On May 29, KAIST President Kwang Hyung Lee announced that KAIST has officially received a total amount of 1 billion KRW as a development fund from MVITRO, courtesy of its CEO Young Woo Lee, for the pursuit of joint research at the KAIST-NYU campus. MVITRO is a company known for creating home medical devices, including a convenient painless blood collector and a glucose meter for home usage, which are developed in collaboration with Hyundai Futurenet Co., Ltd. and was one of their products presented at the famous Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023. With this fund, KAIST plans to fuel research and development in the field of “Healthcare at Home”, among many other fields of research that are being pursued with NYU.

It is known that KAIST and NYU struck a meaningful partnership in 2022 and has been in talks with plans for joint research in multiple fields of studies, ranging from artificial intelligence to biotechnology, as well as collaboration in the exchange of students and new academic program offerings. With this recent announcement of a development fund, KAIST is hopeful to propel these plans in the right direction.

The signing ceremony for this donation from MVITRO commenced at the KAIST main campus, with high-ranking KAIST officials like President Lee and KAIST Development Foundation executive director Jae-Hung Han being in full attendance. NYU President-Designate Linda G. Mills and CEO Lee were also present in the ceremony.

In an interview with the KAIST PR Office, CEO Young Woo Lee expressed hope that the KAIST-NYU campus will become an “ecosystem that would help with Korean companies’ advancement into the US”. Mills further expressed delight in this donation from MVITRO, which she sees as a form of support to the KAIST-NYU partnership. She added, “This global partnership leverages the distinctive strengths of both universities to drive advances in research poised to deliver profound impact, such as the intersections of healthcare, technology, and AI.”

Finally, President Lee expressed his gratitude to MVITRO for recognizing the vision of the KAIST-NYU Joint Campus, saying that “it will be the first step in extending KAIST's excellent science and technology capabilities to the international stage and will serve as a bridgehead to help excellent technological advancements venture into the United States.”