Niyati Rawal is one of the most inspiring and intelligent young women that I know. Not only did she move to Japan at the age of 19 to spend one year studying Japanese intensively before pursuing a Mechanical Engineering, Bachelor of Engineering degree at Osaka University, but she also published articles and conducted presentations about Artificial Intelligence (AI). Needless to say, Niyati is a high achieving, intriguing, and most importantly, warm-hearted person with a bright future.  

In this third article, learn more about Niyati’s first year in Japan in an intensive Japanese Language Program as part of the Japanese MEXT Undergraduate Scholarship Program, and the start of her career at Osaka University as a Mechanical Engineering major.

Niyati’s First Year in Japan in a Japanese Intensive Training Program for 1 Year

When Niyati first arrived in Japan at the age of 19, she only knew a few words in Japanese. But by the end of 2 weeks of living in Japan, she had increased her knowledge to about 10% proficiency rate for Japanese. 

As part of the Japanese MEXT Undergraduate Scholarship Program, Niyati spent 10+ hours per day studying Japanese, and had multiple quizzes or tests per week. Basically, the program at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, was training her to become skilled in daily conversations for living in Japan comfortably. But most importantly, it was training her to be able to pursue an undergraduate degree at a top-level national university in Japanese with native Japanese speakers. 

As such, it was an incredibly challenging, yet fruitful program. Towards the end of the Intensive Year of Japanese Language Training, Niyati had to take university entrance exams in Japanese in subjects such as Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, etc., entirely in Japanese. Furthermore, there was a lot of pressure to do well on these exams, as it would determine which universities she could attend in Japan.

Based on her grades at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and her university entrance exam results, Niyati was placed at Osaka University after one year of studying Japanese intensively.

All of her studying and hard work paid off. By her second year in Japan, she was already reading Japanese textbooks!

The Beginnings at Osaka University as a Mechanical Engineering Major

At Osaka University, Niyati decided to pursue a technical major — Mechanical Engineering, Bachelor of Engineering B.E. There, she chose to apply to the lab of a famous professor — Professor Asada. And he and Professor Nagai supervised her research and provided her with countless opportunities to research on some of the very latest AI topics, as well as present at conferences.  

In the next article, learn more about Niyati’s paper and publications, as well as her goals for her future career.