Hankook & Company signs MOU with KAIST to build data infrastructure platform

- Expands cooperation with KAIST for creating and utilizing a platform based on open data
- Both parties to leverage its digital capabilities to the full extent to mark the partnership with KAIST as an exemplary win-win model for university-business cooperation
- To carry out pilot programs for Hankook & Company’s major affiliates utilizing the data sharing platform upon completion

Seoul, Korea, June 29, 2021 - Hankook & Company Co., Ltd., the holding company of Hankook Tire & Technology Co., Ltd., signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on ‘Symbiotic Transformation for AI-infused Reality (STAR) Project’ with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) College of Engineering. The partnership seeks to build a data infrastructure platform and strengthen cooperation in researches for the post-AI age. The signing ceremony was held on June 25 at HANKOOK TECHNOPLEX, the headquarters of Hankook & Company located in Pangyo, Kyeonggi-do, South Korea.

KAIST is the leading science and technology university in South Korea. The ‘STAR Project’ was launched with a goal of creating an innovative open data platform in line with the transition to a data-centric society, with shared consensus between Hankook & Company and KAIST on the need for new value creation in the area of data collection, analysis and the findings sharing.

Through the partnership, the company will provide support in preparing a virtual testbed and a real-virtual symbiosis testbed as well as in building a converged data cloud sharing platform that KAIST College of Engineering is pushing forward. Hankook & Company, by leveraging its digital capabilities to the full extent, aims to promote this project as a systemic and mutually-beneficial model for industry-academia cooperation.

In the meantime, Hankook & Company’s major affiliates including Hankook Tire will carry out pilot programs to promote smart life, smart factory and smart mobility utilizing the data sharing platform once the project is completed. Hankook’s affiliates will look to cooperation opportunities in various fields such as application of the real-time road traffic data analysis to the environmental field, and use of real-world driving records and traffic accident type data collected in tire research and development.

Hankook & Company has been partnering with KAIST for a while now and made some noticeable achievements together. For example, in 2019, they established a joint venture named HK-KAIST Digital Innovation Center and have been accelerating R&D and digital technology competence through digital transformation since then. In May this year, they extended the agreement to continue the operation of the Center to further cooperate on the joint study which will help secure future growth engines and technology-based innovation capabilities.

Seyeol Ryu, the executive director of Hankook & Company digital strategy team, comments, “By continuously demonstrating best practices for academia-industry cooperation that benefit both parties, Hankook & Company with KAIST is setting up an exemplary win-win model. We will continue to put our utmost efforts to strengthen research capabilities in digital technologies that will lead the future.”

Dongman Lee, Dean of KAIST College of Engineering, says, “If we can build an experimental testbed platform within Metaverse (convergence of virtual world and reality) through data sharing, which will accelerate industry-academia cooperation for new technology development, it will in turn allow us to provide on-site industrial training programs for fostering talent for the post-AI era. This will be an excellent opportunity for both university researchers and businesses involved to step up to the next level to further enhance its competencies.”