The 21st Century COE Program
Mechanical Systems Innovation
The University of Tokyo9No.

The 21st Century COE Program
Mechanical Systems Innovation, The University of Tokyo

Special Issue on
Human Resource Development

PrefaceToshiki Iino, Project Professor
International Research andEducation Center for Mechanical
Systems Innovation

The growth and maintenance of internationally competitive industries are indispensable for the invigoration and sustainable
development of the Japanese economy in the knowledge-based society of the 21st century, as technology rapidly
progresses along with globalization. At this time graduate school education is expected to develop human resources thatcan lead innovation in a wide range of engineering fields.
Therefore, in this COE program “Mechanical Systems Innovation,” we are aiming to form an internationally-attractive
educational base by sharing our vision, which is to develop leaders who possess “creativity, a pioneering ability for
untrodden fields, an international perspective, an ability in project planning and management associated with a sense ofresponsibility --all of these qualities built on a firm basic education and highly-specialized intellect”.
As for the needed educational reform, which has in the past been a matter of internal discussions among faculty members,
we have been providing the opportunity for open debates that involve not only industry and relevant ministries but also thestudents who are receiving the education. We are organizing various requirements for graduate school education that comefrom industry and seek to extract the universal elements.
Through these activities, some new educational programs have already been suggested and carried out. This newsletter
introduces those new trial programs for human resource development.

EMarch 1, 2006

Industry-Faculty Council for Human Resource Development
History
The Industry-Faculty Councilfor Human Resource Development
Meeting
English skill

Research activities
and a doctoral dissertation
Creativity

Applied skill

Ph.D.
StudentPlanning andManagement

Internship

LectureGroup

Cross-disciplinary
expertise

Cross-Department
Doctoral Course

Ability tooverlook

Foreign traveling expenses
payment, Overseas education

The Joint Academic-Industrial
Education Working Group

Communication skill

The Intramural Education
Working GroupOn June 3, 2005, the 1st Industry-Faculty Council for Human Resource
Development Council was held. At this council 13 business promotion membersof different companies, which are major workplaces for graduates of the school ofengineering at the University of Tokyo, and 21 COE project promoters gathered
in a hall. It was confirmed that we cooperatively promote educational reform forthe graduate school via three mainstays: this council (the Industry-FacultyCouncil for Human Resource Development), the Industry-Government-AcademiaInteraction Meeting for Human Resource Development Meeting, and the CrossDepartment Doctoral Course, which is based on the common awareness that thefostering of researchers and technical engineers is crucial for the future aging
society in which there will be fewer children.

Pioneeringability

At the Executive Meeting held on Tuesday, July 19, 2005, the Intramural
Education Working Group (WG) and the Joint Academic-Industrial Education
Working Group were established. In the former, we intend to develop “specialty”
and “literacy” by improving the lecture system at the University of Tokyo, whereas
in the latter we aim to cultivate “competency”, which is difficult to develop throughcoursework alone.
In a series of WG meetings held in August, October, and November, educational
requirements from industries were organized into these three categories:“specialty”, “literacy”, and “competency”. On this basis, faculty members
afterwards presented lecture groups corresponding to the requirements of“specialty” and “literacy”. Representatives from the industries presented aninternship plan for the development of “competency”.
The discussions described above were summarized at the 3rd Industry-FacultyCouncil for Human Resource Development Meeting held in December 2005.
Regarding intramural education, the schematization of lectures and theintroduction of multi-supervisors and an adviser for lecture choice weresuggested.

Opening address by Prof. Nobuhide Kasagi,
the Program leader

Requirements from industryand education corresponding to themRequirements

・Highly-specialized ・Systematization
knowledge

From the Joint Academic-Industrial Education Group, a long-term internshipprogram based on collaborative research and a short-term skill-training program
were put into place.

Specialty

・Adviser system

・Pioneering

・Cross-Department

ability

Literacyof lectures

・Creativity

・Ability to overlook

Future work

Corresponding
Education・Multidisciplinary
・Presentation skill

Doctoral Course
・English meeting
・Foreign travelingexpenses payment
・Open Seminars

・English skill

These suggestions will be tried in the Cross-Department Doctoral Courses,“Mechanical Systems Innovation 1” and “Mechanical Systems Innovation 2,” tobe offered in the next fiscal year.
Although it is difficult to achieve concrete results in a short time, we will continue
the open discussion on the reform of the graduate school education among all
stakeholders: the industry, government, faculty members, and students.

・Ability toestablish problems

Competency

・Planning and・Cross-Department
Doctoral Course
・Study abroad

Management abilities ・Internship・Applied skill
・LeadershipIndustry-Academia-Government Interaction Meeting for Human Resource Development
In this meeting, we have been inviting well-informed persons from ministries, industries and universities every few months. They
give us lectures on the present condition of the graduate school education and what it should be. They are of particularly highinterest to Ph.D. students, and vigorous discussions are conducted after the lectures. Till now, we have invited three persons
from ministry, industry and university, respectively. The followings are their brief reports.
1st Industry-Government-Academia Interaction Meeting for Human Resource Development
Date: March 15, 2005
Speaker : Yuji Sakakibara (Manager, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology [MEXT])
Subject : Effort of MEXT toward Advanced Human Resource Development
When we reach the age of puberty in Japan, there is a strong requirement that we develop our personalities and createknowledge-based values in preparation for the coming small-population society. In this lecture, the activities of the Ministry ofEducation, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) concerning human resource development were introduced. In
addition, the need to diversify the career paths of young researchers and to introduce internship programs coordinated by theacademic-industrial alliance were pointed out. In a Q&A session, there was an earnest demand from a student to reinforce thefinancial support given by government to young researchers.
2nd Industry-Government-Academia Interaction
Meeting for Human Resource Development
Date: April 26, 2005
Speaker : Mitsuhiro Arinobu(Managing Director, Toshiba Co., Ltd.)
Subject : Expectations and Realities for Ph.D.s

3rd Industry-Government-Academia Interaction
Meeting for Human Resource Development
Date: June 21, 2005
Speaker : Hideo Ohashi(President, Kogakuin University)
Subject : A Viewpoint on the Development of an Engineer

More of an ability to unify multidiscipline expertise andpeople is required in industry, while sticking to your own way
is valued in academia. In this lecture, the differences
between postdoctoral career paths in Japan and those in theU. S. and Europe were shown. It was also pointed out thatan education program that cultivates management ability
and applied skills is needed in order to increase the numberof Ph.D.s who participate actively in industry.
In a Q&A session, one student asked the lecturer: “Afterentering a company, how has graduate school education
been useful in your career ?”. The lecturer answered that“The experiences of establishing problems on my own andcollaborating with neighboring people are significant”.

By tracing the etymology of “Engineering”, the lecturer
discussed a Japanese conceptual problem: much has been
made of the aspect of “study” alone, while the original
meaning of the word “profession” has been lost.
Construction of a system that prevents technical abuses andthat allows for participation in technical choices with society
is required for future engineers.
In a Q&A session, there was active discussion on
establishing universal qualifications for engineers and thepositioning of scientists and engineers.

Presentation by Dr. Mitsuhiro Arinobu

Question to Dr. Hideo OhashiCross-Department Doctoral Course
Joint UT-ETH Exchange Program
The objective of this program is to cultivate internationality,communication and project management skills for young
researchers through international exchange with the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH, Zurich), which is an overseas
base of 21 COE.
Students who hoped to apply for this program were obligated tomake contact with their host professors, suggest research plans andobtain the host professor's informal consent for acceptance. Next,
five research assistants were selected after an English hearing.
In the laboratory
They were dispatched to Zurich, Switzerland, with a project research
associate for the month from October 1, 2005 to November 1, 2005.
Dispatched students attempted to develop their expertise and broaden their perspectives though seminars andsymposia held at ETH Zurich, while they advanced their own research by collaborating with foreign researchers asscheduled.
A symposium entitled “So, you've got a Ph.D. What’s next ?”, in which Ph.D.s who play active parts in industry
introduced their own career paths, provided good opportunities for the students to recognize the difference between
the positioning of Ph.D.s in European industry and that in Japanese industry and to reconsider their own career
paths. In the closing days of the period in Zurich, a joint symposium with researchers and faculty members at ETH
Zurich was held, and the Japanese students presented their achievements during the month.
Although this was the first trial, the dispatched students made research achievements and laid the groundwork forfuture collaboration. They created individual relationships with foreign researchers through their disparate
discussions. It seems that these experiences increased their confidence. Students from ETH Zurich subsequently
visited the University of Tokyo, and the interaction between students at the two bases has been growing. Thisprogram will be carried out continuously after the next fiscal year.

Cross-Department Doctoral Course~Research Assistant Final Debrief Session~
Date:January 27, 2006 Venue :Takeda Hall, Takeda Building, Asano campus
In a Cross-Department Doctoral Course lecture called “MechanicalSystems Innovation”, a main axis of the graduate school educationin this COE Program, research assistants (RAs) gather from seven
relevant departments and divide into groups. In each group, RAs
cooperatively find engineering problems in society, formulate them,and propose solutions to them. Through this process, we aim toMembers of "Development of a Low Cost Aerial
cultivate the project management skills and leadership abilities of Photography System", which won the highest award.
Prof. Kasagi, 21COE program leader
RAs. In this fiscal year, 30 RAs were divided into seven groups and(on the left) and Prof. Sakai (on the right)
have collaborated with each other.
As a conclusion to the lecture, the Research Assistant Final Debrief Session was held on January 27, 2006.
Business promotion members from 10 major companies, 21 COE project promoters, Postdocs and RAs attended
English oral and poster sessions given by each group. “Development of a Low Cost Aerial Photography System”
was selected for the highest award, “Investigation of a Functional Fluid Applied to Medical Technology” for thedesign prize, and “Translation from Technical Knowledge to General Knowledge” for the idea prize, respectively.
The visitors from industries esteemed the originality of the themes and English presentations and gave RAs
valuable advice on how to manage projects.
The wide acquaintances established during this activity will be of great value to the RAs in their graduate school lives.

Voices from Young Researchers
Junichi Kazawa, Post Doctoral Fellow,
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, School of Engineering

My name is Junichi Kazawa. I assumed the position of Post Doctoral Fellow in the21st Century COE Program beginning October, 2004.
I am analyzing unsteady aerodynamic phenomena and its control in a gas turbine. In
the compressor of a gas turbine, dangerous phenomena occur that can destroy thegas turbine such as surge, rotating stall, and cascade flutter. The compressor
designed in the most efficient way could avoid these phenomena. Therefore, a more
efficient and better controlled gas turbine can be expected to come through aninvestigation of such unsteady aerodynamic phenomena.
Recently, research on the micro gas turbine (MGT) has been performed actively with the purpose of using the MGT
as distributed power sources. It is known that the efficiency of the compressor and turbine decreases when theReynolds number is low in the MGT. Many fruitful studies on the mechanism of the decrease in efficiency havebeen reported, but unsteady aerodynamic phenomena in the MGT have not been much researched. I’d like toanalyze the mechanism of these unsteady aerodynamic phenomena and investigate the possibility of their control
when the Reynolds number is low. Your continued support will be greatly appreciated.

Kang Yi, Post Doctoral Fellow,
Department of Quantum Engineering , School of Engineering

My name is Yi KANG. I am Chinese and come from Beijing. I received my Ph.D. in theDepartment of Quantum Engineering and Systems Science in September 2004. I wasthen hired as a PD by the 21st Century COE program on “Mechanical SystemsInnovation” on Oct. 26, 2004.
My interest is in energy. Energy demand due to increases in population and living
standards will continue to grow. New energy technologies will therefore be required ona massive scale. Climate-change considerations make this need more acute. Fusion
and hydrogen energy are the possible alternative technologies that can likely beimplemented on a massive scale.
In my doctoral course, I investigated tritium behaviors in the liquid Li-Sn alloy, which is a candidate material for atritium breeder in the liquid blanket of fusion reactors. The tritium properties in this material show that it has someadvantages in reducing tritium leakage to the environment and increasing tritium recovery efficiency compared withthe present liquid breeder candidates (such as Li, Li-Pb, and Flibe). I have investigated the material from theperspective of its tritium behavior and have determined that its application to a complicated fusion environment
requires a more thorough and detailed investigation. I also at present am interested in hydrogen energy. The
catalyst-membrane interface and mass transport in the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) of a fuel cell remains
a new and challenging topic for me.
The 21st Century COE program on “Mechanical systems innovation” is a program that provides a good platform forcommunication and research collaboration among groups or people from different fields. I think that not only myself
but many people will find a wide and interesting world here.

Program Executive Organization
Project Promoters
Program leader

Biomedical innovation

Nobuhide Kasagi
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering

Mamoru MitsuishiProfessor, Department of Engineering Synthesis, School of Engineering
Masao Washizu
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering
Masayuki Nakao
Professor, Department of Engineering Synthesis, School of Engineering
Teruo Fujii
Associate Professor, Department of Environmental and Ocean Engineering,
Institute of Industrial Science
Takashi Ushida
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering

Energy innovation
Masahiro Shoji
Professor Emeritus, Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering
Toshio Nagashima
Professor, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, School of Engineering
Chisachi KatoProfessor, Department of Human and Society, Institute of Industrial Science
Takayuki Terai
Professor, Department of Nuclear Engineering and Management,
School of Engineering
Kazuo Kageyama
Professor, Department of Environmental and Ocean Engineering,
School of Engineering
Nobuo Takeda
Professor, Department of Advanced Energy, School of Frontier Sciences
Tamaki Ura
Professor, Department of Environmental and Ocean Engineering,
Institute of Industrial Science
Shinichi Nakasuka
Professor, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, School of Engineering
Toyoshisa Fujita
Professor, Department of Geosystem Engineering, School of Engineering
Shigehiko Kaneko
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering

Hyper modeling / simulation
Yoichiro Matsumoto
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering
Takafumi Fujita
Professor, Department of Information and System, Institute of Industrial Science
Hideaki Miyata
Professor, Department of Environmental and Ocean Engineering,
School of Engineering
Shinsuke Sakai
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering
Shinobu Yoshimura
Professor, Department of Quantum Engineering and Systems Science

Project members
Toshiki Iino
Yosuke Hasegawa

Project Professor, International Research and Education Center for Mechanical Systems Innovation, School of Engineering
Project Research Associate, International Research and Education Center for Mechanical Systems Innovation, School of Engineering

Advisory Committee
Advisory Committee
Koutaro Inoue
Noboru Kikuchi

Senior Fellow, Japan Science and Technology Agency
Professor, The University of Michigan

Yoshitsugu Kimura
Tetsuya Tateishi

Professor Emeritus, The University of Tokyo
Fellow, National Institute for Material Science

Activities of Mechanical Systems Innovation Program (scheduled)〈Open Seminars〉◎FY2005-14th Seminar
Date: November 15, 2005
Venue : Lecture Room No.226, Faculty of Engineering Bldg.8, Hongo Campus
Subject: : Modelling Urban Air Quality
Speaker : Prof. R.J. Perkins (Laboratoire de Mecanique des Fluides et d’Acoustique
Ecole Centrale de Lyon)◎FY2005-15th Seminar
Date: November 10, 2005
Venue : Seminar Room A, Faculty of Engineering Bldg.6, Hongo Campus
Subject: : Research Activities in AeroMEMS Laboratory
Speaker : Prof. Yong-Hyup Kim (School of Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering, Seoul National University)
Subject : The Research Activities of Institute of Dynamics and Control,
School of Aerospace
Speaker : Dr. Baoyin Hexi (Assistant Professor School of Aerospace,
Tsinghua University)◎FY2005-16th Seminar
Date: December 20, 2005
Venue : Lecture Room No.226, Faculty of Engineering Bldg.8, Hongo Campus
Subject : Spectroscopy of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes
Speaker : Junichiro Kono (Associate Professor of Electrical andComputer Engineering, Rice University)◎Special LectureDate: September 7 - December 14, 2005
Venue : Lecture Room No.84, Faculty of Engineering Bldg.8, Hongo Campus
Subject : Multiscale Modeling and Simulation
Speaker : Dr. Petros Koumoutsakos (Professor of Computational Science,Å@ETH Zurich) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)〈Industry-Faculty Council for Human Resource Development〉◎FY2005-1st Executive Meeting
Date: July 19, 2005
Venue : Lecture Room No.226, Faculty of Engineering Bldg.8, Hongo Campus◎FY2005-1st Academic-Industrial Alliance Education Working Group Meeting◎FY2005-1st Intramural Education Working Group Meeting
Date: August 24, 2005
Venue : Sanjyo Conference Gall, Hongo Campus◎FY2005-2nd Industry-Faculty Council for Human Resource Development
Date: September 9, 2005
Venue : Lecture Room No.226, Faculty of Engineering Bldg.8, Hongo Campus◎FY2005-2nd Intramural Education Working Group Meeting
Date: October 5, 2005
Venue : Lecture Room No.226, Faculty of Engineering Bldg.8, Hongo Campus◎FY2005-2nd Academic-Industrial Alliance Education Working Group Meeting
Date: October 11, 2005
Venue : Lecture Room No.226, Faculty of Engineering Bldg.8, Hongo Campus◎FY2005-3rd Academic-Industrial Alliance Education Working Group & Intramural
Education Working Group Meeting
Date: November 22, 2005
Venue : Lecture Room No.226, Faculty of Engineering Bldg.8, Hongo Campus◎FY2005-3rd Industry-Faculty Council for Human Resource Development
Date: December 14, 2005
Venue : Lecture Room No.226, Faculty of Engineering Bldg.8, Hongo Campus〈Cross-Department Doctoral Course〉◎Research Assistant Final Debrief Session
Date: January 27, 2005
Venue : Takeda Hall, Takeda Building, Asano Campus

The 21st Century COE Program Mechanical Systems Innovation,Newsletter No.9E
March 1, 2006
The 21st Century COE Program Mechanical Systems Innovation Office, The University of Tokyo
7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, JAPAN
Phone and Fax/+81 3 5841 7437
URL/ http://www.mechasys.jp

In the interests of environmental conservation,thisnewsletter was printed
using soybean oil ink