UNIST to launch AI Convergence College to tackle real-world industrial challenges

The Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) is embarking on an education overhaul that breaks down barriers between disciplines, placing AI at the center of its academic structure. The university plans to launch an "AI Convergence College" in September, integrating real-world challenges from southeastern Korea's strategic industries — shipbuilding, aerospace, defense and materials — into undergraduate education and connecting problems identified in the field to graduate-level research and technology development.

UNIST announced Wednesday that its board of directors approved the reorganization at a meeting Tuesday, expanding and restructuring the existing College of Information and Biotech Convergence into the new AI Convergence College. The new academic framework will take effect for students entering the undergraduate program in the 2027 academic year.

The restructuring aligns with the government's national AI transformation (AX) policy, the supra-regional mega-project initiative and the AX strategies of South Korea's four science and technology institutes. As AI adoption accelerates across industries, UNIST said it is focusing on developing talent capable of solving real-world problems by combining core AI education with industry-specific convergence programs.

The AI Convergence College will move away from a department-centered structure, operating its curriculum flexibly around AI as the core discipline. The undergraduate program is designed to strengthen connections across majors and allow students to tailor their coursework to their career goals and shifts in industry and technology.

The undergraduate track will build on existing majors — electrical and electronic engineering, computer science, AI, industrial engineering, biomedical engineering and human-centered design engineering. Eight new "AX convergence majors" will be added, pairing AI with national and regional strategic industries including shipbuilding and marine engineering, aerospace, defense, materials, semiconductors and healthcare.

Students will be able to pursue industry-specific AI convergence coursework while continuing in their primary major. The core aim is not simply to teach AI technology, but to build students' ability to apply AI to actual problems arising in specific industries.

The major structure of UNIST's AI Convergence College. [Provided by UNIST]

UNIST's defining approach is a direct link between industry and research on one side, and education on the other.

Through its flagship Industry Inspired Learning (IIL) program, companies and research institutions bring real problems and data from the field into the curriculum. Students work with faculty and industry experts to analyze those problems and develop solutions using AI and their major-specific knowledge.

The AI and interdisciplinary skills undergraduates acquire through this process extend into graduate research and industrial application. UNIST plans to build what it calls a "Lab to Factory" virtuous cycle — taking problems identified in undergraduate education, developing them into specialized research at the graduate level and feeding the results back into technological innovation on the factory floor.

The AI Convergence College also aims to connect undergraduate programs, graduate programs and industry into a single education and research ecosystem. Students will progress through foundational AI education, major coursework and AX convergence training at the undergraduate level before advancing to specialized research at the graduate level.

To support this structure, UNIST will expand government-funded scholarship enrollment by 100 students each for the undergraduate and graduate programs starting in the 2027 academic year. Education and research infrastructure in AI and strategic industries will also be built out in stages.

"The AI Convergence College will serve as a national industrial AX nexus — one that takes problems from the field as the starting point for education and research, and turns solutions into new technologies," UNIST President Park Jong-rae said. "We will combine UNIST's research capabilities with expertise in national and regional strategic industries to develop world-class talent to lead the AI transformation."

nbgkoo@heraldcorp.com