Nvidia is providing artificial intelligence (AI) chips for robotics to engineering students at Seoul National University (SNU) and offering training on various development software. This marks the first time Nvidia has provided semiconductor products and official education programs free of charge to a Korean university for undergraduate instruction.
According to the information technology (IT) industry on Thursday, Nvidia recently supplied 20 units of the "Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit" to SNU's Department of Mechanical Engineering at no cost. Jetson is a compact computing module that combines a central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU) and memory chips on a single board. It was developed for edge computing, enabling machines such as robots, drones and medical devices to perform AI computations directly on-site rather than sending data to a central cloud server. Nvidia provided the Jetson kits so that professors and students in the mechanical engineering department can use them for robotics development coursework.
Nvidia will also conduct training sessions for mechanical engineering students on how to use its software development kit (SDK). To operate the Jetson series, users must be able to handle Nvidia's software kit called "JetPack." The various programs included in JetPack are designed for professionals, making them difficult for university students to use immediately without separate training. Accordingly, Nvidia Korea and MDS Tech, Nvidia's domestic distributor, plan to provide the relevant training to SNU students this month. In addition, Nvidia is reviewing plans to incorporate its education programs into the mechanical engineering department's regular undergraduate curriculum.
"I understand that Nvidia's headquarters was briefed on the potential collaboration with Seoul National University, Korea's leading university, and became positively involved in the initiative," an IT industry official familiar with Nvidia's Korean operations said.
