<Articles>Conceptualizing engineering as a science: Hidetsugu Yagi as a promoter of engineering research

Abstract

Hidetsugu Yagi, renowned as one of the inventors of the Yagi-Uda Antenna, acted as a reformer of a Japanese engineering institution during the interwar period. He promoted engineering research and strove to transform a Japanese Imperial University Faculty of Engineering from a professional school to a research institution. This paper examines Yagi's philosophy, which underpinned his promotion of engineering research. First, it explains why he needed to examine the nature of engineering, focusing on two factors: (1) the unique history of Japanese engineering education and research; and (2) the transformation of industrial technology before the First World War (WWI). It then outlines how he conceptualized engineering. According to his characterization, engineering was an applied science that applied mathematics and physical science for the purpose of invention, enabling what was previously impossible. This conceptualization helped him transform the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial University to a place of scientific research, and call for the autonomy of the faculty of engineering in the Japanese research and development system.