Kun-Mo+Chung
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Kenya-KAIST Kicks off with a 95-Million USD Funding from the Korean Government
KAIST, founded through a six-million USD loan from USAID in 1971, to provide turnkey-based education consultancy for Kenya’s first advanced science and technology institute.
KAIST and the Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KoTDA) announced the official establishment of Kenya-KAIST by 2021 during a kickoff ceremony on February 12 in Kenya. The KAIST delegation headed by President Sung-Chul Shin and Kenyan cabinet members and dignitaries including Minister of Education Amina Mohamed, the Chairman of the KoTDA Reuben Mutiso, and the CEO of KoTDA John Tanui attended the ceremony.
With this kickoff held at Konza Technopolis Malili, KAIST, the first and top science and technology university in Korea, will participate in Kenya’s strategic economic development plan with the provision of a turnkey-based science and technology education consultancy for the establishment of Kenya’s first advanced institute of science and technology. KAIST, which won preferred bidder status in consortium with Samwoo and Sunjin architecture and engineering companies, signed the contract with the KoTDA last November.
Korea Eximbank will offer a 95-million USD economic development cooperation fund loan to the Kenyan government. The campus will be constructed in the Konza Techno City located near Nairobi by 2021, with the first batch of 200 graduate students starting classes in 2022.
KAIST will develop academic curricula for six initial departments (Mechanical Engineering, Electrical/Electronic Engineering, ICT Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Agricultural Biotechnology), which will lay the groundwork for engineering research and education in Kenya to meet emerging socioeconomic demands. In addition, KAIST will provide education in the basic science areas of math, physics, chemistry, and biology for students.
The Kenyan government plans to transform Kenya into a middle-income country under Vision 2030 through the promotion of science, technology, and innovation for national economic growth. Nicknamed Africa’s Silicon Savannah, Konza Techno City is a strategic science and technology hub constructed to realize this vision. To this end, the medium-term plan set a goal to provide specialized research and training in various cutting-edge engineering and advanced science fields.
It is also notable that the Kenyan government asked to develop an industry-academy cooperation program in the Konza Techno City. This reflects the high expectations for Kenya-KAIST and its role as a growth engine in the center of the Konza Technopolis. It is anticipated that the technopolis will create 16,675 jobs in the medium term and over 200,000 upon completion, positioning Kenya as an ICT hub within the region.
Saying that the partnership through Kenya-KAIST will bring a new future to Kenya as well as KAIST at the ceremony, President Shin reflected that the project will be a significant milestone for KAIST’s history and global competitiveness. He added, “With this Kenya project, we come to share the past, present, and future of KAIST. And I am very pleased to celebrate our shared vision: the empowerment of science, technology, and education.”
In particular, President Shin was accompanied by Dr. Kun-Mo Chung, a founding provost who served as the Minister of Science and Technology in Korea twice. He now serves as an advisor to Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Dr. Chung had played a crucial role in securing a six-million USD loan from US AID to the Korean government to establish KAIST in 1971. He proposed the idea to establish an advanced science and technology institute in Korea to Dr. John Hannah, then the director of US AID.
The seed that was sowed five decades ago in Korea by Dr. Chung has now fully bloomed in Kenya. In only a half century, KAIST has become a donor institution that passes on science and technology education systems including the construction of campuses to developing countries.
KAIST has been acclaimed as US AID’s most successful foreign aid project. A report from the National Academy of Sciences in the US described KAIST as an exemplary case in which a former recipient of international aid has grown to become a science, technology and innovation leader.
The kickoff of Kenya-KAIST drew the attention of both media and local universities in Kenya, attesting to their strong interest to drive economic growth through advanced science and technology.
The University of Nairobi also hosted a special lecture by President Shin, asking him to share the recipe for the success of KAIST in Korea. In a lecture titled “A Crucial Engine for Rapid National Development,” President Shin presented the vision, innovation, and passion of the Korean people that led to the phenomenal results we can see today.
The successful case of KAIST has been benchmarked by many countries for years. For instance, KAIST set up the curriculum for the nuclear engineering program at the Khalifa University of Science and Technology in UAE in 2010. Since 2015, Chongquing University of Technology in China has been running its electrical engineering and computer science programs based on the educational systems and curricula offered by KAIST.
Last October, KAIST also signed an MOU with the Prince Mohammad Bin Salman College of Cyber Security, AI, and Advanced Technologies in Saudi Arabia to provide the undergraduate program for robotics.
Among all these programs benchmarking KAIST, Kenya-KAIST clearly stands out, as it carries out a turnkey-based project that encompasses every aspect of institution building, ranging from educational curricular development to campus construction and supervision.
Figure 1. KAIST President Sung-Chul Shin and Principal Secretary of Ministry of Education Collette A. Suda
Figure 2. Kickoff Ceremony of Kenya-KAIST
Figure 3. Conceptual image of Kenya KAIST
2019.02.13 View 6849 -
KAIST Class of '77 Celebrates 40-Year Reunion
The class of 1977 reunited on April 20 at the College of Business in Seoul campus, which was once the main campus when they were students 40 years ago. Now leaders of Korea in the sectors of industry, academia, and research, the class of ‘77 held a homecoming event in celebration of the 40th anniversary of their graduation.
The class of ’77 includes KAIST President Sung-Chul Shin and the Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning Yanghee Choi. More than 100 graduates and 20 professors gathered at the homecoming event. Many of them were former ministers of science and technology, presidents of universities, heads of research institutes, and top managers from leading corporations such as Samsung Electronics and SK Telecom in Korea.
At the event, Professor Dong-Hoon Choi at Hangyang University, representing alumni Yoon-Mo Koo, Oh-Hyun Kwon, Dae-Young Kim, Yoo-Hyun Moon, Nam-Ho Paik, Ki Hwang Baek, Sung-Chul Shin, Mann-Ho Lee, and Sang-Bum Lee, donated a scholarship of 100 million KRW. Professor Choi said that, “This may not be a large sum of money, but we raised it with grateful hearts for the country and for KAIST. I hope this scholarship will become a small seed to raise bigger fruit.”
President Shin reminisced that, “The achievements made at KAIST during the last half century were only possible due to the dreams, visions, and innovative ideas of those who established KAIST, and the passion for research, education, and learning of our former professors and students.”
President Shin continued, “KAIST was the light of hope in the early industrialization period in Korea half a century ago, and as alumnus president I will devote body and soul for KAIST to be the light of hope in the early stages of the Industry 4.0, and thus continue to be the light of hope for the future of Korea.”
Notable guests presented include Former Minister of Science and Technology and former Provost of KAIST Kun-Mo Chung, Former Minister of Communications and former Professor Soon-Hoon Bae, Vice Chairman and CEO for Samsung Electronics Oh-Hyun Kwon, SK Telecom ICT President for Technology Ho-Soo Lee; President of Yeungnam University Gil Soo Sur; former President of the University of Seoul Sang-Bum Lee; President of the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology Kew-Ho Lee; and former President of the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology Sang-Ki Rhee.
2017.05.23 View 5763