Recently, GIST signed an MOU with PULV (Pôle Universitaire Léonard de Vinci)‘s ESILV Graduate School of Engineering for cooperation, such as having student exchange programs. In January of this year, the head of International Cooperation Office at PULV and the dean of the Graduate School of Engineering visited GIST and discussed areas of cooperation. Both parties agreed to have active research cooperation and student exchange programs by signing a mutual agreement between both institutions. Based on this MOU, GIST and PULV aim to further promote various cooperative activities, including student exchanges.

GIST has taken the initiative to prepare a systematic and efficient response system to identify problem-solving methods, and to support the development of commercialization technology to prevent and overcome the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The main campus plans to draw tasks for measurements that could be used by people at GIST for participating in ‘problem solving and development of commercialization technology against COVID-19’ tasks and to determine if they can be used to classify and proactively be used to support project implementation and new R&D support. In addition, GIST is planning to implement customizble technology development for specific locations by collaborating with Gwangju Metropolitan City to implement this task. Gwangju Metropolitan City has agreed to cooperate in resolving the current issues of COVID-19 by analyzing problems and needs of sites while GIST executes the ‘development of technology customized to specific locations against COVID-19’ task, ultimately solving the current issues related to COVID-19 in the community.

GIST President Kiseon Kim as well as presidents of the Top 4 science and technology institutes including President Seong Cheol Shin of KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), President Yang Guk of DGIST (Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology), President Yong Hoon Lee of UNIST (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) have agreed to return 30% of their salaries for 4 months to help overcome COVID-19. An official from GIST explained that following the voluntary return of salary by high ranking government officials, presidents of public institutes and government-funded research institutes made a decision to participate to help address the national economic crisis and to share the sufferings of the citizens affected by COVID-19.

Professor Joon Ha Kim (School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Engineering) has been appointed as a member of Presidential Policy Planning Committee. Prof. Joon Ha Kim is expected to participate in the coordination of national tasks, policy planning, and providing advice in science and technology. The Policy Planning Committee was established under the Presidential Office in December 2017 and has played the role of a ‘think tank,’ coordinating the Top 100 national tasks, conducting research on current agendas and tasks, and planning the national development strategy and policy direction. Prof. Kim stated that “Based on my practical experience, I will sincerely act as a bridge between new science and technology and policy implementation. In particular, I will actively participate in discovering future new industries, job creation, and innovative growth for this current government”.

GIST was designated as the operational institute for the 2020 Gwangju Metropolitan City’s Startup Experience Center, hosted by the Ministry of Education and the Gwangju Educational Research Information Service. The regional start-up experience center is a project that operates specialized start-up experience programs, supports the operation of the school’s start-up experience education, and establishes networks within the region by utilizing the infrastructure of the regional community. It will create a systematic cooperation system in and out of school and will provide full support so that students can develop into future innovation experts through abundant experiences. The operational institute is designated for all 17 cities and provinces in the nation, and Gwangju Metropolitan City has never been selected before for this role. The operation period is from April 2020 to December for approximately 9 months and a budget of KRW 40 million will be provided.

2020, GIST has been assigned as the supervising institute for the project for fostering youth TLO organized by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Commercialization Promotion Agency for R&D Outcomes for 3 consecutive years. The ‘Project for fostering Youth TLO (Technology Licensing Officer)’ is a project that employs unemployed natural science and engineering graduates and graduate-to-be under the age of 34 as Youth TLO researchers for 6 months in order to promote the expansion of technology transfer achievements and start-ups and to contribute to creation of jobs by transferring the technologies owned by universities to the private sector with the purpose of reinforcing the technology commercialization competence of universities. The selected youth TLOs can prepare for employment or start-ups while engaged in works such as preparation of technology introduction materials for promotion of technology transfer, conducting research on companies and technology trends, and technology transfer marketing activities while working in the company.

“My final goal is to become an astrophysics professor and to research in the field of astronomical physics, such as black holes or high energy phenomenon.” Hyerin Cho, who graduated from GIST College in February of this year (Physics Concentration, academic advisor: Professor Keun-Young Kim of the Department of Physics and Photon Science) recently received offers for Ph.D. programs at nine internationally renowned universities, including Harvard University, Caltech, Princeton University in USA, Toronto University in Canada, and Curtin University in Australia. In particular, Princeton University offered her the ‘Martin Schwarzchild (astrophysicist) Special Fellowship’ which is given once a year to students with the most potential in theoretic astronomical physics.’