About DSPII

• Introduction
• Program
• Eligibility for DSPII 2020
• Financial Support

Introduction

The Data Sciences Program (DSP)II started on October 2018 as one of the "International Priority Graduate Programs (PGP) - Advanced Graduate Courses for International Students - " supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Technology (MEXT).
Main purpose of this program is to develop highly-specialized global human resource of data science contributing to construction of social, life, and environmental foundations. The program is designed to acquire not only basic knowledge and skills of data science based on computer science, fundamental mathematics, and engineering, but also practical skills for discovery and solving the real world problems in life sciences, economics, biomedical engineering and others. Graduate School of Information Sciences (GSIS) conducts this program in collaboration with graduate schools of Life Sciences, Economics and Management, and Biomedical Engineering in Tohoku University. The courses will mainly be given in English except for some optional subjects to learn Japanese language and culture.

Program

DSPII consists of a graduate program combining 2-year Master's and 3-year Doctor's course. Students should be affiliated with one of the four graduate schools: Graduate Schools of Information Sciences (GSIS), Life Sciences, Economics and Management, and Biomedical Engineering. Primary mentor and sub mentor are assigned to every student participating DSPII for supervising their learning and research. The primary mentor is the supervisor of the student in her/his affiliated graduate school, and the sub mentor is the professor/associate professor has been matched to the student from GSIS. The course curriculum is organized as follows:

Master's course

(1) Lectures

i. Specialized subjects provided by the affiliated graduate school.

ii. Fundamental subjects to learn information law and ethics for the treatment of big data.

iii.Interdisciplinary subjects designated to data science: sensing, storage, computation/ analysis, data mining/discovery and solving the real world problems

(2) Practical training and internship

i. Training Camp to develop computational ability of big data

ii. Internship in industries

(3) Writing a master thesis supervised by the mentors

Doctor's course

(1) Advanced seminars: Data science-related meetings, symposia, and conferences assigned by DSPII

(2) Big data challenge: Project-based learning based on knowledge and skills of data science

(3) Writing doctor thesis supervised by the mentors

Eligibility for DSPII 2020

♦ Applicant must be an excellent student newly coming from abroad to study as a graduate-level foreign student.
♦ Applicant must have earned over 2.3 evaluation point average of their latest or current degree program based on the specialized calculation (see note [1]).
♦ Applicant must be able to leave for and arrive in Japan by the beginning of October, 2020.
♦ Applicant for DSPII need to satisfy one of the following conditions:

For 5 years Master's and Doctor's Course Applicant
i) Those who have graduated, or will graduate, from a university, that is, completion of a total of 16 years of school education by September 30, 2020 (see note [2]).
ii) Those who have reached 22 years of age by September 30, 2020 and can be recognized to have an academic ability equivalent or superior to those who have graduated from a university based on individual qualification examinations.

For 3 years Doctor's Course Applicant
i) Those who have earned, or will earn, Master's degree by September 30, 2020.
ii) Those who have engaged in research activities for at least 2 years at an educational or research institution after graduation from a university and can be recognized to have an academic ability equivalent or superior to those who have earned Master's degree on the basis of their research performance.
iii) Those who have reached 24 years of age by September 30, 2020 and can be recognized to have scholastic ability equivalent or superior to those who have earned Master's degree based on individual qualification examinations.

Notes:
[1] The calculation procedure of the evaluate point average

Scale	Grade
4-scale evaluation	A		B	C	D
	100-80		79-70	69-60	59-
5-scale evaluation	S	A	B	C	D
	A	B	C	D	F
	100-90	89-80	79-70	69-60	59-
Evaluation Point	3	3	2	1	0
Number of your total credit	N4	N3	N2	N1	N0

Evaluation Point=((N4+N3)×3+N2×2+N1×1)/(N4+N3+N2+N1+N0)

[2] The term "graduated from a university" means a total of 16 years of educational programs, which consists of 12 years of school education and a 4 years undergraduate (bachelor) program.

Financial Support

Japanese government (MEXT) scholarship will be available for excellent students who intend to be actively engaged in the DSPII program and contribute to its objectives. A monthly stipend is available; details of this and other information are listed below. Awardees of the scholarship will be selected from the candidates who are successful in the DSPII examination process. The MEXT scholarship scheme applies only to those who live outside of Japan at the time of application and were born on or after April 2, 1985.

(a) Exemption from Application, Admission and Tuition fees
(b) Monthly stipend: 146,000 JPY for 2 years in master's course
(c) Flight tickets between the applicant's country of nationality and Japan

# Self-supporting international students are highly encouraged to participate in DSPII.

For Master and Doctor: 5 years course
Number of recipient as the candidate of MEXT scholarship: 4 students
*Kindly note that we cannot guarantee the financial support when you go onto your Doctor's course at the moment because of the termination of scholarship program.
Please contact DSPII Admissions Office to see what kind of support can be considered.

For Doctor: 3 years course
Please contact DSPII Admissions Office to see what kind of support can be considered.