After his inauguration in January, President Dong Ryeol SHIN became certain that the university needs to change. He believes that the leaders of the transitions should be professors. “In the past, I believed the center of university are the professors. Students passively learned from the lectures. In the future, students will be at the center of the university and the core role of the university will change from teaching to learning."

President SHIN stressed that AI will be the key to the success in every majors. He wants to create an environment for students to practice this skill. 

Below are couple of topics raised from the interview session.

Q: How would the university look like in the future?

A: Software and AI application skills will be very important. Professors and students all need to learn AI skills. Students will not be competitive in the current form of education that strictly divides the disciplines. Students are required to use these skills when they go out into their workplaces but the university is not able to prepare the students for this. 

Q: You seem to specifically stress “AI” from the software education. Why?

A: Many world renowned universities such as Stanford and MIT focus on teaching AI to even humanities students. This phenomenon was not created artificially by the universities but was a response from the demands of the society. 20 years after the dissemination of the internet, now everyone is able to use the smartphone and computers to learn. In the future, it will be important for people to understand and communicate with AI regardless of their academic backgrounds. Sungkyunkwan University is aiming to reform our curriculum so that even students studying Confucian studies can take AI related courses. This year we have invited 10 experts in and out of the country to prepare for AI research and convergence programs. Our university has been selected to operate an AI graduate school by the Ministry of ICT. We will be receiving funding for the next 10 years to educate and research the core skills of AI such as algorithm development, AI processer and domain application skills. 

Q: The “IDC” will be soon opening. What is it?

A: IDC is a data center that acts as a gigantic server hub. It will be opening on campus within this year. We are trying to create an environment for the big data. Every professor who will be analyzing big data will be able to make use of the center.

SKKU is trying to renew the research and business cooperation model to provide a customized R&D option for each companies. The university aims to expand and strengthen cooperation in new fields.