Global ICT Talent Development Project Kicks Off... Dispatch to NASA, MS Research Labs, and More

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 12th that it has selected support projects for the ‘2020 Global Core Talent Development Support Project,’ which fosters innovative talents by establishing cooperation networks with leading countries in promising and leading ICT fields, and will begin full-scale support.

This year, the three main areas of the project?collaborative projects, internships, and commissioned education?have been simplified into a ‘University Autonomous’ model to expand university autonomy. At the same time, a pilot program called ‘Global Company Linked’ will be implemented to strengthen industry-academia cooperation with global technology-leading companies.

The ‘University Autonomous’ model involves domestic universities collaborating with overseas universities, research institutes, and companies to enhance the research capabilities of domestic master’s and doctoral students and establish global research networks. Selected students will participate in joint research and internships at local institutions for more than six months. This year, a total of 28 projects and 106 master’s and doctoral students will be dispatched to 30 overseas institutions, including world-class universities and national research institutes such as Stanford University, Purdue University, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, NASA, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The ‘Global Company Linked’ model selects domestic master’s and doctoral students to conduct joint research with scholar-level researchers from global companies in various fields. Selected students will be dispatched to global companies for six months. For joint research with Microsoft, which possesses world-class technological capabilities in artificial intelligence (AI), a total of 12 master’s and doctoral students from three domestic universities will be dispatched to the Microsoft Asia Research Institute this year.

Oh Sang-jin, Director of the Information and Communications Industry Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, “We expect domestic master’s and doctoral students to firmly establish cooperation networks with prestigious overseas universities and research institutes, and to serve as a catalyst to elevate the domestic ICT level by gaining research experience in advanced research environments.” He added, “We will continue to strive to cultivate high-level talent in preparation for the post-COVID era.”

The selected students will begin their projects in June. Considering the situation in countries targeted for joint research due to the recent spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), dispatches are planned at an appropriate time in the second half of this year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.