Curriculum Policy of School of Environmental Science and Technology
School of Environmental Science and Technology
The Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Engineering consists of four departments: the Department of Environmental Mathematics, the Department of Environmental & Civil Engineering, the Department of Environmental Management Engineering, and the Department of Environmental Chemistry & Materials. In order to deal with environmental problems expanding on a global scale and to build a sustainable society, we want to train students to acquire a wide range of interdisciplinary knowledge and contribute to the creation of a rich and comfortable environment in which nature and people are in harmony. For this reason, we offer a systematic curriculum based on our faculty's Diploma Policy. This includes: education combined with a sense of humanity and insight; expertise supported by broad knowledge; the ability to collect and disseminate information for problem solving; communicative skills and the ability to act using the skills; and the ability to learn and improve over a lifetime.
In order to learn the fundamentals of environmental studies, environmental science courses are set up in specialized basic subjects taken by all undergraduate students in their first and second years. In the specialized subjects, emphasis is placed on the theories and technologies that form the basis of the specialized fields in each department. Progressing from the first year, this specialization is enhanced and the amount and range of the courses are expanded. In the fourth year, students focus on their graduation research and take seminar classes in which they can acquire the technology to create and develop new ideas, and effectively disseminate the obtained results to the public. In this way, the faculty provides a consistent and comprehensive four-year program that organically links general education, foreign language education, fundamental science, major foundation courses of environmental science, and specialized education.
Department of Environmental and Mathematical Sciences
The ability to analyze various phenomena related to the environment is indispensable for human beings to harmonize with nature and sustain a rich environment. For that purpose, we need to acquire not only an understanding of the problem itself but also the theory and techniques behind them. At the Department of Environmental and Mathematical Sciences, we train students to become researchers and engineers who have a solid foundation in mathematics, statistics and computational science necessary for phenomena analysis and a wide range of application abilities. Also, we want students to tackle various issues such as environmental prediction and impact assessment using mathematics, statistics and computers as powerful tools.
In their first year, students take general education courses, which include foreign language courses and guidance courses, specialized basic subjects such as mathematics, statistics, computational science, natural science, and environmental science, as well as discipline-specific subjects. In their second year, students continue studying the discipline-specific subjects of mathematics, computational science, and statistics to prepare them for more advanced subjects. In the first and second years, the curriculum features a firm acquisition of calculus and linear algebra and an emphasis on computer training. Students also need to take four or more subjects specifically in environmental science.
In their third year, students will learn the advanced theories of mathematics, computational science, and statistics. They will apply what they've learned to help solve environmental problems. In the fourth year, students will conduct graduation research based on the theories, techniques and knowledge that they have learned. Students will summarize their work in the form of a graduation thesis, and present their findings in a graduation thesis presentation.
Students must fulfill the required number of units in their course of study to achieve a well-balanced expertise according to the department diploma policy. The important sections of the specialized elective subjects are divided into each subject group, and students need to select from these. A description of each subject group is indicated in the note below.
In the Department of Environmental and Mathematical Sciences, the formation of our curriculum is carried out in line with the department diploma policy.
Department of Environmental and Civil Engineering
The Department of Environmental and Civil engineering aspires to construct a secure and sustainable society in which people can live in peace of mind. We educate civil engineers to take the environment into consideration when constructing infrastructures, and also educate environmental engineers who are familiar with the fieled of civil engineering.
All first and second year students will take general education courses to cultivate basics of the intelligence necessary to think by oneself, and to act. In addition, through major courses, students will acquire the technical knowledge of civil and environmental engineering. Students in the last term of their third year will belong to the laboratory to be guided on their own research topic. After that, fourth-year students will work on their graduation theses.
Department of Environmental Management Engineering
In the Department of Environmental Management Engineering, we offer a wide range of courses on appropriate management of the natural environment and sustainable use of resources from the perspective of both the natural and social sciences. The purpose of this education is to develop human resources with sufficient knowledge of theories and technologies to create and manage regional areas in harmony with human activities and the natural environment. Therefore, the curriculum is designed so that students can benefit from an educational program which encompasses a wide interdisciplinary area throughout the four-year period. In the first and second years, students mainly focus on general education, foreign language education and discipline-specific basic education. At the same time, the basic subjects are covered in the discipline-specific education. In their third year, students focus on applying what they've learned in the discipline-specific education that incorporates experiments and seminars. In their fourth year, students focus on doing research for their graduation thesis and acquire not only specialized knowledge and design skills, but also the ability to identify issues and participate actively.
Department of Environmental Chemistry and Materials
In the Department of Environmental Chemistry and Materials, we train students to contribute to society by deepening their understanding of matters such as substance transformation and energy change, the creation of new chemical materials with excellent functions, and the creation of new chemical processes for effective utilization of resources and energy.
For this reason, our department has set up environmental science major foundation courses for students to gain the basic knowledge necessary for a sustainable society, such as environmental conservation and the reduction of the environmental burden. In the first and second years, students will study the discipline-specific subjects to acquire a basic knowledge of chemistry and chemical technologies involving materials and energy. In the third and fourth years, they will focus on scientific methods and flexible thinking skills for problem solving. Furthermore, the curriculum puts emphasis on how students can contribute to the construction of a recyclable, resource-oriented society by having them focus on experiments in their first to third years and on their graduation thesis and research field exercises in their fourth year. Together with the general education subjects and foreign languages courses, we offer a curriculum that produces engineers with a rich education and a sense of social responsibility to be active globally.