History

　The University of Tsukuba opened in 1973 as a focal institution in the newly created Tsukuba Science City. A founding philosophy of the University is to establish a new university system open to the public and characterized by well-coordinated research and education. In the traditional systems of Japanese universities, research and education are inseparabe within a disciplinary institution. In the new systems being implemented in the University of Tsukuba, research and education are administered by separate institutions in response to the demands of our complex society and rapidly advancing educational and research activities.
　The research institution comprises twenty-six Institutes, where faculty members hold their academic positions and undertake their research work independently. The educational institution comprises six Clusters of Colleges. Students are enrolled and registered in Colleges in the fields of their interest, where courses are given by faculty members assigned by a research institution. The Graduate School offers two-year Masters Degree Programs and five-year Doctoral Degree Programs, which are administed separately. At present, the university holds about 9,400 undergraduate, 4,700 graduate and 900 foreign students, and has 2,100 faculty and 1,760 staff members. The campus area of the university is about 246 hectares, and off-campus facility area outside the Tsukuba district is about 1,010 hectares.
　Since its start in 1978 with cooperative effort of the faculty and staff members, the Institute of Engineering Mechanics (構造工学系) has steadily developed and consolidated its foundation as a unique disciplinary group dedicated to diverse research fields in Engineering Mechanics and responsible to university education. This Institute was reorganized in 1999 as the Institute of Engineering Mechanics and Systems （機能工学系）which enters into a new era of constant and vigorous activities supported by fully functioning research facilities and equipment ready for the forthcoming century.