KAIST (originally the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) is a

national National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the key sites of Knowledge production modes, knowledge production", along with "intergenerational ...

located in

Daedeok Innopolis Daedeok Innopolis, formerly known as Daedeok Science Town, is a research and development district in Yuseong District, Daejeon, South Korea. The plan to concentrate research institutes and universities was made in 1967 and president Park Chung ...

Daejeon Daejeon (; ) is South Korea's list of cities in South Korea, fifth-largest metropolis, with a population of nearly 1.5 million. Located in a central lowland valley between the Sobaek Mountains and the Geum River, the city is known both as a ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. KAIST was established by the Korean government in 1971 as the nation's first public, research-oriented science and engineering institution. KAIST has been internationally accredited in

business education Business education is a branch of education that involves teaching the skills and operations of the business industry. This field of education occurs at multiple levels, including secondary and higher education. Secondary education At secondary ...

, and hosts the Secretariat of the Association of Asia-Pacific Business Schools (AAPBS). KAIST has 10,504 full-time students and 1,342 faculty researchers (as of the Fall 2019 Semester) and had a total budget of US$765 million in 2013, of which US$459 million was from research contracts. In 2007, KAIST partnered with international institutions and adopted

dual degree Joint degrees are academic qualifications awarded through integrated curricula often jointly coordinated and delivered by multiple higher education institutions, sometimes across different countries. Graduates may receive a single qualification ...

programs for its students. Its partner institutions include the

Technical University of Denmark The Technical University of Denmark (), often simply referred to as DTU, is a polytechnic university and school of engineering. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's first polytechnic, and it is today ran ...

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

, the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public university, public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first ...

, and the

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; ) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Established in 1868 by King Ludwig II ...

History

The institute was founded in 1971 as the Korea Advanced Institute of Science (KAIS) by a loan of US$6 million (US$38 million 2019) from the

United States Agency for International Development The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an agency of the United States government that has been responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. Established in 1961 and reorganized in 1998 ...

(USAID) and supported by President

Park Chung-Hee Park Chung Hee (; ; November14, 1917October26, 1979) was a South Korean politician and army officer who served as the third president of South Korea from 1962 after he seized power in the May 16 coup of 1961 until Assassination of Park Chung ...

. The institute's academic scheme was mainly designed by

Frederick E. Terman Frederick Emmons Terman (; June 7, 1900 – December 19, 1982) was an American professor and academic administrator. He was the dean of the school of engineering from 1944 to 1958 and provost from 1955 to 1965 at Stanford University. He is widely ...

, then vice president of

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, and Dr. KunMo Chung, a professor at the

Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United St ...

. The institute's two main functions were to train advanced scientists and engineers and develop a structure of graduate education in the country. Research studies had begun by 1973 and undergraduates studied for bachelor's degrees by 1984. In 1981 the government merged the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and the Korean Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) to form the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, or KAIST, under the leadership of physics professor Choochon Lee. Due to differing research philosophies, KIST and KAIST split in 1989. In the same year KAIST and the Korea Institute of Technology (KIT) combined and moved from

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

to the Daedeok Science Town in

. The first act of President Suh upon his inauguration in July 2006 was to lay out the KAIST Development Plan. The ‘KAIST Development Five-Year Plan’ was finalized on February 5, 2007, by KAIST Steering Committee. The goals of KAIST set by Suh were to become one of the best science and technology universities in the world, and to become one of the top-10 universities by 2011. In January 2008, the university dropped its full name, ''Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology'', and changed its official name to only ''KAIST''.

Timeline

Academics

Admission to KAIST is based on overall grades, grades on math and science courses, recommendation letters from teachers, study plan, personal statements, and other data, and does not rely on a standardized test conducted by the university. In 2014, the acceptance rate for local students was 14.9%, and for

international student International students or exchange students, also known as foreign students, are students who undertake all or part of their secondary or tertiary education in a country other than their own. In 2022, there were over 6.9 million international ...

s at 13.2%. Full scholarships are given to all students including international students in the bachelor, master and doctorate courses. Doctoral students are given military-exemption benefits from South Korea's

compulsory military service Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it contin ...

. Up to 80% of courses taught in KAIST are conducted in English. Undergraduate students can join the school through an “open major system” that allows students to take classes for three terms and then choose a discipline that suits their aptitude, and undergraduates are allowed to change their major anytime. KAIST has also produced many

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

s through the integrated master's and doctoral program and early-completion system. Students must publish papers in internationally renowned academic journals for graduation.

Students

KAIST produced 69,388 alumni from 1975 to 2021, with 19,457 bachelor's, 35,513 master's, and 14,418 doctorate degree holders. As of Spring 2021, 10,793 students were enrolled in KAIST with 3,605 bachelor's, 3,069 master's, 1,354 joint M.S.-Ph.D.'s, and 2,765 doctoral students. More than 70 percent of KAIST undergraduates come from specialized science high schools. 817 international students from 81 countries are studying at KAIST (as of spring semester 2021), making it one of the most ethnically diverse universities in the country.

Organization

Campus

KAIST has two campuses in

and one campus in Seoul. The university is mainly located in the Daedeok Science Town in the city of

, 150 kilometers south of the capital

. Daedeok is also home to some 50 public and private research institutes, universities such as CNU and high-tech venture capital companies. Most lectures, research activities, and housing services are located in the Daejeon main campus. It has a total of 29 dormitories. Twenty-three dormitories for male students and four dormitories for female students are located on the outskirts of the campus, and two apartments for married students are located outside the campus. The Seoul campus is the home of the Business Faculty of the university. The graduate schools of finance, management and information & media management are located there. The total area of the Seoul campus is . The Munji campus, the former campus of

Information and Communications University Information and Communications University (ICU), established in 1998, was a Korean university focused primarily on research and engineering in the field of information technology. It was located in the city of Daejeon and comprised an engineeri ...

until its merger with KAIST, is located ca. away from the main campus. It has two dormitories, one for undergraduate students and the other for graduate students. The

Institute for Basic Science The Institute for Basic Science (IBS; ) is a Korean government-funded research institute that conducts basic science research and relevant pure basic research. Comprising approximately 30 research centers with more than 60 research groups ac ...

(IBS) Center for Axion and Precision Physics Research is located here doing particle and nuclear physics related to

dark matter In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...

and the Rare Isotope Science Project has the Superconducting Radio Frequency test facility.

Main library

The KAIST main library was established in 1971 as KAIS library, and it went through a merge and separation process with KIST library. It merged with KIT in March 1990. A contemporary 5 story building was constructed as the main library, and it is being operated with an annex library. The library uses the American LC Classification Schedule. The library underwent expansion and remodeling, which finished in 2018, to include conference rooms, collaboration rooms, and media rooms.

Event

KAIST's Seokrim Taeulje is a festival held by KAIST for three days every spring semester. The festival preparation committee under the undergraduate student council will be in charge of planning and execution, various food booths and experience booths will be opened, and stage events such as club performances and a song festival will be held. Also called the Cherry Blossom Festival, students eat strawberries on the law

Research

Seven KAIST Institutes (KIs) have been set up: the KI for the BioCentury, the KI for Information Technology Convergence, the KI for the Design of Complex Systems, the KI for Entertainment Engineering, the KI for the NanoCentury, the KI for Eco-Energy, and the KI for Urban Space and Systems. Each KI is operated as an independent research center at the level of a college, receiving support in terms of finance and facilities. In terms of ownership of intellectual property rights, KAIST holds 2,694 domestic patents and 723 international patents so far.

Electric vehicles

Researchers at KAIST have developed the Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV), a technique of powering vehicles through cables underneath the surface of the road via

non-contact magnetic charging Inductive charging (also known as wireless charging or cordless charging) is a type of wireless power transfer. It uses electromagnetic induction to provide electricity to portable devices. Inductive charging is also used in vehicles, power tool ...

(a power source is placed underneath the road surface and power is wirelessly picked up on the vehicle itself). In July 2009 the researchers successfully supplied up to 60% power to a bus over a gap of from a power line embedded in the ground using power supply and pick up technology developed in-house.

Controversy

Suicides

In 2011, a punitive tuition system was introduced to KAIST, which charged students for tuition only if their grade-point average dropped below 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. This change, along with a new system mandating English-only classes, led to 11 members of KAIST committing suicide from 2011 to 2016. The university has since reversed the punitive tuition system.

Development of autonomous arms

In February 2018,

the Korea Times ''The Korea Times'' () is a daily English-language newspaper in South Korea. It is a sister paper of the ''Hankook Ilbo'', a major Korean language, Korean-language daily. It is the oldest active daily English-language newspaper in South Korea. ...

published an article which stated that KAIST was starting an AI weapons research project together with the Korean arms manufacturer Hanwha. The allegations were of developing

lethal autonomous weapon Lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs) are a type of military drone or military robot which are autonomous in that they can independently search for and engage targets based on programmed constraints and descriptions. However as of 2025 most military d ...

s with Hanwha. This has led to researchers from 30 countries boycotting KAIST, which has denied existence of the program.

China tech leaks

In February 2024, a KAIST professor was found guilty by an appellate court of leaking autonomous vehicle technologies to China between 2017 and 2020, leading to a two year prison sentence. Despite a lower court having sentenced the professor to two years in prison with a three-year suspended sentence in 2021, KAIST did not take any disciplinary action, instead offering only a public apology and a promise to improve its transparency

Rankings & Reputation

Overall Rankings

KAIST was ranked 56th worldwide in the QS WUR 2024, 91st worldwide in the THE WUR 2023, 282nd in the USNWR Rankings 2022-2023, and 201-300th in ARWU 2022. KAIST was the 111th best-ranked university worldwide in 2022 in terms of aggregate performance across THE, QS, and ARWU, as reported by ARTU. Before THE and QS started publishing separate rankings in 2010, the jointly published

THE–QS World University Rankings The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with ''Times Hig ...

ranked KAIST globally at 160th (2004), 143rd (2005), 198th (2006), 132nd (2007), 95th (2008), and 69th (2009). KAIST was ranked as the best university in

Republic of Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

and the 7th university in

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

in the Top 100 Asian Universities list, the first regional ranking issued by THE-QS World Rankings. KAIST was again recognized as a number one University in Korea by

JoongAng Ilbo ''The JoongAng'', formerly known as ''JoongAng Ilbo'' (), is a South Korean daily newspaper published in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the three biggest newspapers in South Korea, and a newspaper of record for South Korea. The paper also pu ...

Review. In 2019

Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational corporation, multinational content-driven technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and maintains its headquarters at 1 ...

named KAIST the 34th most

innovative Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO 56000:2020 defines innovation as "a new or changed ent ...

university in the world and the 2nd most innovative university in the Asia-Pacific region. KAIST was ranked 61-70th worldwide in the THE World Reputation Rankings 2022.

Subject/Area Rankings

* QS University Subject Rankings (2017): ** 13th,

materials science Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origins of materials sci ...

** 15th,

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

and

structural engineering Structural engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering in which structural engineers are trained to design the 'bones and joints' that create the form and shape of human-made Structure#Load-bearing, structures. Structural engineers also ...

** 15th,

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

** 15th,

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

** 17th,

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

** 18th,

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

** 33rd,

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

and

information systems An information system (IS) is a formal, sociotechnical, organizational system designed to collect, process, store, and distribute information. From a sociotechnical perspective, information systems comprise four components: task, people, structu ...

** 44th, Physics & Astronomy ** 47th,

Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

In the 2009

THE-QS World University Rankings The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with ''Times Hig ...

(in 2010

Times Higher Education World University Rankings The ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'', often referred to as the THE Rankings, is the annual publication of university rankings by the ''Times Higher Education'' magazine. The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarelli Symon ...

and

QS World University Rankings The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...

parted ways to produce separate rankings) for Engineering & IT, the university was placed 21st in the world and 1st in Korea. In 2009, KAIST's department of industrial design has also been listed in the top 30 Design Schools by Business Week.

Young University Rankings

Times Higher Education ''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The THES''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education. Ownership TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...

ranked KAIST the 3rd best university in the world under the age of 50 years in its 2015 league table.

Graduate Employability Rankings

KAIST graduates ranked 67th worldwide in the Times Higher Education's Global University Employability Ranking 2022, and 77th worldwide in the QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2022.

Notable faculty and staff

* Soon-dal Choi, electrical engineer; successfully developed and launched a satellite, KITSAT-3 * Dong-ho Cho, electrical engineer; developed online electric vehicle (OLEV), listed on

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...

's top fifty inventions of 2010 * Jun-ho Choi, discoverer of hSNF5 body protein involved in reproduction of Papilloma virus * Yang-Kyu Choi, developed world's smallest

terabyte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...

flash memory Flash memory is an Integrated circuit, electronic Non-volatile memory, non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for t ...

* Cho Zang-hee, developed PET Imaging while at Colombia, developed Imaging for MRI/PET/CAT at KAIS, Later KAIST * James D. Cumming, Foreign Guest Professor, published first paper with Cho Zang-hee on MRI Imaging resolution improvement. * Kyoungchul Kong, Mechanical engineer, entrepreneur and academic * Heun Lee, identified mechanism behind hydrogen storage in ice particles * Ji-O Lee, chemist; identified structure of protein causing

sepsis Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage of sepsis is followed by suppression of the immune system. Common signs and s ...

* Sang-yup Lee, developed chip to diagnose

Wilson's disease Wilson's disease (also called hepatolenticular degeneration) is a genetic disorder characterized by the excess build-up of copper in the body. Symptoms are typically related to the brain and liver. Liver-related symptoms include vomiting, wea ...

* Gi-hyong Gho, mathematician; developed world's first public key crypto system (PKCS) technology * Jong-kyong Jeong, identified cause of

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

* Eunseong Kim, physicist; discovered new evidence for the existence of a

supersolid In condensed matter physics, a supersolid is a spatially ordered (i.e. solid) material with superfluid properties. In the case of helium-4, it has been conjectured since the 1960s that it might be possible to create a supersolid. Starting from 20 ...

* Jin-woo Kim, identified the cause behind senile retinal degeneration disease * Se-jin Kwan, aerospace engineer; successfully developed and tested a moon lander * Chang Hee Nam, physicist; developed

attosecond An attosecond (abbreviated as as) is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to 10−18 or 1⁄1 000 000 000 000 000 000 (one quintillionth) of a second. An attosecond is to a second, as a second is to approximately 31.69 ...

pulse generation and compression technology * Gweng-su Rhim, developed next generation Transparent Resistive Random Access Memory (TRRAM) * Seung-man Yang, developed new photonics crystal-based optofluidic technology * Yoon-tae Young, physicist; first to observe proper function of

complexin Complexin (also known as synaphin) refers to a one of a small set of eukaryotic cytoplasmic neuronal proteins which binds to the SNARE protein , SNARE protein complex (''SNAREpin'') with a high affinity. These are called synaphin 1 and 2. In the ...

protein to control neuron communication * Giltsu Choi, photobiologist; identified key genes regulating seed germination in response to light in plants. * Dan Keun Sung, electronic engineer

Notable alumni

Academia

* Ryong Ryoo, chemist

Science and technology

Yi So-Yeon Yi So-yeon (born June 2, 1978) is a South Korean astronaut and biotechnologist who became the first Korean to fly in space. Lee was born and raised in Gwangju, South Korea and graduated from KAIST with a Master's degree in Mechanical Engine ...

, first Korean to fly in space * Tony Kim, founder of ProtoPie

Business

* Sung-kyun Na, founder of Neowiz Holdings *

Kim Jung-ju Kim Jung-ju (; 22 February 1968 – 28 February 2022), also known as Jay Kim, was a South Korean businessman, investor, and founder of Korea's largest gaming company, Nexon. He was the chairman and CEO of NXC Corporation, the holding company of ...

NEXON Nexon Co., Ltd. (formerly ) is a South Korean video game developer and publisher. It develops and publishes titles including ''MapleStory'', ''Crazyracing Kartrider'', ''Sudden Attack'', ''Dungeon & Fighter'', ''The First Descendant'', and ''Bl ...

CEO * Hae-jin Lee, Next Human Network (

NHN Corporation NHN Corp. is a South Korean IT company that started its business as a game company called Hangame in 1999. Currently, its main businesses can be categorized as cloud, fin-tech (cross-border e-commerce, payment), entertainment (game, webtoons, ...

) * Chang-han Kim,

Krafton Krafton Inc. () is a South Korean video game publisher and holding company based in Bundang District, Seongnam. It was created in November 2018 to serve as the parent company for Bluehole, founded by Chang Byung-gyu in Seoul in March 2007, and ...

CEO

Entertainment

* So-jung Kim, Singer * Jang-won Lee, Singer (

Peppertones Peppertones (Hangul: 페퍼톤스), is a Korean rock band formed in 2003 by Shin Jae-pyung and Lee Jang-won. The pair met as computer science students at KAIST in Daejeon. The band's first EP album ''A Preview'' was released in 2004. They releas ...

) * Jae-pyung Shin, Singer (

) * So-hee Yoon, Actress * Sung-bum Heo (Horang), model and influencer

Notes and references

* The Times-QS World University Rankings 2009 - KAIST 69th overall, 21st in the field of Engineering/Technology

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaist Universities and colleges in Daejeon National universities and colleges in South Korea Engineering universities and colleges in South Korea 1971 establishments in South Korea Educational institutions established in 1971

History

Timeline

Academics

Academics

Students

Organization

Campus

Main library

Event

Research

Electric vehicles

Controversy

Suicides

Development of autonomous arms

China tech leaks

Rankings & Reputation

Overall Rankings

Subject/Area Rankings

Young University Rankings

Graduate Employability Rankings

Notable faculty and staff

Notable alumni

Academia

Science and technology

Business

Entertainment

Notes and references

See also

External links