The University of Science and Technology (UST) is launching full-scale support for deep-tech student startups based on technologies from 30 national research institutes.
UST announced Wednesday that it has appointed Choi Chi-ho, CEO of Korea Science and Technology Holdings (KST), and Kim Chul-hwan, chairman of the KAIT Entrepreneurship Foundation, as its first special professors in the entrepreneurship field.
The two special professors are leading experts who have long been active in technology startups and investment in Korea's science and technology sector.
Choi is an expert in commercializing public R&D outcomes and building deep-tech ecosystems. After earning a Ph.D. in law from Soongsil University, he served as head of the Technology Business Division at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), director of the Seoul Hongneung Innovation Cluster Project, and chairman of the Korea Research Institute Technology Transfer Association, laying the structural foundation for public technology commercialization. He currently leads Korea Science and Technology Holdings, jointly funded by 17 government-funded research institutes, where he identifies promising original technologies from these institutes and nurtures them into deep-tech companies.
Kim, who holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from KAIST, is a venture entrepreneur who has successfully completed multiple technology startups and exits. After selling Image and Materials, which he founded in 2006, to LG Display for approximately 30 billion won, Kim contributed his personal funds in 2012 to establish the KAIT Entrepreneurship Foundation, a purely private nonprofit angel investment foundation. To date, the foundation has provided investment and mentoring to more than 80 early-stage deep-tech startups.
The special professors will serve a three-year term starting June 1, planning, operating, and advising the student startup promotion projects that UST is actively pursuing. Their roles include designing UST's Start-up Track, establishing student selection criteria and conducting screenings, supervising the Start-up Track curriculum, connecting external experts, and providing student mentoring and commercialization support.
UST is advancing its Start-up Track program, which supports students who wish to launch startups based on national research institute technologies in balancing their studies with startup preparation. The program is divided into a "transition type" for current students who wish to start a business and a "master type" (master's in entrepreneurship) that selects students with entrepreneurial aspirations from the time of admission.
In particular, UST is establishing a "mentor-mentee deep-tech startup model" in which students and their academic advisors—the core parties in producing national research outcomes—work together, providing intensive support across the entire process so that teachers and students can launch startups together.
"We will build an educational system and provide support so that the world-class research achievements of students and professors at UST's 30 national research institute schools can lead to startups," UST President Kang Dae-im said.
