Pixie Dust Technologies (Chiyoda, Tokyo), a startup from the University of Tsukuba, and Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture, signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement on the September 10. Focusing on the four themes of support for the elderly and people with disabilities, agricultural promotion, education, and safe and secure living, we aim to improve the convenience of citizens' lives and solve local issues while utilizing the company's various advanced technologies.

On the same day, Yoichi Ochiai, the CEO, signed the agreement with Mayor Hiroshi Odagawa. Pixie Dust will provide cutting-edge technology, and the city will provide a place for demonstration experiments.

“As the first step, we will start a demonstration project of a wheelchair that can be driven by automatic driving with the company's equipment installed at two facilities for the elderly. We aim to be able to move to any place when the resident likes, even if there is no caregiver.”  CEO Ochiai said.

Pixie Dust opened a new R&D base in the city in 2019 as part of attracting companies from the prefecture. CEO Ochiai said, "The way to solve regional problems differs depending on the region. It will be our vision for society in the future to have companies that can research and develop work together to solve the problems."

Mayor Odagawa said, "I would like to take on the challenge of creating a town where people can live with attachment to the city with the help of Pixie Dust."

(translated from Japanese by Xioayan Hu)

Read the original story here.