The Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP) struck an MOU on manpower development in the AI semiconductor sector with University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the United States on Oct. 16.
UIUC is an AI-oriented research university in midwestern United States, which has actively been engaged in industry-campus partnerships with global players, such as IBM, Google and Intel in advanced areas, including AI, semiconductor, robotics and self-driving technologies.
The Ministry of Science, Technology and ICT (MSIT) and IITP has been implementing education cooperation projects with Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, University of Toronto in Canada and Oxford in the United Kingdom as part of efforts to ramp up short-term capabilities for digital innovation manpower.
Starting next year, about 25 Korean graduate students are to undergo UIUC’s educational program to study in the sector of AI semiconductors, a key technology in the physical AI era.
The education program includes industry site-linked, practice-oriented subjects, such as “Application Parallel Programing,” led by UIUC Prof. Kim Nam-seung, “Advanced VLSI Design” and “Computing System Design for AI.” Participants will be given the chance to participate in a joint operation project with IBM.
IITP President Hong Jin-bae, Frank Krüger, head of the Directorate for Data Policy and Digital Innovations at the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport of Germany and German Ambassador to Korea Georg Wilfried Schmidt attend “2025 Korea Germany AI Forum” at SW Maestro in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on Sept. 29.
IITP Successfully Wraps Up ‘2025 Korea-Germany AI Forum’
Germany’s Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation and Seoul AI Foundation jointly hosted “2025 Korea-Germany AI Forum” at SW Maestro in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on Sept. 29.
The forum was designed to explore ways of promoting cooperation to develop physical AI, representing the AX era, under the mutual partnership of the two global manufacturing powerhouses.
Physical AI means active AI that interacts with reality beyond generative AI, based on simple inferences and predictions.
It has been highlighted as a core technology that spur new productivity innovation in the AI era.
The forum was attended by Frank Krüger, head of the Directorate for Data Policy and Digital Innovations at the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport in Germany and German Amb. to Korea Georg Wilfried Schmidt, as well as R&D innovation experts from both countries, including Torsten Nyncke of Foreign Fraunhofer Affiliates and Representations Fraunhofer.
Both countries have been cooperating in diverse research of AI and ICT R&D sector through the “Korea-German Digital Dialogue” channel.
The two countries began to conduct their joint research on applying AI to 6G network technologies last year.
They have been expanding their research scope to apply AI to smart production by capitalizing on the strengths of the two countries.
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