Honam University Accelerates 'Talent Development' to Lead the 4th Industrial Revolution Era

62 Billion Investment Including AI Campus Construction... 19.8 Billion Additional Support Planned

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Honam University (President Park Sangcheol) is accelerating the cultivation of AI convergence talents to lead the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution by investing 26 billion KRW in nurturing AI convergence talents and building systems.

Honam University announced on the 21st that since being selected as the Ministry of Education's 4th Industrial Revolution Innovation Leading University in 2018, it has set a vision to become an AI-specialized university.

They have invested over 6.2 billion KRW in building an AI campus and talent development foundation, including 2 billion KRW for AI education system construction, 1.6 billion KRW for establishing educational environments such as AI lecture rooms and practice rooms, 1.2 billion KRW for expanding AI-related department equipment, 500 million KRW for AI scholarships, and inviting dedicated AI faculty and staff.

Additionally, to nurture all students as AI convergence talents, since the 2020 academic year, they have completed an educational curriculum innovation requiring all students to complete more than 15 credits of AI courses.

Supporting this, they have built an AI campus equipped with 12 dedicated AI lecture rooms and state-of-the-art educational facilities and equipment such as laptops and electronic podiums.

Along with this, the AI Education Center, which implements AI basic programming, deep learning basic education, image recognition, voice recognition, language recognition, and autonomous vehicle sensor technology, is utilized not only by students but also by industry workers and citizens as an AI education venue.

Furthermore, they established the next-generation Wi-Fi zone (Wi-Fi 6) called ‘Hoi-Fi’ (Honam University + Wi-Fi), enabling students to use various smart devices such as mobile phones and tablet PCs across the entire campus without data charges.

Moreover, by 2028, when the university’s 50th anniversary ‘Dream 2028’ is completed, they plan to invest a total of 19.8 billion KRW in AI convergence education, including 4.8 billion KRW for AI scholarships, 4 billion KRW for AI system expansion, 4 billion KRW for building educational environments such as AI lecture rooms and practice rooms, 3 billion KRW for AI-related department equipment, and expanding dedicated AI faculty and staff, establishing themselves as the top AI-specialized university in Korea.

Thanks to bold and proactive AI talent cultivation and system construction, Honam University recently received the ‘2020 National Service Award’ in the ‘University-AI (Artificial Intelligence) Specialization Division,’ recognized as the best university in Korea to lead the 4th Industrial Revolution era.

So far, the university has successfully carried out large-scale national projects such as regional university specialization (CK-1), PRIME, LINC+, and university innovation support pilot (PILOT) projects, and was selected as an autonomous improvement university in the 2nd cycle university basic competency diagnosis evaluation, establishing itself as a prestigious private university representing Honam.

Park Sangcheol, President of Honam University, said, “Although there are many financial difficulties due to tuition freezes and reductions over the past decade and COVID-19, we have decided on bold and proactive focused investments to nurture students as ‘Next Champions’ who will lead the 4th Industrial Revolution era. In line with the government’s ‘AI National Strategy’ and Gwangju Metropolitan City’s ‘AI-Centered City,’ we will create future growth engines for the nation and region through AI professional manpower training, infrastructure construction, and industry-academia cooperation, supporting students’ employment and entrepreneurship.”

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