“In an era when artificial intelligence (AI) is replacing homework, universities and education should teach them how to ask ‘good questions’. Just as Einstein said he would spend 55 of the 60 minutes to save the Earth to define the problem, we will focus on discovering good questions.”
1,500 Korean scientists and engineers who’re energetic on the world stage will collect in Orlando, Florida, in August. It is by way of the thirty ninth Korea-U.S. Science and Technology Conference (UKC) 2026, co-hosted by the Korean Association of Science and Technology Engineers (KSEA), the Korea Federation of Science and Technology Organizations, and the Korea-U.S. Science Cooperation Center. The UKC is the most important convention between the 2 nations the place Korean scientists within the United States and scientists from Korean universities, government-funded analysis institutes, and firms collect in a single place. Mail Business joins as a media associate.
Yoon Yong-kyu, the following KSEA president (a professor at Florida University within the U.S.), who led the occasion, visited Korea to organize for the UKC and gave a interview with Maeil Business Newspaper. Leading the KSEA, which is about to mark its fifty fifth anniversary, he expressed his opinions on fostering youthful college students and the path of future education and anticipated to search out the start of the reply at this competitors. “The UKC 2026 will be held under the theme of ‘From Imagination to Innovation to Reality,'” he stated. “Orando, where Disney World, a symbol of imagination, and Kennedy Space Center, where innovation becomes a reality, coexist, is the best place to show the vision of the high-tech convergence era.”
The most noticeable change at UKC this yr is the institution of a ‘leisure expertise’ session. UKC, which has targeted on conventional deep applied sciences akin to AI, semiconductors, and aerospace, has expanded its attain into widespread tradition and media industries. “More than half of today’s generation dreams of media-related jobs such as YouTubers and TikTokers,” Yoon stated. “In order to understand and approach the characteristics of these generations, the convergence of entertainment and technology has been selected as a key emerging field.” To this finish, main officers from Disney World and Pixar situated in Orlando and representatives of main home broadcasters shall be invited to discover the synergy impact of media content material and high-tech.
The keynote speech was delivered by Nvidia co-founder Chris Malachowski. The subsequent chairman, Yoon, stated, “We have been working hard for three years to invite Malachowski Pelo.” If CEO Jensen Huang takes the lead in exterior administration and advertising and marketing, Malachowski has been in control of the pure expertise sector. A graduate of the University of Florida, he lately donated 150 million {dollars} (about 200 billion received) to his alma mater.
“With this donation, Florida University was able to hire more than 100 full-time AI professors and build a seven-story ‘Malachowski Hall,'” stated Yoon, the following chairman.
It may also enormously strengthen its position as a ‘convergence analysis’ platform that boldly breaks down interdisciplinary boundaries. Beyond particular person majors attending their respective conferences, the UKC’s unmatched competitiveness is that prime consultants in fully totally different fields can meet and work together in a single house. The subsequent chairman Yoon stated, “It is a very ideal platform for convergence research because researchers have plenty of opportunities to meet masters in fields other than their major.”
He additionally defined, “We first selected six key areas, including next-generation semiconductors, by extracting common keywords from the White House, the National Science Foundation (NSF) report, and the latest technology roadmap of both organizations, including the Korea Ministry of Science and ICT.” Basic science was added to this, and the aforementioned rising fields (leisure expertise, and so forth.) have been moreover deployed.
Discussions within the aerospace and marine sectors are additionally anticipated. Florida is a mecca for the house business, the place greater than 90% of U.S. house projectiles are launched. The subsequent chairman Yoon emphasised, “It will be a strong bridge that complements this innovative culture of the United States and Korea’s technology that is strong in high-tech manufacturing such as telecommunications and semiconductors.”
[Reporter Lee Saebom / Photographer Han Joo-hyung]