On October 14, KAIST signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) for collaboration in education and research. President Sung Mo Kang welcomed a delegation of UCSC officials including Chancellor George Blumenthal, Doctor Michael Isaacson (Director for the Center of Sustainable Energy and Power Systems), Doctor Lise Getoor (Associate Dean for Research), Doctor Ashish Sahni (Associate Chancellor), and Doctor Anu Luther (Special Advisor to the Chancellor on International Initiatives), as well as Doctor Thomas Kailath (Hitachi America Emeritus Professor of Physics, Stanford University).

The delegates’ visit was focused on taking a comprehensive look at the research and the learning environment at KAIST. To start off, the UCSC delegates were given an overview of KAIST’s administrative system and ongoing research projects by Professor Chang Dong Yoo, the Associate Vice President of the International Office. Subsequently, back-to-back presentations were given on genomics and bio & brain engineering by KAIST and on energy, biological sciences and microscopy by UCSC, demonstrating each school’s forte.

The MOU guarantees strengthened collaboration in various fields and an increase in quality inter-scholarly exchange through the mutual transfer of students, faculty members, and joint hosting of scholarly events such as workshops and seminars. With both parties greatly anticipating the potential benefits of this MOU, President Sung Mo Kang in particular stated, “This memorandum is an good opportunity for KAIST to secure international research funds.”

After signing the MOU, Doctor Blumenthal shared his expertise by delivering a special lecture on higher education as the engine of economic growth, in which he spoke about the cooperative system contract that his school had successfully been involved in with Silicon Valley.

Established in 1965 as part of California’s public university campaign, UCSC accommodates 16,000 undergraduate students and 1,500 graduate students opening 30 major departments. According to this year’s Times Higher Education (THE)’s World University Rankings, UCSC scored 100 points for the research influence category, tying with MIT. Moreover, according to the U.S. News & World Report, an American news magazine, UCSC was ranked 85th among universities nationwide.