Department Overview
In this day and age, we live surrounded by transportation machinery such as automobiles, railroads and airplanes, as well as all sorts of construction equipment, home appliances, various kinds of precision machinery, medical appliances, and so on. What kinds of knowledge and abilities are required to design and manufacture such machinery, and to maintain them with a high level of performance? As the complexity of machinery increases, we might need intelligent robots and computer-based factory automation systems. Moreover, as our society faces the 21st century, issues such as space exploration, effective use of solar energy, preservation of our fragile planet and the environment, and care of the sick and the elderly will require the development of advanced techniques that succeed in establishing harmony between the world of humans and the world of machines.
At the Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, the development of new materials, innovative approaches to utilizing renewable energy, and intelligent control mechanisms are all subjects of active teaching and research to create technology for the future, as are various related fields. There are over 30 laboratories in the department, and some of our faculty members are affiliated with the Graduate School of Bio-Applications Systems and Engineering (BASE). With research activities ranging widely from basic mechanisms to intelligent machines, from hardware to software, we aim to produce engineers who are creative and well-versed in the latest advances in technology.
In particular, our teaching and research activities cover the traditional engineering fields of fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, manufacturing, control theory, materials science and mechanics, in addition to the modern fields of tribology, systems engineering, robotics, and optical engineering.
A distinguishing feature of this department, setting us apart from other engineering schools, is the high level of cooperation between faculty members working in different engineering disciplines.
Our curriculum is structured so that the basics are taught first, and then more complex topics are introduced that build upon the basics. For example, fundamental analysis is first taught in the context of thermal and fluid energy analysis, strength of materials, and mechanics of materials. The students are then taught in systems engineering how to build upon these fundamental analysis techniques by combining them in a systematic method. As another example, to facilitate the understanding of fields such as mechatronics and factory automation, students are taught measurement, control theory, and machine tool technology first. Our curriculum is also broad enough to emphasize topics related to mechanical systems engineering such as electronic circuits, electrical engineering (motor drives), computer hardware and software, and information science, to name just a few. Our goal in producing a curriculum of such breadth and depth is to educate and train a new generation of engineers who will be able to lead our society into the 21st century.
