Mar 31, 2017

Sustainability Science - A Key Concept for Future Design

Sustainability is indispensable for the future of humankind. Sustainability science has emerged as an effort to tackle the complex problems the world is facing today. Lecturers from different disciplines provide a holistic overview of key issues in sustainability including industrial pollution, an aging society, human-nature connection, urban planning, resilience, environmental governance, and education for sustainable development. In this course, you will learn about historical and current sustainability issues that have emerged around the world, as well as some of the approaches that have been used to solve them. You will be exposed to industrial and water pollution control issues, in addition to challenges caused by an aging and shrinking population. You will also learn about the human-nature connection and initiatives that aim to create sustainable societies in harmony with nature, based on the concept of Socio-Ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes (SEPLS). You will explore how ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR) approaches can be used to reestablish the human-nature connection through re-naturalization of damaged environments. This course will also consider an urban planning point of view by exploring the value of an urban-rural land use mixture to create new sustainable societies and resilient megacities. Finally, you will learn about environmental governance, a crucial element for progress towards a sustainable future. You will be introduced to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as a learning method for sustainable development and discuss international debates on ESD. Japanese perspectives are emphasized throughout the course in the hopes of providing concrete value to solving contemporary sustainability issues.

MINO Takashi (Project Professor, TOKYO COLLEGE, The University of Tokyo) TAKEUCHI Kazuhiko (Project Professor, Institute for Future Initiatives, The University of Tokyo) YOKOHARI Makoto (Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo) HORITA Masahide (Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo) and 7 member(s).

Jan 4, 2021

Four Facets of Contemporary Japanese Architecture: City

This is the third course in the “Four Facets of Contemporary Japanese Architecture” series, which focuses on the third facet: city. After the 1970s, Japanese architects are said to have stopped conceptualizing cities and instead focused on designing the individual buildings that make up the cities. However, as cities continue to undergo significant transformations in response to globalization, the advent of information technologies, and so on, Japanese architects are once again engaging the city, and doing so in unique ways. This course on “City” will review the works of those architects who have attempted to conceptualize cities through their architecture and examine the changes over the last half century as well as the issues for the future. Fumihiko Maki, Itsuko Hasegawa, Riken Yamamoto, Kengo Kuma, Jun Aoki, and Atelier Bow-Wow (Yoshiharu Tsukamoto & Momoyo Kaijima) visit their buildings to discuss the ideas behind their respective works.

KUMA Kengo (University Professor, Office of University Professor, The University of Tokyo) OBUCHI Yusuke (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo)

Mar 23, 2021

FoundX Startup School Course

"FoundX Startup School Course" is an online course that provides fundamental knowledge for startups. It offers “business thinking frameworks” that are useful for startups and building any business. If you enroll in the course individually, you can gain essential knowledge that is important to understand before starting a business. Taking this course together for teams can help establish a foundation for a shared approach to thinking. This course is designed to be completed quickly, so please take this opportunity to enroll.

HASEGAWA Katsuya (Project Professor, Division of University Corporate Relations, The University of Tokyo) UMADA Takaaki (Director, FoundX, The University of Tokyo) KADO Masanori (CEO, Waicrew)

Feb 5, 2026

Visual and auditory perception - How we see and hear the external world

In this course, we will explore the mechanisms of sensory information processing and the distinctive features of vision and hearing from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience. Light from the external world enters the eyes and becomes a mental experience of “seeing,” and sound entering the ears becomes the experience of hearing. These processes involve converting physical stimuli into neural activity in the brain. The course features video materials such as a dissection experiment using a pig’s eyeball, EEG recordings with human participants, and a field experiment demonstrating the mosquito sound phenomenon. Each sensory organ will also be explained three-dimensionally using 3D computer graphics. Please note: The lecture includes footage of a pig’s eyeball dissection, which may be uncomfortable for some viewers.