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Foreign R&D Centers Cropping Up Here
Korea Times / 2004. 03. 26 By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff ReporterThe world"s top companies and research institutes are rushing to Korea to set up research and development (R&D) centers.
The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) on Thursday said it isunder negotiation with several world-renowned firms or foundations,including University of Cambridge Cavendish Laboratory, Novartis, DuPont and EMC.The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) is also lookingto attract five to six multinational companies to establish R&D centers here this year.
Korea has already become a home for R&D institutes from top-tier foreign outfits like the world"s No.1 computer-chip maker Intel Corp. and Paris-based medical foundation Institut Pasteur as well as Germany"s Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.
The MOST said Cavendish will exchange a memorandum of understandingto set up a joint research center here together with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) as early as this May.
The two entities will join hands to accelerate knowledge in the fields of nanotechnology, optical technology and physics to name a few,a MOST official said.It also seeks to invite Swiss-based pharmaceutical group Norvatis toestablish an R&D center here on occasion of the medical symposium that will take place here from March 31.
The Fortune 500 company is expected to dispatch dozens of high-ranking staff to the two-day neuroscience convention.
The Korea Foundation for International Cooperation of Science and Technology (KICOS), an affiliate of MOST, expects a few American companies, including DuPont, to open shop here.``DuPont is likely to make a decision, and we are currently under negotiations with several big companies like EMC,"" KICOS official KimKey-hyup said.
EMC is the world"s third-largest maker of data-storage devices.Seoul seeks to host six high-tech information-technology (IT) research centers this year.
Up to now, Intel and Fraunhofer committed themselves to setting up research centers here, and IBM will likely open an R&D center as soonas its affiliate IBM Korea"s bribe scandal regarding a government contract is settled.
Such high-profile companies as Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Qualcomm are welcome to open R&D centers in Korea, an MIC official said. The government is willing to provide financial incentives to foreignR&D centers.
2004.03.26 View 17755 -
SK Telecom Names 28-Year-Old Female Executive
By Kim Tae-gyu Korea Times 2004.3.16
Staff ReporterThe 28-year-old Yoon Song-yee became the youngest-ever executive member of SK Telecom, the Korea"s biggest cell-phone service company said on Monday.
Yoon, the former executive of mobile solution developer WiderThan.com, was recruited by SK Telecom and appointed as vice president. Shewill lead the company"s communication and intelligence task force team.
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) graduate obtained her Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technologyand once worked for McKinsey & Company.The unprecedented recruitment was conducted as part of the company"slarge-scale restructuring efforts, including 21-case promotions of executive members.
Former senior vice presidents Rhee Noh-jong and Kim Young-jin were advanced to vice presidents. Rhee, who worked as a public relations man for 30 years, will take charge of SK Academy, an educational institute for SK Group, the country"s third-largest conglomerate.
The personnel shift also features the new president Kim Shin-bae, who took the realm of the mobile giant after getting an approval fromshareholders" meeting on March 12.
2004.03.18 View 16286
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Personal data found on many used hard drives
JoongAng Daily2004.3.9
Many secondhand computer hard drives that are being sold through the Internet formerly belonged to businesses and are therefore full of business records containing personal information, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), a leading local science and technology school, said yesterday.
To determine whether personal information had been properly deleted, the business database research team at KAIST"s business school conducted an experiment in which it randomly bought 41 hard drives through Internet auction sites beginning in April 2003 and analyzed their contents.
It said 26 hard drives out of the total, or 65 percent, had not even been reformatted to remove data. On those drives were business records containing the names, birth dates, home and company addresses, telephone numbers and health examination records of 1,349 people. Also, the team found 568 resident identification numbers on the drives.
"Secondhand hard disks are an open storehouse of personal information [from business records]," said the team"s head, Moon Young-chul. "We found such personal data for an average of 60 people per used disk."
Mr. Moon said that reformatting hard drives alone will not delete all information recorded on them. He said special software designed to completely delete data should be used or such disks should be destroyed.
2004.03.15 View 12658