①Our Mentoring Approach
Our laboratory belongs to the Research Division of Disaster Management for Safe and Secure Society, Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University, within the Integrated Arts and Sciences for Disaster Reduction Research Group. We also serve as a cooperating course with the Department of Civil and Earth Resources Engineering (Undergraduate Civil Engineering Course) and the Graduate School of Engineering. We accept 4th-year undergraduates, as well as master’s and doctoral students.
We emphasize learning the full research cycle: defining questions, building hypotheses, testing them, and discussing results. Students develop these skills through individual meetings with faculty, lab seminars, SOBOC, and academic conferences.
Guidance is tailored to each student’s strengths and stage of study. If you already have a clear research interest, we will support incorporating it into your thesis as long as it aligns with our mission. We also provide opportunities for conference presentations, fieldwork, and other experiences, within what is realistically possible.
Research on water-related disaster risk is linked with issues such as climate change, land use, and population dynamics, and requires responses at scales ranging from international strategies to local practices. We therefore encourage broad perspectives, active communication in English, and participation in study abroad or internships. We strongly support such activities beyond the lab/university.
②Our Expectations
Our lab is part of the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University. We see every student here as an important member of our shared mission: reducing disaster risks. The goal is not only to produce results, but to approach your research with curiosity, responsibility, and enthusiasm.
Undergraduate students
Explore what research really means. We hope you will learn how to ask your own questions, observe phenomena, analyze data, and think critically about what you find.
Master’s students
With your growing knowledge and technical skills, we encourage you to dig deeper into your own questions and shape them into original research questions. Through projects and discussions, you will also learn how research connects to real-world practice.
Doctoral students
We expect you to take the lead in pursuing your own research themes and to create new knowledge at the frontiers of the field. At the same time, you play a key role in our lab community by contributing to projects and mentoring younger students.
③ Career Paths after Graduation
Our laboratory is engaged in developing technologies and proposing policies for reducing water-related disaster risks. The expertise gained here can be directly applied in a wide range of careers, including national and local government positions, construction consulting, insurance and risk management, as well as research at universities and institutes. Many of our graduates are active at the forefront of these fields.
In recent years, some students have also pursued careers beyond traditional boundaries – such as entrepreneurship in disaster risk reduction or management consulting. We believe that the mindset cultivated through research – asking your own questions, generating scientific knowledge, and applying them to social challenges – are valuable in any career path.
Examples of career paths: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, university researchers, private companies (JR, Kansai Electric Power, Toda Corporation, Osaka Gas, Mitsui Fudosan, etc.), overseas study, entrepreneurship, and more.