Toyota Technological Institute (TTI) is the smallest, but perhaps, the unique college of technology ever built in Japan. It was born in 1981 as one of the social contributions of Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC), following the will of TMC's founder, the late Kiichiro Toyoda; he had a hope of setting up a college when TMC reached some stage of success, as he believed that the promotion of high-level education and research would be essential in building advanced technology and industry in Japan.
At TTI, some 50 faculty members conduct top-level research and provide quality education to about 500 students, following our motto: "Respect the spirit of research and creativity, and always strive to stay ahead of the times." The motto is the words of Sakichi Toyoda, an outstanding inventor, who laid the basis of the Toyota group about a century ago by his invention of automated weaving machines. This spirit of creativity has been passed onto his son, Kiichiro, and further down to TTI. It serves now as the guiding principle of our daily educational and research activities.
Students of TTI attend first a set of core lectures to master the everyday basis of engineering disciplines and learn the fundamentals of human beings and our social systems. Then, each student chooses a specific field, where more in-depth studies are made to establish his/her specialty with multi-disciplinary perspectives. TTI students also undergo extensive hands-on experiential studies on-campus and off-campus internships in industry and overseas research institutions. Both the undergraduate and graduate students get high-level research experiences in well-equipped laboratories to nurture their ingenuity and creativity.
In addition to our endeavors for leading engineering education, every possible effort is being made to make TTI one of the high-level research universities. For this objective, TTI provides each faculty a supportive environment to accelerate quality research of respective disciplines simultaneously; TTI coordinates a set of such research works to promote several multi-disciplinary research programs by using the framework of research centers and by arranging internal and external supports. Smart Vehicle Research Center and Smart Energy Technology Center are two such examples, where outstanding research activities on autonomous vehicles and high-efficiency solar cells are conducted through academia-industry collaborations.
One of our aims in establishing Toyota Technological Institute (TTI) was to provide adequate educational and research opportunities with a low financial burden to those who, though eager to study, entered the workforce without experiencing higher education. Such opportunities help to cultivate people who will contribute to society. We have been fortunate to receive employees from many companies who recognize the significance of being a student and the importance of learning through first-hand practice.
