The Precision Science and Technology (PST) Division was originally established in 1939 as the Department of Precision Engineering. The PST Division has been proud of its longest history not only in Japan but even in the world. Philosophy of the establishment was also unique that the Department has been directed towards Precision Engineering based very much on applied science (physics and mathematics) rather than on the technologies.
When the Graduate School of Engineering was founded in 1953, two Graduate Courses of Precision Engineering and Applied Physics were established in the Department. Furthermore, in 1963 the Department of Applied Physics was separated from the Department of Precision Engineering to enlarge the total scale of this field.
In 1975, the Department of Precision Engineering was renamed the Course of Precision Science and Technology (PST), since the five Departments (Precision Engineering, Applied Physics, Applied Chemistry, Applied Fine Chemistry and Biotechnology) were unified into the single Department of Applied Science. The six Graduate Course (the above five courses and Chemical Process Engineering) were also integrated as the five Graduate Course: Precision Science & Technology (PST), Material & Life Science (MLS), Applied Physics (AP), Applied Chemistry (AC) and Biotechnology (BIO).
At present, the PST Division is working actively with seven Laboratories in the Course of PST and one Laboratory (formerly in Precision Engineering) in the Graduate Course of MLS. (See PST Home Page)
Almost all the Departments in Faculty of Engineering are named on the basis of some products or phenomena. The Precision Science & Technology (PST) Division is an exception, that is, it is named in adjective. This shows the distinguished feature of the Division evidently.
Since PST is aiming to be more "precise" in any engineering, it should be applied to overall engineering field. In fact, achievements of PST have been applied to broad fields of aeronautics, mechanical, electrical, nuclear, chemical, ship building, civil engineering and so on. It is not restricted to narrow industrial fields such as cameras, watches and microscopes making industries.
The PST should be understood as to contribute to human beings applying principles and rules in nature to any engineering field with high precision. It should not rely only on techniques, skills and intuitions as recognized in general, but it should create new theories and technologies based on physical and mathematical science. In other words, the PST is expected to contribute for converting a class of traditional prominent art to a class of universal science.
Main interests of research and education in the Precision Science & Technology (PST) Division are centered on the following three fields:
(1) Materials
Material Science, Physical and Chemical Properties of Functional Materials, Applied Surface Science, Computational Physics.
(2) Machining@
Creation of Perfect Surface, Ultra-Precision Machining Physics, Precision Manufacturing System, Atomically Controlled Processes, Tribology, Numerical-Controlling Machining, Computer Aided Manufacturing.
(3) Measurement and Control
Quantum Measurement And Instrumentation, Ultra-Precision Measurement, Scientific Hardware Systems, Optical Measurement, Precision Numerical Modeling, High Performance Computation, Computer Aided Design.
Centering around the above three main fields, eight Laboratories in the PST Division are working for their own basic researches on one hand, and on the other hand these Laboratories are cooperating each other in their own problems. Furthermore, the Laboratories do joint researches for the big project in the Center of Excellence on the Ultra-Precision Machining. The Division as a whole is working hard for achieving the Precision Science & Technology as a basic engineering science with the harmonious developments of three central fields.