Mercari R4D has launched the “Mercari R4D PhD Support Program,” a program to support employees to pursue PhD studies, from February 2022.
https://about.mercari.com/en/press/news/articles/20220128_phdsupport/
We are pleased to announce that the 3rd round of the program has been decided!
Kazuaki Takehara（@zak3）
- Affiliation: Engineering Manager at Merpay
- University: Statistical Science Program, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies
- Research Theme: Conversational Information retrieval and recommendation
Comments
There are many exciting unresolved problems in daily business. However, we often take ad hoc solutions because delivering business value in a timely manner is important.
I decided to pursue a doctoral degree because I wanted to be able to conduct thorough research and find solutions to those problems in graduate school, which is free from the time constraints of the business world.
I am interested in interactions between people and search/recommendation systems. I am researching users’ search behavior using statistical approaches to provide better search experiences that enable users to find what they really want.
I applied to this support program because I have been attracted to the possibility of obtaining feedback from various business perspectives and the demonstrability of using Mercari’s marketplace data.
Applications for the 4th round of the PhD Support Program are scheduled. Mercari will continue to support various opportunities for recurrent education and career building for employees, and in addition to focusing on developing talent capable of contributing to economic development and solving social issues, will continue to strive for a work environment that encourages the success of its diverse people.About “Mercari R4D PhD Support Program”
“Mercari R4D PhD Support Program” will provide tuition support and flexible working hours to ensure sufficient study and research time to Mercari employees who aspire to enter doctorate programs in fields that will contribute to the future growth of Mercari and the solution of social issues. We will give employees the opportunity to redesign their careers and explore new horizons, all while retaining their jobs at Mercari. Also, we will be able to dispatch employees into areas beyond the ones that R4D has been involved in up to this point. In this way, Mercari will increase the number of employees with highly specialized knowledge, and strengthen its human resource development in order to stoke innovation.