Panasonic AI technology advisor Prof. Taniguchi’s perspective

Panasonic introduced the cross-appointment system (*) to foster exchanges of human resources between academia and industry and to foster industry-academia collaboration. Based on the system, Prof. Tadahiro Taniguchi, the Department of Information Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, joined us as a visiting chief engineer at the Business Innovation Division. He is the first professor to join a private company in Japan. He has been contributing his knowledge of new technologies in the field of AI and robotics, which is currently achieving remarkable growth and receiving a great deal of attention, and has been taking part in technology development strategies for new business launch in the same field.

We asked Prof. Taniguchi, who works as a researcher in both academic and private sectors, why AI has become a challenging work for Panasonic and what kind of innovative potential Panasonic sees in AI.

(*) Cross-appointment system: Based on an agreement among organizations including universities, public research institutions, companies, and private institutions, faculties at universities are allowed to work at both their universities and private institutions. They work on education, research, and social contributions at their universities and additionally perform research at the institutions.