Dean Worsak gives keynote lecture at Seoul National University, tours Yonsei U

 

AIT’s own Professor Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, Dean of the School of Engineering and Technology, was recently invited by the Professor Sung Woo Lee, President of the  Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea to present a keynote lecture at the International Symposium Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea, organized at Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, on 17 April 2008. The theme of the symposium was “The Next 20 years of Computational Structural Engineering”.  The symposium attracted more than 300 participants. At the event, Prof. Worsak was surprisingly reunited with his former student of 1982, Professor Shin Young-Shik, who is currently the Dean of College of Engineering, Yeungnam University in South Korea. 

 
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President Sung Woo Lee (above left) of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea, presents a plaque of appreciation to Dean Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai  following his keynote lecture at Seoul National University on 17 April 2008.

The following day, on April 18th, Dean Worsak visited Yonsei University (which ranks second behind Seoul National University, according to South Korea’s university rankings), to learn first hand of its model for partnership with Korean industries. He was guided by Professor Ha-Won Song, Chair of the Graduate Studies on a tour of the new  university-industry-government research complex located on the compound of Yonsei University.

While seven major industrial conglomerates (including Samsung, LG, SK and Hyundai) jointly shared the cost of the building complex, Yonsei University contributed the land and the Korean Government funded the research equipment. By agreement, half of the complex is reserved for the R&D purposes of these conglomerates while the other half houses equipment used for research and development activities of small and medium enterprises (SME) associated with the university. More importantly, a part of the building is also a showcase for many technological business entities that have spun-off from the research outcomes of its own faculty. Basically, these companies are jointly owned by faculty members and other outside partners to conduct technological business development, sales and consulting. Besides paying the rent, all these companies agree to donate 10% of their annual profit to the university. One such company, Ducoms, which is co-owned by Prof. Ha-Won Song and Prof. Koichi Maekawa of the University of Tokyo, markets software packages related to the life-cycle management of infrastructures.

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A pedestrian bridge (above) over the “dead valley” between the Engineering Academic Building (left) and the Industry-Built Research Complex (right).