Civil Engineering

This course provides the foundation for three key components of zero energy communities: buildings, mechanical systems, and renewable energy systems. The course covers fundamental topics in building physics such as psychrometrics, solar geometry, and heat transfer in buildings, which is the foundation for designing passive buildings. It also examines energy efficient mechanical systems and renewable energy systems, which is essential for the design of zero-energy communities. 

This course provides an introduction to geotechnics. Topics include physical indexes, soil classification, notions of sampling and surveying, tensions in the soil, resistance wraps, compressibility, and shear strength, stability analysis (slopes, embankments, and excavations), thrusts at rest, retaining structures, gravity walls, direct and deep foundations, drainage, and lowering of the water table.

This course provides research training for exchange students. Students work on a research project under the guidance of assigned faculty members. Through a full-time commitment, students improve their research skills by participating in the different phases of research, including development of research plans, proposals, data analysis, and presentation of research results. A pass/no pass grade is assigned based a progress report, self-evaluation, midterm report, presentation, and final report.

This course provides individual research training for students in the Junior Year Engineering Program through the experience of belonging to a specific laboratory at Tohoku University. Students are assigned to a laboratory with the consent of the faculty member in charge. They participate in various group activities, including seminars, for the purposes of training in research methods and developing teamwork skills. The specific topic studied depends on the instructor in charge of the laboratory to which each student is assigned. The methods of assessment vary with the student's project and laboratory instructor. Students submit an abstract concerning the results of their individual research each semester and present the results near the end of the program.

This special lab course nurtures international students' creative competency by offering them opportunities for learning in communities of research practice. The student's supervisor arranges the research topic. Students give three oral presentations during the study period. In the presentations, students integrate ideas and analyses on laboratory results into creative and academically coherent work. FrontierLab program coordinators and supervisors attend and evaluate the final oral presentation.

This course teaches students about the concepts of sustainability and resilience, and the main implications for infrastructure. Students should have a quantitative and qualitative understanding of both present and future challenges that face critical infrastructures (waste, energy, transport, and water). The course develops understanding and skills to compare costs and benefits of different technologies, materials, and managerial approaches that are relevant to the sustainability and resilience of infrastructure. It enables students to understand how decisions about infrastructure systems are made under conditions of complexity and uncertainty. It also enables students to develop professional skills.

This course provides methodologies and tools for the adaptation of water resource systems with respect to climate change and climate variability. The course provides a fundamental understanding of the physical processes behind climate change and its effects on the hydrological cycle.  Course topics include the climate of the world, global circulation patterns, climate variability, basic meteorology, rain-generating processes, downscaling in time and space, changes in rainfall patterns, extreme events, disaster risk reduction, sea level change and its consequences on near-shore constructions, urban hydrology, maintaining quality drinking water in a changing climate, and problems unique to arid areas and developing countries.

This course emphasizes hands-on laboratory experience and teaches students research background, relevant theories, and basic laboratory techniques relevant to their field of study. Students formulate a research plan, implement it by conducting experiment-based research, and convey the results in scholarly presentations. Students submit a written research report at the end of the course.

This course provides research training for students through the experience of belonging to a specific laboratory at the University of Tokyo. Students carry out an original research project under the guidance of assigned faculty members. Through a full-time commitment, students will be able to improve their research skills by applying the basic principles and knowledge from the literature related to the research questions, and by developing the skills to collect, interpret, and critique data in order to resolve a research question or evaluate a design for a research project. At the conclusion of the program, students submit their final work (paper, presentation, report etc.) as instructed by their lab supervisors

In this course students acquire a broad knowledge base and develop analytical and critical thinking skills. Students actively participate in seminars, read assigned texts and research papers, and analyze research data. Students also discuss results obtained in their own experiments with peers and senior laboratory members.