22 January 2010
Two months have passed so fast since I joined a lab in my exchange university in Japan. The so called Mit Lab, named from the professor, Mitsuhashi Wataru, is about signal processing, existed under Department of Information and Communication Engineering. And today, was quite big day for me. During my first two months I just only learned the theory about signal processing, face detection, eigen vectors, neural network, Scale Invariant Feature Transform bla..bla.. (Oh God I can hardly understand those things-__-) and suddenly Mitsuhashi Sensei aksed me to present some experiments related to my current research.
You never imagine how surprise I was as this is actually my very first experience to join a lab, to learn being a true researcher. Unlike the lab’s things I’ve ever done in my previous university ( Yeah, I mean, in ITB I also did some experiments in lab, but those were only simple experiments and all the things I should do was all written in the modul which I could easily followed ), the research I should do here is more complex, specific and comprehensive. Well, I could take it as a heavy burden torturing me insistently , but instead , I knew that I’d better take it as a challenge and of course a constructive impulse from my professor to encourage me tackling such a problem.
Hmm, it is not that easy. Well, it is definitely not easy at all! Altough I had read a batch of papers, ranging from the – really good paper which contain such a brilliant knowledge- to –poor paper that I could’nt take enough advantages- I still don’t have any idea!! And eventough I already understood the theoritical concepts, still I couldn’t find the way how to implement such an equation into a program, how to build a precise realization from – a seems like easy and simple concept- into a reliable , real result???!! Argh, sometimes I just wonder why people want to be a researcher? For me, tackling such a problem coming from somewhere in outter space -that I don’t really even hear about and I slightly have a drop of knowledge- obviously takes me to the lowest place in the world, creating a gloomy, uncomfortable feeling and sometimes, drives me to think crazily that I am the dummiest person ever. -__-. But, yeah.. may be that the things go. Even Thomas Alfa Edison must did experiments thousand times to invent the lamp (wow, what a cliche words
).
Well, back to today’s thing, I just did my first experiment’s presentation. It was not bad, tough it wasn’t good at all. Hmmm, actually I didn’t catch what my professor thought about my experiment as he’s such truly Japanese people who I can hardly guess what’s in his mind. He smiles all the time but yet it doesn’t mean he is happy with your work, wew. Japanese are really good in hiding their true impression elegantly. Mitsuhashi sensei was smiling and looked a little impressed today, nevertheless I couldn’t take it as his satisfactory to my presentation. It could be just his way to appreciate my hardlooking effort. (Yeah, he knew that I spent almost a week to understand 24 pages of paper -__-.)
And, yet, my first experiment presentation was not the end at all. Of course this is just a very beginning of my research’s steps. This is just my first footpace to a thousand, million footpaces I should make. Doing a research is a really difficult part of my life, yet it is obviously challenging. Most of researchers spend 10 hours a day in the lab, everyday. And sometimes they have to admit that in a day, even they can’t get any result (except the –they don’t know wheter it is useful or not – knowledge ). To me, research is like being trapped in a really dark, huge maze. You need to find your way out, but you don’t know where you are . A dark, unknown environment and branch of ways surround you. You have to learn, to step slowly, to open the doors and find the lights one by one. If you think that you open a wrong door, or you find that there is another better door, sometimes you have to step back and go othet direction of way. Sometimes you are stucked in a thick and huge wall or you are stumbled by a stone , letting you fall and hurt. But, all you need to do is keep awake and walking. You have to believe that you will find the way out, someday..
To all researcher ,
never give up your spirit
Nana