Does intercultural factor improve research-based education?
15-year trial of a Particle Technology Lab bridging the engineering and agricultural studies.
研究教育における”異文化・異分野”導入の役割、マレーシア工科大学UTM主催 2022/12/20 Facebook Live 15:00 in English 録画 Recorded
WULED LENGGORO **
The turning point in my target-setting occurred when I joined TUAT and started a research group in 2007. Together with colleagues at the school of agriculture, I co-initiated a governmental “large” project on “Aerosols & Plants”. We designed a chamber for growing plants and realized that the core of the project was the plant, not the researchers. Daily experiments were performed for almost two years. The plants grew from 10 to 200 cm. Heterogeneous leaf surfaces and an air-conditioned chamber created turbulence points. Through agricultural projects, we learn much about risk before designing and also while running the experiments, and we obtain engineering clues from plant systems. After we learned the interaction between “dynamic” aerosol particles and “static” leaf surfaces, we expanded our studies to develop a sensor system for on-site detection of pesticides (including those on dead honey-bees) and a low-cost particle collector for remote areas. The speed of agricultural studies was “slow”. There were no personal obstacles like nationalism. An “organic” interdisciplinary project is a good medium for engineering students to learn a system in micro- and macro-scales and to consider the “good” and “bad” sides of the matter.
** Dept. of Applied Physics & Chemical Engineering, Grad. School of Engineering and Grad. School of Bio-Applications & Systems Engineering, Tokyo Univ. of Agriculture & Technology
