Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Science and technology raise our standard of living. They are essential elements of our culture and have served an important role in the formation and development of modern society. The increasingly complexity of global society however, continually presents new challenges such as the pressing issue of environmental conservation. In order to meet these challenges, and to ensure the sustained prosperity of global society, further development in science and technology is always required.
Given this context, it is our belief that a leading engineer is someone who has a deep knowledge and understanding of nature and society, as well as possessing an independent world viewpoint from which they can consider the place of science and technology within the overall framework of human action.
In response to this challenge, the role of the Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences is to provide education in social science, the humanities, the natural sciences, physical education, and foreign languages. These subjects provide a core of general knowledge within the undergraduate curriculum, with the aim of nurturing basic academic talent, broadening knowledge, and deepening international awareness. In the first semester of the doctoral curriculum, we are similarly responsible for teaching the fields of humanities and social sciences as common subjects, while cultivating an open-minded perspective. Individual faculty members are also involved in guidance for the second semester of the doctoral curriculum.
One final defining aspect of the Institute is its provision, in collaboration with the Center for International Relations, of Japanese language and Japanese cultural education for international students.
Fields of Study
Humanities
Together with the Center for International Relations, this field focuses on educating students in humanities, communications, linguistics, and foreign languages. In order to train engineers with socially broad perspectives, the institute utilizes research in fields that include science, philosophy, literature, history, art, languages and cultural studies of Japan, Asia and the world.
Natural Science and Basic Engineering
Together with the Health Care Center, this field focuses on educating students in natural sciences mainly in mathematics, physics and chemistry, and in health and sports sciences. In addition, by collaborating with the Faculty of Engineering, studies relating to robotics, material science, and life sciences are also carried out. Thus, seamless and in-depth studies of natural sciences are provided.
Planning / Management Science
The focus of this field is social infrastructure planning, which is based on economic analysis (theoretical and quantitative), financial theory, environmental economics and leading technologies. Specifically, the subjects that are studied include economics (micro/macro, urban/regional, environmental and computational) and financial engineering.
Communication
To ensure the education of advanced engineers with the required communication skills, this field features study in four foreign languages (English, German, French and Chinese) as well as Japanese studies for international students. There are also courses on communication, providing opportunities to learn the mechanisms and functions of linguistics.
[Date Created]10 Oct 2010 / [Date Updated]27 Oct 2016