KAIST

Good afternoon! Distinguished guests and ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you very much for taking your precious time to participate in the 2018 Global Commercialization Conference and Workshop. I welcome you all to our beautiful campus and appreciate you joining us today.

I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the:
- President of the Innoplis Foundation Sung-Kwang Yang
- President of the Software Policy & Research Institute Myung-Joon Kim
- and participants from seven countries and the UN who flew such a long way to be with us today.

I would also like to thank Professor Moon Kee Choi, the former Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning and currently, the director of the KAIST Global Commercialization Center, and his team for making this conference happen.

Technology innovation at universities empowers entrepreneurial culture and. Thus, global universities are making every effort to embrace their ever-expanding role in driving innovation and catalyzing economic development. The surge of R&DB from R&D at university reflects the new trend of combining business and entrepreneurship.

The Global Commercialization Center (GCC) at KAIST is recognized as an innovation leader driving social and economic prosperity around the world. The center aims to accelerate the commercialization of KAIST innovation and contribute to reaching sustainable and inclusive growth beyond Korea.

To this end, the GCC hopes to serve as a global platform to access innovative opportunities. The GCC has offered many programs disseminating KAIST innovations.

For instance, the IT Technology Program (ITTP) has played a vital role in transferring Korea’s advanced information and communication technology to many countries whose industries are in the budding stages.

The ITTP program has conferred graduate degrees to more than 200 public officials from over 50 countries. The program has now expanded to cover diverse areas of ICT. More recently, the Global ICT Innovation Network (GII Network) was launched and has expanded to 66 countries, connecting about 300 alumni.

The GCC’s mission stretches back to the founding of KAIST while still embodying the new vision of KAIST, a ‘Global Value-Creative Leading University.’

Since its founding in 1971, KAIST has played a crucial role in accelerating the nation’s industrialization and economic growth. In less than a half century, Korea has become the world’s 11th largest economy, and KAIST has emerged as the most innovative university in the Asia-Pacific region, sixth in the world.

Our 62,000 graduates, including 12,400 PhDs, have been key players behind Korea’s innovations. In the Korean semiconductor industry, which is dominating the global market, one in every four PhDs is a KAIST alumnus.

According to Thomson Reuters, KAIST filed 823 patents from 2010 to 2015 and had 82.1 % of its patent applications granted. This is the highest rate among universities in the Asia-Pacific region. Even more, KAIST alumni have founded nearly 1500 companies, created 32,000 jobs, and brought in 13.6 trillion KRW(12 billion US $) in annual sales so far.

Given that the government funding for KAIST has amounted to just 3.1 trillion KRW over the years, I think KAIST is one of the most successful government investment projects in terms of return on investment (ROI). This demonstrates why we should foster startups more, especially tech-based companies.

For innovation in technology commercialization, KAIST will work to become an entrepreneurial university that will enrich its technological value. The Institute of Startup KAIST and K-School offer programs to teach about entrepreneurship and accelerate startups by students as well as faculty members.

Last week, we also announced our ‘Ten Technology Highlights of the Year’ during the Research Day ceremony. All of them, from the next-generation magnetic memory to electronic wearable devices to targeted cancer therapy are the results of our researchers’ hard work to address global challenges and benefit humankind.

I hope all of these innovations happening in KAIST will be commercialized soon and help us to serve the world better thanks to your involvement and support.

I believe that KAIST is responsible for furthering global cooperation and collaboration by transferring our successful educational model to many countries. Toward such an effort, KAIST will continue to strive to create new academic, technological, economic, and social value through innovation.

KAIST will move forward to serve as a ‘world bridge,’ reaching out to every country with our innovative technology. This will be part of our new journey to be the university that is making the world better, one that will bring out the hope and prosperity of people around the world.

I would like to thank you once again for taking the time to attend this conference and I sincerely wish all a fruitful time while at KAIST.

Thank you very much.