2025 (Current Year) Faculty Courses School of Engineering Undergraduate major in Mechanical Engineering
Soft Material Engineering
- Academic unit or major
- Undergraduate major in Mechanical Engineering
- Instructor(s)
- Shingo Maeda
- Class Format
- Lecture
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - Class
- -
- Course Code
- MEC.L312
- Number of credits
- 100
- Course offered
- 2025
- Offered quarter
- 4Q
- Syllabus updated
- Mar 19, 2025
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
In this course, students will learn about the history, properties, and applications of soft materials that are soft and easily deformable. Soft materials have become indispensable in daily life, society, and industry. The soft materials covered in this course include polymers, liquid crystals, gels, elastomers, and more. The goal is to understand how soft materials, as functional materials, are utilized in various fields such as energy, healthcare, electronics, automotive, and robotics.
Course description and aims
1. To be able to understand the properties of soft materials from an engineering viewpoint.
2. To be able to explain the characteristics and applications of soft materials as typical functional materials.
Keywords
Polymer, Elastomer, Gel, Functional material
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
This course will be taught in a lecture format. Exercises and quizzes will be assigned in the class.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | History of Soft Materials | Students will be able to explain the background of soft materials. |
| Class 2 | Active polymers (household, society, industry, agriculture, and fisheries as examples) | Students will be able to explain polymers used in various fields. |
| Class 3 | Overview of Rubber | Students will be able to explain the physicochemical properties of rubber. |
| Class 4 | Physics of Rubber and its Applications | Students will be able to use the first and second laws of thermodynamics to derive the internal energy and entropy changes associated with deformation. |
| Class 5 | Overview of Functional Polymers | Students will be able to explain examples and properties of typical functional polymers from an engineering perspective. |
| Class 6 | Applications of functional polymers 1 (medical field as an example) | |
| Class 7 | Applications of functional polymers 2 (automobiles and robots as examples) | Students will be able to describe applications of functional polymers in the automotive and robotics fields. |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
Not specified
Reference books, course materials, etc.
The course materials are provided at T2SCHOLA.
Evaluation methods and criteria
exercises and quizzes (50%) and reports (50%).
Related courses
- MEC.A201 ： Engineering Mechanics
- MEC.E201 ： Thermodynamics (Mechanical Engineering)
Prerequisites
Students must have taken Enginnering Mechanics (MEC.A201) and Thermodynamics (MEC.E201) or have equivalent knowledge.