Gwangju City Selects Chonnam National University in Software-Centered University Competition

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 21st that Chonnam National University has been selected for the ‘2021 Software-Centered University Phase 2 Competition Project,’ promoted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP) to foster creative software convergence talents leading the 4th Industrial Revolution era, securing 14.9 billion KRW in national funding.

For this competition, Gwangju City discussed the direction of Chonnam National University’s AI Convergence College and software-centered university initiatives, and held a collaboration coordination meeting to decide on supporting the project-related budget.

The ‘Software-Centered University Project’ aims to innovate the university education system centered on software by reflecting industry demands and to nurture software-specialized and convergence talents that meet the demand for new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). From this year until 2028, for up to eight years, it supports strengthening major education in AI, big data, and establishing a convergence talent nurturing system.

Following this selection, Chonnam National University will establish a SW Education Center directly under the president’s office and, in cooperation and linkage with the AI Convergence College, strengthen software (SW) major education to cultivate experts in AI, cloud, and Internet of Things (IoT) fields. It will open eight convergence departments and major subjects to nurture software (SW) convergence talents linked to regional strategic industries such as automobile, energy, healthcare, and cultural contents.

Additionally, by mandating basic software education for all students and enhancing software competency education, the university aims to secure competitiveness in the future society. To stimulate interest in software and cultivate computational thinking, it plans to operate online software courses for all incoming students before admission, expand camps for spreading regional co-prosperity software values, and increase regional open education courses.

Gwangju City plans to strengthen efforts to create a world-class software convergence AI-centered industrial ecosystem by supporting ICT-based software (SW)-AI startup creation and intensive nurturing of global software convergence talents in cooperation with Chonnam National University.

Son Kyung-jong, Director of the AI Industry Bureau of Gwangju City, said, “Chonnam National University, as a regional hub university in the Honam area, is expected to play a role as a cradle for nurturing software experts for proactive response to the 4th Industrial Revolution era and ICT convergence industries.” He added, “Gwangju City will actively support young talents so that startups can succeed in Gwangju with just ideas and technical skills, and will do its best to discover and foster local talents in software and AI fields.”

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