Fund to Support Research and Education in Mechanical Engineering

【Important announcement】As of August, 31, 2024, we will be ending the donationcampaign for this project. We sincerely appreciate yoursupport.

A New Approach to Education in the With-/Post-Corona Era

Since its establishment in 1879, the Department of Mechanical Engineering has been training the engineers who support Japan’s core industries. In recent years, as the field of mechanical engineering has become increasingly globalized, sophisticated, and diverse, the demands placed on our students have shifted. In light of these changes, we have been engaged in discussions departmentally to build a new research and education system with which to approach the next one hundred years. While preserving traditional educational formats such as lectures and experiments, we are aiming to promote active learning that will cultivate problem solving and communication skills, as well as global education through exchanges with researchers and engineers overseas. On top of this, in response to the new realities of the With-/Post-Corona era, online education has become indispensable, and the realization of a new approach to online education that can stimulate communication among students, as well as between students and faculty, is keenly anticipated. To establish a financial basis for this new educational approach, we have established this Fund to Support Research and Education in Mechanical Engineering.

In order to realize the construction of a new educational system in the With-/Post-Corona era, our standard lecture and exercise rooms, which are equipped with fixed desks (e.g., our computer room with 100 desktop PCs) will be completely renovated to create the MECH Creation Lounge, a co-creation space where students can actively interact and engage in discussions with one another. This co-creation space will not only serve as a base for students’ active learning but will also be open to society as a creative space that will host lectures as well as brainstorming and maker workshops. We would also like to build other sites for co-creation through joint research and internships between the university and the private sectors, and between alumni and current students. On top of this, we aim to build a system suited to the realities of the With-/Post-Corona era that will be able to facilitate a mixture of face-to-face and online exchanges.

Students engaged in practical exercises

Yasuda Auditorium and the Faculty of Engineering Building No. 2

Faculty of Engineering Building No. 2

Appeal for Support

Join us in cultivating the mechanical engineers who will lead their field in the century to come!

While preserving the traditions of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, our faculty members are constantly always thinking about how to achieve a new approach to mechanical engineering education. Recent years have seen calls for the introduction of teaching that takes place through global education, active learning, and collaborations with private industry. Now, the implementation of online education has become an indispensable requirement for the With-/Post-Corona era.

Nevertheless, in view of the limit to the University’s current human and financial resources, we are far from being able to stand up to and solve these challenges. To this end, we would like to ask for the support and cooperation of alumni and others who are active in the industrial sector.

Specifically, we would like to create what we have dubbed the MECH Creation Lounge, a co-creation space that will serve as an educational hub. It is our hope that the MECH Creation Lounge will serve not only as a new educational hub for students, but also as a creative space that will be able to host lectures as well as brainstorming and maker workshops – a space that everyone is invited to take advantage of as a venue for collaborative creation between the university and the private sectors, and between alumni and current students.

In recognition of those who make a lump-sum donation of more than JPY 300,000, a personalized plaque will be placed in the MECH Creation Lounge. Moreover, those who give donations of JPY 30,000 or more will receive an original merchandise of the UTokyo Department of Mechanical Engineering.

We humbly ask for your wholehearted understanding and cooperation.

Professor Masayuki Nakao

Department of Mechanical Engineering,

Graduate School of Engineering

The University of Tokyo