Mikayla Webster is a Computer Science major studying at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. She intends to use her programming knowledge to advance the field of language translation. At UCSD, she led a collaborative project with the Red Cross of Tijuana. Her team’s goal was to create a software solution to help better distribute the Red Cross’ limited number of ambulances. The experience inspired Mikayla to pursue an international career in software engineering. Her love of language learning narrowed her focus to automated language translation. Her goal is “to facilitate higher, faster, and easier levels of communication across nations and cultures by tearing down the language barriers that separate them.” Mikayla has a personal goal of learning at least five languages in her life: English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and Arabic. She writes that, “learning new languages gives insight and perspective that can only be accomplished when individuals step outside their own area of comfort and experience. By gaining knowledge about different peoples beyond one’s current understanding, the mind can better facilitate tolerance, acceptance, and universal love.” She is living in the international housing area at the university and has befriended students from China, Indonesia, Germany, France, Poland, Spain, and Venezuela. Mikayla has met Japanese students through an English-Japanese language exchange group that meets regularly, including several students who were good friends with previous Borton scholars attending Tohoku (Christian Koguchi, Austin Pukasamsombut, and Vincent Yu). She is working in the Advanced Acoustics and Intelligent Systems Lab at Tohoku University, with a focus on psycho acoustics. The prompt for her research is the human brain’s ability to filter sounds that it hears. Mikayla is working under a Japanese master student who is attempting to recreate this affect in headphone speakers. She will spend the upcoming months learning from this master student while defining her own similarly-themed project.