Subject Introduction / Innovation for Design and Engineering Course

The purpose of this class is for students to develop three key understandings and abilities necessary for them to play an active role in businesses in the future. First is a keen understanding of modern international relations. Second is an understanding of civilization from a historical perspective in order to better perceive developing global trends. Third is the ability to “win” in discussions with foreign rivals throughout world.

First objective (modern international relations):

The world is currently in a state of turmoil, and few people have an accurate outlook on future prospects. In such a turbulent period, a person who is able to correctly decipher the complex events that are presently occurring in the international community will have an overwhelming advantage in business. In this class, we will conduct training to understand the international situation based on an understanding of the realism of international relations (the idea that because there is no government or police in the international community, major countries have no regard for other countries provided that their own countries are stable; rather, they prefer that other countries are in a state of disaster or instability, and will consequently engage in various plots against other countries). A thorough understanding of realism of international relations may be unfamiliar to students. However, at the current time, the world is at the mercy of a new “cold war” among major countries, which exposes realism such as the words and actions of President Trump, Chinese hegemony, and Russia’s foreign policy. Under such circumstances, ideas such as “everyone should treat each other in a friendly manner” or “do not think badly of others” could result in Japan being threatened, or in the worst case could be Japan’s downfall. What will the world be like in the future? This question will be addressed through international relations theory, world systems theory (globalization theory), etc.

Second objective (civilization from a historical perspective):

It is clear that today is an era of major changes in the history of civilization due to the development of IT such as AI, big data, blockchain, and robotics. Several models have been proposed for a framework that interprets this change, such as Industrie 4.0 (Cyber Physical System) (German government) and Society 5.0 (super smart society) (Japanese government). In this class, we will analyze these changes based on the modernization theory of information sociology. The lectures will be conducted using materials prepared by Prof. KUMON Shunpei, Ph.D., with the permission and guidance of him, who is one of Japan's leading sociologists and the founder of information sociology.

Third objective (debating):

Wars of words are fought daily in the international community. While physical weapons are used comparatively rarely these days, debates and arguments are tools which are regularly used. In short, debating is a weapon. A strong debate means that the weapon is strong, and as a result, it can greatly increase national interests and individual profits. On the other hand, a weak debate can get a country in trouble, being preyed upon. Strong debate skills are indispensable when working abroad. In an international community without police, the truth is “written by the victor” of the debate. Anything said by the loser of the debate will be viewed as “whining,” and no matter what they say, it will never be accepted as the truth. This is the reality of the international community. In this class, students will cultivate strong debate skills through the “AIIT competitive debate” method, or in other words, engaging in debate for sport. Just as figure skating utilizes strict scoring according to the rules, since “competitive debate” is also a sport, the scoring formula is established, and the victory or defeat is clearly stated.

Human-centered design is an essential methodology for designing attractive and easy to use products and services. With the development of ICT, persons, goods and services are becoming connected digitally and new service businesses have appeared one after another in a short period of time, creatively destroying existing businesses. Customers have come to expect a high level of experience value, and the ability of businesses to meet this context, with an emphasis on the diversity of individual customers has become a key to success.

In this class, students will learn about concepts and representative tools of service design and user experience (UX) design based on the processes and methods of human-centered design. After learning the basics of human-centered design, students will master various methods of UX design for vision concepts to explore innovative value, empathic customer research such as behavior observation and the optimization of customer experience value. Students will also learn usability evaluation methods for evaluating whether products are easy to use.

In recent years, the concepts and methodologies of design have seen remarkable expansion into various fields. However, interpretations seem to vary, including the definition of the word “design” itself. This class will consider the meaning and management of design from two broad perspectives, particularly in the field of industrial design. The first is good design, meaning narrow design management such as development processes, strategies and organizational and human resources to create and guarantee attractive designs that will sell. The second is to consider the integrated control from product planning to final use of the product by user creating UX as design management, as broad design management as an important management resource in brand design and establishing corporate identity.

By gaining an understanding of the basic knowledge and concepts of design management by learning about many different cases, students will aim to gain the ability and understanding necessary to promote the management of designers and design departments.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has gained attention as a core technology for the implementation of intelligent systems. In particular, the intelligence that makes up intelligent systems (≒ agents ≒ AI) operating in the real world can be divided into the three areas of “cognition”, “thinking” and “behavior”. This class will introduce topics related to “thinking”, the core and most basic of these three forms of intelligence. In particular, we will introduce topics related to “inference” to think about how to act once current circumstances are understood from sensors etc., and the “cooperation” of multiple intelligent systems (≒ agents) between connected networks.

Product design has focus points that engineers must always keep in mind. In addition, to proceed with design efficiently without errors, the use of specific techniques to approach challenges in each design phase is effective. This class, as a policy, presents the study of the fundamental concepts for design and employs procedures using specific techniques and methods. Each lesson presents at least one problem-solving technique that matches the content of the class to implement easy practice of the respective method. Students receive explanations on the characteristics of problems in the design process and the whole concept of solving problems systematically through practice.

Prototyping for creative technologies is the method and process of expressing the features of planned products more quickly, including not only functions but also the sense of the object.

In this class, students will acquire the knowledge and capability required for prototyping to be “monozukuri (production) architect”. Learning through lectures, teams and individual work, students will acquire 3D CAD skills and the use of rapid prototyping to come to understand the effectiveness of prototyping for the creation of innovative ideas, products and services.

System integration (SI) on the innovation for design and engineering mainly targets the product sector and indicates sophisticated and structured large-scale systems or complex systems where elemental technologies are interlocked. This means that this class covers actual cases and characteristics of SI, characteristics of elemental technologies, the problems of SI and method of analysis to nurture quality for SI design, which is one of Japan’s strengths.

The service industry is a key industry in Japan. With the goal of making the industry a global standard, students study elemental technology, design methodology, and operation methods from the viewpoint of service engineering. Students also study the key scale for service value evaluations, which is a way to measure the level of customer satisfaction (physiological measurement and psychological measurement). This class applies a variety of actual cases to help students acquire knowledge and applying skills in service engineering, analysis, and human measurement in a systematic manner.

This class aims to equip students with the parameter design method, functionality evaluation, and MT system, which are core techniques in quality engineering. Parameter design is called the Taguchi method, which is named after the developer, or the robust design method because of its purpose. The content of the parameter design method includes a design method for preventing quality problems in the market. The functionality evaluation is a method to evaluate function, not quality, for the purpose of making development design more efficient. In addition, the MT (Mahalanobis Taguchi) system is a relatively new pattern recognition method for projection, diagnosis, and determination, and it has been increasingly applied in many business and commercial sectors today.

In the use environment and use method for products and facilities, reliability refers to whether a system fulfills the required functions during the allotted time in one sense. On the other hand, the broad interpretation of reliability is not to lose not only functionality but also safety. Recently, clients and society are becoming increasingly stricter about product safety, making it the most crucial challenge for corporations. The reliability and safety contribute greatly to establishing brands for corporations. This class teaches basic reliability and safety engineering; subsequently, students study the design method of reliability and safety useful in actual work.

The design flow for products and services starts from planning, determining the specifications, and the conceptual design to the detailed design. This class provides descriptions of the method from creating ideas and the cognitive approach that can be used for conceptual design, which is an upstream process in design flow. More specifically, students study the principles and support techniques for creating ideas such as TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving), which is useful in creating technical concepts and systematic thinking useful for designing complex systems. Because the popularization of products and services needs the development of business models, students also study the framework for constructing business models. Exercises through individual work and group work help deepen students’ understanding.

Ideally, the verification and evaluation of product design and prototyping should be completed in one unified process, but it is normally a process that is repeated several times. In the process of prototyping, unforeseen problems may arise, and it may sometimes be necessary to adopt the changes of the requirements. Students will learn practical product development and design in teams to meet such dynamically changing circumstances.

This exercise will be carried out in a PBL format, with teams working on designs for a single presented task. Students will come to understand problems and solutions in the design development process through exercises.

In this class, students will acquire the product design knowledge and capabilities required for product designers and design engineers. Students will learn the process from presentation of tasks to methods of finding solutions through lectures, group work and individual work, learning through the product design process the creative problem-solving methods of designers, which can be used in companies and throughout society.

The value of design is argued by how the design implements the aesthetic aspects and sensibility by manipulating (shape manipulation) non-verbal elements (shape, color, and other visual components). However, originally, it was important to discuss the issue of communication, such as the meaning presented to users through the designed system and products and the relation nature.

The value design taught in this class is a design method for placing priority on the value of the design.

The first half of the class focuses on historical interpretation, symbolic interpretation of design and design thinking as the premise of understanding value design.

The latter half educates students with a design method based on design value using specific cases of the process, as well as the communication and relationship design for expressing the meaning to users by manipulating non-verbal language with an image board in a practical manner.

The concept of “Communication Design” has changed significantly in recent years with the development of digital technologies and continues to expand and dynamically evolve from simple visual design to include interactive design with GUI and HMI etc., as well as the development of relationships with the social community.

In this class, students will build on the basic practical knowledge and concepts necessary to be involved in the process of expressing things with “communication design”, as well as learning the basic process of communication design. Students will aim to acquire necessary knowledge and skills through small practical projects as well as research and the introduction of rich case studies, particularly of interaction design using Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) and new communication design concepts aimed at building social relationships.

In this class, students will acquire knowledge and practical capabilities with product design materials required for product designers and design engineers. Students will learn through a combination of lectures, group work and individual work, making product proposals from the perspective of materials as well as material development proposals from the perspective of product design, to learn the ability to understand product design materials as a means of finding design value.

In industrial design, designers visualize and realize 2D sketches and 3D models of prototypes to expand the development of their own ideas and present potential new value and behaviors of target objects for teams and clients.

This class is the first program of exercises of industrial design techniques offered through each of Quarter 1-4, in which students will learn essential skills forming the basics for the “visualization of ideas” to be a designer. And, by learning this process of the “visualization of ideas” this will lead to an understanding of diversity of thought, where there is not always one answer, acquiring an ability to think about form and design in terms of the connection between abstract concepts and concrete objects.

This class is for students who want to continue taking industrial design exercises and those who have not yet acquired basic design skills to acquire these skills by taking “manipulation” after Quarter 2.

Product designers and design engineers are able to present to users the potential new value and uses of objects by visualizing or expressing prototypes in 2D sketches and 3D models.

Assuming basic knowledge and skills in product design, students will enhance their skills in “manipulation” and “concept visualization” by making specific product design proposals.

Industrial design covers a wide range of industrial products from consumer equipment to industrial equipment and public equipment, as well as systems. By fusing the functional perspective of ergonomics and ecology and the cultural and symbolic perspective, the method draws elegant design solutions.

This class is to plan and design artificial objects, products, and customary practice, which do not exist as yet, through a process (to look for a feasible option to bring closer to what it ought to be) to search for variability.

This exercise class targets familiar products to experience the basic steps in design development to acquire basic monozukuri (production) skills.

In the field of manufacturing today, with its remarkable advances in digital technology, the manipulation by digital data is becoming an essential communication tool for all workers involved in manufacturing, and not just professional industrial designers. In this exercises, students will be assumed to be learning the fields of manufacturing and industrial design from different fields, and will learn the basic skills of modeling using 3D CAD for the flexible expression of various objects in 3D, as well as how to use outputs such as visual expressions and digital fabrications utilizing digital data etc.

An embedded system is a computer system incorporated into various devices and delivers specific functions. Embedded software operates on these devices to deliver specific device functions. This class covers the hardware of embedded systems to software development comprehensively.

For the design of embedded systems and robots, it is important to realize the functions and the control for operation along with the form of products. This class introduces students to the V-Model, which is a development process for an embedded system. Subsequently, students study the functions required for products, system analysis, and design using an operation modeling method and models. The class explains the concepts by covering topics such as the specifications of object-oriented modeling, functional requirements, and non-functional requirements (performance, maintenance, etc.) In addition, students create software requirement specification, software and architecture design specification in a group work to deepen their understanding.

The embedded technology for delivering performance and functions plays a key role in creating value for monozukuri (production) in recent years. In this exercise class, students use a CUP board (mbed) for rapid prototyping through exercises to study ways to deliver performance and functions. Specifically, students hard-wire various sensors, motors, and driver ICs on a circuit board to create a program suitable for the purpose and performance to equip the basic of embedded technology and acquire rapid prototyping skills.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been experiencing a boom in recent years, while the technology at the center of this boom is deep learning. In addition, the combination of deep learning and reinforcement learning, or Deep Q Network (DQN) has been published in Nature in 2015 demonstrating AI with skills beyond those of gamers in many reflexive games. Later, the Alpha Go AI was able to win the Go World Championship by combining searching together with deep learning and reinforcement learning. In this class, students will learn methods for combining reinforcement learning, neural networks, deep learning, machine reinforcement learning and searching with deep reinforcement learning.

When designing a social system, the merits for each individual that composes the society are important, and it is necessary to evaluate the impact of emerging social phenomena based on the results of behaviors of individual or distributed artificial intelligence (AI) or service providers as they seek to actively pursue their own merits. In the traditional fields of social science and engineering it was difficult to evaluate the relationships between such macroscopic orders and individual behaviors, but with the development of computers and AI technologies it has become possible to evaluate and improve hypotheses, systems and social infrastructure etc. through repeated micro level simulations with model adjustments and parameter optimization. In this class, students will particularly learn the basics of social system modeling methods with multi-agent simulations where social scientists utilize these technologies, with a focus on parameter optimization technologies such as evolution calculation and swarm intelligence.

Data science is a scientific discipline which “deals with data in a scientific manner”. In this class, students will learn the knowledge and skill to collect, visualize, analyze, mine and evaluate various types of data. In doing so, they will acquire the ability to perform objective and quantitative evaluations through building and verifying hypotheses over the data from the perspectives of statistics, computer science, systems engineering and signal processing methodologies etc. Also, students will gain a practical understanding the application of these systems through exercises in data science.

In order to acquire practical abilities in “data science” to analyze data and use the results and findings obtained from analysis, in addition to the knowledge of statistical analysis, training is necessary in various other skills such as: 1) the ability to set issues based on current circumstances; 2) the ability to promote data analysis with the use of analytical tools; and 3) the ability to communicate with others about the range of content obtained from data analysis etc.

In this class, students will acquire practical knowledge and skills through case studies and exercises for data usage and data science, leading to their use for problem solving on site.

To execute the project under the instruction of faculty members of Innovation for Design and Engineering Course. Each project is offered in a Project-Based Learning (PBL) format led by a team of students and let them acquire the competency in the practical world. For details on each project, refer to the instructions for PBL projects, which are distributed separately.

Currently most countries around the world, including those in Asia and Africa, are experiencing rapid economic growth. On December 31, 2015 the AEC (ASEAN Economic Community) was started. Steady economic growth continues, even in sub-Saharan Africa, which was known to have been “left behind” throughout the twentieth century (Japan is one of very few “clever” countries that has seen its per capita GNI lowered in the last quarter century.). The 21st century has been an era of rapid growth throughout the whole world. In the “Transforming our world:the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” statement, which was adopted by UN General assembly in 2015, there simply stated as “Leave No One Behind”, let all the countries and areas in the world take economic growth.

This class will provide students with the knowledge and capabilities they will need to become entrepreneurs and to develop businesses in Asia and Africa today. That is, this class forms part of an “entrepreneurial support class”, but has the following specific features.

First, it is premised on business being carried out in Asia/Africa, and not within Japan. There are many amazing business opportunities today in some of the fastest growing Asian/African countries. It would be disappointing to not take advantage of them. Of course, things are not done the same way as in Japan. There are likely to be many difficult and unpredictable issues. But standing tall to confront such issues is also noble human life. This class will give you the necessary knowledge and skills to do so.

Secondly, the class will focus on the finance side as a specific method of entrepreneurship. And, in Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0, the finance industry itself will be the source of leading this next generation of innovation. There are few choices for financing for entrepreneurs/businesses in Japan (in the end, we all bow our heads to the banks (indirect finance)). But if you take a step outside of Japan these days, there are many different people offering a variety of different finance options, and there are a lot of people that have seen explosive success. In other words, in today’s world business success hinges on whether you can get “good financing”. Financing should be given at least as much attention as considering methods of manufacturing and business content etc.

The creativity in financing includes not only creativity of finance itself, but also includes the expansion of business fields. For example, the idea of PPP (Public Private Partnership), which will be lectured in the class, is the method to do a business where ordinary business cannot be organized due to “market failure”, and well developed for infrastructure development in Asia/Africa countries in 21st century.

In this Class, we are forcusing to the method called "Development Finance". It is a concessional finance method in the field of, so called, "market failure". Because it is in market failure field, it was considered as the task of the government, and rarely the business object. But, in the 21st century, there are many explosive technical developments, and it is expected to become a big business oppotunity. On the other hand, untill now, there are still only few persons to be specialized to "Devolopment Finance" in the world. So, now is the time of good chance. After 10 years, or to say after 5 years, many persons may know about this fact, and you will not be able to get the early benifit.

The modern world itself is certainly undergoing a major transformation centered on nation states. In such circumstances, why should we limit the business that we spend our entire lives to build to Japan, where opportunities are narrow, and the growth rate of the national economy is “one of the lowest in the world”. We should look broadly at Asia/Africa. There are wonderful opportunities in this vast world. The keys to grasping these opportunities are first, to understand current trends in Asia and Africa, and second, to gain insights on financing ahead of the competition.

Development assistance (economic aid, international development) is various types of economic growth support which developed nations (generally a per capita GNI of $14,000 or more) provide to developing nations (per capita GNI of less than this). This class contains two main focuses regarding this. It will be wonderful to learn about both things in the one class (two birds with one stone…).

First, we will focus on regular, orthodox development assistance theory. We will discuss the history of development assistance around the world from World War II to today’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the history of Japan’s experience from 1950s to 1990s as the world’s largest patronage of ODA (Official Development Assistance) development assistance, and neo-classical growth financing theory(development economics), which forms the theoretical basis for authentic development assistance theory. This provides essential knowledge and skills for students aiming to work in development assistance related fields in the future (government agencies, international organizations, Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), NPOs etc.).

Second, we will look at content which cannot be heard anywhere other than an AIIT. That is, the knowledge and skills to take advantage of completely new business opportunities in development assistance, ahead of competitors around the world. Many people around the world see development assistance as “justice to save poor people in developing nations”, making them hesitant to make a business out of it. However, as you will learn in this class, the reality of development assistance is that it is a “flow of money” (from developed nations to developing nations).

Where there is a “flow of money”, there is business. And where there is business, there is a “flow of money”. Students will learn the ability to see development assistance as a “flow of money”. With this ability, they will have an overwhelming advantage over the few competitors in the world that understand this.

In addition, in relation to this second point, that is, an attitude of seeking business opportunities by seeing development assistance as a “flow of money”, we will take the position that the first theme, that of orthodox development assistance theory, is not a bad thing. Unlike in the 20th century, almost all developing nations have been successfully industrialized, and the promotion of economic growth is the core engine of proper business development in the 21st century, which is clearly captured in the SDGs (2016 to 2030), the successor to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs, 2000 to 2015). This is also expressed in the concepts of Private Public Partnerships (PPP) and Base of the Pyramid (BOP) explained in this class.

It is only natural to ask, “If this is so advantageous, why do universities other than AIIT not teach this?” The answer is simple. The flow of money for development assistance is so specific that it is difficult for anyone who has never experienced it firsthand to understand it, and even for those who have, there are few if any people that have been paying attention to its nature as a “treasure mountain” for businesses with keen perception.

12 of the 15 sessions will be lectures. In the final 3 sessions, students will conceptualize actual development assistance projects. Perhaps you have never conceived a development assistance project, but do not worry. Sufficient time has been set aside for the interim presentation and guidance for it.

Regarding the supporting methods for advancement of developing countries through business, students will acquire practical skills to contribute to economic growth and industrialization through a combination of lectures and exercises. Through the lectures, in addition to the principles of ordinary development economics such as the basic concept of development assistance and neoclassical economic growth theory, students will learn a wide variety of material such as viewpoints of international relations like developmentism and the influence of the Cold War. In the exercises, based on this knowledge, students will devise a development assistance project in a developing country, formulate a plan for the project, present it, and receive guidance. Since the planning of a development assistance project will be the basic training for business project planning, students will also acquire the knowledge necessary to start a business in a developing country.

This lecture series will provide students with an introductory knowledge of and practical exercises for writing logical compositions.

Things such as social media have grown in recent years, enabling anyone to share their thoughts and plans with the world while bringing people together more than ever before.

On the other hand, it is now accepted practice to publish writings without them first being checked by anyone else, which has led to a decline in people's ability to construct logical compositions.

With a focus on the fact that one's ability in a second language will not exceed that of one's native language, this lecture series will teach how to write logically in Japanese and will examine the differences between Japanese and European languages while showing how to write well in English.

In recent years Design Thinking has gained legitimacy and popularity as a method to develop design and business processes.

Design Thinking is based on few simple principles, such as learning by doing, learning by failing, collaborative thinking and solution-oriented approaches. Although in many cases Design Thinking has proved itself valuable, the design community has also raised doubts and objections to its unconditioned employment. This class investigates Design Thinking, but it also leaves space to critically reconsider and improve its principles

In this class, we will investigate various laws and regulations, guidelines, rules, manners, and etiquette all related to information engineers, using the question, “why do information engineers need ethics?” as a starting point. While we consider its importance and social background, students will examine how it should be applied to their own work. Also, the material explored in this class will pose various dilemmas for systems developers and promoters of information technology, placing these phenomena in conflict with business rules, in which the development of information technology has taken root. These conflicts should always be considered when seeking solutions.

Monozukuri architects need to make decisions without error. For this type of decision-making, students need to have a deep understanding of ethics issues to be able to make a judgmental decision about engineering ethics.

This class particularly simulates potential problems to obtain the problem-solving skills related to engineering ethics through training where the answers are provided in advance.

Students need to participate in debates and submit reports on the exercise assignments.