This study proposes an educational program aimed at primary school students to learn the basic structure of programming independently, while promoting cooperation between students in a short period of time. The program not only covers the fundamental concepts of programming, but also uses examples of household electrical appliances commonly used in everyday life to help students understand the role of embedded systems and how programs run within these systems. Additionally, one of the goals of the program is to make programming both interesting and enjoyable for students. The lessons were delivered using robot programming materials. Each 45-minute lesson followed a pair-learning format, ensuring that both students in each pair created their own programs. This approach was designed to avoid any knowledge bias between the two students. The lessons were implemented with 5th and 6th graders from two primary schools. The results showed that 90% of the students understood the concepts related to embedded systems. It was also confirmed that the students' interest and enthusiasm for programming increased after the lessons compared to before.

Pantograph contact strip materials are typically composed of multiple materials, with their properties significantly influenced by their microstructure. Estimating material properties through computer simulations based on microstructure-informed models can be valuable for designing novel contact strip materials with desired characteristics or accelerating material development by reducing the need for physical prototypes. In this study, we developed an image-based finite element model using X-ray computed tomography for three types of pantograph contact strip materials. Using these models, we computed the equivalent elastic modulus, thermal conductivity, and electrical resistivity through the homogenization method. The majority of the computed values showed better agreement with experimentally measured values compared to those estimated using the rule of mixtures. Additionally, we demonstrated several applications of the model for copper-infiltrated carbon.

This study examined the removal of water in vegetable-based electrical insulating oils using glycerin. The effects of the amount of glycerin addition on the removal of 600 ppm distilled water contained in the oil were examined, and the following conclusions were reached. (1) The amount of water in the rice ester oil decreased after the addition of glycerin, and amount of moisture decreased more when the amount of glycerin that was added increased. (2) The kinematic viscosity of the rice ester oil was almost constant regardless of the amount of glycerin added. (3) The volume resistivity of the rice ester oil enhanced by the elimination of moisture in the rice ester oil. (4) The AC breakdown strength of rice ester oil tended to increase with increasing the amount of glycerin added.

The authors previously investigated polymer composite materials containing plant-carbonized powder, which comes from agricultural by-products, to develop an effective industrial use for agricultural resources. In this study, we prepared a pyramid- shaped electromagnetic wave absorber containing plant-carbonized powder on an injection-molded sheet. The EM wave absorption characteristics in the millimeter-wave band were then assessed by considering the effects of the pyramid shape and powder mixing ratio. Results indicated that their reflection characteristics were almost the same as those of common EM wave absorbers.

We have developed a cost-effective polychromator that uses the Angles of Incidence (AoI) to its advantage to bring the number of interference filters needed for 3 channels down to 1. Our polychromator can cover wavelengths from 1040 nm to 1060 nm while needing just 1 interference filter, which typically is the costliest component of a polychromator.