Internship Review – Honda Research Institute Japan
Name: Varshith Sreeramdass
Company: Honda Research Institute Japan
Location: Wakoshi, Saitama, Japan
Work Profile : Research in DL
Selection procedure and interview :
Interns are taken up by individual researchers working in the Company and the selection procedure is completely upto them.
Each researcher had a seperate shortlist based on the candidates’ resumes.
Skype interviews were held which involved questions about prior projects, motivation and interest.
Work Description :
HRI is accustomed to having interns for a period of one year and no less. Even the projects that the researchers propose are of the scale and manner which require a year’s time and work. I had to get a lot of work done and time was a major constraint.
My project was built around analysing motion capture data and its classification. The effort was to build a system capable of understanding sign language and translating it into written language.
Workplace :
HRI has quite a rich intern culture with most of them staying for over a year. It’s quite a homely place with lot of friendly faces around always ready for a chat or a break.
The other employees in the office are extra sweet to Interns and are always ready to help you out in any manner possible, be it translating BIOS Setups from Japanese to helping you find a place to buy KitKats.
The researchers are quite friendly and approachable. They are especially patient with interns and greatly care about their learning.
Travel, Accommodation, Food, Culture :
Wako is mainly a residential place that pretty much dies out after 10PM. But just 40 minutes away is located the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. With several pubs and restaurants open all night, we’d find ourselves there pretty much every weekend. Of course, Tokyo has a lot more to offer than just that. Museums, parks, shops and the diversity in them is quite baffling.
But even more overwhelming and beautiful than Tokyo is Japan itself. The country is the perfect epitome of the concept of balance. Skyscrapers and huts with streams flowing by, equally likely. Places to look out for; Sendai, Tokyo, Kyoto, Okinawa, Fujisan.
Japan is a boon for non-vegetarian food lovers and can be quite a curse the other way. Even the office cafeteria served one dish that was somewhat vegetarian.
Overall experience and some suggestion to juniors :
HRI and Japan are quite refreshing and can really change your perspective on how people live across the world. There is a lot one can achieve with a good mentor in the right environment. Don’t take it from me.
- HRI is really upset about the situation with interns from India staying for very short durations. It is definitely a good idea to take a semester/year off and work at a company.
Department Academic Mentorship Programme 