INTERNATIONAL COOPERATIVE ENGINEERING EDUCATION BETWEEN JAPANESE AND MONGOLIAN KOSENS IN ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING Susumu Nakamura *a, Masaaki Yoshida b, Takanobu Maeda c a Department of Electrical and Electronic Systems Engineering, NIT, Nagaoka College, Nagaoka, Japan b Department of Liberal Arts and Engineering Sciences, NIT, Hachinohe College, Hachinohe, Japan c Department of Control Engineering, NIT, Sasebo College, Sasebo, Japan * Email: snaka@nagaoka-ct.ac.jp Abstract Among about 150 Mongolian people who had studied at the KOSEN colleges in Japan for the past 20 years, there was an increasing strong aspiration to set up Japanese-style KOSEN Colleges in Mongolia. Receiving strong backing from former Minister of Education and Science of Mongolia, Mr. Luvsannyam Gantumur, who studied abroad at Sendai KOSEN in Japan, they established Japanese-style KOSEN Colleges, Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), Mongol KOSEN College of Technology in 2013, followed by Mongolian University of Science and Technology (MUST) KOSEN College of Technology and New Mongol College of Technology in 2014. To extend Japanese-style KOSEN education further throughout Mongolia, it seems to be critical to raise up level of education of the present KOSEN Colleges in Mongolia. This paper reports a project to improve the education level in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the KOSEN Colleges in Mongolia. From 14th January to 18th January 2018, eight teachers who belong to the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the KOSEN Colleges in Mongolia visited Japan for a training workshop at Nagaoka KOSEN. This training workshop aimed to deepen their understanding about research facilities, practical education using experiments, and education system of Japanese KOSEN. From 4th March to 11th March 2018, Professor Susumu Nakamura at Nagaoka KOSEN, Associate Professor Masaaki Yoshida at Hachinohe KOSEN and Associated Professor Takanobu Maeda at Sasebo KOSEN were dispatched to MUST KOSEN College of Technology in Mongolia. Two students who are majoring electrical and electronic systems engineering at Nagaoka KOSEN were also dispatched to MUST KOSEN College of Technology as teaching assistants. During their stay in Mongolia, they taught how to use an electronic circuit simulator, kits of electric circuits and an operational amplifier, and a single-chip microcontroller to Mongolian teachers. Keywords: International Cooperation, Engineering Education, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Japanese KOSEN, Mongolian KOSEN 1. Introduction The number of students in higher educational institutes in Mongolia is increasing based on the needs of higher education since 2000. The number of students in the academic year 2015 to 2016 has increased to about 65% from the academic year 2002 to 2003. The proportion of the students who have entered universities to all graduates from full-time senior high schools in the academic year 2016 to 2017 was 75.6%. The proportions of the students who have chosen science or engineering majors were about 5% or 16.3% respectively, which shows just a small increase compared with data in 2012. On the other hand, there is a gap between the types of human resources required by companies in industrial area in Mongolia and the graduates educated by Mongolian present higher education institutes. This is due to the situation such that current educational programs focus on theoretical learning mainly through lectures and most students start working without adequate ability of application or problem solving which are supposed to be fostered through experiment or laboratory work. Among about 150 Mongolian people who had studied at the KOSEN colleges in Japan for the past 20 years, there was an increasing strong aspiration to set up Japanese-style KOSEN Colleges in Mongolia. In 2009, they formed a general incorporated association Society for Establishment of Mongolia KOSEN in cooperation with people who are involved in KOSEN education in Japan. Later, receiving strong backing from former Minister of Education and Science of Mongolia, Mr.
Luvsannyam Gantumur, who studied abroad at Sendai KOSEN in Japan, they established Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), Mongol KOSEN College of Technology in 2013, followed by Mongolian University of Science and Technology (MUST) KOSEN College of Technology and New Mongol College of Technology in 2014. In 2013, IET, Mongol KOSEN College of Technology, also known as Mongol KOSEN, was established as a school of IET. This college is managed under Mr. Munkh-Ochir Sergelen, Principal of Mongol College of Technology and President of IET, who have experience of studying in Japan. IET, Mongol KOSEN College of Technology has four departments: Construction Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and Biological Engineering. In 2014, MUST KOSEN College of Technology was established under supervision of Mr. Ganbayar Aleksei, who has previous experience of studying abroad at Tokyo KOSEN in Japan, as ninth school belonging to MUST. MUST KOSEN College of Technology has three departments: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Civil and Architecture Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. A private school corporation, the New Mongol College of Technology was founded in 2014. The New Mongolian Institute is composed of elementary school to university. New Mongol College of Technology was operated under Principal Buyangalgar who studied abroad at Sasebo KOSEN in Japan. New Mongol College of Technology has four departments: Civil Engineering and Architecture, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Chemical Engineering. National Institute of Technology (NIT), Nagaoka College and Sasebo College were established in 1962, followed by Hachinohe College in 1963, under the Ministry of Education (current Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology). Based on the Japanese Government s policy, all 51 National Colleges (55 Campuses) including Nagaoka, Sasebo and Hachinohe Colleges were incorporated as a new single legal entity in 2004 and are now under the umbrella of the National Institute of Technology, Japan. However, each college maintains its independent authority. College of Technology under the National Institute of Technology is popularly called KOSEN. 2. International Cooperative Engineering Education In order to improve the education level of the present three KOSEN colleges in Mongolia, international cooperative engineering education between Japanese and Mongolian KOSENs was conducted. In this paper, we repots the educational training workshops in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the KOSEN Colleges in Mongolia. 2.1 Outgoing Program from 23rd October to 27th October 2017 From 23rd October to 27th October 2017, Dr. Susumu Nakamura, a professor of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Systems Engineering at Nagaoka KOSEN, was dispatched to MUST KOSEN College of Technology in Mongolia. During his stay in Mongolia, he taught how to assemble electric circuits using digital ICs and a breadboard to the Mongolian teachers who belong to the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the KOSEN Colleges in Mongolia. Figure 1 shows the Mongolian teachers who participated in the circuit assembly workshop. Figure 1 Mongolian teachers who participated in the circuit assembly workshop. As teaching material for a course of workshop, Have Fun with Kits! Electric Circuits, Digital Circuits Edition Vol.1 and Vol.2 produced by ADWIN Corporation were used. These electric kits are designed to be provided to students studying electronics and having interest to electronics, so that they can recognize by themselves through hands-on exercise what they need to learn and understand. These electric kits are useful for science teachers. Teachers are easy to think how to teach electronics to their students effectively using these kits. For this reason, these electric kits were chosen as the teaching material. For assembling the digital circuits, at first, trainees should draw wires to make some connections between each components and/or devices in the drawing of breadboard according to the schematic diagram. Then the trainees start assembly of the circuit, and after that, they confirm its function. As shown in Figure 2, the Mongolian teachers were seriously working on the electronic circuit assembly. The following digital circuits were assembled: (ⅰ) NOT logic circuit (ⅱ) NOT logic circuit using a variable resistor (ⅲ) Multivibrator circuit using NOT logic gates (ⅳ) Logic circuit using NAND gates (ⅴ) Logic circuit using NOR gates (ⅵ) SR Flip-Flop circuit (ⅶ) Counter circuit using D-Flip-Flop devices (ⅷ) 1-digit BCD Counter (ⅸ) A circuit to blink an LED using an NE555
Figure 2 Assembly of the electronic circuits using digital ICs and a breadboard. Figure 4 Experiment on the solar power generation. 2.2 Incoming Program from 14th January to 18th January 2018 From 14th January to 18th January 2018, eight Mongolian teachers who belong to the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the KOSEN Colleges in Mongolia visited Japan for a training workshop at Nagaoka KOSEN. This training workshop aimed to deepen their understanding about research facilities, practical education using experiments, and education system of Japanese KOSEN. During their stay in Nagaoka, they got the following experiments on power electronics: (ⅰ) Control of DC motor (ⅱ) Control of squirrel-cage induction motor (ⅲ) Experiment on solar power generation (ⅳ) Discharge phenomenon in air (ⅴ) Frequency control by three-phase inverter (ⅵ) AC control by SCR The power electronics is the application of solid-state electronics to the control and conversion of electric power. In modern systems, the conversion is performed with semiconductor switching devices such as diodes, thyristors and transistors. AC/DC converter (rectifier) is Figure 5 Factory tour at WEST Co., Ltd. the most typical power electronics device found in many consumer electronic devices. As mentioned above, the power electronics play an important role in modern power and energy control technologies. Therefore, the power electronics needs to be taught in Mongolian KOSEN. Figure 3 shows a lecture on the control of DC motor and Figure 4 shows experiment on the solar power generation. During the Mongolian teachers stayed in Nagaoka, they visited a company, WEST Co., Ltd., to understand the industry of Nagaoka area. West Co., Ltd. is a small company, but has unique technology to make fine powder from cereals such as rice and buckwheat. WEST Co., Ltd. produced world s first water cooled stone milling machine. Figure 5 shows factory tour at WEST Co., Ltd. 2.3 Outgoing program from 4th March to 11th March 2018 Figure 3 Lecture on the control of DC motor. From 4th March to 11th March 2018, Dr. Susumu Nakamura, a professor of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Systems Engineering at Nagaoka KOSEN, Dr. Masaaki Yoshida, an Associate Professor of the Department of Liberal Arts and Engineering Sciences at Hachinohe KOSEN and Mr. Takanobu Maeda, an Associate Professor of the Department of
Control Engineering at Sasebo KOSEN were dispatched to MUST KOSEN College of Technology in Mongolia. Two students who are majoring electrical and electronic systems engineering at Nagaoka KOSEN were also dispatched to MUST KOSEN College of Technology as teaching assistants. The teaching materials they brought were an electronic circuit simulator, kits of electric circuits and an operational amplifier, and a single-chip microcontroller of ATmega328. The training workshop on the electronic circuit simulator was a request from the Mongolian teachers. LTspice XVII was chosen as the electronic circuit simulator. LTspice XVII is node-unlimited and thirdparty models can be imported. Circuit simulations based on transient, AC, noise and DC analysis can be plotted as well as Fourier analysis. LTspice XVII also supports simple logic gate simulation. As shown in Figure 6, the Mongolian teachers discussed about how to use the electronic circuit simulator. During this workshop, the following simulations on the electronic circuits were conducted: (ⅰ) RC low pass filter Drawing the circuit diagram with the editor Changing part values Time domain simulation Frequency domain simulation (ⅱ) Rectifier Simple rectifier without transformer One pulse rectifier with transformer Two pulse rectifier with transformer (ⅲ) Transistor circuit One stage amplifier Two stage broadband amplifier with feedback Figure 6 Discussion about the electronic circuit using the circuit simulator, LTspice XVII. After LTspice XVII training workshop, Have Fun with Kits! Electric Circuits, Basic Edition Vol.1 and Vol.2 produced by ADWIN Corporation were used as the teaching material. Assembling electric circuits using these kits were as follows: (ⅰ) Make LED light ON (ⅱ) Change connection of LED reverse (ⅲ) Use variable resistors (ⅳ) Parallel connection circuit (ⅴ) Diode circuit; rectification circuit (ⅵ) Use transistors; DC motor control 1, 2, 3 As mentioned previously, two students who are majoring electrical and electronic systems engineering at Nagaoka KOSEN were dispatched to MUST KOSEN College of Technology as teaching assistants. They made presentations on their graduation researches to Mongolian students during the workshop break time as shown in Figure 7. Mongolian students will be fifth-year class in next academic year and they will conduct final Figure 7 Advanced course student s presentation on graduation research. year research. Therefore, the Mongolian students were seriously listening to the presentations of Nagaoka KOSEN students. After assembling the Electric Circuits, Basic Edition Vol.1 and Vol.2, Have Fun with Kits! Op-amp Introductory Edition produced by ADWIN Corporation were used as the teaching material. The Op-amp means a word operational amplifier. The word operational in the name refers to mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, differentiation, integration, etc., since Op-amps are direct current amplifiers capable of performing such tasks. Although Op-amps are not normally seen, they are actually widely used in appliances with analog circuits that everybody should have. They can be found, for example, in mobile telephones, personal computers, audio players, headphone amplifiers, sensor circuits, and measuring devices. Figure 8 shows that the Mongolian teachers observed signals from the Op-amp circuit using analog oscilloscope. During this training workshop, assembling circuits using Op-amp kits were as follows: (ⅰ) Inverting amplifier circuit (ⅱ) Non-inverting amplifier circuit (ⅲ) Adder circuit (ⅳ) Subtractor circuit (ⅴ) Voltage follower circuit (ⅵ) Comparator circuit
Figure 8 Observation of signals from the Op-amp circuit using analog oscilloscope. Figure 10 Japanese and Mongolian KOSENs teachers and Nagaoka KOSEN students. (ⅶ) Hysteresis comparator circuit (ⅷ) Differentiator circuit (ⅸ) Integrator circuit As the last training workshop, the Mongolian teachers tried to modify Bontenmaru robot using the single-chip microcontroller, ATmega328. Bontenmaru is an autonomous two-wheel drive robot that can be run with a simple program for elementary and junior high school students. Although the original Bontenmaru uses a PIC microcontroller as a computing device, the Mongolian teachers tried to replace the PIC microcontroller with the ATmega328 microcontroller. Because most of the Mongolian teachers who participated in this training workshop serve as robot club advisors, they were interested in using the ATmega328 microcontroller. Figure 9 shows control of Bontenmaru using the ATmega328 microcontroller. At the meeting of exchange ideas after the training workshops, the Mongolian teachers mentioned that the cooperative engineering training program gave them a rare opportunity to interact with Japanese KOSEN teachers and to obtain very significant educational benefits, such as improving communications skills and stimulating motivation for learning new technology. Figure 10 shows Japanese and Mongolian KOSENs teachers and Nagaoka KOSEN students who participated in the training workshops. 3. Conclusions In this project, the workshops for implementing the Japanese KOSEN educational system in Mongolian KOSEN were conducted. It is confirmed that fostering engineers in both Japanese and Mongolian KOSENs is very meaningful and KOSEN students will bridge two countries. Acknowledgements We sincerely appreciate the headquarter of National Institute of Technology, Japan and the Institute of Engineering and Technology Education of KOSEN Japan & Mongolia for giving us the opportunity to conduct international cooperation education. References Data collection survey for KOSEN in Mongolia: Final Report, Tokyo: Japan International Cooperation Agency: Registered Non Profit Organization Asia SEED : Koei Research Institute International Corporation, 2017.5. Japan International Cooperation Agency, 24 Mongolian students arrive in Japan to study at 'kosen' technical colleges, https://www.jica.go.jp/english/news/field/2016/160516_ 01.html Figure 9 Control of Bontenmaru using the ATmega328 microcontroller. The Sasakawa Pan Asia Fund, The Introduction of Japanese-style KOSEN (College of Industrial Technology) Education in Mongolia,
https://www.spf.org/spaf/projects/project_17404.html Instruction manuals: Have Fun with Kits! Electric Circuits, Digital Circuits Edition Vol.1 and Vol.2, Electric Circuits, Basic Edition Vol.1 and Vol.2 and Op-amp Introductory Edition produced by ADWIN Corporation, 2018.3.