South Korea has achieved a rapid economic growth over the past 40 years, and engineering education is evaluated as contributing greatly to such national development. First, this paper examines engineering education's contribution to the country's economic growth as well as the process of forming the engineering community by periods. Second, the country's current engineering education and its perceived challenges are examined. Third, on-going engineering education programs led by the government are reviewed, and lastly, the Park Geun-hye government's policy for engineering education, which has been being implemented since 2013, is discussed.

View full abstract

In the era of globalization, cross cultural understanding becomes critical factor in managing a project. This paper covers, in view of the growing diversity of project environment, an importance of Phronesis (practical Wisdom) approach. Firstly, a definition on the Phronesis approach and a brief introduction of the Phronesis project management Study Group will be touched. Secondly, socio-cultural orientations impacting project management approaches are identified in terms of its synergistic and antagonistic effects on project management practices. Then, cultural differences in project management approach between Western countries and Japan is presented. Furthermore differences in Japanese and Korean project management style are introduced as an example in order for the audiences to gain better insights on managing a project with cultural awareness. Lastly, an importance of project management educational programs by academic institutions emphasizing on cross cultural understanding will be presented.

View full abstract

Based on the background and history of our collaboration, Graduate School of Engineering (GSE), Hiroshima University (HU) started a double degree (DD) program for master course with Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB). The developed DD program is valuable not only for HU for progressing the globalization of university and accepting more international students but also for ITB for offering training program for Indonesian government. Also, through this program, highly motivated and extremely excellent students are accepted from ITB and MOI, Indonesia. The accepted student has much impact on the surrounding students not only in our department but also in the other departments of GSE. Also, the collaboration with ITB or MOI will be stronger than before. On the other hand, the DD program has some challenges. This paper shows the background, history, developed program, and its results.

View full abstract

Northeast six campuses of national institutes of technology in Tohoku region that includes the stricken area by east japan great earthquake in 2011 shall develop the system of human resource development based on the project of MEXT, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The project consists of six sub-projects, 1) Construction and administration of the cooperating system covering Tohoku area, 2) Human resource development of engineers for a safe and secure Eco-town, 3) Human resource development of engineers for soil improvement and desalinization of Tsunami-flooded farmlands, 4) Human resource development associated with the construction of a security system by independent dispersed power sources for the risk, 5) Enrich local resources regeneration project of Sanriku coast, and 6) Human resource development of engineers for disaster prevention in Hachinohe/Sanriku area. It is aimed to solve problems in response to short and long-term needs toward industrial revitalization and earthquake reconstruction from affected areas in the Tohoku region, and to establish it in the community. Also the project is carried on by making good use of the strengths of the campuses and industry-academia-government collaboration.

View full abstract

Radiation Disaster is a global issue which affects the world as a whole. In March, 2011, the accident of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station caused by Tohoku-Pacific Ocean Earthquake and the great Tsunami brought tremendous radiation disaster in Fukushima Prefecture. Hiroshima University started a new doctoral education program to foster global leaders who can direct or manage the recovery from radiation disasters. The program is named "Phoenix Leaders Program". The graduate school of engineering joined the program and the two students belonging to engineering are studying in this program. In this report, the characteristics and the uniqueness of the program are introduced.

View full abstract

Product Development is an important topic for many engineering courses and educational programs. It deals with all the necessary steps to bring new or redesigned products to the market. Although product development is practiced in many different ways, there are some common elements that can be taught by universities to prepare students for jobs in industry. In this study, a globally available software was tested in a product development project, as part of an undergraduate course for Mechanical Engineering students. The project entailed development of a liquid container for use in developing countries or disaster areas. The software, CES EduPack, consists of a combination of materials and manufacturing process databases, eco-performance indicators, as well as computer based selection and visualization tools. This platform of comprehensive and comparable data provided by the software, combined with visual charts and Eco Audits, facilitates the communication and collaboration within and between project groups. This is useful e.g., in concurrent engineering or global engineering. In the case study, we confirm that the computer based approach employed could be used to facilitate collaborative learning and identify, in particular, three areas related to the product development process where the software has been a successful resource.

View full abstract

In these days, more and more engineers face an overseas business and they are required to have English communication and reporting skills as a professional. In order to motivate the students on the course to improve their English, many undergraduate / graduate courses in Japan have been designed the curriculum, such as English class in the course, oral presentation about the research outcome or short-stay at overseas university. On an educational purpose, department of civil engineering in Hiroshima University (HU) organizes a special conference with other three Asian universities of same department. This paper reports how we organized or managed the conference in the latest decade.

View full abstract

Hiroshima University (HU), Japan, and National Central University (NCU), Taiwan started double degree program since 2012. This double degree program is for engineering student in both in master's program (started from 2012) and in doctoral program (started from 2013). In this article, the outline of the program and the impression from the student is summarized. This information could be a support to implement similar program in other institutions.

View full abstract

There is a mismatch between the ethical qualities that Philippine engineering universities nurtured in engineering students and the ethical qualities that industry requires. There are no strong philosophical foundations in the working ethics of the engineering graduates. To attain improvement in the Philippine manufacturing capabilities, this philosophical gap must be filled-in. Japan being the world model in manufacturing successes is being looked into, and the teaching of the Japanese manufacturing philosophy Monozukuri was being considered. The University of San Jose Recoletos (USJR), through the help of Toyo University and Saitama Prefectural Government conducted Human Resource Monozukuri Project that trains Filipino engineering students learn and practice the monozukuri work ethics and make them work-ready even into Japanese manufacturing companies. To make a lasting effect of this program unto Filipino engineering students, monozukuri will be included in the teaching of the subject Engineering Ethics of the College of Engineering in USJR.

View full abstract

Business English II is a mandatory class for second year students of two Advanced Courses in the Engineering Department, at Hakodate National College of Technology (NCT) in Hakodate, Japan. The class has a clear teaching objective relating six educational goals of the school, with the overall aim of producing engineers who possess a multifaceted ability to communicate in English. In tangible form, the teaching goal is that all students will be able to do their final presentations in the English language on their engineering research, which would be acceptable for an international conference. When first proposed, it was said to be "impossible in a big class." This paper describes how the syllabus has evolved through Initial, Intralaboratory and Integrating phases, and has been improved to achieve the teaching goal of Business English II by tracing the innovations and changes in the syllabus over the past nine years.

View full abstract

Globalization and the information age require new ways of education. We share our ideas as well as practical points for faculty development to facilitate this change. The background of this paper is a "Workshop for Lecturing in English" series, where besides the change of language, we have also been advocating a change from unidirectional to interactive classes at the same time. Like in the workshop, we introduce a number of problems, solutions, and benefits that teachers and students reported in surveys, in addition to some of our own experiences. An interesting finding was that both industry and students ask for more interactive lectures, whereas teachers seem to be more worried about knowledge transfer. This connects to the three main challenges we see in FD: understanding the difference between teaching and learning, giving up the feeling of being in control, and the challenge of designing meaningful assessments.

View full abstract

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) plays an instrumental role in the technological advancement and economic sustainability of many nations. This study offers an analysis regarding the reality of Technical and Higher Education in Timor-Leste. Education in Timor-Leste has never been high on its list of priorities and specially Technical and Higher Education is even less regarded. The first University was established under Indonesia rule in 1986, however the whole system was brought to its knees during the conflicts in 1999. To respond to this reality UNESCO has created a Timor-Leste UNESCO Country Programming Document (TL-UCPD). Following this UNESCO Program, the Timor-Leste Government developed a Strategy Development Plan on Education. Higher education in Timor-Leste is divided into Higher Technical Education and University Education. Government data about Higher and Technical Education shows a work in progress. However, this falls short from meeting the demand required for Educational Institutions, teachers, students and quality of education. All of these aspects of education are necessary for the development of Timor-Leste as a Nation. This paper concludes that a comprehensive and dynamic approach to strengthen TVET delivery in Timor-Leste is absolutely essential in order to achieve stability and growth in the economic development of the nation.

View full abstract