SYLLABUS
OSAKA UNIVERSITY SHORT-TERM STUDENT EXCHANGE PROGRAM _

00f-9 A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TECHNOLOGY AND INDUSTRY

Shuzo Nakamura (International Student Center and Graduate School of Engineering)

Objective This course will let students look at various cross sections of the vast and complex subject of technology and industry. The lecturer will deal with the subject based on his own extensive experience in Japanese and American industries. He will discuss examples of how a new technology grew into a mature commercial technology in the electronic and petrochemical industries. He will also discuss how the dynamics of society has affected the growth of technology and industry. Students will also learn from a series of video programs dealing with Japanese technology and industry as well as with some successful entrepreneurs of postwar Japan. They will also go on a series of field trips to various industries. Students will also be asked to read books related to subjects in which they are interested. In this way students will come to understand more completely what technology and industry are, and what characterizes Japanese technology and industry.

Prerequisite Basic knowledge of physics and chemistry is desirable but not mandatory.

Textbook There will be no assigned textbook.

Lecture Online
Week 1: How did the Japanese semiconductor industry emerge from the postwar rubble? A lecture and A Video-History of Japan”Ēs Electronic Industry; Part 1. Birth of the Transistor
Week 2: How did the embryonic transistor technology evolve into advanced integrated circuit technology? A lecture and A Video-History of Japan”Ēs Electronic Industry; Part 2. Electronic Circuits in Stone
Week 3: How did Japanese culture affect the growth of the computer industry? A lecture and A Video-History of Japan”Ēs Electronic Industry; Part 3. Calculator Wars
Week 4: How did various peripheral industries support the semiconductor industry? A lecture and A Video-History of Japan”Ēs Electronic Industry; Part 4. The Technological Giants of the Micron World
Week 5: How did the laser grow into a mature commercial technology? A lecture and A Video-Story of Great Entrepreneurs; Part 1. Masaru Ibuka, an engineer / entrepreneur, the founder of SONY.
Week 6: Field trip to an electronic factory
Week 7: How is nuclear energy struggling to grow into a mature commercial technology? A lecture and A Video-Story of Great Entrepreneurs; Part 2. Konosuke Matsushita, an engineer / entrepreneur, the founder of Matsushita Electric (Panasonic)
Deadline for the mid-term paper
Week 8: Presentations on the midterm papers
Week 9: Field trip to a nuclear power plant
Week 10: How did polyethylene grow into a mature commercial technology? How did it affect the growth of other industries? A lecture and A Video-Story of Great Entrepreneurs; Part 3. Soichiro Honda, an engineer / entrepreneur, the founder of Honda Motors
Week 11: How did the Japanese petrochemical industry manage to utilize C-4 hydrocarbons?
Week 12: Field trip to a petrochemical factory
Week 13: A look at the dynamics of society, in Japan and in the Western World, that affect the growth of technology and industry.
Deadline for the final paper
Week 14: Presentations on the final papers 1
Week 15: Presentations on the final papers 2

An extra field trip to an automobile factory in the Spring-Summer Semester

Assignments Each student will be asked to find in the University Library two books in which the student is interested. One on the electronic industry and the other on an industry of their choice. Students will be required to read the books and write midterm and final papers based on the readings and the course material.

Grading Assessment will be based on:
Attendance to the classes including filed trips 45%
Midterm and final papers 55%
OUSSEP _
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