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Together with a group of “researchers who change the world”, creating in Shibuya a future looking 10 years forward.
The DENSO IT Laboratory is home to researchers who have gained a diverse range of experience through long years of study in their own fields. While naturally focusing their attention on technology development that can be linked to improved safety in the traffic society of which the DENSO Group is a part, they also conduct advanced core research that is the seed for the future of cars and of the mobility society as a whole.
Here, the scale and dynamic characteristics of the DENSO Group, which seeks the “world’s best technology”, coexist with the day-to-day existence of researchers who congregate in front of large whiteboards, passionately discussing how their thoughts can change the world.
Precisely because the researchers at the DENSO IT Laboratory face “problems unsolved by anyone" on a daily basis, they are able to use cutting-edge approaches to the difficult issues that confront technology development workplaces. In addition, by pursuing the latest core research, an approach that at first glance might be considered the long way round, they can propose the rapid use of promising indications garnered from their results in the development and productization of software aimed at achieving the mobility society, while also feeling proud that they are playing a role in creating brand new value.
My mission at this laboratory is to see that highly expert researchers who want to change the world are immersed in the latest technological developments and advanced core research. By providing these researchers with a wide range of opportunities and an environment for growth, we have made DENSO IT Laboratory a “creative space” where these professionals create the future before our very eyes.
The research output of DENSO IT Laboratory that I felt promising at the development site.
DENSO IT Laboratory (IT Labs) was created in 2000 through the financing of Denso, which is a member of the Toyota group. Its main mission is to research and develop information processing technologies including automated driving systems.
The 30 or so researchers responsible for software research at the DENSO Group make up a solutions-based enterprise intent on “finding its own challenges and creating a pillar of technology to face these.” Research areas include deep learning, neural networks, image recognition, natural language processing, cognitive science, signal processing, user interfaces, and sensing technologies.
Although I am not a researcher myself, I joined DENSO in 1985 and have since been involved in the development of brake control and advanced driving support systems, including ABS. Through the IT lab’s development of cars that will not collide with people or objects, I was able to experience the research process and became very aware of the significance of research results.
A pure pleasure being involved in the process of proposing ideas through to mass production, which only passionate researchers can appreciate
Research themes in the IT lab are not created with a top-down process, but rather are borne out of our desire to grow as a company, with researchers deciding “future tasks” and setting “attainable goals” based on their knowledge and sense of the future. Naturally, we also develop technologies at the request of various automobile industry players, including DENSO. However, our main activity is proposing solutions for the future backed by advanced research. Flexible researchers able to take advantage of their independence are the source of our value.
The best part of the IT lab, however, transcends research and conference presentations, involving the development of prototypes and commercialization in cooperation with DENSO. It is no doubt unusual to be able to experience mass production borne out of basic research working at an R&D company. This makes for a challenging and rewarding environment for the researcher.
However, no matter favorable the environment, the most important thing is the passion of each researcher. A researcher up to the challenge of changing the world without deviating from his or her ideal world vision will continue to solve hereto unsolved problems, eventually changing the world one product at a time.
Research at the vanguard of the “world’s best technology”
Since DENSO adopts "the world's best technology", in order to propose research to DENSO, we need to be "the world's best" in a variety of research fields.
Because we partner with the world, we provide a wide range of support as a company so that researchers can increase their presence in each research field. In addition to presenting papers, we also actively recommend participation in academic activities that serve as a stage for technical research and the input/output of knowledge, whether these are in Japan or abroad, and we allow almost all business trips including for participation in academic meetings. In addition, we also place a great deal of importance on establishing relationships with the academic community, and we support our researchers in their efforts to acquire doctoral degrees and conduct joint research. As a part of our research system, we also send researchers to MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley and other universities.
Taking advantage of our offices in Shibuya, a Mecca for IT business, our goal is to establish a communications site where outside researchers and students can gather, thus creating an open research environment where IT labs will serve as a hub for researchers
A place where researchers are free to change the world
Aiming to become the best at what it does, DENSO IT Laboratory continues to support researchers who want to change the world.
We are no flash-in-the-pan IT company; at our research facilities where researchers are changing the future of the world, we work hand-in-hand with talented researchers from all around the world on everything from advanced basic research to the development of practical technologies, as we challenge each other to realize the best research each and every day.
We are always on the look-out for passionate researchers.
DENSO IT Laboratory Co., Ltd.
President Masashi Kishimoto