The materials industry and its related environments are reviewed from the viewpoints of:
1. Risk assessment, 1. Bioplastics, 3. Aerospace industry and composite materials, 4. New energy, 5. Technical communication
The basic understanding of the intercorrelation between environmental/energy issues and the materials engineering and sciences.
Risk assessment, Bioplastics, Aerospace industry and composite materials, New energy, Technical communication
Specialist skills | Intercultural skills | ✔ Communication skills | ✔ Critical thinking skills | ✔ Practical and/or problem-solving skills |
Before coming to class, students should read the course schedule and check what topics will be covered. Required learning should be completed outside of the classroom for preparation and review purposes.
Course schedule | Required learning | |
---|---|---|
Class 1 | Risk assessment and management of chemicals #1 For the proper management of chemicals (Ishii) Many chemicals have been industrially produced and used to bring significant benefit to people, but many are toxic and harmful to the environment and our health. This lecture will follow a general introduction to human health risk assessment and examines its basic concepts - hazard, risk, risk assessment, risk management, risk perception and risk communication. | Understand chemical hazards and principles behind chemical risk assessment and management. |
Class 2 | Risk assessment and management of chemicals #2 Basic of steps of risk assessment of chemicals (Ishii) Risk assessment is a transdisciplinary approach to solving public and environmental health science problems. It combines the key principles of exposure science, toxicology, and modeling to characterize chemical risks. This lecture will follow four basic steps of risk assessment: hazard identification, hazard characterization, exposure assessment and risk characterization. | Understand basic process and fundamental steps involved in conducting a health risk assessment. |
Class 3 | What is bioplastics? Basic evaluation of bioplastics (Kunioka) Bioplastics includes biodegradable plastics which can be degraded to CO2 in controlled environment and biobased plastics which is produced from biomass resources. Kinds and trends of bioplastics in global market will be introduced. The reason that bioplastics are environmental friendly materials, will be explained. Biodegradability and biobased content of bioplastics based on ISO methods will be introduced. Certification scheme managed in global market will be introduced. In addition, making method of ISO standards will be explained. | Point of this lecture is understanding what is bioplastics including biodegradable plastics and biobased plastics.The second point of this lecture is understanding the evaluation method of biodegradability and biobased content of bioplastics based on ISO standards. |
Class 4 | This lecture shows outline of aerospace industry and composite materials for aircraft structure, especially CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced plastics) that recent aircraft use as one of the conventional materials. Production process of aircraft composite structures and advanced composite manufacturing process developments are also explained on this lecture. (Iwahori) | Understand the basics of the CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced plastics) utilized in the aerospace industry. |
Class 5 | Fundamentals of composite material strength evaluation methods is also introduced on this lecture.(Iwahori) | Understand the evaluation methods of composite materials. |
Class 6 | World energy demand and development trend of the new energy (Yoshida) Energy demands and a development trend of the CO2-free sustainable energy are reviewed from the viewpoints of environmental issues focusing on the solar power use. | Understand the world energy demands and development trend of the new energy. |
Class 7 | Technical communications between the research scientist and the society are discussed with a practical writing tool. (Yamamoto) | Understand the technical communications between the research scientist and the society. |
Materials used in class can be found on OCW-i.
not required.
Student's course scores are based on the report submitted.
not required