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The Department of Environmental and Ocean Engineering originated
from two schools. One is the Kogaku-Daigakko, called 'Imperial College
of Engineering,' which was opened at the beginning of the Meiji era
and was affiliated to the Ministry of Engineering (corresponding to
the Ministry of International Trade and Industry at present). This college commenced
the teaching of Shipbuilding Engineering in 1880. The other is the
Department of Shipbuilding Engineering established in 1884 by the Faculty
of Science in the University of Tokyo.
In March 1886, these two were fused into the Imperial College of
Engineering, which incorporated both Departments of Shipbuilding Engineering.
At the beginning of the Meiji era, steamships were built by means of
the most modern technology at that time, and considerable stress was
put on the education of the naval architects engaged in their design
and building.
The United Kingdom, the top shipbuilding country at that time, sent
Professors C. D. West and P. A. Hillhouse to Japan to provide naval
architecture education. In the Hongo campus, busts of Professor C.
D. West and of Professor Shinrokuro Miyoshi, the first professor at
the Department of Shipbuilding, commemorate the work carried out by
those pioneers.
In 1917, the Zosen Gakka (the Department of Shipbuilding Engineering)
was changed to the Sempaku Kogakka (the Department of Naval Architecture),
and the number of lectureship was soon increased from three to five.
In 1942, during the 2nd World War, the Second Faculty of Engineering
was newly established in the Chiba campus, where lectures on naval
architecture were also given.
With the end of World War II, the Department of Naval Architecture took a new
step. In 1947, the Tokyo Imperial University became the University of Tokyo,
and the Department of Naval Architecture was given six lectureships. Since
then, the shipbuilding industry, which had been almost destroyed during the
war, has come back thanks to the endeavor of naval architects: in 1956, they
built 1,530,000 tons of ship, ranking top in the world. Japan has been keeping
the No.1 position in the world for the last thirty years.
The faculty members of the Department of Naval Architecture have
carried out remarkable activities for that period, including; research
on ship structures and construction methods that enable building very
large vessels; development of bulbous bows that drastically reduce
wave-making resistance; and research on hulls free from wave force.
All these projects have met with remarkable success.
The Department of Naval Architecture was extended from six to nine
lectureships during 1966-1969. In 1989, the department was given the
name of "Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering." When
the whole faculty of Engineering was re-organized in 1993 to put priority
on the graduate school, the number of lectureships in the Department
of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering was increased to 10 by
adding the chair of Realization Engineering, which concentrates on
education in the graduate courses. In addition, the remaining 9 lectureships
were re-organized into two groups, Naval Architectural System Engineering
and Ocean System Engineering.
In April 1998, the Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
was again renamed "Department of Environmental and Ocean Engineering." At
the same time, two groups of Naval Architectural System Engineering
and Ocean System Engineering were re-organized into the Marine System
and the Harmonization System. The Marine System group has worked on
the development of the existing area under the control of the Department
of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, while the Harmonization
System Group has dealt with global environmental engineering and related
subjects on the basis of system engineering technologies.
The education system was also modified into a new program: two new
courses, Marine System and Harmonization System, were created in undergraduate
school, and the curricula were completely overhauled. The yearly average
number of students is currently 56 in undergraduate courses, 30 in
master's courses, and 15 in doctoral courses.
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