On September 26, the day the completion ceremony took place at the National Assembly Hall, KAIST’s National Future Strategy Course drew to a close. Some 80 people attended the ceremony including KAIST President Sung Mo Kang and Professor Kwang-Hyung Lee of the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering.

The course, which opened on May 30 following the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between KAIST and the National Assembly Secretariat (NAS), took place over a total of 12 sessions, each 90 minutes long. 46 members of the National Assembly and 22 other high-ranking government officials signed up for the course that had been set up for government workers. According to the NAS, the course was opened to provide government officials a place to learn about and discuss various strategies for South Korea’s future in an era where convergence of knowledge and information is becoming ever more important. “There is nothing more important to the National Assembly than the future of our nation,” stated NAS Secretary-General Jin Suk Jung stated. “By becoming a National Assembly that works and studies, we will pay the utmost attention to the work of preparing South Korea for the coming future.”

Throughout the course, focus was given to various key areas including variables and trends in future change, and industrial and economic strategies. In one lecture, Professor Chun-Taek Rim of KAIST’s Graduate Program for Future Strategy, who is also an associate professor at the Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, outlined medicine, energy, security, information services, and aerospace as the five key areas South Korea’s industry should focus on.

Professor Kwang-Hyung Lee, who oversaw the entire program said, “Many members of the National Assembly who wanted to prepare for a new future under the new paradigm of creative economics showed keen interest in the course. […] The course has provided the foundation for political support for those working on formulating future strategies.”