KAIST

Good morning everyone.

It is my very great pleasure to welcome you to the 17th Association for Computing Machinery International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services in Seoul.

It is so great to be together with about 500 participants composed of distinguished scholars, innovative industry leaders, colleagues, and students from 24 nations. Thank you for joining us today.

Thank you Professor Kang Shin from the University of Michigan and Professor Gregory Abowd from Georgia Tech for joining us to deliver keynote speeches. I would also like to congratulate Dr. Roy Want from Google, the recipient of this year’s the ACM Sigmobile Outstanding Contributions Award.

I would like to recognize the chairs of the organizing committees including Professor June Hwa Song from KAIST and Dr. Min-Kyoung Kim from Samsung Electronics for making this conference happen. Their hard work and passion brought this remarkable group of speakers to this conference. So, congratulations and thank you.

The ACM MobiSys has served as a new platform for future technology. They have diligently and passionately explored innovative ideas to present new AI- powered convergent mobile services.

The new era you opened connects us all beyond border at the speed of light. All of you have proven that human knowledge is limitless, and technology has really changed the world.

Many foreign colleagues who visit Korea are surprised to experience two things: our convenient subway systems and ultra-speedy omnipresent Wi-Fi, even five floors underground. Yes, we are so spoiled by the hi-tech communication networks provided in Korea.

Korean smart device makers are leading the global market. In March, Korea launched the world’s first 5G service. The international media has referred to Korea as the powerhouse of telecommunications.

I would like to mention that Korea’s phenomenal success in industrialization and informatization was fully backed by KAIST. When established in 1971 with a six-million dollar USAID loan to the Korean government, KAIST was missioned to educate scientists and engineers committed to the industrialization in Korea.

KAIST has fulfilled its mission passionately and faithfully, thus far producing over 64,000 graduates, including 13,000 doctoral degree holders. Our alumni have played pivotal roles in Korea’s remarkable economic growth and innovations over the past half-century.

For instance, 20% of the science and engineering faculty in Korean universities are KAIST graduates. In the semiconductor industry, which is dominating the global market, one in every four PhDs is a KAIST graduate.

The IT sector is a key growth engine as well as a game changer in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. As the president of Korea’s first and top science and technology university, I now feel a heavy responsibility to fulfill our new institutional mission to foster global talents and create new economic value out of convergent knowledge to benefit humanity.

KAIST is preparing for this with top-level education and research infrastructure, especially in the IT field. Many industry partners are collaborating with KAIST to take the lead after 5G. We launched the 6G Research Center in collaboration with LG in January. This coming fall, we will open the AI Graduate School.

Many KAIST students have already presented their brilliant and creative ideas during past MobiSys conferences such as a context monitoring platform for concurrent applications, interaction-aware services and platform, and most recently, a massive crowd application. They now have grown as key IT researchers working on the global stage and becomes crucial members of MobiSys.

I am very proud that KAIST has been a part of MobiSys, which has exhibited unsurpassable leadership and inspirational scholarship in making technological breakthroughs.

I look forward to the next chapter you will open together with outstanding scholars, industry leaders, and young students from across the world.

I truly hope that a new platform along with the technology-empowered creativity you have advocated will help humanity prosper.

Let me close my speech by welcoming you all once again and wishing you continued future success and happiness in your life.

Thank you very much.

June 18, 2019