Korea & Company and KAIST Collaborate for the Second Time to Secure 'Technological Innovation Capabilities'

Lee Su-il, President of Hankook Tire & Technology, and Lee Kwang-hyung, President of KAIST, are taking a commemorative photo after signing the 'Digital Future Innovation Center Phase 2 Agreement' on the 18th.

Photo by Hankook & Company

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] Hankook & Company, the holding company of Hankook Tire & Technology, has partnered again with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) to secure future growth engines and technology-based innovation capabilities.

On the 18th, Hankook & Company signed the 'Digital Future Innovation Center Phase 2 Agreement' with KAIST at the Korea Technodome in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon. The KAIST Digital Future Innovation Center is an industry-academia cooperation organization established in 2019 by Hankook & Company and KAIST with the goal of securing innovative research and development (R&D) and digital technology capabilities through digital transformation.

Through projects in production and R&D involving several faculty members including Center Director Professor Young-Jae Jang from the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at KAIST, the center is laying the foundation for completing new digital technologies and securing future competitiveness.

During the first phase over the past two years, research on 12 projects was promoted, achieving results applicable to research and production sites. New technologies developed include the VCD (Virtual Compound Design) system, an AI-based tire compound property prediction model; an Automatic Inspection Process system integrating digital sensors; and CMS+ (Hankook Condition Monitoring System Plus), a facility anomaly detection and prediction system utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.

With the signing of this agreement, the officially launched second phase will focus on developing future technologies to secure multi-faceted virtual experimental data using digital technologies.

Specifically, research will be conducted on seven projects including ▲ AI recipe reverse engineering and big data model generation automation ▲ development of machine learning models for compound property prediction based on molecular structure ▲ development of AI-based virtual prediction enhancement technologies.

In addition, Hankook & Company and KAIST will actively cooperate to develop innovative technologies tailored to industrial field demands and to nurture creative talents. Hankook & Company is also developing digital innovation education programs for its employees to strengthen internal digital capabilities and is concurrently running training programs to cultivate internal experts responsible for research in promising future technologies such as AI and big data.