The opening ceremony for the Cho Cheon Shik Graduate School of Green Transportation took place at Fusion Hall in the KI Building on February 17. CCSGT was founded with funding from Cheon Shik Cho, who donated ten billion won to KAIST last June.

The ceremony was conducted with President Nam Pyo Suh and representatives from the field of transportation, including the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs; Korea Rail Network Authority; Korea Airports Corporation; Korea Railroad Research Institute; Land, Transport and Maritime Experts Training Institute; Seoul Development Institute; LG Innotech and Hyundai Rotem.

The school was initiated in an effort to deal with the contemporary issues of energy and the environment. The Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV) and Mobile Harbor are examples of KAIST’s previous successes in the field of green transportation. Taking these prototypes, CCGST aims for cutting-edge technology of green transportation by fusing various fields such as electrical and mechanical engineering, material science and environmental engineering.

Including the Director of the OLEV project, Dong Ho Cho, as dean of the school, there are currently 17 professors at CCSGT. Two courses scheduled to be offered include Transportation Technology and Transportation Management. Students will be able to take classes flexibly based on their specialization.

At the ceremony, an MOU was signed by various companies that promised interdisciplinary research for producing an upgraded level of technology in the future of the green transportation industry.

“Korea currently ranks tenth for greenhouse gas emissions and should not be avoiding the problem any further,” said President Suh. “With world-class research, KAIST will seek out solutions for a sustainable environment by targeting low-carbon emission systems and new industrial markets.”