“Promoting Smartization of Marine and Fisheries Industry” … KIOST Holds ‘Digital Marine and Fisheries New Growth Strategy Forum’

Officials participating in the Digital Marine Fisheries New Growth Strategy Forum are taking a group commemorative photo.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Hwang Du-yeol] The Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST) held the ‘Digital Marine Fisheries New Growth Strategy Forum’ on the 5th at the KIOST Busan headquarters in collaboration with the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP), Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), and National Institute of Fisheries Science (NIFS).

The event shared cases of digital innovation in marine fisheries using smart technologies such as digital twins, artificial intelligence (AI), and big data to respond to the rapid digital transformation of the marine fisheries industry.

A digital twin is a technology that replicates the shape and state of a real object identically in a virtual space to monitor the object's condition and predict how surrounding areas might be affected when a specific problem occurs.

The event also discussed ways to discover future new growth engines, with about 40 participants from KIOST and related industry, academia, and research sectors attending.

In the first part of the forum, under the theme ‘Current Status of Marine Fisheries Digitalization,’ in-depth presentations by experts in each field were made in the following order: ▲ Digital Twin and Development Direction of Marine Spatial Utilization Technology ▲ Development Status of Digital AquaTwin Platform ▲ Present and Future of Domestic Smart Aquaculture Technology Development ▲ Digital Twin R&D Vision in the Marine Fisheries Sector.

Junyong Park, Principal Researcher at KIOST, said, “By applying digital twin technology to the ever-changing sea, we can now reasonably predict changes in the future marine environment,” adding, “We will strive to develop the digital twin technology under development to enable more effective and sustainable use and development of marine spaces.”

In the second part, themed ‘Future Response Strategies for Marine Fisheries to Lead Digitalization,’ KIOST Director Woongseo Kim and heads of related institutions and company representatives participated in a discussion.

After the discussion, attendees directly toured related infrastructure facilities such as the Marine Satellite Operation Building and Hydraulic Experiment Building within KIOST.

Woongseo Kim, Director of KIOST, said, “Now is the time for digital transformation across all areas of marine fisheries. This forum provided an opportunity for related organizations to gather, seek new directions, and build networks,” adding, “Based on the research capabilities accumulated over 50 years, KIOST will actively support the smartization of the marine fisheries industry using digital new technologies.”

The forum co-hosts?Seongbae Jeon, Director of IITP; Dongsik Woo, Director of NIFS; and Hyungjun Kim, Director of ETRI?said, “We will continue to build digital cooperative relationships for digital innovation in the marine fisheries sector.”