Session: 16-09-01 Ocean Engineering Education and Research Program I

Submission Number: 180748

Brazil-Japan Collaborative Remote Education Program on Naval Architecture and Offshore Engineering 

Brazil boasts one of the world's oil reserves and owns the ultra-deep water oil fields. Based both on advanced Japan’s ship-building technology and Brazil’s offshore engineering, we launched a collaborative remote education program in 2016, with the cooperation of research institutes and industry of the both countries. The collaborative program is organized by the University of Tokyo, Kyushu University, Yokohama National University, Nihon University, University of São Paulo, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, University of Campinas, Federal University of Pernambuco, and Federal University of Santa Catarina, and sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Japan. We have 12 remote courses on cross-disciplinary topics, giving the participants a broader perspective on their research on the field of naval architecture and offshore engineering in the following manners.

(a) The classes start at 8:00am Brazil and 8:00pm in Japan.

(b) One course has 45 hours (1.5 h × 2 classes per week × 15 weeks) and one half course has 22.5 hours (1.5 h × 1 classes per week × 15 weeks).

(c) Two rounds per year and the 1st round starts in April and finishes in July (15 weeks) and the 2nd round is from September to December (15 weeks). Exact dates vary every year depending on the calendars of all the participant universities.

(d) We can have 4 full courses and 2 half courses per year. If the courses are biannual, we can have 8 full courses and 4 half courses per 2 years. To make clear the full and half courses, we show the weekly time table of the 2016 April Semester in Table 3, as an example.

(e) Each university can choose courses and register the chosen courses in their own syllabus. This means that the special courses will be the courses of each university. No need to register all the courses of this collaborative program.

(f)  Each university also registers lecturers of the chosen lectures as Part-time Lecturer or Visiting Lecturers. Brazilian professors will be part-time lecturers in Japanese universities and vice-versa.

(g) Credits are given to the students of each university on the hour-base.

(h) All the participant universities issue a credential of completion of the course to a student who completes required number of the courses of this collaborative program. The signers may be program coordinators of all the participant universities. If we can use the logos of all the universities in the declaration/credential, it would be very good.

(i)  Industry staff can also join the courses at their own office using remote lecture system, as occasional students. If they register part-time students in one of the participant universities, they can get credits at their office, although they may have to have meetings with their mentors occasionally.

(j)  Industry staff can also give lectures at their own office using remote lecture system, as registered part-time lecturers. The incentive of teaching in the early morning in Brazil and in the late night in Japan may be academic exchange described later in 2.3.Ask their available dates

(k) Assign lecturers to all the classes of your course.

(l) The 4 Japanese and 5 Brazilian universities issue a joint declaration of to the student who took credits more than the prescribed number.

Through the student inquiry, we learned what our students wanted from the remote courses: interactive classes with not only the lecturers but also the students in the other universities, particularly in the foreign universities. The university coordinates, who have a remote meeting every 3 weeks, shared this information and deliver it to their lecturers, and tried making their courses interactive: such as encouraging asking questions, promoting group discussions, and arranging presentations of assignments.

Presenting Author: Toru Sato University of Tokyo

Presenting Author Biography: Toru Sato obtained a B.Eng and a M.Eng from Dept. Ocean Eng., University of Tokyo and a Ph.D from Dept. Chem. Eng., Imperial College London, and is currently a professor at Dept. Ocean Technol., Policy, and Environ., University of Tokyo. For over 25 years, he has been engaged in environmental impact assessment of CO2 sub-seabed geological storage, including development and application of multi-scale ocean model, development of dissociation and formation models of methane and CO2 hydrates, design and feasibility study on CO2 storage in the form of gas hydrate, proposing effective indicators of CO2-related concentration in seawater, and so on. Currently, he serves as Advisor of Cabinet Office’ Ocean Policy Headquarters, Member of Japan Academy of Engineering, Board Member of Japan Society of Ocean Policy, Member of Sub-Seabed CCS Committee of Ministry of Environment, Member of CCS Expert Committee of Japan CCS Co. Ltd. etc.

Authors:

Toru Sato University of Tokyo
Sergio Bordalo University of Campinas
Vitor Endo Federal University of Santa Catarina
Tomoki Ikoma Nihon University
Motohiko Murai Yokohama National University
Celso Morooka University of Campinas
Kazuo Nishimoto University of Sao Paulo
Armand Shinohara Federal University of Pernambuco
Tomoaki Ustunomiya Kyushu University
Murilo Vaz Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Daniel Vieira University of Sao Paulo
Ryota Wada University of Tokyo