The Saitama Institute of Technology (SIT) will introduce Japan’s first autonomous driving major next April, aiming to nurture engineers well versed in self-driving vehicles.
SIT’s information systems department will accept 40 new students for its autonomous driving course.
The initiative is part of the university’s restructuring of its faculty of engineering, as part of which it will add four other majors — IT applied machinery, artificial intelligence robotics, bioscience, and environment/clean energy.
The university said in a statement that it aims to increase the number of students who are well versed in the field of digital transformation to cater to the demand for such workers.
The IT applied machinery course will focus on integrating IT with machinery, studying internet-connected devices and digital twin technologies — which involves creating and learning from a digital copy of a physical object in a virtual environment — to nurture the next generation of industrial craftsmen. The AI robotics major will cover the convergence of AI and robotics, providing comprehensive education from basic to advanced applications.
The bioscience major will encompass a wide range of life sciences and biochemistry, while the environmental and clean energy course will focus on environmental science, addressing issues in energy and sustainability.
Established in 1976 in Fukaya, Saitama Prefecture, SIT currently enrolls 2,182 undergraduate and 91 graduate students.