Environment and Life Engineering [Doctoral Course]

4. Environment and Life Engineering

The robustness and diversity of our planet's ecological system have enabled humankind to attain the inexperienced development which it now enjoys. The prosperity which flows from this development, however, has it costs. The enormous consumption of energy and materials which our prosperity depends on has begun to impact negatively on the environment, not only just locally, but also globally. The existence of humankind itself is threatened by our excesses. It is incumbent on humankind and its educational institutions to develop programs to study and to develop solutions to the ecological problems we now confront.
The Ecological Engineering program at Toyohashi University of Technology is one such program. This unique program integrates the study of biological basis of life and the ecosystem with more traditional engineering disciplines and with emphasis not evident in most engineering disciplines. The program was conceived as a means to bring about the harmonization and coexistence of human activity with the environment. Accordingly, architecture and regional planning, the twin foundations of modern life, are studied from an interdisciplinary perspective. The symbiotic relationship which they must maintain with the environment is emphasized. Hence new technologies are explored with the aim of reconciling the economic and life-style requirements of modern life with the harmful effects they sometimes have on the environment and the planet's ecosystem.

Contents of Lectures [Environment and Life Science Engineering]

Field	Advanced Courses	Contents
Environment Planning	Air and Thermal Environment Engineering	Design and control method of air and thermal conditions in and around living space to improve occupants health and comfort, its energy efficiency, the climatic conditions and advanced engineering and technologies to create the space are addressed. Also the effect of the above process on urban and natural environment is discussed.
	Urban Environment Planning	Various Method of Urban Environment Planning to maintain and develop the urban activities will be explained focusing on the changing urban structure, landuse planning, urban amenity, and housing planning.
	Architectural and District Environment Planning	Based on the principles of environmental co-habitation and the regional history, tradition and culture, this course provides a comprehensive theory and contemporary cases of the planning and design methods for architecture and districts.
	Regional Environmental Planning	Various methods and techniques to plan and evaluate regional infrastructure / architecture will be explained from the comprehensive viewpoints including social, economical and historical viewpoint through the latest research papers in the world.
	Environmental Economics	The most important current environmental issue is to clarify the effects of socioeconomic activities on the global environment. To cope with this issue, various methodologies for internalizing external economics such as the Carbon Dioxide problem have been proposed by environmental economists. In this course, some representative methods of measuring the economies aspects of environmental issues are covered. How to improve and extend these ways of measuring are also discussed.
Environment Protection	Water Environment Engineering	Description of recent topics concerning various environmental problems in water areas such as rivers, lakes and seas are provided focusing on water pollution mechanism, water quality control, ecological environment in rivers, and dynamics of ocean and coastal waters. Students will be required reports on appropriate environmental subjects.
	Eco-systems Protection Engineering	Global and regional ecological system consists of a number of natural sub-systems linked each other under the strong pressure of human activity. In this course, methods of system's analysis and synthesis required for prediction of future state of eco-environmental systems and finding of best routes for their preservation and mitigation will be focused.
	Energy and Environmental Engineering	Global environmental impacts of various processes concerning mining, transportation and refining of natural resources and energy utilization and the new concept of future environmental management in those processes will be quantitatively described by means of the engineering evaluation methods.
	Ecological Combustion Engineering	In this course, knowledge related to formation-mechanism, measuring-methods and preventing-methods of the pollutant gases generated in the combustion processes will be lectured. Furthermore, topics such as the global warming problem, the ozone hole and acid rain will be discussed.
Bioscienced and Bio Engineering	Environmental Biotechnology and Bioengineering	This course focuses on the phylogenetic and functional diveristy of microorganisms in the environment.Biodgradation of xenobiotics and chemical pollutants as well as biological wasterwater and waste treatment will be discussed in their biochemical and ecological aspects.
	Biomolecular Engineering	This course will focus on current genetic engineering, protein engineering and RNA engineering. Students will be expected to present current topics from excellent papers of these fields in the class.
	Bio Ecological Engineering	Identification and quantification of micro-organism is important to environmental engineering. Direct counting by Epiflourescent is the best method up to date available for the enumeration of total micro-organisms in environmental samples. In this course, recent advances in this field are discussed.
	Applied Environmental Electromagnetism	Theory and micro-electronics technologies of advanced magnetic sensors using superconducting thin films are lectured. These applications such as environmental non destructive testing, biomagnetism, voltmenter and microscopy are also given.
	Life Science	Biological systems have complexity and are regulated ingeniously. In this class the basic control mechanism of each organic function in human body will be surveyed in the base of biochemistry and physiology, and the strategy how to improve and maintain the well-being in the daily life will be discussed.
	Environmental Thoughts	This course is will examine human relationships with the environment, both individual and societal, from the cultural, philosophical, and literary perspectives.