Vol.2 No.4 2010

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Interview : Restoration of engineering and Synthesiology−286−Synthesiology - English edition Vol.2 No.4 (2010) (Nagai)In our study group, we analyzed what were the greatest achievements in Japanese engineering after WWII. We can say with confidence that it is the factory system. The supply chain, and everything from control, management, and operation technology in total is absolutely wonderful. Seen from the world perspective, Japanese plant technology is the textbook of textbooks.(Ono)Do you mean it’s not only about introducing industrial robots?(Nagai)On the other side, there is no hesitation in introducing industrial robots, and there has been the wisdom and tradition to do so. While the layoff of laborers by introducing industrial robots must be considered a separate issue, technological innovation can be extremely severe and inevitably results in sacrifices. I don’t think technological innovation will make all people happy, and there will always be people who suffer loss. Wisdom is required to see the correct direction while weighing the welfare of society in total. Engineering education is not studying “science” but studying “what is science” (Ono)Regarding Japanese engineering education, you mentioned today we are saying “farewell to engineering faculty,” and that’s unfortunate. What made the engineering faculty shine? (Nagai)I said Japan was the first country in the world to create an engineering faculty. At the beginning of the Meiji Period, the Ministry of Engineering created the Imperial College of Engineering, and the world’s first engineering faculty was established. Henry Dyer, a Scotsman, was invited to Japan to design the education plan. At the time, the ministries had college-like institutions. It was like the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry running a university.I read Henry Dyer’s “Valedictory Address to the Students” at the first graduation ceremony, available at the library of the Tokyo Institute of Technology. It was written: “On the continent, the status of science is high and technology is placed below it, and good results could not be obtained. In England, technology is given an extremely high status, but it is unrelated to science, and although the results are good, they engage in trial-and-error indefinitely so development cost is high. I was invited to Japan because I wanted to design new education paradigm by taking the best of both.” To carry out a new type of university education for the transmission of skills and for teaching world’s most advanced science, the practicum and lectures were very well combined. Of the six years in school, the 5th and 6th year students went to the site of the Ministry of Engineering to do hands-on work, and were required to write a graduation thesis.The address includes points such as: the university must properly manage the library and resource rooms so the students can go and study the best works of their forefathers; an academic society must be established; or one must study foreign languages to directly learn state-of-the-art knowledge. These are common sense today. It is also written that one must actively study literature and religion. To think why one is studying cannot be done without such knowledge. He goes on in the lecture that “when you start to work and meet people from other countries, whether you can name one literary work of that country will affect how you will be received.”(Ono)I hear that story now, but I see it started back then.(Nagai)He talked of ideals, but I think the ideals ring true to this day. As criticism of the continent, he already said, “In engineering, one is less able to make anything good when he is packed with more knowledge. We must have the students study ‘what is science’ and there is no need of studying ‘science.’” I understand this thoroughly.What “engineering” can do in the 21st century, the age of collaboration and competition (Ono)Did Japanese engineering shine for the second time in “monozukuri” or “manufacturing” centering on industrial technology after the WWII? (Nagai)I think it is “monozukuri” or “manufacturing” itself. When it is called “transmission of skills,” it invokes an extremely personal image, and I don’t find it useful. However, if a skill is transmitted without the spirit of manufacturing, people may say, “We don’t want it.” This is written in “To Those Aspiring to Be Scientists” used by the National Academy of Engineering (USA), and has been mentioned by Henry Dyer, but in my own words, I think human beings are the only animals that can have dreams or have curiosity in that they wish they had some thing, and can use the materials in the environment to create and realize those dreams. Curiosity is born when one comes across different things or different thinking styles that he/she never imagined existed. In my generation, my curiosity was raised by seeing things that did not exist in the real world in the manga “Atom Boy.” To come into contact with different things, and to actually try them out— if it works, you may be convinced that you are

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