Outline and Features

The Faculty of Engineering attracts students from across the country as one of the best engineering faculties in East Japan with a student quota of 620. Rayon was first developed in Japan by Yonezawa Higher Technical School, the predecessor of the faculty, and the faculty leads Japan in research on plastics, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Under such tradition, the Faculty of Engineering significantly contributes to the development of Japan's industry and science and technology by raising practical engineers strong in mathematics with a rich sense of humanity.
The faculty has eight departments, namely, Polymer Science and Engineering, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Biochemical Engineering, Bio-System Engineering, Informatics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Systems Engineering and Systems Innovation, which is an evening flex course, and provides common courses on industrial mathematics and physics. In line with the social situation of the 21st century and changes in the industrial structure, the Faculty of Engineering further improves engineering education and vitalizes research activities to play the role of an education and research organization that can respond to the advancement and globalization of science and technology.
In a bid to achieve these goals, the faculty has the above seven daytime course departments plus the evening flex course designed to foster people with interdisciplinary knowledge. Flex course students can take daytime course lectures as well. The flex course, which costs half as much as the daytime courses, carries out small-group education on the Yonezawa Campus with graduate school enrollment also in mind.

Philosophy and Goals

• Education that cultivates students' abilities in response to their probing spirit and gives them confidence
• Fostering of practical engineers with a rich sense of humanity well versed in mathematics
• University that cultivates the ability to break new ground

We want to welcome students who:

• Are eager to study and highly interested in natural sciences and engineering technology,
• Approach various things actively and with curiosity,
• Are passionate about creating and devising things,
• Can think, make decisions and act on their own while maintaining a cooperative spirit in society,
• Are caring to other people and have healthy ethics, and
• Look at society broadly and want to contribute to it through industrial technology.

Outline and Features

The Department of Polymer Science and Engineering is designed to foster researchers and engineers who can contribute to the development of and research on functional materials centering on polymers, including organic electronics that supports the information industry of the 21st century, biomaterials, environmentally friendly materials like recycled plastics and biodegradable polymers, nanomaterials and high-performance materials that support the aircraft and automobile industries. It provides the three special courses of high polymer synthetic chemistry, optoelectronic material engineering and high polymer physical property engineering taught in small groups. In the second half of their third year, students join laboratories to prepare for their graduation research. As a result of such practical education emphasizing experiments and graduation work, students acquire solid knowledge and skills and about half of them get enrolled in graduate school, while the rest play active roles in businesses, public research institutions and universities in the areas of petrochemistry, medicine, electronics, automobiles and environmental engineering.

The department desires students who:

• Have an interest and curiosity in engineering technology and natural sciences,
• Are motivated to develop technologies and manufacture things, and can take pride in their skills, and
• Have proper sociability and can make decisions and act.

Outline and Features

With the aim of building society that keeps on developing in harmony with the earth's environment, the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering fosters chemical engineers and researchers with expert knowledge who can correctly understand problems and solve unknown problems by integrating their expertise.
Freshmen will study basic disciplines needed for chemical engineers and researchers who can contribute to the happiness of mankind. From the second year onward, students will focus on the acquisition of expert knowledge on inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry and chemical engineering, development of abilities to collect and analyze data and solve problems, and acquisition of creativity and communication ability. With its elaborate, excellent curriculum, the department nurtures chemical engineers and researchers who can contribute to society.

The department desires students who:

• Are eager to study and strongly interested in chemical technologies, such as the global environment, energy and new materials,
• Want to acquire basic academic skills and use knowledge and skills of chemistry and chemical engineering, and
• Can act on their own initiatives while maintain teamwork in a group and keeping harmony with other people.

Outline and Features

The Department of Biochemical Engineering's mission is to contribute to the future of mankind by studying the relationship between human beings and the natural environment from a broad perspective on the basis of biochemistry. Its goal is to nurture people who develop new academic fields by fusing chemical engineering and biochemistry and play active roles in various areas of industry.
In their first year, students receive basic education and also study mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology that form the foundation of engineering. From the second year onward, they study basic subjects of biochemical engineering, such as biological science, biochemistry, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry and physical chemistry while undergoing specialized education related to biochemistry. On the basis of the specialized education, they obtain knowledge that can be applied in various industrial areas by clarifying complex life phenomena.

The department desires students who:

• Are highly motivated to study and science and technology, and can approach anything actively,
• Can acquire basic academic skills and try a new field of biochemical engineering, and
• Can act on their own initiatives with a social cooperative spirit and correct ethics.

Outline and Features

The mission of the Department of Bio-System Engineering is to create science and technologies that support life, human beings and society by using computer science and electronics. In the difficult age of graying society and low birthrates, science and technologies to assist humans are essential in order to improve the quality of life. In addition to the development of welfare robot technology to help achieve a good daily life, medical information technology for healthcare and disease prevention and other application technologies that directly support people's lives, the department's research also covers micro phenomena in the biological system, the basis of technology development. Its research areas are broadly classified into robotics, brain science, regenerative medical engineering, bioinformatics, biophysics, biological medical engineering, medical biometrics and physical biometrics. Research and education are done by a research staff with wide-varying backgrounds like electricity, machinery, information and physical engineering.
It is indispensable to have a wide range of knowledge including, on top of life science, physics, mathematics, electric and electronic circuits, programming, system control theory and computer science. Students of the department study these subjects systematically from the first to third years. Upon turning seniors, they select laboratories according to their individual interests and conduct graduation research under tutors.
Reflecting its wide curriculum covering from electronics to computer science, graduates of the Department of Bio-System Engineering are employed in very diversified business lines from manufacturers, such as electrical, automotive, machinery and optical equipment companies, to medical care, information, civil service, pharmaceutics and food companies. It is also one of the department's characteristics that more than half of its graduates are enrolled in graduate school.

The department desires students who:

• Are highly eager to create science and technologies that assist life, human beings and society by using electronic and information engineering,
• Have great concentration, can listen to people and, at the same time, can think logically on their own, explain, make decisions and act,
• Are considerate to others and have healthy ethics, and
• Are equipped with basic academic skills in mathematics, physics, chemistry and English and a wide knowledge of Japanese, civics and other humanities subjects.

Outline and Features

The Department of Informatics aims at nurturing engineers who contribute to the advanced information and telecommunications network society of the 21st century. Students study the basic principles, element technology and application systems of computers and networks from both the hardware and software aspects. While studying practical programming and element technology applications through practical work and seminars, students can acquire the basic knowledge of a wide range of special fields, such as computer architecture, telecommunications and artificial intelligence. They will also obtain the ability to apply such knowledge to new fields.
The Japan Association Board for Engineering Education (JABEE) accredits the department's education as an education program on information and information-related fields, exempting its graduates from the first certification examination for Professional Engineers. Therefore, students are required to satisfy criteria regarding prescribed educational goals.

The department desires students who:

• Are eager to study to contribute to the sophisticated information and network society through informatics,
• Can proactively study mathematics, physics and English, the foundation of information technology, and
• Are curious about new fields and willing to try.

Outline and Features

The philosophy of the Department of Electrical Engineering is to raise engineering technologists who contribute to the highly electronized society of the 21st century and graying society and spiritually rich engineers with comprehensive decision-making ability. The goal is to develop self-reliant engineers equipped with the basic and application skills in the electrical and electronics field who contribute to advanced electronic and information society. In other words, the department aims at raising active engineers who can strengthen abilities through self-improvement as trusted engineers and responsible leaders equipped with a rich knowledge of engineering and abilities to communicate and think scientifically and logically.
It provides elaborate education of basic subjects that form the foundation of electrical and electronics engineering in proficiency-dependent classes with many teaching assistants. It also stresses education to improve English for engineers. The department also conducts education and research on advanced technologies like ultrasound electronics, telecommunications, electromagnetic wave and radio wave propagation, electrical power and energy, optoelectronics, superconducting electronics, semiconductors, oxide electronics, magnetic devices and ultrahigh frequency circuits.
The Japan Association Board for Engineering Education (JABEE) accredits the department's education as an education program on electrical and electronic, telecommunications and related fields, exempting its graduates from the first certification examination for Professional Engineers. Therefore, students are required to satisfy criteria regarding prescribed educational goals.

The department desires students who:

• Strongly hope to contribute to electronized society of the future through electrical and electronic engineering, and
• Have a spirit to try anything.

Outline and Features

The educational philosophy of the Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering is to nurture people with healthy values who can acquire necessary expert knowledge through their own effort and can make decisions for themselves. To this end, the department develops students to be able to broaden their knowledge outside their specialties and accurately grasp the nature of things from a balanced viewpoint.
Motor vehicles, aircraft and robots consist of numerous mechanical elements. Mechanical engineering deals with developing these mechanical elements and also combining them into a system. The department leads students to take to science and technology, the basis of mechanical systems engineering, and cultivate a frontier spirit to build new application technologies toward the future.
In the undergraduate course, students study sciences and also basic engineering to turn them into technologies, and cultivate further advanced application abilities in the graduate course.
In the second half of the third year of the undergraduate course, they are virtually assigned to laboratories reflecting their wishes. The Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering has laboratories in three fields, i.e., material and structural engineering (strength and deformation of material, vibration characteristics and strength design), thermal fluid and energy engineering (effective use of heat and fluids in engines and the living environment, and energy saving technology) and design and robotics (mechanism design and computer control of robots, motor vehicles and assistive machines). Students are required to study a wide range of basic specialty disciplines in the respective fields.
The Japan Association Board for Engineering Education (JABEE) accredits the department's education as an education program on machinery and machine-related fields, exempting its graduates from the first certification examination for Professional Engineers. Therefore, students are required to satisfy criteria regarding prescribed educational goals.

The department desires students who:

• Like manufacturing, are interested in machines and hope to contribute to society through machine technology,
• Are widely interested in society and seriously think what they should do in it, and
• Are eager to try new things and expand their work overseas.