弔辞

To accommodate rapid social changes, it is necessary to foster the next generation, who can design society globally, and create an innovation. Because of this, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) education is garnering attention around the world. When students study STEAM subjects, it is also important to understand the social roles and significance of science and technology. The Office for the Next Generation (ONG), Institute of industrial science (IIS), the University of Tokyo, has been developing new STEAM education programs through industry-university collaboration. The ONG focuses on the “relationship between “science and technology” and “society,” such as the social significance and role of science and technology, and is developing a STEAM education program which students can learn about the relationship between “science and technology” and “school subjects” using the research results of the IIS. Furthermore, the ONG is also developing online STEAM educational contents such as video teaching materials. In Japan, the percentage of female students studying science and technology fields is low compared to other countries, and it is necessary to promote female studentsʼcareer paths in science and technology. Therefore, the ONG is also implementing initiatives to support female students studying science and technology fields.

The Chemical Society of Japan has a number of divison, one of which is the Chemistry Education and Promotion Division. This division includes the School Education Committee, the Editorial Committee for the Journal Kagaku to Kyoiku, and the Chemistry Grand Prix and Chemistry Olympiad Committee. The Promotion and Exchange Committee includes (1) the Kagaku Daisuki Club Subcommittee, (2) the International Relations Subcommittee, (3) the Hands-on Experiments Subcommittee, (4) the Quiz Show Subcommittee, and (5) the Chemistry Education Forum Planning Subcommittee, all of which are engaged in various educational activities.

In recent years, there are concerns about a shortage of excellent engineers in the future due to the declining birthrate and losing young people's interest in manufacturing. With the aim of making children be interested in technology and manufacturing, we provided a program for children to enjoy learning about friction at the experiential learning event "Kids Engineer". It seemed that the children feel familiar with the friction and know mystery and fun of it. We expect more children to know fun of technology and manufacturing by this experience and also to have a dream to be a engineer.

It has been a long time since the science phobia among students became a problem. The science phobia will become a cause of engineering level reduction in manufacturing. As countermeasures, national projects such as super science high school projects, science partnership program projects, future classroom projects, and various science events in the private sector have been held. The Japanese Society of Tribology (JAST) has also been engaged in tribology enlightenment activities for elementary, junior high and high school students. This paper reports on the past efforts of the next-generation education in JAST and the activities of the next-generation education working group, which started its activities in FY2019.

Using a novel educational method that incorporates problem-solving game activity into science and engineering education, the author is energetically performing educational activities for children and young people who will bear the next generation. Even in the new normal life, which is a lifestyle change caused by COVID-19 in recent years, it is important to continue to provide children with educational opportunities to come into contact with science and engineering. By promoting online educational practices using the developed teaching materials, it is possible to convey the importance and fun of science and engineering to more children, not just in limited areas. This article introduces the newly developed online teaching materials and the results obtained through the execution of the events, and describes the advantages and problems of implementing the educational method.

Nowadays many corporate museums are located all over Japan. The activities of corporate museums are not only collection and exhibition of company related product or service, but also contributing to local community associated with Corporate Social Responsibility which recently become important. The article explains the case of KYB History Museum, which is owned by a company which has been developing and manufacturing mainly hydraulic systems for over hundred years. The museum that is located in Kanagawa prefecture, has been promoting science event during summer season, to contribute to emotional education for children. At the event, elementary school students are invited to experience Pascal’s principle and scientific crafts, demonstration ride on an excavator. Such corporate museum activities are important, because for children there is an opportunity to learn many things outside of school and to find the attraction of science.

An open-campus for 2^nd grade high-school students was held at Nagoya University. It was considered that the lab tour was arranged as an on-the-job training of how to conduct tribology research, then attendees would be experienced it through a program of “to solve a mystery”. The attendees tried to answer 3 questions within 45 min. Firstly, it was a friction test by using an imitation equipment of atomic force microscope made by paper. Attendees could experience friction coefficient differences of papers. Secondly, attendees tried to measure surface waviness which was difficult to notice by attendee’s finger. Finally, attendees saw through a trick of a black box by using a polarizer sheet, then they got a cryptography. The above experience would give mystery of tribology for attendees, furthermore, the experience might give them a chance to choose their future course career.

An investigation was conducted of the low-friction and low-wear mechanism of the adsorbed layer formed by dibasic acid ester derivative. First, the film thickness and film density of the adsorbed layer on an iron surface was evaluated by neutron reflectometry. The density of the adsorbed layer formed at 25°C was twice that at 100°C. The macroscale tribological properties of an adsorbed layer formed by dibasic acid ester derivative and its constituent additives (succinic acid and amine) were evaluated using a ball-on-disk tribometer at 25°C and 150°C. The derivative exhibited low friction and wear properties even at high temperature. To clarify the mechanism of the excellent low friction property, nanoscale tribological testing was conducted using an atomic force microscope. The precise measurement indicated that the dibasic acid ester derivative initially exhibits low friction due to generation of metal soap from the amine, and then subsequent friction generates metal soap from the succinic acid that has superior friction reduction performance, which promotes lower friction, especially under low-contact-pressure sliding conditions.

Floating bush journal bearings are widely used to support small-sized high-speed rotating machinery. When the oil-supplying pressure is low, the bearings show peculiar phenomena such as leveling-off of bush rotational speed and disappearance of oil whip event. Although the phenomena can be explained qualitatively by applying the hydrodynamic lubrication model with the axial oil film rupture being considered, the predictions are in quantitatively poor agreement with the measurements. The key to improving the discrepancy lies in numerically calculating the steady-state value of bush driving torque due to viscous force. This study aims at obtaining the value by adopting a moving particle simulation (MPS) method. Firstly, the governing equations based on the conventional isoviscous hydrodynamic lubrication theory are modified such that the MPS method can be applied to the concentric inner oil film of the bearing. Next, they are solved by using the least squares moving particle semi-implicit (LSMPS) scheme coupled with arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) method. Lastly, the steady-state values of the bush driving torque are calculated for a range of the bearing design parameters and are found to be in good agreement with the theoretical value obtained from Petroff's law.