KU LEUVEN AND HANYANG UNIVERSITY: COLLABORATING ON PROJECTS AND STUDENT EXCHANGE

FACULTY WORLDWIDE

On January 29, 2020, Prof. Luc Sels, rector of KU Leuven and Prof. Woo-Seung Kim, president of Hanyang University (South Korea) signed two cooperation agreements. The first deals with the set-up of joint research projects. The second relates to the exchange of students with the Faculty of Engineering Technology

Three years of preparation preceded the signing ceremony at the Rector’s Office in Leuven. In June 2017, Prof. Sabine Vercruysse, Vice-Campus Chair of Group T Leuven Campus and Wim Polet, Director of the International Office, paved the way during the official Belgian trade mission to South Korea. In November 2017 and 2018, Director Wim Polet continued negotiations in Seoul, resulting in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding during Rector Luc Sels’ visit to Hanyang University (HYU) in March 2019.

Growth machine

HYU started in 1939 as the first engineering institute in Korea. Currently, the university is generally regarded as an essential part of the growth machine that has made South Korea an economic and technological global player. HYU has campuses in the capital Seoul and the nearby city of Ansan. Together they count 25 colleges and 107 departments, representing 24,500 undergraduate and 8,300 graduate students. The university welcomes 7,500 foreign students annually and more than 3,000 students go abroad every year. HYU counts Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Cambridge and Tsinghua University among its 820 partner universities in 88 countries.

Industry cooperation

Thanks to ERICA Campus (Education Research Industry Cluster at Ansan), HYU is recognised as the most active industry cooperation university in South Korea combining research and education with business. ERICA Campus is famous for its cluster programme in which students acquire knowledge and skills that make them immediately employable in professional practice. The figureheads -the so called ‘proud Hanyangians’- include Chung Mong-koo, Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group and Yoon Bookeun, CEO of Samsung Electronics.

Presentations

After the signing ceremony, President Woo-seung Kim and his retinue were received at Group T Leuven Campus. Professors Ronald Cools, Bert Lauwers and Peter Slaets gave a presentation about, resp. the Science, Engineering & Technology Group, the Faculty of Engineering Technology and the research on Autonomous Vehicles. The programme also included visits to the Department of Electrical Engineering, more specifically the research group of Prof. Sofie Pollin, the inter-university microelectronics centre IMEC and the high-tech company Materialize, specialized in 3D printing.

Yves Persoons