[Grad2021] [Turnbull Zemi] Welcome to new members and schedule for rest of academic year

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

First, I'd like to offer congratulations to the new Master of PPS
students who passed the exam in February
金明旸, 周雅佩, 刘梁 (arriving in April), 王天舒
and those who passed the October exam
徐慧, 馬弢, 李悦祺 (all arriving in April)
and welcome the new kenkyusei
王巧, 于澤群, 花季 (all arriving in April)
and the new undergraduate
櫻井俊太朗
to the Zemi.

Congratulations to the 2021 graduates
葉鵬飛 and 黄一宸 (Master of Policy and Planning Science)
and
伊藤悠斗 and 村澤英資 (Bachelor of Policy and Planning Science).

About my Zemi for Academic Year 2021:
At least for the Spring Term I expect we will be holding classes,
including the Zemi online, using Microsoft Teams.  If you have already
registered with the university and have a student ID number and email
account, you should register with Microsoft Teams using your student
email address (s#######@u.tsukuba.ac.jp).  Other students should
register using a current email address, and I will admit you as
guests.

If coronavirus conditions in Tsukuba permit, I plan to have
occasional group meetings (such as for lunch) in person about once a
month.

As this past year, I plan to have a group meeting with all students
once a week, and an individual meeting with each student each week.
Meetings in February and March are optional but highly recommended.
It is possible starting in April meetings will be in the evening
because with 15 students there will be many conflicts with classes.

For individual meetings, my schedule for the next two weeks is
normally posted at https://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/schedule/.
Please make appointments for next week (meeting by video on Teams),
and let me know if you have constraints on times for the group Zemi
when you can't join (for example due to part-time work).

For continuing students, because there are many students next year, I
will have to be a lot stricter about preparation ("work product") and
about keeping appointments to the scheduled time (usually 30 minutes),
at least during AB modules when I am teaching classes.

I have some bad news.  The 3E building where the student lab is is
going to be renovated next year.  The current plan is that we will
move to F building, probably Room 1115, in June or July.  Then return
to E building in E406 (across the hall form E401) in March 2022.
(Staying in Room 1115 is an option, but that room is smaller and does
not have independent air conditioning, which means that heat and
cooling are available only during "business hours", about 8:30 to
18:00.  We'll see how that goes next year.)

That's all for now.  I will be sending more mail about the Zemi
workflow and doing research for your degree next week.

By the way, due to the increased workload for me, I probably will not
be writing in Japanese.  However, feel free to write me in Japanese if
that is easier.  Reading Japanese is only a little slower than English
for me, but writing Japanese is about 5X as much effort as English.  I
do recommend trying to writing in English as that is still an
important skill for anyone who is planning a career in any
manufacturing or financial business, and often in pretty much any
field in today's global economy.

Regards,
Steve


-- 
Associate Professor              Division of Policy and Planning Science
http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/     Faculty of Systems and Information
Email: turnbull at sk.tsukuba.ac.jp                   University of Tsukuba
Tel: 029-853-5175                 Tennodai 1-1-1, Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN