Ganbatte Kudasai — She Has Persisted and is Strong
Aya Matsuyama
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PhD student in Biomedical Engineering and lecturer/tutor in Design and Dynamics in undergraduate engineering, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory
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Aya doesn’t want to be a super career woman, but she sees many people setting limits on themselves while they have the ability to do more. Remembering the words of her knowledgeable father, ‘only a busy person can do something’, she believes that many opportunities lie within ourselves. ‘As long as you enjoy what you do, you don’t feel tired or stressed too much’. Aya feels that life is short, and she would like to enjoy this limited time as much as she can, inclusive of bad and good times. In a couple of year’s time, Aya will be having kids. She wants to show them how much they can do in their lives.
Aya has a Bachelor degree in Aero Space Engineering (Nihon University, Japan) as well as a Graduate Diploma in Environmental Studies (University of Tasmania).
I was always interested in natural law and moving things, so Engineering was just the ideal area for me.
I was first interested in becoming a pilot but, in Japan, I could not be a commercial pilot as I don’t have good eyesight. I then chose to study aerospace engineering for my first degree, which was based on mechanical engineering. My final year project was on the simulation of the optimal orbit for space planes, which are the next generation of aeroplane/rockets. I really enjoyed computer simulation but I could not imagine myself spending most of my life just working in front of a computer. I wanted to do a more ‘hands on’ type of engineering.
So I got a job at a heavy industries company, where I was allocated to the Nuclear Power Division as a mechanical system engineer, designing inspection devices for reactor pressure vessels in nuclear power plants. I worked for them for five years. I have to admit that it was an absolutely precious experience. I learned how to work with a wide range of people, how to demonstrate their products, how to manage projects/budget, etc. I was also one of a few women engineers in the division, and I stood out anyway.
In the first 3 months, all new graduates worked in the workshop to learn how things were built, how tradesmen work, what the work place environment is like, etc. We had three females out of fifty new graduates in a group. We all experienced welding, oxy-cutting, and painting with all protective clothes. Working in the workshop was quite exhausting every day, which made us so hungry that we ate all our factory lunch which was not really delicious. In fact, some of us didn’t feel it was enough.
One day we had an official meeting with a top boss of the workshop. It was rare chance to see one of our top people in the big company. At the end of the meeting, we were asked if we had anything to say, and of course every one was quiet. But I thought I should bring up the lunch issue, so I said ‘Excuse me, I’m afraid I don’t think we are supplied with sufficient food to meet this hard work.’ They all looked at me and said ‘ Do you really like that lunch? It’s not really delicious. Who else wants more lunch?’ Then no one raised a hand. So from the beginning of my time in that company, I was known as a ‘hungry woman engineer, who made an official complaint to a big boss for not supplying enough food.’
I am not quite sure if it is because of my gender, but sometimes it seemed easier for people to teach or point something out to me. When I just started working there, I got told off many times by people at the workshop because I designed and drew something impossible to be built. It looked fine on a piece of paper though. As a new graduate with limited experience, I thought that it was quite normal to be told off, but I tried to make the most of these ‘getting told off’ experiences to learn things quickly.
One of the projects I was heavily involved in was promoting our new inspection system for nuclear power plants. This promotion started from my presentation at an international conference. I worked very hard on the structure to make it simple and easy to comprehend. Then I worked on the speech, locking myself in a meeting room, and memorized all of my words.
As a result of this hard work, my presentation was a ‘hit’ at the conference. Before my presentation, no one really bothered to talk to me, maybe because I was young and a woman engineer. However, straight after the presentation, people just kept coming to me to discuss the details of our system. Even our competitor GE came up to me and asked what sort of business arrangement they could make with us. I was then thrilled to realise that this system would give us a big business opportunity.
I try to do my best whatever I do, and now I was becoming a successful engineer in the company. However, working for the Nuclear Power Division really made me think of the environment and my responsibility to this world as an engineer. The more credit I earned for what I did for my job, the more uncomfortable I felt, because I didn’t have full faith in what I was doing in the Nuclear Power Division. Nuclear Power is a very important energy source for Japan, as we do not have many natural resources. I understand that, for the government, it is important not to rely on imports too much, so that trade sanctions do not affect the country much. Technologies for nuclear power have already been developed and used, so someone has to keep working on them to have better control, and to find how to store the radioactive waste. I do not want to deny all technologies around nuclear power, but it was simply not for me.
So I started saving money for the next project of my life.
After I saved enough money, I came to Tasmania to study Environmental Studies, and wrote a thesis on Traditional Water Knowledge in the Arid Zone, which was about Aboriginal water knowledge. This thesis opened a door for the next step: I was offered a job with Water Resources in the Northern Territory government.
I worked there for four years developing a map of water resources in Aboriginal lands in a user- (Aboriginal people-) friendly form. My main job was to collect stories and Aboriginal names for the maps from Aboriginal people, so that our final project should appeal to them. I found this type of project really attractive as the outcome was so end-user friendly. I saw many Aboriginal people getting interested in the maps with their names. It was an exciting interaction between users and designers.
After completing my project with the NT government, I wanted to go back to engineering, and now I am doing biomedical engineering. In terms of a career in science, I have found engineering quite universal. Even though I did not originally study engineering in English, all concepts and symbols stay the same, so I can even teach engineering in English. If you understand the concept, it is not difficult to read articles in different languages.
My new avenue of research came simply by chance. I was going to research wind power but the company which suggested this topic pulled out of this research for reasons of commercial sensitivity. They did not want the data from their wind power plants to be open.
Within a few days, my supervisors came up with the ECG analysis, because one of their former students had researched it and they believed that there was more to be done in this area. The research topic I am studying is ‘Pulse and ECG analysis in heart related illnesses’.
I was actually happier with this area. First of all, biomedical engineering is relatively new. I have been personally interested in the human body because it is one of the most well designed mechanisms in the world. In this research I will be looking at pulse, which is closer to Eastern medicine, and whose concept I feel more familiar with. Signal processing technique is another attractive side of this research for its unlimited applications, which will give me a wide range of areas to work in. The most fascinating aspect of the research is the combination of the latest technology (biosignal analysis) and traditional knowledge (pulse diagnosis).
As a stress reliever, I play base and sing in a local band. I started playing piano when I was three and, since then, music has always a part of my life. Our band’s aim is to provide original music in Darwin. All the band work full time but we are passionate about the band too.
We then asked Aya about someone who has inspired her, and why:
Lao-tse: In one of his lessons he tells us about being humble but to maintain a strong belief. It sounds contradictory, but he explains this using water. Water changes its shape according to the container, but it still keeps its property.
Ryoma Sakamoto: He is a very famous Japanese person who worked for the Meiji Restoration. He worked very hard to the very end of his short life, just to lead Japan to a better future, but not for his own sake. He achieved so many things and influenced so many people who later became powerful. He did this just quietly and he was always calm and humble.
