NEC, University of Tokyo Comes Under Unique Industry-academia Alliance

NEC Corporation and the University of Tokyo have join hands to uniquely foster innovation in Japan. The comprehensive industry-academia alliance is stated unlike from others, as the alliance has been created under an organization-to-organization agreement to promote comprehensive collaboration, including the sharing of visions and issues from the fundamental research phase to the commercialization of research results phase, the consideration of social acceptance of research results, and the development of human resources for the future.

To start with, AI (Artificial Intelligence) impact on society has been kept on first consideration for innovation.

This collaborative alliance will focus on the following:

• Members of top management for both parties will be directly involved in operations, making large-scale investments and conducting innovative research and development, with NEC taking responsibility for the promotion of commercialization.
• Top-notch researchers will be brought together by taking advantage of the human resource networks of both parties.
• With the aim of commercialization, interdisciplinary investigations will be conducted in regard to implications for ethics and legal systems and social acceptability by capitalizing on the University of Tokyo’s status as a leading university.
• High caliber human resources will be trained and produced through the provision of scholarships and internships.

NEC/University of Tokyo Strategic Partnership Agreement for Future AI Research and Education includes:

• Research and development of new technologies and systems
• Investigation of implications for ethics and legal systems resulting from the penetration of AI in society
• Scholarships and internships aimed at the development of human resources