With the proposal of the subject ‘Smart Car’, SKKU was selected as one of the ten universities for ‘WE-UP: Women in Engineering – Undergraduate Leading Program’ project, which was organized by the Ministry of Education and the National Research Foundation of Korea. Many representatives including Ji Beom YOO (Vice-President of SKKU), Sung Jin SONG (Dean of College of Engineering), Byeung Woo JEON (Dean of College of Information and Communication Engineering), and Young Ik EOM (Dean of College of Software) attended the opening and signing ceremony on Dec. 12^th to celebrate the opening of the ‘SMART WE-UP Center’.

In the recent software-oriented industry structures, the need for women engineers has been rapidly increasing. However, due to the low number of women engineers, this need has not been fulfilled. Therefore, constitutional changes in the College of Engineering in regards to demonstrating women engineers’ talents and potential, as well as the cultivation of outstanding women engineers, are the most urgent issues. In regard of these needs, SKKU has chosen ‘Smart Car’ and established ‘SMART WE-UP Center’ which can create new converging business for women engineers.

Sung Ho HWANG (School of Mechanical Engineering), the chair of the center spoke of his aspiration as “the future mobility industry will be led by the moving platform, Smart Car, which is the core area for value creation from the simple product. In order to lead the smart car convergence industry, engineers with soft sensitivity and social rising capabilities are in high demand and I hope the WE-UP center will play an important role.”

At the congratulatory message, Ji Beom YOO, the Vice-President of SKKU said “Through this project, our university will take one step forward to becoming a ‘Truly, Global Leading University’, and I will provide active support if necessary.”