NAOJ and the Department of Astronomical Science of the Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI) hold annual summer student programs every August for sophomore and junior students who major in science and engineering. This is a short-term program that provides opportunities for students to have research experiences under the supervision of NAOJ researchers who are teaching at SOKENDAI, aiming to nurture young students who wish to be a future astronomer. This program has already been put into practice at NAOJ Mitaka Campus and other facilities around Japan and Subaru telescope at the NAOJ Hawaii Observatory (Hiro, Hawaii Island, US), and has newly started at the Joint ALMA Observatory (Santiago, Chile) this year.

Two junior students at Kyoto Sangyo University applied for this program this year and they studied under Satoko Takahashi, an assistant professor at NAOJ, for a month from the mid-August to conduct research on the formation and evolution of protostars using ALMA observation data. They learnt the analysis method of observation data, as well as the star formation theories and the mechanism of an interferometer through lectures, discussions and journal reading. At the final stage of the program, they took the initiative to decide how to conduct data analysis of a target object they chose by themselves. At the presentations of their research results, the two students showed their findings respectively focused on (i) Accretion and rotational movement of gas around a protostar and the formation of a circumstellar disc and (ii) Identification of bipolar jets (mass ejection) from multiple protostars and classification according to the evolutionary phases.

During the program, in addition to their daily research activities, the students participated in journal study sessions and science seminars jointly organized with JAO and European Southern Observatory (ESO) where they took part in active discussions with international researchers. On the last day of the program, the students volunteered to give presentations of their research papers in English at JAO. They had valuable research experiences in an international environment.