POWER ENERGY PROFESSIONALS

ABOUT

Training and producing intelligent professionals
PEP?

BACKGROUND OF PEP

From an era where electricity is only used, to an era where electricity can be produced and stored
The world is focusing on the importance of the electric power and energy field that is essential in everyone’s lives more than ever before. This is because of the rise of new values and services due to the spread of information technology in all aspects of life, and the acceleration of the fusion of everything arising from energy. The recent Great East Japan Earthquake also was the catalyst for advances in institutional reform in electrical power and energy infrastructure and systems. It is urgently imperative to secure the stability of the energy that supports everyone’s lives and industries and introduce safe and sustainable energy.

Against this backdrop, electric demand and the way it is distributed has become a great matter of concern even for regular households. For example, everyone uses electricity in their homes every day. In the past, power could not be made in advance, and instead was generated at a power plant, then transmitted to homes via power lines. But now, solar panels can be installed on home rooftops that enable the generation, use, and storage of power, beginning the transition to the local production and consumption of electricity.
The power to think comprehensively about production, distribution, and consumption of electricity and energy
In addition to mass installation of renewable energy sources like solar and wind, widespread awareness of sustainable energy systems and decentralized energy distribution such as electrificating thermal energy use with heat pump water heaters or electrification of modes of transportation with the spread of electric vehicles cultivates an environmentally-friendly energy saving electrificated society.

In the coming future, it will be necessary to comprehensively manage and control electric and energy production, distribution, and consumption, by networking, predicting and understanding energy supply and demand. Here, “production” refers to the spread of renewable energy, “distribution” refers to upgrading power lines with the smart grid, and “consumption” refers to smartification--that is, demand response. These all have close mutual relationships.
Production/distribution/consumption
PEP will greatly change the perception of doctoral graduates in Japanese society, which in return encourages and supports them
In summary, by taking a wide view of the total industry based on energy and materials, talented professionals who can proactively develop the electric and energy systems for tomorrow’s society will be essential. And in order to cultivate that talent, PEP was born, an integrated 5-year training program for producing doctoral graduates created through cooperation with 13 universities.

In today’s society to begin with, doctoral graduates are not expected to just be active in universities and academia. Based on such advanced expertise, such graduates are sought-after in a wide range of fields throughout society, from industry to international and governmental organizations. That’s why PEP aims to cultivate the right professionals for a new era, and to greatly change the perception of doctorates in Japanese society, and furthermore encourage and support those excellent expert talents who will blaze the trail for future energy society, and activate the society around them. That is the root of the PEP program name, and the mission of PEP above all else.
Waseda University, 17th PresidentAiji Tanaka
Graduated from Waseda University School of Political Science and Economics in 1975. Earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from Ohio State University Graduate School in 1985. Before serving as President of Waseda University, he also taught at Toyo Eiwa Jogakuin, Aoyama Gakuin University, and the Faculty of Political Science and Economics at Waseda. Since 2006, he has been the dean for the Academic Affairs Division and a director at Waseda, as well as the President of the International Political Science Association (IPSA).
FEATURE

5 Features of PEP

  • FEATURE
    01
    In collaboration of 13 national, public, and private universities nationwide
    PEP actualizes an integrated, all-Japan electric power and materials education through cllaboration with teaching staff from 13 public and private universities throughout Japan, based on mutual understanding of a vision and all issues in the electric and energy fields. With the unique strengths of each university at the core, and through cooperative development of lectures and seminars, cooperative research, and mutual student exchange, we work towards a unification and systematization of the knowledge from research education that until now had been decentralized. And through these partnerships, we train the doctoral professionals that will drive forward and trail-blaze in all sectors. This will make an educational research platform that could be the example forerunner of a revolution in postgraduate education.
    imageList of partner universities and professors
  • FEATURE
    02
    In collaboration with overseas universities, businesses, and research institutions
    In western countries, shared research budgets allow for procurement of top doctoral professionals from around the world and a structure that facilitates cooperation between industry and academia that achieves research results, but Japan still greatly lags behind in these areas. To break through this status quo, PEP enters into cooperation with companies in all areas of energy--electric, gas, oil, and hydrogen--and promotes pragmatic research education toward creating new energy industries through industrial and academic cooperation. We also partner with research institutions and universities in the United States, Europe, and Asia that play a central role in promoting electricity and energy-related research in order to deepen understanding of research themes from different perspectives from views available domestically.
    imageAbout partner businesses
  • FEATURE
    03
    Complete and unified education of different fields
    As we enter a time in which electricity and energy connects the infrastructure of all industries, it will be essential to have talented experts who have not just specializes knowledge in electric power and energy material fields, but also an awareness of the issues facing all other fields, such as environmental economics, social systems, law, business models, and their mutually overlapping domains, and the ability to visualize and design it all on a grand scale, in order to create new industries. That is why PEP is enriched with an unified educational curriculum where you can gain practical knowledge in different fields, with proactive, on-site training, and compulsory development of humanities and social sciences.
    imageAbout Curriculum
  • FEATURE
    04
    International standardization education based on result of social implementation
    Structures where consumers can also control and adjust their electric power consumption are coming to fruition through the technological advancements of today. It is important to strike a balance between supply and demand for stable energy distribution. One mechanism that contributes to stabilization of the energy network is demand response. At the Waseda University EMS Shinjuku R&D Center, this standardized demand response technology has seen societal implementation by industry, academia, and government cllaboration. Part of the EMS Shinjuku R&D Center is open to PEP, and students are taught with international standards for the interoperability of electric power and energy, and learn about the interoperability of international technology through lectures and basic and implemented practice.
  • FEATURE
    05
    Complete educational research guidance and support system
    PEP is a curriculum bridging the early and latter parts of the doctoral course in an integrated and consecutive 5-year curriculum, TD1 to TD5. In order to guarantee and visualize consistent education quality, the results and skills gained from learning activities are evaluated on a ‘rubric’ that notes achievement based on a rating system divided into several different categories, and achievements are recorded each semester, in a verifiable ‘learning portfolio system’. Throughout the curriculum, students are enrolled in the same Waseda University program from year TD1, and provided with a diverse guided research education over 5 years, such as excellent required courses taught in a inter-university style in the same environment that transcends university boundaries, and distinguished, specialized and comprehensive elective courses.

    All together, PEP is also equipped with various support structures. Each of the 13 partner universities provides support systems ranging from covering expenses when dispatching to overseas universities, research institutions or companies, expenses that arise in required courses, aid for school fees and various scholarships. Students can also take part in high-level seminars for 50 companies taking part in Waseda University’s Advanced Collaborative Research Organization for Smart Society, (ACROSS), helping to develop industry creation.
PARTNER UNIVERSITIES