Emily's two stories

I went to Japan twice with MIT-Japan Program. My first internship in Japan was at Forum8, a company that balances computer engineering with civil engineering, to provide a variety of services, from driving simulations to urban and traffic planning, and I developed an Augmented Reality application as a demo for Forum8’s marketing team.

I wanted to go back to Japan again so the next year I did my internship at Fujitsu Labs and built a translator with Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing techniques that would translate sentences from Japanese into English. It was my first time building such a project, so I had a lot of guidance from my supervisor and my mentor, but we ended up getting a well working translator!

	  	  Major & Class Year
	  	  
	  	  Emily Stanford, Course 6, Computer Science, '18

	  	  MISTI Program
	  	  
	  	  Internship

	  	  Location
	  	  
	  	  Shinagawa, Tokyo, 2017

	  	  Host 2017
	  	  
	  	  Forum8

	  	  Location
	  	  
	  	  Kawasaki, Kanagawa-ken 2018

	  	  Host 2018
	  	  
	  	  Fujitsu Labs

Forum8 is a company that balances computer engineering with civil engineering, to provide a variety of services, from driving simulations to urban and traffic planning.

I worked on a project to develop an Augmented Reality application as a demo for Forum8’s marketing team. My project was similar to a walk through of steps to Software Development. I spent time planning out the application, from use features to user input and design, before I dove into the project. I spent time learning the new languages that Forum8 used to program and doing research about AR and how it could be used.

MIT-Japan internship at Forum8. in 2017

“This was truly eye-opening and I’m very thankful for everything that I have gained from it. The opportunity to immerse myself in Japan’s culture for an entire summer and learn more about software engineering is one I will never forget. This was easily one of the experiences I have learned from the most at MIT, from the fantastic preparation before heading to Japan, to the support that we were given in Japan.

Emily Stanford, internship in 2017

My project for this internship was to build a translator with Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing techniques that would translate sentences from Japanese into English. It was my first time building such a project, so I had a lot of guidance from my supervisor and my mentor, but we ended up getting a well working translator!

After the initial project was built, I spent the remaining two months researching into ways to make the system more efficient and translate more naturally. I got to read a lot of scientific papers on the subject and then I brainstormed with the rest of my team on which method we should implement, and then I got to test out my own research!

MIT-Japan internship at Fujitsu Lab in 2018

"I really enjoyed the amount of freedom that I had in my internship. Working with people who enjoyed their research, taking part in work-related activities outside of the scope of my internship, and being allowed to choose my own research direction all added to how much I enjoyed this experience. It was great to feel welcomed and like a part of their team.

Emily Stanford, internship in 2018