"Surpassing MIT through Education that Provokes Questions and Challenging Research"

New KAIST President Kwang-Hyung Lee Reveals Plans at First Press Briefing After Inauguration

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] "No one thought 30 to 40 years ago that Samsung would surpass Sony, which was a giant mountain. In front of KAIST, there is a huge mountain called MIT. Samsung did it, so why can't we?"

On the 8th, Lee Kwang-hyung, President of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), held his first press conference since taking office and expressed his ambition to leap forward as the world's top prestigious advanced science education institution. At this event, President Lee emphasized his unique 'QAIST' educational philosophy. It is a new educational strategy with keywords such as 'Question' (Questioning students), 'Advanced research', 'Internationalization', 'Start-up' (Technology commercialization), and 'Trust' culture.

President Lee said, "KAIST has achieved a lot over the past 50 years since its founding, but it had a big weakness of 'imitation.' To become one of the world's top 10 universities, a new educational strategy is necessary. I will make students dream big. When they have big dreams and a fireball in their hearts, they will naturally do whatever it takes. To do that, they need to go out into the wide world, encounter various things, and ask questions," he emphasized.

Known as an eccentric educator who even hangs the organizational chart in his office upside down, he also presented a unique philosophy that day, saying, "Students study too much. I will reduce their study time by 10%." He said, "Grade obsession is not acceptable. We will implement systems like Challenge King, Reading King, Volunteer King, and Question King," and added, "To promote internationalization, we plan to increase foreign professors and foreign students to 15%, and expand female professors to 25% in terms of diversity."

President Lee also revealed plans to establish a 'Failure Lab' at the school to help students not fear failure but rather 'enjoy' it and focus on autonomous and creative research. He mentioned that he instructed not to provide research funds for projects with a success probability of over 80%, expressing his determination to become a university that pursues unique research results in the world rather than stable 'accumulation of achievements.'

President Lee graduated with bachelor's and master's degrees in Industrial Engineering from Seoul National University and KAIST, and earned his master's and doctoral degrees in Computer Science from the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA) Lyon in France. In the 1990s, as a professor in the Computer Science Department, he produced first-generation venture entrepreneurs such as Kim Jung-ju (Nexon), Kim Young-dal (IDIS), Shin Seung-woo (Neowiz), and Kim Jun-hwan (Olaworks), earning him the title of 'Godfather of KAIST Venture Start-ups.'