To highlight and establish the worldwide significance of local start-ups, KAIST spearheaded the 2023 International Symposium on “Korea, The Country of Innovation and Start-ups” at the Members’ Office Building of the National Assembly on November 8 and 9. The program featured three key events: the 2023 Korea Innovation Start-up Awards ceremony, KAIST x SNU Start-up Tech Plaza (KSTP), and the culmination of KAIST’s representative start-up development program, E*5 KAIST. 

The Ministry of Science and ICT launched the Innovation Start-up Project as part of their ongoing platform to gradually incorporate innovative micro businesses in the economic ecosystem and address the issues faced by these institutions. This endeavor includes recognizing deep-tech companies that have produced impressive results based on R&D performances through conferring the Korea Innovation Start-up Awards. 

This year, seven successful companies with extensive specializations were announced as the award’s recipients: SGraphene and POINT2 Technology in nanotechnology; Asleep, ROEN Surgical, and Humaster in biotechnology; and Luxrobo and Mathpresso in education technology.

KSTP kicked off with a joint tech-business session under the theme "Novel Challenges of Deep-tech Start-ups, Global Advancement”. Invited speakers, Professor Sung Ju Hwang of KAIST Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI and Professor Jangwoo Kim of Seoul National University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, presented on how companies should be wary of the ethical and business concerns about AI’s self-evolution and its development of more advanced computer systems processing. 

Following this, six more deep-tech start-ups from KAIST and SNU, including POINT2 Technology, the 2023 National Assembly Speaker Award recipient, were granted the opportunity to showcase their breakthroughs and expand their clientele through an IR pitch, an open panel discussion, and a networking session. 

The symposium concluded with the announcement of the space mobility and logistics start-up, Cosmo Bee, as E*5 KAIST’s winner. Among the start-up teams who passed the preliminary stages of the competition, Cosmo Bee bested its eleven remaining competitors by clever observation of the global megatrends the satellite propulsion industry has seen and its successful defense of the company’s feasibility and projection through the years. It plans to activate microsatellites using low-energy, low-cost propulsion techniques, form a satellite grid, and further information transfer throughout the globe.

Similar to last year’s symposium, KAIST President Kwang Hyung Lee reiterates, "The impact of deep-tech innovation startups on modern society and economy is large and positive enough to exceed our imagination. I believe KAIST will continue to become a deep-tech and innovation startup powerhouse, spreading its influence to the world."