Job description (entire company, your department, etc.)
I belong to a department related to the design and construction business of thermal power plants. The main work I am involved in is the design of gas-fueled thermal power plants, and I am engaged in the design of various equipment installed in the power plants, such as pumps, fans, and emergency power generation equipment. The specifications of power plants vary from customer to customer and from region to region, so custom-made designs are required. We also do a lot of work for overseas customers, and we routinely work as a team with people outside of Japan.
How does your study at Shibaura Institute of Technology apply to your current profession?
The company's main business is overall machinery manufacturing, so what I have learned about mechanical engineering has been useful. In particular, the design of pumps and fans is directly related to my university research.
What do we actually do as cross-disciplinary in society, or what is needed to cross-discipline?
I realize that cross-disciplinary work can happen close to home for engineers. As an example of my own work, I am designing a system to produce pure water from river water for a power plant in Thailand. In addition to filtration technology using mechanical filters, the system uses chemical chemical injection to control pH and electrical ion removal technology. In this way, there are many examples where technologies from different fields are fused together to create a single system/product, and the performance of these tasks requires the acquisition of knowledge outside of the field in which one has studied. In addition, there are cases where knowledge of laws and regulations and commercial affairs is required for export operations, so it is important to acquire a wide range of knowledge, not just engineering knowledge.
Message to Shibaura Institute of Technology Students
Related to cross-disciplinary, I would like students to be exposed to as many fields as possible while in school. By doing so, the psychological hurdle will be lowered when they enter the workforce. Also, four years is a reasonably long period of time, so I think you will have a fruitful university life if you imagine yourself at the time of graduation and live your life with an awareness of how you will use the four years to achieve that goal.