On February 13, the new student center officially set its foundations during the groundbreaking ceremony held at 4 p.m. in Mirae Hall and at the empty field between Tae Wul Gwan and the Sports Complex.

The ceremony consisted of two parts. The first part was a formal introduction, statement of purpose, and a brief analysis of the status quo and the necessity for a new student center. The other part was the actual groundbreaking on the field, where important figures involved in the project shoveled out the very first clumps of earth on the future site for the new student center.

The newly planned building was named after the president of the firm Aekyung Group, Young Shin Jang, who has donated 3 billion Korean Won to the KAIST on May 2, 2011, in hopes of developing KAIST as a "global and research-oriented university."

Vice President of External Affairs Dae-Joon Joo said that the school had been aware of its students' demands for a student-exclusive area where cultural, leisurely, and academic activities could be carried out. However, such plan had been temporarily and indefinitely put aside due to the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology's opposition, until President Jang's donation enabled a re-activation of the student center plan.

A construction firm named IARC has been entrusted with the design and building of the Jang Young Shin Student Center, and the firm's president, Seung Hyun Shin, gave an introduction to the design and the purpose for each floor. President Shin said that the new student center is founded on the idea of communication and harmony with the existing trees around the area and its strategic location site.

The first floor will have a multi-purpose hall, an instrument ensemble room, and individual practice facilities. The second floor will consist of additional club rooms and a book caf_ overlooking the football field, and the third and top floor will have not only the stairs connecting the upper entrance to the student center, but also the relocated Counseling Center.