Institut Pasteur Korea-Seongnam City Join Forces to Nurture Talents in the Bio Field!
On the Oct. 24th, Institut Pasteur Korea signed an 'Agreement on the Operation of a Bio-Field Talent Cultivation Program' in the mayor's office on the 4th floor of Seongnam City Hall in the presence of Ji Young-mi, head of Institut Pasteur Korea and Shin Sang-jin, mayor of Seongnam.
In accordance with the agreement, Institut Pasteur Korea operates a job experience program for local middle and high school students and a bio-field internship program for college students.
The middle and high school job experience program will be held for 250 students from March to December next year. The institute operates a one-day experience program at all times, providing a field trip program to state-of-the-art research facilities and a time to meet with the scientists.
In addition, bio-field experience program for middle school students will be also operated. In the first and second semesters of next year, 15 students will be selected, and the program will be operated with lectures and experiments in the life science field over 4-5 courses.
The college student bio-field internship program is for 20 students, ranging from freshmen to seniors, who have lived in Seongnam for more than one year. Seongnam City, which will participate in new drug development and infectious disease research programs at Institut Pasteur Korea during next summer vacation (June-August) and 2024 winter vacation (December-February), is supporting the necessary expenses for the student programs, 40 million won.
Ji Young-mi, head of Institut Pasteur Korea, said, “I am delighted to have established close cooperation with Seongnam City for the common goal of nurturing talents in the bio field. As global institute in Seongnam City, we will contribute to nurturing future talents who will lead the bio-health field, by providing education and training programs with our capabilities in infectious disease field, advanced technology, and multinational human resource.”
Seongnam Mayor Shin Sang-jin said, “It is important to nurture talents, which are the foundation of the bio-health industry, in order to lay the foundation for the creation of a special city for the 4th industry, and for sustainable growth.” He added, “This program is especially meaningful in the sense that we are with Institut Pasteur Korea, a globally renowned research institute.”
Meanwhile, Institut Pasteur Korea, a non-profit research institute focusing on infectious disease research, was established in 2004 through science and technology cooperation between Korea and France. Researchers from 11 countries are working hard to develop new therapeutics and preventive strategies for global public health. In addition, as the representative research institute in the Asia-Pacific region of the Pasteur Network, which consists of 33 research institutes in 25 countries, it is taking the lead in wide-ranging international cooperation.
Institut Pasteur Korea was the first private research institute, not a government-funded research institute, to be designated as the University of Science and Technology (UST) campus in 2014, and it is also operating an integrated master's, doctoral, and master's and doctoral combined courses in bio-medical convergence major.
Alchera Signs a Partnership with PG&E, the Largest Power Company in the Western US, to Offer AI Wildfire Detection Solutions
Alchera, a company specializing in image recognition AI, has signed a partnership with PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric Company), the largest power company in the western United States, to supply artificial intelligence wildfire detection solutions.
Through this partnership, Alchera will apply its AI wildfire detection solution ‘FireScout’ to one-third of all high-definition fire surveillance cameras operated by PG&E across California. Alchera aims to apply the 'Fire Scout' solution to all cameras operated by PG&E through the development of the partnership phase in the future.
‘Fire Scout’ is a SaaS-based solution that connects AI and video cameras filming mountains to early detect abnormal situations such as smoke. The judgment accuracy is 99%, and it can detect mountains day and night, and accurately identifies obstacles such as clouds and city lights. It even has technology to estimate the location of wildfires by measuring the direction and angle of smoke.
Jim Ridgway, an official at PG&E HAWC (Hazard Awareness and Warning Center), said, “With artificial intelligence, we are able to more efficiently manage fires that can threaten the company’s electricity and gas assets. In the demo phase, 'Fire Scout' has detected several fires ahead of the information sources that we had established on our own.”
Since the past, PG&E has been in charge of analysis and compensation of wildfires caused by power transmission tower wires and is strengthening voluntary monitoring. As Alchera has signed a partnership with the largest U.S. power company, based on this contract, Alchera plans to secure various customers who require artificial intelligence wildfire detection solutions.
Hwang Young-gyu, CEO of Alchera, said, “I am delighted to be able to protect California, which gets severely damaged by wildfires every year, with Alchera’s technology. We will continue to promote FireScout’s technology more aggressively by achieving good results with our contract.”
Owls Corp., Ltd. and MotionsCloud signs an Agreement for Joint Development of Vehicle Management AI Technology
Owls Corp., Ltd. (CEO Han Seung-woo) announced that it had recently signed a technological joint development agreement with MotionsCloud (CEO Rex Tan), a German company.
Through this global technology alliance, the two companies are expected to establish a 24-hour response service system for the supply of two-wheeled vehicles using AI technology.
Owls Corp., Ltd. is a last-mile two-wheeled vehicle supply service company, and it has developed an ICT solution for supplying two-wheeled vehicles for delivery agents in the last-mile logistics industry. The company is operating a service that meets the needs of delivery agents, such as a bike rental service that provides both bikes and insurance, and the “bike time service” that can be used only for the time the customer wants. Administrative process service such as transfer of names upon the contract expiration is also provided.
MotionsCloud is headquartered in Munich, Germany, and is operating an AI-based service that enables the customers to check their car’s condition with a mobile phone and informs the extent of damage in the event of a traffic accident. With the agreement, Owls Corp., Ltd. will provide its AI technology in order to develop its supply of two-wheeled vehicles.
This agreement is the result of the Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy and Innovation's 'Global Kkanbu Networking' program. Global Kkanbu Networking is a program of the Gyeonggi CCEI in which domestic and foreign companies aiming to expand the businesses to the global market gather to discover their local partners and pursue the networking.
Han Seung-woo, CEO of Owls Corp., Ltd., said, “Once this global technology alliance and our own ERP module development are completed, we will provide more professional and stable services.” He added, "I expect we will be able to expand our business field by supplying and managing various types of mobility services in the future."
Owls Corp., Ltd. is now planning to complete the development of ERP module and ICT solution this year and enter the market of the sharing service. By approving the company’s achievements in sales growth and employment growth over the past four years, it received the Excellency Award in the ‘10th Re-challenge Case Contest’ hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Start-ups in 2022.
Currently, the company has been selected as a “Start-up Leap Forward Package” project by the Ministry of SMEs and Start-ups’ Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development and it is receiving customized support such as business support and mentoring from the Gyeonggi CCEI.
Kristin Company Chosen by Naver, Attracts 3 billion Won Investment
'Kristin Company,' a fashion-tech start-up announced that it has attracted additional investment worth 3 billion won from the Korea Technology Finance Corporation, Korea SMEs and Startups Agency, Hansae Yes24 Partners, and CNT Tech.
With this, Kristin Company plans to start full-fledged business growth by successfully securing stable additional funds after attracting the pre-series A investment from Aju IB Investment, Naver D2SF, and Series Ventures in February.
Kristin Company is a startup that has built a data-based shoe manufacturing platform ‘Shinple’. By converting more than 120 shoe manufacturing processes into one digital platform, the company succeeded in reducing production period by up to 90% and manufacturing cost by up to 50%.
In particular, Kristin Company opened a beta platform in August and is now discussing collaboration with several shoe brands. As the platform can apply the latest trends into products, it is receiving a great response from up-and-coming brands targeting the MZ generation. Big brands also express high satisfaction, saying that they can launch new products following trends and reduce inventory risk by responding to the market flexibly.
Kim So-hyeon, deputy head of the venture investment team of the Korea Technology Finance Corporation, who led this investment, said, “Kristin Company has built a foundation for shoe SCM innovation by converting the existing shoe industry into digital system. The business model has a lot of positive impact on the growth of many show factories, and we expect the company to grow into a leading fashion-tech company that can make the domestic shoe industry bigger in the future.”
Lee Min-bong, CEO of Kristin Company, said, “Despite the recent difficult situation in the startups’ investment environment, I am delighted that the value and vision of Kristin Company has been recognized.” He added, "We will advance into the global market while also growing into a representative company in the Korean market that innovates the footwear industry by upgrading the platform."
Kristin Company is successfully approving its commercial value with its own brand ‘Kristin’, which has grown more than three times compared to the previous year. Currently, the company is actively hiring talents who are passionate about the footwear industry across all its divisions.
Quick News
Krafton Holds the 1st Admission Ceremony for ‘Krafton Jungle’ to Foster Software Talent
Krafton, Inc. held the first admission ceremony for the software talent training program ‘Krafton Jungle’.
A total of 49 first-year trainees selected as final qualified applicants will start training at Seoul National University's Siheung campus for five months until March next year. They start at the basic stage of computer science, will eventually experience high-level operating system (OS) projects, and develop and launch projects by each team.
Wemade Play Announces 3Q Results
Wemade Play Co., Ltd. announced its results for the third quarter of 2022, with consolidated sales of 33.5 billion won, operating profit of 670 million won, and net profit of 4.07 billion won.
In the third quarter, the operating profit decreased by 80% compared to the same period of the previous year, but the sales and net profit increased by 20% and 26%, respectively. Operating profit and net profit in the third quarter turned to the black compared to the previous quarter, and the combined sales for the three quarters of this year were 101.8 billion won, the largest quarterly cumulative sales in the past eight years.
SK Bioscience and Hillemann Laboratories Join Forces to Research and Develop a New Vaccine Platform
SK Bioscience has signed an MOU for joint research and development of new vaccines and platforms with the Hilleman Laboratories, an international non-profit research institute.
Through this agreement, the two organizations agreed to closely cooperate throughout the entire vaccine R&D process, including ▲basic research on new vaccines, ▲selection of candidate materials, ▲manufacturing process development, and ▲clinical research, with the goal of resolving the imbalance in vaccine supply in low- and middle-income countries. In particular, the Hillemann Laboratories will focus on research and initial process development, and SK Bioscience will make use of its world-leading capabilities in process development and commercialization.
Source: Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom