Seeking synergy in Ansan

Hanyang University dreams of a Korean Silicon Valley, where education, research and industry come together to break new ground. It looks like the school has come one step closer to its dream. Today, 13 researchers from the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology are moving into the engineering science building at Hanyang’s campus in Ansan, Gyeonggi province. In the near future, the institute will open a research facility on the campus. The researchers will teach at the school and professors of the university will also contribute to the institute’s research projects. When the center is completed in 2005, institute officials said it will employ nearly 300 researchers. Industry and education were not hard to come by in Ansan, which, in addition to housing the Hanyang campus, is also one of Korea’s main industrial cities. What was missing was leading research centers to bring the companies, the school and the top minds together. So Hanyang agreed to let research centers use 330,600 square meters of land on the campus for free. Gyeonggi Technopark, a high-technology industrial complex in Ansan, moved its research center to the campus in May and the Korea Testing Laboratory, which is run by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, along with the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, recently started construction on a research facility there. The Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute also said it plans to build a branch on the site. Hanyang said it is also negotiating with foreign research institutes, such as the Fraunhofer Institute of Germany, to open research facilities on the Ansan campus. The goal of clustering education, research and industry facilities in Ansan is to create a synergy that leads to technological innovation. The school can educate students in both theory and practice and the university can help supply the institutes with researchers. Companies can use the research produced in their businesses and get advice on technical problems. There are about 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students in the engineering science department at the Ansan campus. The students and professors, the university said, will work as co-researchers and research assistants at the institutes that move to the campus. The emphasis, at least for now, is research in parts and material technology, which are both weak sectors in Korea. “Between 400 and 500 researchers with doctoral degrees will be working on the campus within a few years,” said Lee Jae-seong, a professor in the Materials and Chemical Engineering Department. There are 70 firms in Gyeonggi Technopark. Banweol-Shinhwa National Industrial Complex, just 20 kilometers from the campus, has 6,000 small to midsize manufacturers. by Park Bang-ju