National Institute of Technology, Tsuruoka College

_In correspondence with the recent progress of information technology, the training of developmentminded engineers who are eager to cope with problem solutions with high skill of information operation is required by the society. Furthermore, responding to advanced technology has been required even in local companies in accordance with industrial globalization, and also the training of creative and practical engineers who are able to contribute to technology innovations in the local area has been demanded. In order to meet these requests the Advanced Engineering Course was established in April, 2003, the purpose of which is the training of creative and development-minded engineers who can not only contribute to the local society but also play an active role on global stage.
_The Advanced Engineering Course is composed of “Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering” and “Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering”. The student who acquires required credits and meets the requirements by National Institution for Academic Degrees and University Evaluation is allowed to have a bachelor’s degree (engineering) that is equivalent to the ones acquired by university graduates. The program of the Advanced Engineering Course has been accredited by JABEE (as described herein below) since 2005. Therefore the student who finishes this course can proceed to a graduate school. The Advanced Engineering Course cultivates human resources with the communication skill which is good enough to be active globally with and have competitive scheming and problem-handling capabilities with the integration of wide range of knowledge so that they can cope with technical problems about production system of every field. In order to pursue this we advocate the four educational targets as below and conduct higher professional training and research based on our education of 5 consecutive years.

1. Rich culture and human quality to be able to understand various types of perceptions with global viewpoint
2. Ability to think /plan/solve problems voluntarily by exercising one’s skills comprehensively
3. Capability to handle wide range of problems related with manufacturing technologies by acquiring knowledge about basic engineering as well as aspecialized field
4. Communication skill including English

_To accomplish the targets above, the curriculum of the Advanced Engineering Course includes unique subjects, such as PBL-by-team type subjects of engineering design (Exercise Program for Creative Engineering, Creating Practice, Practice for Pragmatic Design Engineering), high level research of the Advanced Course requiring an outside conference presentation, advanced experiments and common specialized subjects that are allowed to be taken across major limit, mandatory internship, theory of general technology in which visiting lecturers introduce pioneering technology, and so on.

Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering
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_This department is designed to have the students acquire advanced technical knowledge about mechanical, electrical and control & information systems engineering. It also aims at educating development-oriented skillful engineers who can, by applying such knowledge, design engineering systems and have the abilities to improve current technologies. By educating and training them for their researches on the fields such as machinery / materials, electricity / energy / measurement & control / information, etc., we cultivate the ability to make full use of high technologies of both hardware & software about manufacturing various machines, robots, information appliances, or the construction of manufacturing systems.
_The speciality division in the degree application is [Mechanical Engineering] or [Electric Electronic Engineering]. They study the specialized subjects corresponding to each division. In addition, to acquire a wide range of knowledge, they learn specialized subjects of each’s field and the subjects of other fields as well. For example, the students of Mechanical Engineering major attend the class of “Practice of Electrical and Electronic Engineering”, and the ones of Electric Electronic Engineering major attend “Materials Science”, and the both majors do chemical experiments in Advanced Experiments classes, too.

Curriculum

Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
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_This department is concerned with educating a development-oriented practical engineer who has highly professional knowledge of material and biological knowledge as a basis, integrating it with the knowledge of information and common basic engineering. The field of the education and research is widely ranged from chemistry and materials mainly up to energy, environment and biology. We cultivate the ability that can develop the chemical substances such as new materials and functional materials, medical supplies or pesticides in consideration for resources and environment.
_The specialty division in the degree application is [Applied Chemistry]. The students study subjects on chemistry, materials and biology mainly. They attend classes of “Data Analysis” and “Practice of Electrical and Electronic Engineering” besides his/her major. Advanced Experiments include themes of machinery and electricity. Therefore they acquire the ability to cope with problems not only in the field of material / biology but also machinery or electric electronic.

Curriculum

JABEE certification education program, “Production System Engineering”
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_JABEE, Japan Accreditation Board for Engineering Education, is a third party organization, which was established in 1999 for the purpose of training of technical personnel with global applicants, and promoting engineering educations. JABEE has become a full member of Washington Accord as a representative of Japan to have mutual recognition across the border on engineering education in 2005.
_In Tsuruoka National College of Technology, all departments and advanced courses have been certified as JABEE educational program in the school year of 2005. The program name is “Production
System Engineering”, which is four year program that corresponds to those of universities. A curriculum in fourth and fifth grade’s at the department is considered as early part of this program and the first and second grade in the advanced course is regarded as a later part.
_Those who completed the advanced course, with the requirements of the completion of later part program, including receiving Bachelor degree, is recognized as the JABEE graduate.
_Graduates of this program can register on the Institution of Professional Engineers, Japan (IPEJ) as Associate Professional Engineer Japan (As.P.E.Jp) in the field of “Applied Science” and can be exempted the primary examination for the Professional Engineer Japan (P.E.Jp). Thus, after their several years’ practical experiences, they can apply P.E.Jp without taking primary examination if they want. In the secondary examination, they can choose one of the technical fields, and are registered as corresponding fields’ P.E.Jp when they passed the examination.