Chungkang College of Cultural Industries and Giant Step Sign Industry-Academic Cooperation Agreement to Train Unreal Engine Specialists

[Industry-Academia Cooperation MOU Signing Ceremony held at ChungKang College of Cultural Industries (Photo by ChungKang College)]

Chungkang College of Cultural Industries (President Hwang Bong-seong, hereinafter Chungkang College) has signed a business agreement with Giantstep (Co-CEOs Ha Seung-bong and Lee Ji-cheol) to jointly nurture specialized talents in the ‘Unreal Engine,’ which is considered a core technology, in order to lead the next-generation media industry represented by the metaverse and XR.

Chungkang College established the Convergence Content School in 2021 to discover next-generation convergence talents encompassing comics, animation, and games. Based on the TAB (Technology, Art, Business) talent model to lead the next-generation media industry, it is cultivating young creators who can skillfully handle the Unreal Engine workflow. Recently, it received the first and only Academy Partner certification in Korea from Epic Games, the developer of Unreal Engine. Excellent faculty members, including Professor Lee Deuk-woo, an officially certified Unreal Authorized Instructor, have planned and are operating a specialized practical curriculum.

[Virtual Celeb Han Yua]

Giantstep is a real-time content solution company that recently introduced the hyper-realistic real-time virtual human Han Yu-a (YuA), produced in collaboration with Smilegate. Han Yu-a debuted as a singer by signing an exclusive contract with global management YG KPLUS in February and releasing her first single . Additionally, Giantstep’s digital human project “Vincent” is Korea’s first real-time photorealistic digital human, which received high praise from global industry professionals at SIGGRAPH, the world’s largest computer graphics conference, and was awarded the Epic Games MegaGrant.

Giantstep sympathizes with the TAB talent model of Chungkang College’s Convergence Content School and announced plans to jointly design virtual production practice environments and industry-academia projects with Chungkang College to nurture excellent field-oriented talents specialized in the next-generation media industry. They also plan to establish an internship program for career paths after graduation. Through this industry-academia cooperation, it is expected that practical creators combining Chungkang College’s excellent curriculum, recognized for its ‘project-centered’ practical education, and Giantstep’s outstanding field know-how will be nurtured, invigorating the rapidly growing next-generation media industry.

Jung Kwang-jo, Dean of Chungkang College’s Convergence Content School, said, “This agreement will lead to practical industry-academia linked talent development, and we expect Chungkang College and Giantstep, representing academia and industry, to lead next-generation content development capabilities.” Giantstep CTO Choi Sung-ho stated, “Through this industry-academia cooperation, we will actively cooperate to nurture excellent talents and enable them to learn practical skills in the field.”

Meanwhile, Chungkang College of Cultural Industries, founded in 1996, is Korea’s first specialized college for cultural industries. It offers differentiated digital content majors such as comics, animation, games, web novels, and convergence, which were not covered by traditional universities, and cultivates practical talents through a project-centered curriculum.