The University of Tokyo and Denso Conclude an Industry-Academia Collaboration Agreement
The University of Tokyo and Denso have signed a 10-year comprehensive collaboration agreement starting April 1, 2026. They aim to build a sustainable social system that integrates mobility, energy, data, and urban infrastructure.
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- 📰 Published: March 30, 2026 at 23:10
- 🔍 Collected: March 30, 2026 at 22:56
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 25, 2026 at 04:19 (605h 23m after Collected)
The National University Corporation, the University of Tokyo (Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, President: Teruo Fujii, hereinafter 'University of Tokyo'), and Denso Corporation (Kariya, Aichi, President & CEO: Shinnosuke Hayashi, hereinafter 'Denso') will conclude a 10-year industry-academia collaboration agreement starting April 1, 2026. This collaborative project will be the first long-term, comprehensive organization-to-organization partnership in the mobility field at the University of Tokyo.
This collaboration agreement sets the shared vision: 'Towards a society that fulfills as we drive: Future social value expanding from mobility.' Until now, while mobility has increased convenience for people, energy consumption and time constraints associated with travel have been issues. To solve these issues, this collaborative project aims to evolve mobility itself into a source of new value for society by circulating energy and accumulating and utilizing data. Starting with mobility, we will deepen the linkage between energy, data, and urban infrastructure, taking on the challenge of building a sustainable social system that also leads to improved human well-being.
[Image: From left, Shinnosuke Hayashi, President & CEO of Denso, and Teruo Fujii, President of the University of Tokyo]
■ Background and Purpose: A Turning Point for Mobility
The mobility industry is currently facing a major turning point due to the advancement of electrification and intelligence. Along with the spread of electric vehicles, the state of the entire energy system, including charging infrastructure and power supply and demand, has become an important issue. Furthermore, as technological development towards realizing autonomous driving progresses, securing computational resources and utilizing energy with an eye on the future are also required. Under these circumstances, movement, energy, data, and urban infrastructure are interconnected, making optimization across society as a whole essential.
Moreover, the challenges modern society faces, such as achieving carbon neutrality, the exacerbation of energy constraints, the progression of a declining birthrate and aging population, and the demand for a society with zero traffic accident fatalities, are complexly intertwined, making it difficult to respond adequately simply by advancing individual technologies.
Given this background, this collaboration challenges the realization of redefining mobility not merely as a means of transportation, but as a 'social system' that connects energy, data, and urban infrastructure.
The University of Tokyo possesses cross-disciplinary knowledge encompassing mathematical optimization, urban design, autonomous driving control, safety assurance theory, and semiconductor design. Meanwhile, Denso has extensive knowledge and implementation capabilities in electrification and intelligence technologies cultivated over many years in the mobility sector, as well as in in-vehicle semiconductors and software. Through this partnership, we will collaboratively work on advancing not only the mobility sector but also foundational technologies such as semiconductors, AI, and software, as well as cultivating the human resources to lead them, aiming for sustainable value creation from research to social implementation.
■ 4 Key Themes to be Addressed in this Collaboration Agreement
Specifically, we will address the following four key themes.
(1) Creation of Social Value through Energy Circulation and Data Linkage
With Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer (DWPT, Note 1) and mathematical optimization as core technologies, we will consider energy supply and mobility use comprehensively, not only in cities but also in logistics networks including highways. We will work to construct a social infrastructure that suppresses excessive load on the power grid. Then, by optimizing infrastructure deployment based on travel demand and traffic flow, we aim to enhance economic viability and realize a society where energy and movement harmonize.
This collaboration agreement sets the shared vision: 'Towards a society that fulfills as we drive: Future social value expanding from mobility.' Until now, while mobility has increased convenience for people, energy consumption and time constraints associated with travel have been issues. To solve these issues, this collaborative project aims to evolve mobility itself into a source of new value for society by circulating energy and accumulating and utilizing data. Starting with mobility, we will deepen the linkage between energy, data, and urban infrastructure, taking on the challenge of building a sustainable social system that also leads to improved human well-being.
[Image: From left, Shinnosuke Hayashi, President & CEO of Denso, and Teruo Fujii, President of the University of Tokyo]
■ Background and Purpose: A Turning Point for Mobility
The mobility industry is currently facing a major turning point due to the advancement of electrification and intelligence. Along with the spread of electric vehicles, the state of the entire energy system, including charging infrastructure and power supply and demand, has become an important issue. Furthermore, as technological development towards realizing autonomous driving progresses, securing computational resources and utilizing energy with an eye on the future are also required. Under these circumstances, movement, energy, data, and urban infrastructure are interconnected, making optimization across society as a whole essential.
Moreover, the challenges modern society faces, such as achieving carbon neutrality, the exacerbation of energy constraints, the progression of a declining birthrate and aging population, and the demand for a society with zero traffic accident fatalities, are complexly intertwined, making it difficult to respond adequately simply by advancing individual technologies.
Given this background, this collaboration challenges the realization of redefining mobility not merely as a means of transportation, but as a 'social system' that connects energy, data, and urban infrastructure.
The University of Tokyo possesses cross-disciplinary knowledge encompassing mathematical optimization, urban design, autonomous driving control, safety assurance theory, and semiconductor design. Meanwhile, Denso has extensive knowledge and implementation capabilities in electrification and intelligence technologies cultivated over many years in the mobility sector, as well as in in-vehicle semiconductors and software. Through this partnership, we will collaboratively work on advancing not only the mobility sector but also foundational technologies such as semiconductors, AI, and software, as well as cultivating the human resources to lead them, aiming for sustainable value creation from research to social implementation.
■ 4 Key Themes to be Addressed in this Collaboration Agreement
Specifically, we will address the following four key themes.
(1) Creation of Social Value through Energy Circulation and Data Linkage
With Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer (DWPT, Note 1) and mathematical optimization as core technologies, we will consider energy supply and mobility use comprehensively, not only in cities but also in logistics networks including highways. We will work to construct a social infrastructure that suppresses excessive load on the power grid. Then, by optimizing infrastructure deployment based on travel demand and traffic flow, we aim to enhance economic viability and realize a society where energy and movement harmonize.