Drama’KAIST’ geek professor became real KAIST president

Kwang-Hyung Lee, Professor of Bio and Brain Engineering at KAIST, elected as the 17th president of KAIST. Staff Reporter Kwon Hyuk-jae

“If KAIST does not reform, the reason for its existence disappears. Even if we fail, we will create an atmosphere in the school where we can challenge new things.”

Lee Kwang-hyung (67), the new president of KAIST, met with the JoongAng Ilbo on the afternoon of the 18th and said, “I will try to become a KAIST that pioneers the future of the country.” KASIT held a temporary board meeting at the Academic and Cultural Center in Daejeon this morning, and appointed Professor Kwang-Hyung Lee (Vice President of Academic Affairs) as the 17th president.

The 271th Temporary Board of Directors was held on the 18th at the Academic and Cultural Center of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon Metropolitan City. At this meeting, 15 KAIST board members appointed Professor Kwang-Hyung Lee as the new president. Reporter Moon Hee-cheol

Professor Lee will be confirmed as the president after the consent of the Minister of Education and approval by the Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning. The term of office is four years from the 23rd of this month. KAIST celebrates its 50th anniversary this year as Korea’s leading science and technology specialized university.

New President Lee graduated from Seoul National University Department of Industrial Engineering and received a master’s degree from KAIST. He obtained his master’s and doctorate degrees in computer science from Lyon, the French Academy of Applied Sciences (INSA), and was appointed professor of computer science at KAIST in 1985. He served as the president of the Korea Intelligent Systems Society, the president of the Korean Future Society, and the chairman of the science and technology policy research committee of the Ministry of Government Affairs.

He is also the best scholar in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), but he is also famous as a’geek’. It is also a model of Professor Park Ki-hoon (played by Ahn Jeong-hoon), who was called as’Professor Cheonbangchuk’ in the TV drama’KAIST’, which aired in 1999.

At that time, the TV set upside down in his lab and his real life, where he wore shoelaces in pairs, was preserved in the drama. Writer Song Ji-na, who wrote’Kaist’, said, “I used Professor Lee’s tone, phrase, and episode (in’Kaist’) generously, which I usually saw, heard, and spied on.” It means that a geek professor in the drama will become the real president 20 years later.

Kwang-Hyung Lee, Vice President of KAIST Academic Affairs, was elected as the next president by the KAIST Board of Directors on the 18th. [사진 KAIST]

His inauguration is’reform’. At the board of directors, the new President Lee announced five innovation strategies, saying, “I will prepare for the post AI era.” ▶ It aims to cultivate questioning leaders, support research that defines new problems that have not existed before, and make a university that can be trusted in terms of talent, finance, and management. Following that, he expressed his ambition to “become the president preparing for the future 50 years of KAIST,” emphasizing ▶technology commercialization and ▶globalization.

The new president is called the’reform icon’ on campus. As a professor, he wrote unique test questions, such as hacking his computer or creating problems that could never be solved. In his current office, who is in charge of the vice president of Academic Affairs, the university organization chart is hung upside down. The purpose is to think about who should serve as vice-chancellor.

Part of lecture materials by Professor Kwang-Hyung Lee, KAIST. The part of the word written backwards stands out. Reporter Moon Hee-cheol

His belief that “we need a geek” laid the foundation for KAIST to preemptively study new disciplines than rival universities. In 2001, the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering was established, combining information technology (IT) and bio technology (BT). KAIST is the first in the world to designate brain engineering as a regular department.

Actor Ahn Jung-hoon (right) in the drama’KAIST’. Much of the geek professor’s ambassador he played was made by Professor Kwang-hyung Lee, a professor at KAIST. [SBS 화면 캡처]

In particular, the Graduate School of Future Strategy, which he founded in 2013, is the only regular degree program in Korea that confers master’s and doctoral degrees in future studies. First-generation venture entrepreneurs such as Nexon founder Kim Jung-ju, IDS Holdings founder Kim Young-dal, Neowiz co-founder Shin Seung-woo, and Kakao Enterprise Chief Technology Officer Kim Byeong-hak are from his lab. Students who received degrees from his labs, such as Nexon and Naver, created more than 7,000 jobs.

The new president, Lee, retired from retirement last year when he was 65 years old, and is currently serving at KAIST as a visiting seat professor. Visiting professors have been in charge of the position of KAIST Vice President since last year according to the regulation that they can take positions on campus.

Daejeon = Reporter Moon Hee-cheol [email protected]