Sophomore Year
Learning the Fundamentals of Mechanical and Systems Engineering (Determining Course of Study)
During sophomore year, in addition to taking general education and specialized fundamental courses, students will aim to build a solid understanding of mechanical engineering/systems engineering, while at the same time building up the fundamental knowledge required to continue their learning in their later course of study. Students will be able to focus on their area of interest by selecting from a wide variety of specialized technical fields, and by further selecting either the “Mechanical Engineering Course of Study” or the “Systems Engineering Course of Study,” students will determine their ultimate course of study during their sophomore year.
| Liberal Arts | Intellectual Understanding |
|---|---|
| Liberal Arts | Arts/Practice |
| Liberal Arts | English Communication 4 |
| Liberal Arts | Pre-Advanced English/Advanced English |
| Liberal Arts | Career Education/Health and Sports Science |
| Professional Subject (Department) | Fourier and Laplace Transforms |
| Professional Subject (Department) | Manufacturing Practice I |
| Professional Subject (Department) | Basic Mechanical System Drawing |
| Professional Subject (Department) | Mechanics of Materials I |
| Professional Subject (Department) | Mechanical Manufacturing |
| Professional Subject (Department) | Multiple Integrals |
| Liberal Arts | Intellectual Understanding |
|---|---|
| Liberal Arts | Arts/Practice |
| Liberal Arts | Pre-Advanced English/Advanced English |
| Liberal Artsn | Foreign Languages Other Than English |
| Liberal Arts | Career Education/Health and Sports Science |
| Professional Subject (Department) | Vector and Complex Analyses |
| Professional Subject (Department) | Manufacturing Practice I |
| Professional Subject (Department) | Basic Mechanical System Drawing |
| Professional Subject (Department) | Thermodynamics I |
| Professional Subject (Department) | Electronic Circuits |
| Professional Subject (Department) | Partial Differential Equation |
| Liberal Arts | Intellectual Understanding |
|---|---|
| Liberal Arts | Arts/Practice |
| Liberal Arts | English Communication 5-6 |
| Liberal Arts | Pre-Advanced English/Advanced English |
| Liberal Arts | Foreign Languages Other Than English |
| Liberal Arts | Career Education/Health and Sports Science |
| Professional Subject (Department) | Manufacturing Practice II |
| Professional Subject (Department) | Industrial Mechanics |
| Professional Subject (Course) | Mechanics of Materials II |
| Professional Subject (Course) | Materials Science and Engineering |
| Professional Subject (Course) | Technical Project with Creative Training |
| Liberal Arts | Intellectual Understanding |
|---|---|
| Liberal Arts | Arts/Practice |
| Liberal Arts | English Communication 5-6 |
| Liberal Arts | Pre-Advanced English/Advanced English |
| Liberal Arts | Foreign Languages Other Than English |
| Liberal Arts | Career Education/Health and Sports Science |
| Professional Subject (Department) | Manufacturing Practice II |
| Professional Subject (Department) | Systems Control I |
| Professional Subject (Department) | Mechanical Manufacturing Processing |
| Professional Subject (Course) | Thermodynamics II |
| Professional Subject (Course) | Mechanisms |
| Professional Subject (Course) | Technical Project with Creative Training |
3rd/4th Semester
Technical Project with Creative Training
In order to excel as an engineer in the professional world, while it goes without saying that you must engage in studies to obtain fundamental knowledge on machines, at the same time, you must develop your creativity. Creativity as described here, refers to the ability to generate innovative concepts and ideas, and it involves building a foundation of knowledge based on the various advances in engineering achieved by scientists and engineers, leading to discoveries made to explain physical phenomena or to create top-selling products, and in this course students will learn how to develop such creativity. Furthermore, students will be tasked with building a “leaning tower” out of drinking straws, with the aim of building a tower with the highest possible height, and that is able to withstand the largest amount of load. Students will also engage in activities to fabricate mechanisms to transport parts, further enabling them to deepen their understanding on how to actively utilize creativity.
1st/2nd/3rd/4th Semester
Manufacturing Practice I, II
The machine shop practice course is a required course for sophomores, and it aims to give students first-hand experience of the actual processes involved in machine work, and to help them understand the importance of such methods as the cutting, polishing, and joining of various materials, and students will learn the basics of manufacturing, such as how to perform finishing using numerical control machine tools and hand finishing. During the first term practicum, students will study machine tool fundamentals, as they learn about lathes, milling machines, drill presses, etc., and in the second term practicum they will apply their experience gained during the first term to fabricate a gyroscope, and will compete with each other by comparing how long each gyroscope can remain in a spinning, self-standing state.
3rd Semester
Mechanics of Materials II
The strength of materials course aims to foster students’ ability to gain a thorough understanding of the various fundamental hypotheses and theories, and to understand the limits of their application, while helping them grow their capacity to solve mechanical engineering design problems. In order to allow students to attain this ability, in this lecture series course, students will learn engineering methods used for designing axles that are simultaneously subjected to bending and torsional forces, the concept of strain energy and method for its calculation, and how such methods are used in Castigliano's theorem. Additionally, by solving example problems that involve deformation for axles that possess complex shapes, students will learn how such methods are applied to solve real-world problems. Furthermore, students will also learn about the destabilizing phenomenon of buckling, and they will learn to understand the importance of accounting for buckling strength during axle design.