Tokyo, February 2, 2017 - NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) today announced Nobukazu Teranishi wins the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, the first Japanese winner of this prize.
 
The prize was established in 2013 in the United Kingdom, and rewards an individual or team of engineers whose work has had a major impact on humanity and the next-generation of engineers through groundbreaking innovation. The prize is ￡1 million.

At NEC's Laboratories, from 1978 to 2000, Teranishi researched and developed image sensors that converted the attenuation of light captured by a camera into electric signals. During this process, he invented the pinned photodiode (*1), which was recognized with this prize.

 "It is a great honor for the NEC Group that Nobukazu Teranishi has earned global recognition in such a prestigious way. We'd like to sincerely express our respect for him and share this joy with all of our employees. His accomplishments are the result of his persistent pursuit of excellence as well as his extraordinary insight. Encouraged by his remarkable triumph, NEC is determined to further promote the research and development of image recognition and image processing technologies utilizing AI (*2) and IoT," said NEC President and CEO Takashi Niino.

Many devices, including video cameras and digital cameras, are equipped with image sensors that are an important element for processing graphics and images. NEC expects that the use of image sensors, now widely used thanks to Teranishi's pinned photodiode invention, will continue expanding worldwide.

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Note:

• *1) The elements that attenuate residual images and noise by covering the photoelectric converter of an image sensor with a layer of highly concentrated impurity
• *2)
  July 19, 2016 NEC announces new AI technology brand, "NEC the WISE"
  http://www.nec.com/en/press/201607/global_20160719_01.html
  NEC's AI (Artificial Intelligence) Research
  http://www.nec.com/en/global/rd/crl/ai/index.html

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