Dearly beloved members of KAIST family!
The year of 2023, the year of the Water Rabbit(癸卯年) has dawned. I wish you will receive much blessings in this new year and good health and happiness will be with you through out the year.
Last year, even in the COVID-19 situation, our university did not stop our mission of leading value creation and innovations for the prosperity of mankind. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the members of KAIST family for their hard work and dedication.
The year 2022 was the year KAIST took a step closer to the `the Dream of joining the ranks of World’s Top 10 Universities' by promoting `QAIST, the new cultural strategy' in full swing.
The First of such strategy is `Education and Question', to foster talented people who questions. We have tried to spread the question and discussion culture to our campus.
We hosted “Color Your Year” Project, KAIST “Crazy Day” Idea Contest, and we held KAIST Q-Day to encourage students to entertain their curiosity.
The Second is `Advanced Research' to define and solve the first-ever problems.
We encouraged first-ever research that does not copy others. Last year, the amount of research funding increased by about 11%.
The Third is `Internationalization' to nurture global talent and strengthen international competitiveness.
The `NYU-KAIST Joint Campus' was opened to expand KAIST's excellent science and technology capabilities to the international stage and to provide a bridgehead for the startups by our student and faculty to New York.
The Fourth is `Start-up' that creates global technological value.
We have simplified the start-up procedure and thus we are seeing continuous increase in the number of faculty-led start-ups.
Also, KAIST Holdings has begun its activities to generate profits by making use of intellectual properties in KAIST's reserve.
Lastly, it is the consolidation of the value of `Trust'.
Efforts were made to spread a culture of mutual understanding and considerate actions through service. To this end, we have also started rewarding volunteer activities.
The fundraising activities are also on a cruise with gifts from various donors.
Dearest members of KAIST Family,
The year 2023 will be the year in which our dreams come true.
I will now share our plans to create the KAIST's innovation engine.
First, we will continue to work to spread and establish a culture of asking questions. We will also continue our efforts to attract outstanding students. We will do our best to establish the `Graduate School of Medicine' to train medical-scientists.
Secondly, we will continue to emphasize `first-ever research' without having to fear failing. In order to create a better research environment, we will make sure the 16 construction works on campus.
Thirdly, we will have the NYU-KAIST Joint Campus in first step operation to begin dual-degree program and joint research through seven research centers.
Fourth, we will continue to promote start-up businesses with their research findings and start activating KAIST Holdings’ programs in full.
Fifth, we will do our best to have KAIST trusted by the people. And we will try to raise funds to improve the education and research infrastructure.
KAIST has always led the advancement of science and technology and education in Korea by providing education and research innovation at a very different dimension. Still, it can be observed in many fronts that the expectations the people have for KAIST are higher than ever before. In 2023, by taking on more challenges, we will try to get a step closer to our dream of becoming a top 10 university in the world.
I hope to see more activities all around the university and we will all see more vibrant energy on campus in the coming year. I would like to conclude my New Year's address by wishing our dear members of KAIST family health and happiness.
Thank you very much.
January 1st, 2023
KAIST President
Kwang Hyung Lee