2023 Faculty Courses Liberal arts and basic science courses Career development courses
Master's Contributions to the Society through Research C
- Academic unit or major
- Career development courses
- Instructor(s)
- Hidekazu Tanaka / Jun-Ichi Takada / Hiroaki Yamanaka / Tomoko Murakami
- Class Format
- Lecture (Livestream)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - Intensive
- Class
- C
- Course Code
- LAC.M537
- Number of credits
- 100
- Course offered
- 2023
- Offered quarter
- 3Q
- Syllabus updated
- Jul 8, 2025
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
As part of the process of transferring the research results of scientists and engineers to society, one duty of Tokyo Tech is to provide national and public body council members and professional society members engaged in raising the awareness of the public through writing and journalism. However, there are many points of concern for these activities. Based on the examples of instructors with experience as a council member, students discuss problems such as research and social contributions, and fairness and conflicts of interest.
Through this course, students learn that the role and responsibility of universities are not just education and research, but also raising the awareness of the public.
Course description and aims
Each instructor will introduce examples from their experience as a council member in the fields of energy, disaster prevention, information and communications, science policy, and international technical society. Students will gain an understanding of the issues related to the relationship between science and society in relevant fields. Next, students will discuss with each other fairness and conflicts of interest from the perspective of researchers, based on the insights they gained. Through this course, students will develop their own opinions about the social contributions of science and technology.
Keywords
Dissemination of research results to society, social contribution and enlightenment, relationship between science/technology and society, science studies, science ethics
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
Each instructor will post case-study materials to T2SCHOLA more than ten days before each class, which include the issue specific to each topic. The individual students are required to prepare based on the materials in advance about the challenges in the relevant art and to submit a report two days before the class via T2SCHOLA.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Oct. 23 (Mon.), 3-4 period, Zoom [Tanaka] Overview of the course and social contributions of academic members (in Japanese). | Doing a case study based on an example and writing a preliminary report. |
| Class 2 | Nov. 6 (Mon.), 1-4 period, Zoom [Murakami] Science and technology and social contribution in the energy sector (in Japanese). | Doing a case study based on an example and writing a preliminary report. |
| Class 3 | Nov. 20 (Mon.), 1-4 period, Zoom [Yamanaka] Science and technology and social contributions in the field of disaster reduction (in Japanese). | Doing a case study based on an example and writing a preliminary report. |
| Class 4 | Nov. 24（Fr.), 5-8 period, Zoom [Takada] Information science and technology and social contributions in the field of communications (in Japanese). | Doing a case study based on an example and writing a preliminary report. |
Study advice (preparation and review)
Textbook(s)
None.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
None.
Evaluation methods and criteria
Reports submitted (60%) and class contributions (40%).
Related courses
- Other career courses
Prerequisites
None
Other
GA1M