How can edge AI sensing platform enhance education on DX competence for Sojo University, Kumamoto?

Estimated personnel shortage of 790,000 professionals poses a serious concern for the future of DX

Japan has been catching up with the world’s trend of digital transformation for the last few years. Digital transformation is not confined to the business domain today. Its scope is extended to society at large, as reflected in popular terms such as “Local Government DX” and “Medical DX.”

── Are there many issues to be addressed in relation to DX today?

Miyama (SSS):
It is true that we have many clients who express their interest in finding out more about DX. We have a growing number of inquiries with respect to the applications of image sensors to achieve economization of labor power or enhancing the marketing management for shops. It really indicates the growing needs for DX in society.

Mr. Uemura:
The education sector is no exception when it comes to DX. We have a responsibility to nurture talents with competence to make contributions to society in the future. Information technology is advancing at a staggering speed, as seen in AI and IoT, being rapidly introduced into businesses and social infrastructure. This new trend has been generating services that have never been known before. Given this as a context, the demand for competent talents in the field of DX will certainly increase in the future.

However, the reality in Japan clearly juxtaposes the social enthusiasm against the short supply of experts in the technology. A report prepared by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry,^*2 estimates that there will be a shortage of 790,000 IT experts competent with DX, AI and so on by 2030.

Sojo University opened the IoT and AI Center in 2020 in view of this reality and with a hope to produce competent talents to fill the gap, taking this as the education sector’s responsibility. The center is operated on 4 basic principles: to provide an environment for learning cutting-edge ICT; to provide competence-oriented educational programs and develop educational materials; to promote the collaboration between the government, academy and industry for constructing an innovation hub; and to innovate and accelerate DX leveraging the Social Community Brand theory^*3 and ICT.
The Faculty of Computer and Information Sciences created three courses to complement the center’s initiatives: Future Science, Computer and Intelligence, and Electronics and Communications. For example, the Future Science course includes the “IoT engineering” module, which was mentioned earlier, as a mandatory component, and its main objective is to facilitate students’ development of practical competence in addressing social issues and problems in community by means of digital technology.

The structural reform was led by Professor.Takashige Hoshiai, Director of the IoT and AI Center, and the development of competence in DX is a faculty-wide endeavor. Professor Hoshiai firmly believes that DX-competent talents must be adept at utilizing digital technology to create new values and, in this sense, be innovators themselves. From this viewpoint, he expresses his concerns about the present.

Mr. Hoshiai:
Today, DX is most often interpreted as digitization, and people tend to take it as an end in itself. However, the true objective of DX is to innovate based on the connected data through digitization. We are in dire need of talents capable of pursuing this.

*2) The link destination is in Japanese
https://www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/economy/daiyoji_sangyo_skill/pdf/001_s03_00.pdf

*3) Social Community Brand is a body of theory and methodology for creating innovation and promoting DX, which Mr.Hoshiai has been advancing since 2011.

Innovation comes from where different sectors cross over

While we wanted to educate students to become DX-competent talents in society, we were aware of certain limits to what we could do by ourselves. This is why the IoT and AI Center assumes an outward perspective, and it now cooperates with more than 20 external bodies such as business and other institutions. What is remarkable about this is that these bodies cover diverse industries, including finance, healthcare, the media and administrative sectors.

Mr. Hoshiai:
Diversity is crucial. New values and innovations do not materialize unless a different blood is introduced by mixing with people from other sectors, and we call this “cross-sector innovations.”

Their connection with SSS was established through this approach.

Miyama (SSS):
We got introduced to Mr.Hoshiai in 2022 by Headwaters Co., Ltd. (an AI solution specialist company), and the initial communication was about introducing new technology to the IoT and AI Center. However, soon we discovered through our dialogue that the center was aiming to produce DX-competent talents and promote DX in the local communities. This gave us an idea that our AITRIOS could offer unique and practical learning opportunities in, for example, AI-enabled image recognition.

Sojo University welcomed this idea, and the cooperation with SSS rapidly developed. In January 2023, a joint project to promote community DX in Kumamoto and a launch of DX trial were announced by 4 participants: SSS, Sojo University, Headwaters and FastLabel, a company offering data annotation services.

One of the objectives of these initiatives was to enable the faculty to introduce a new module into its curricula, a program designed to develop DX competence through the use of cutting-edge technology.

Giving support to curriculum development in addition to offering AITRIOS

The module “IoT engineering” is the program developed through this initiative, a practice-oriented creation course using IoT, AI and other technologies. The module comprises the foundational and application parts, which the faculty students complete in one year.

Mr. Uemura:
AITRIOS has provided our students with a practice-ready platform to experience AI and IoT in their familiar contexts. The first-hand experience they gain from this is invaluable. I hope the students make the best use of those technologies through practice to develop the basis of creating new ideas and hone up their aptitude.

── In what do you find the significance of letting students to practice on AITRIOS?

Miyama (SSS):
AITRIOS does not stop at providing a system development platform. It is expandable with various tools we provide, such as AI models and SDK (software development kit). With its one-stop environment that facilitates the development of sensing solutions covering the edge computers to the cloud environment, AITRIOS can enable the students to develop their original solutions.

SSS does more than just offering AITRIOS. We also give support to the development of the curriculum for the faculty.

For now, we are training teaching staff on how to use AITRIOS, but we hope to extend our involvement to give lectures to students. It would be nice to be able to organize a hackathon with students.

The world of AI made accessible with minimal steps

── What advantages are gained from the partnership with SSS?

Mr. Hoshiai:
While we partner with many corporate entities, SSS is the only company that possesses sensing technology. What is more, SSS is one of the world’s best, and being able to use their technology is one major advantage. SSS is also unique in that they are involved in our efforts to develop the curriculum, which no other companies do. We are very happy to have such a prominent partner in our efforts to develop talents.

Mr. Uemura:
The competence in DX requires high-level skills in AI, IoT and other technologies. The problem is that training in DX needs infrastructure, including hardware and software, to be able to manipulate AI and develop the skills. Developing the infrastructure is not easy. Considering this, AITRIOS offers a great solution, as it works simply by connecting a cable to compatible devices. Then, you do the setting configuration and tuning on the cloud, and AI is ready to try and use. This simplicity is the best advantage it offers.

Miyama (SSS):
In this project, we provide the university with the AITRIOS cloud service Console Developer Edition.^* Using the cloud infrastructure held at SSS, the university can easily build up a development environment simply by adopting our intelligent vision sensor IMX500, which comes with AI processing capability. For example, a solution can be developed efficiently by taking advantage of the package environment that assists with edge sensor setups and the development of applications and AI models.

* The service name is subject to future alteration.

The user interface is also highly developed, and we are proud of it.
It facilitates connection to IMX500, deploying the AI models in the camera, and so on. These tasks can be executed from the GUI. The students also found it “easier to use than imagined at first,” having tried it in the AITRIOS training session.

The easy configuration and easy-to-use interface offer advantages not only to the students as users, but also to the teaching staff as administrators, for their workload is reduced.

Ambition to inspire community innovations throughout Japan

The university’s demonstration class using AITRIOS was the first foray in Japan, and it will take some time before its outcomes can be assessed.

Meanwhile, Sojo University has an ambition to become a hub station for pursuing solutions to address problems in local communities. In fact, there are several trial projects already launched in the university’s local community Kumamoto and its region Kyushu. Mr.Hoshiai has a vision to make these projects the models to be eventually rolled out throughout the country.

Mr. Hoshiai:
We are working on innovations based in local communities by means of digital technology. If our initiatives can offer benefits not only to Kumamoto and Kyushu, but to other regions in Japan, it will help to bolster regional communities and, by extension, strengthen the nation as a whole. I believe that our initiatives are valuable by being a bottom-up open activity, offering an option among many top-down initiatives by the government.

SSS is in support of this vision and hopes that AITRIOS and other sensing technologies contribute to the efforts in addressing various issues which local communities face.

Miyama (SSS):
The question to be asked is how AI can help to address social issues. I hope that students take full advantage of this opportunity to come up with various ideas and, when they become full members of society after their graduation, have chances to implement those ideas. This is one way of making our contributions as SSS to communities and society through our image sensors and sensing technology.

We have just embarked on a journey of creating innovators in the true sense of the word, who are capable of addressing social challenges by leveraging the most advanced technology.

We will keep working to make the edge AI sensing platform a key component in developing DX-competent talents.

* AITRIOS and AITRIOS logos are the registered trademarks or trademarks of Sony Group Corporation or its affiliated companies.