Park Sang-cheol, President of Honam University, Visits Auto Body Parts Specialist Company 'Howon'

Park Sang-chul, President of Honam University, visited Howon Co., Ltd., the world's leading automotive body parts specialist company, on December 4th to strengthen the industry-academia cooperation system and listen to the industry's workforce demand and current issues.

Through this company visit, they explored industry-academia cooperation plans to solve issues related to future mobility technology development, such as electric vehicles and PBVs.

Attending the visit from Honam University were President Park Sang-chul, Director of Industry-Academia Cooperation Jeong Je-pyeong, Director of LINC3.0 Project Yang Seung-hak, Professor Son Byung-rae, and Professor Park Chang-shin. From Howon Co., Ltd., attendees included Dong-ki Shin, President of Production, Byung-chul Kwon, Head of Research and Technology Headquarters, Young-kwon Kim, Human Resources Manager, Jeong-woon Yang, Manager of Gwangju Plant, Byung-ho Kim, Head of Advanced Research Office, and Sang-heon Lee, Team Leader of Advanced Research Team.

On the day, Dong-ki Shin, President of Production at Howon Co., Ltd., said, "As overseas exports of internal combustion engine vehicles become difficult after 2025, electric vehicle production will increase. We hope that the achievements created through active industry-academia cooperation to discover future growth engines, such as solving the problem of shortened tire life due to the battery weight, which is a disadvantage of electric vehicles, and developing lightweight body technologies, will become an excellent example of regional industry-academia cooperation."

In response, Park Sang-chul, President of Honam University, stated, "I thought it would be good for industry and academia to cooperate together to solve the difficulties of companies, so I visited Howon Co., Ltd., and our university plans to actively support the preparation of more in-depth industry-academia cooperation plans."

He also said, "After this visit, we will arrange an industry-academia cooperation meeting between Howon Co., Ltd. and our university professors to discuss areas of corporate interest and possible cooperation, seek solutions to technical development difficulties, and strive to ensure that the achievements created through mutual cooperation contribute to regional development."

This company visit follows the plan to visit excellent local companies, succeeding visits to Korea Alps Co., Ltd. in July, Jointree Co., Ltd. in September, DK Co., Ltd., and DH Global Co., Ltd. in November. Visits to Incel Co., Ltd. and Green ENS Co., Ltd. are scheduled for the end of December.