- The 7th Korea-Italy Science and Technology Innovation Forum (24 Jun)
- MSIT to hold 2022 Quantum Week (29 Jun)
- MSIT to announce the “Support Plan for AI Semiconductor Industry Promotion” (29 Jun)
The 7th Korea-Italy Science and Technology Innovation Forum
The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT, Minister: Lee Jong-Ho) announced that the 7th Korea-Italy Science and Technology Innovation Forum will be held at Seoul from June 20 to 22. Korea and Italy have been strengthening cooperation in the science and technology field since 1984, and from 2003 on, both countries have been hosting science and technology forums in turn.
This year’s forum served as a venue to present the most current research topics and to share opinions on four themes, Aerospace, Microelectronics, Hydrogen Research, and S&T applied to cultural heritage.
During the forum, experts from industries and academia discussed cooperation measures by examining actual practices where research outcomes are applied to.
MSIT to hold 2022 Quantum Week (June 27 ~ July 1)
MSIT announced that it would hold “2022 Quantum Week” from June 27(Mon) to July 1(Fri) in a bid to raise public awareness on quantum technology, the next game changer of future industries and security, and revitalize quantum research and industry.
This year’s Quantum week is held under the theme of “Creating Quantum Powerhouse Together, Ushering into the Quantum Era,” hosting an opening ceremony along with expert forums, vision presentations, achievement exhibitions and quantum culture promotion events. Some of the events will be live broadcast on the youtube channel.
The opening ceremony was joined by about 250 participants including Minister Lee Jong-Ho, global scholars, heads of related institutions and corporations. Minister Lee said in his commemoratory speech that “We are getting closer to the quantum era where the fundamentals of our economy and society shift to the quantum technology with the recent rapid advancement in quantum technology. The Korean government will make full-fledged efforts to promote quantum technology, putting it on the top national agenda, to create another opportunity to leap forward, following the fourth industrial revolution.”
With the keen interest and active participation of industries on quantum development, the Korean government will soon initiate diverse cooperation projects with the private sector such as discovering new business models and quantum technology uses cases.
During the Quantum Week, a KOR-US workshop is held on June 29 as a follow up to the Presidential Summit of the two nations where over 20 global scholars are participating to discuss joint research content and build the network with Korean researchers.
MSIT to announce the “Support Plan for AI Semiconductor Industry Promotion”
MSIT released the ‘Support Plan for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Semiconductor Industry Promotion’ on June 27, subsequent to the discussion among academia, research institutes and related industries after Minister Lee’s roundtable with an AI chip maker on May.
Key agenda of the Support Plan are as follows:
1) Securing super gap in AI chip technology
- Korea is going to invest 1.02 trillion won (US 786 million dollars) for the next five years including preliminary feasibility tests for AI chip R&D, and expand joint research with the advanced nations including the United States.
- As for development of the next-generation intelligent semiconductors, MSIT will make investment of 488 billion won (US 36 million dollars) while the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy investing 521.6 billion won (US 40 million dollars) from 2020 to 2029. For PIM chips development, from 2022 to 2028, MSIT and MOTIE will invest 289.7 billion won (US 22 million dollars) and 113 billion won (US 9 million dollars), respectively.
2) Creating initial market demands for indigenously developed AI semiconductors
- The government is planning to initiate a new project to build data centres with domestic AI chips by 2023 and provide computing power for free to AI developers.
- A new ‘AI+ Chip Project,’ which uses domestic AI chips to develop AI products and services, and verify their performance, will be initiated as well.
- More discussions and negotiations will continue to ensure that public projects, like smart cities and smart CCTV, administered by the local authorities are actively using made-in-Korea semiconductors.
3) Fostering a cooperative ecosystem among related industries, research institutes and academia engaging conglomerates.
- For instance, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix shall be providing technical consultation to research institutes developing PIM semiconductors. In addition, the government will engage Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix from the government’s ICT R&D planning stage, so that the private enterprises can verify the planning result.
4) Aiming to nurture 7,000 AI chip experts
- ‘AI chip-converged major’ will be newly created across three domestic universities. Further efforts will be made to advance the chip test production infrastructure within the colleges and research centres and to create new curriculum of chip design/production for undergraduate students.
- Three ‘AI Chip-specialized graduate schools’ to produce skilled experts with master’s and Ph.D will be established in 2023. In addition, exchange student programs for students with high GPA will be soon operated.
Minister Lee Jong-Ho said, “the economic and industrial value of AI semiconductor will continue to improve, and Korea has the upper hand in the memory chip and foundry.” He also added “MSIT will give full support in order to dominate the AI semiconductor global market and increase competitiveness of system semiconductor field in general.”
