenly, they went out. Everyone launched towards the first corner.

 

My start was slow, and I dropped four positions. I was now 15th. I kept looking for opportunities to overtake. Lap by lap, I slowly gained positions and worked my way back through the field.

 

Then, on the final lap, I saw an opportunity at the last corner. I stayed close behind the driver in front of me and waited for the right moment. As we approached the corner, I made my move and managed to overtake him.
I crossed the finish line in 10th place.

For me, this was more than just a competition. I have always wanted to experience racing, and this was my first chance to actually get on the track and compete.
I enjoyed every part of the experience, even the mistakes. The atmosphere at the track made me feel like I belonged in this community, and it made me want to race again and continue improving.
I know I still have a lot to learn. I am not an experienced karter, and I am only at the beginning of my journey. But that is what makes this experience important to me.

To anyone who dreams of becoming a racing driver, whether your goal is Formula racing, GT racing, or another form of motorsport, do not let your starting point stop you.
You do not have to be the fastest when you begin. You do not have to know everything. What matters is that you start, keep learning, and keep working towards your goal.
If racing is your dream, take the chance to start. You never know how far you can go until you try.

Ady Rohizam

Hello! This is Akira Azuma from the 2nd year student. It’s been quite a while since this happened so it may feel a bit off-season, but I would like to talk about my activities over spring vacation. I may only hope you give this article a read and find yourself enjoying it.
This spring break, I was allowed the chance to go see Antarctica by my fearless mother. What comes to mind when you hear “Antarctica”? An unexplored land? The southernmost edge of the world where extreme cold has swallowed countless adventurers and expeditions? At the very least, it’s not somewhere you’d casually decide to visit during spring break. In fact, many people might think it’s too dangerous for anyone except professional explorers. I used to think that too. But surprisingly, traveling to Antarctica is much easier than you may expect. Of course, it’s still more difficult when compared with visiting other places, but Antarctic and Arctic tourism actually exists as a proper industry, which was quite surprising. You don’t have to belong to a university research team or anything like that. I remember being unable to keep myself from questioning my mother’s sanity for a while. 

Given the nature of the Antarctic land, you can’t explore the deep interior like the researchers stationed there, but even so, there’s a wide range of things you can do—visiting islands around the Antarctic coast or even briefly landing on the continent itself. Some companies offer rather dull plans where you just stay on a cruise ship and look at Antarctica from nearby waters, but the company we used—QUARK expeditions—provided us with many extraordinary experiences. We jumped into the freezing Antarctic sea, saw whales and penguins up close, went canoeing, and did many other activities. In this piece, I’d like to introduce some of those experiences. 

The most memorable part of my trip was definitely seeing whales. When people say they’ve seen whales at sea, you usually imagine spotting them blowing water from a sightseeing boat. But whales are actually very curious creatures, and they often came toward us instead. We rode small inflatable boats to observe them, which may have contributed to their curiosity—but even so, they approached us and encircled us the entire time we were out there. I just realized, but that kind of sounds like they were trying to intimidate us, but they never contacted the boat, so I think I’ll believe that they were simply curious about our unusual presence.

We had several opportunities to observe these adorable whales. There were various kinds. One particularly memorable whale was a baby whale, playing around its sleeping mother. It was very curious, swimming up to us and playfully slapping its tail on the surface to splash water. It was so amusing and adorable. The funny thing was that our guide lamented the most when it was time for us to return to the ship. I guess the experience stays the same no matter how many times you see whales up close.

In another encounter, we had two whales approach us so close that I felt I could touch them if I reached out. I probably could have. It was one of the most mystical experiences I’ve had in my life. Being surrounded by icebergs while whales spouted water so close by was an entirely different kind of awe-inspiring experience compared to seeing whales in an aquarium.

For my in-ship experiences, when we weren’t out exploring, we were given lectures aboard the ship about the Antarctic explorers, glacier movement, and various other topics. We also learned about the wildlife we encountered that day, —the species and their characteristics—covering a wide range of subjects related to Antarctica.

So far, I’ve mainly talked about whales, but of course, they weren’t the only animals we saw. We also encountered many penguins and seals. I mean, this is Antarctica, going on a trip here and not seeing any penguins is like sandwiches without bread. Unlike in aquariums, the seals gave off a much more predatory and ferocious impression, probably because we saw them hunting penguins. When they catch one, they started to toss it into the air and play with it. To call this experience unsettling would be an understatement, those adorable bounce bags were absolutely owning the penguins.

The penguins, on the other hand, were absolutely adorable—no complaints there. Especially the younger ones, around a year old, those guys are very curious. Some of them were fascinated by the stakes placed to mark the point where we shouldn’t tread past, and started pecking at them eagerly—it was incredibly cute.

This is the little one, by the way. Yes—absolutely adorable.

There were also penguins that were blankly staring at each other’s face. Watching them just staring blankly was oddly therapeutic to see.

In addition to wildlife, Antarctica also offered us breathtaking scenery. My personal favorite was Deception Island, which is a volcanic island. What made the island so special is that about 10,000 years ago, a volcanic eruption formed a caldera, giving it a horseshoe shape. The volcano is still very active, and the geothermal heat creates hot springs. In other words, it’s like Sakurajima in Antarctica. There were also ruins of an old whaling station which was later converted into a British research base. Depending on the time of day, geothermal steam rises in large amounts, creating an incredibly surreal, almost otherworldly landscape. 

It felt like something straight out of Silent Hill. Penguins and seals were active even in this eerie environment. In the distance, there was what looked like a storage facility for whale oil, and even further back on the left—though hard to see—there is an aircraft hangar that waIt felt like something straight out of Silent Hill. Penguins and seals were active even in this eerie enviros used for weather observation. Along the coast, various objects were scattered around, including a partially buried vehicle with only the hood, handles, and part of the front seat sticking out. Freaky. It truly felt like stepping into another world. 

There were even remnants of penguins that had been eaten—honestly, a bit gruesome. And if that wasn’t odd enough, there was also an airplane wreck. It looked like it was straight out from a movie.

It reminded me just how incredibly difficult it must have been to explore Antarctica. Meanwhile, the seals in this picture were just fighting each other next to these wrecks, completely ignoring them, was quite the spectacle to see.

On the way back, we crossed the Drake Passage, known as one of the roughest seas in the world. I had braced myself for the worst, but surprisingly, it was quite calm—or at least calmer than expected. That said, the ship still rocked like a mild roller coaster, and I felt a little seasick despite normally never getting motion sickness. The crew were surprised; relieved would be the word most fitting. So, I asked them if it was usually that bad. They showed me a video from last year’s voyage. Yes, it was THAT bad. Compared to the video from last year— where no one was even able stand or move at all, and objects flying everywhere—it was relatively tame, you could move around as you wished, but it still was not exactly calm. Seeing videos from that voyage was honestly terrifying. Especially if you count the fact that it took us around 2 days to cross the passage. We were just happy that our kitchen was even able to function during the duration after seeing the video.

This return journey made me deeply appreciate the explorers of the 1800s, who crossed the Drake Passage in far worse conditions aboard wooden ships, with little hope of assistance, and still managed to reach the South Pole. I can only feel immense respect for their courage.

I guess that sums up my Antarctic spring break. There were many other experiences too—canoeing, spotting wild orcas, diving into icy waters—but I’ll stop here before this gets too long. It was truly an invaluable experience. I don’t think I want to cross the Drake passage again though.

Akira Azuma

Hello! My name is Yuka Yano and I am a 1st year student at International College of Technology, Kanazawa. In this article, I will write about the time when six American students came to our Hakusanroku campus.

On the first day, we were nervously waiting for the American students to arrive. What will they be like? Would we be able to become friends? Whilst we were nervous, the excitement was winning. Once we met them, we were surprised by how tall they were. However, we were soon able to become friends with them. From the first day, we introduced ourselves in our unit and talked a lot about our interests.

During the Kanazawa tour, we were able to visit various tourist spots and experienced a vast array of things. Since I had never gone around Kanazawa, I was learning about the city with the American students at the same time. Though this experience, we were able to make bonds with the Americans.

I especially remember the time when we played UNO. We made groups with many people and everyone was hyped up during the game. In the end, everyone was laughing until their throats hurt. I think worldwide games such as UNO can create connections between people.

Throughout this experience, I was able to learn various things and create friendships with the American students. Next time I hope to be able to explain the aspects of Kanazawa to the American students with more detail.

Yuka Yano

Hello. My name is Kaishu Ishiharada, and I am a 2nd year student at ICT. I want to talk about our class, "Engineering Design II." In this class, we have two teams. The Agri-Business team grows "KOSEN Beniharuka" sweet potatoes to make a profit. The Tech team uses technology to protect the farm from wild animals like monkeys. I am a member of the Tech Team.

The Tech group has three teams: IoT, Drone, and Rover. We want to make a system to protect the farm. First, the IoT system watches for monkeys. Then, it sends a message to the user’s phone. After that, we use a drone to drive the animals away. If it is raining and the drone cannot fly, we use a robot called Rover.

IoT team

The IoT team makes the communication system. This year, they changed to a new message service because the old message service went out of service. They built the new system, but next year they need to test it more to see if it is useful in daily life.

 

 

 

Drone team

The Drone team uses drones to stop the animals. This year, they changed some parts on the drone. The old parts were difficult to program, so they put in new parts that were easier to program to better control the drone. In the future, they want the drone to fly and use its camera.

 

 

 

 

Rover team

The Rover team started last year. We use the rover when the weather is bad. This year, we improved the rover using what we learned in math and physics classes. In the second semester, we made a waterproof cover for the rain. It was a new challenge and very difficult, but we made a prototype after talking with our teachers and classmates.

I was a member of the Rover team and helped design the reduction gear. The old rover was too fast, and the vibration loosened the screws. So, I designed gears to make the motor slower. I am usually on the Robocon team and work on electronics, so mechanical design was hard for me. I had to choose the right gears and think about the velocity. It was difficult, but I learned the basics of mechanical design. I want to use this experience in my future work.

I hope the next students will continue our work and complete the system. Thank you for reading.

Kaishu Ishiharada