"I Will Lead the Digitalization of the Construction Industry"

Park Seong-gyu's Inaugural Remarks as the New President of the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology

Park Seon-gyu, the newly appointed president of the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT), expressed his commitment to establishing the institute as a global leader in the smart construction field by presenting a vision of leading the future construction industry ecosystem. KICT is a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT.

Park Seon-gyu, the newly appointed president of the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (right), is smiling brightly while holding a bouquet at the inauguration ceremony on the 28th. Photo by Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology.

At the inauguration ceremony held on the 28th at the 30th Anniversary Hall of the KICT main building in Ilsan, Gyeonggi-do, President Park stated, "We will lead the digitalization of the construction industry through R&D innovation and take the lead in securing national strategic technologies," emphasizing, "We will commercialize research outcomes of convergent smart core technologies to expand cooperation with small and medium-sized enterprises, and strengthen international cooperation systems so that KICT's K-Smart Construction can lead global construction technology."

President Park graduated from the Department of Civil Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University in 1986, earned a master's degree from the same university, and obtained a Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, in 1994. He then worked in the structural division of the DYWIDAG Construction Technology Research Institute in Germany. Since 1995, he has served as a professor at Sungkyunkwan University, working as an expert in the field of civil structures. He has also held positions such as head of the BK21 U-City Construction Workforce Training Project Group, director of the Student Talent Development Institute, and vice president of the Natural Science Campus.

President Park is a full member of the Korean Academy of Engineering, has actively participated in various academic societies including serving as the 8th president of the Korean Society of Structural Diagnosis and Maintenance Engineering and vice president of the Korean Society of Civil Engineers. He has received several academic awards, including the Korean Society of Structural Diagnosis and Maintenance Engineering Academic Award (2008), the Korean Society of Civil Engineers Academic Award (2016), and the Songsan Cultural Award Academic Prize (2022).