Seoul National University Engineering Consulting Center, the consulting requests exceeded 1,000 within only three years

- “Break away from studies for papers” 85% of Professor of College of Engineering participated the consulting - From technological consulting for robot and big-data to co-development


▲ The technological consulting between professors and company executives

 
Seoul National University Engineering Consulting Center has gained tremendous growth as a bridgehead of industry-academy technology cooperation for SMEs within three years .

The Seoul National University College of Engineering (Dean Kookheon Char) announced on 11^th that the cumulative number of technology requests from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which wanted to solve engineering problems with the aid of Seoul National University, exceeded 1,000 as of September 2017.

The Engineering Consulting Center was established in March 2014 to find technology cooperation ways for the industrial field that is different from industry-university cooperation based on large companies and researches. Of the 321 professors of college of engineering, 272 professors (about 85%) are participating as researchers and have been helping consulting.

A total of 181 industry-university cooperation research projects that are signed by Engineering Consulting Center until September this year have more than doubled from last year. The number of technical consultations has also increased every year, and 600 cases have been consulted over the past three years. Most importantly, more than 90% of 1000 requests for technology cooperation are from small and medium-sized enterprises.

Seoul National University explained that the reason why small and medium-sized enterprises are attracted to the engineering consulting center is because the center have a technology matching system that matches the experts who are carefully selected by systematically diagnosing and analyzing the technical troubles of the small and medium enterprises. The center not only matches the best experts but also provides full-service consulting from education to commercialization. These services are always open to small and medium-sized enterprises, including large enterprises.

In particular, the Engineering Consulting Center has an outstanding strength in the field of Advanced Composite R & D such as AI, IOT, Big Data, and Robot in accordance with the trend of the 4th Industrial Revolution. The Engineering Consulting Center has continuously held technical consultation meetings on the theme of the 4th industry and has matched the engineering professors with abundant knowledge and experience as technology partners. As a result, 4^th industrial revolution related technology industry consulting request has significantly increased in the last three years.

For example, company A, which develops industrial robotic devices for automobile companies, tapped the Engineering Consulting Center for technological innovation. Through one year of industry-university cooperation, Company A is supported by the technology development of multifunctional robot arm that will play an essential role in the future automobile factory, and mastered the universal clamp design core technology that can pick up the spare parts. In this process, the new patent has been issued. Recently the company received government support of 400 million won and it is emerging as the leader of the 4th industry.

Kim Min-kyu of VITCON, a manufacturer of equipment control devices that implement a Smart Factory based on Internet (IoT), said, "Companies that have just started their business have limitations on following the pace of technological development in the fourth industry. With the aid of Engineering Consulting Center, our company solved the technical problems that were unsolved before and now we dream in entering into the global market.”

Domestic industry and non-technical organizations are also paying attention to the consulting center. The center signed an MOU with Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (KODIT), Korea Technology Finance Cooperation (KOTEC) and Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA). Furthermore, the center signed additional MOU with Korea International Trade Association on July and has been conducting consulting for 49 excellent export companies since September 21. In other words, the center is very attractive for the exporting companies that face technical problems. 

The Chair Kyung-pil Nam (Professor of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering ) of Engineering Consulting Center said, "By connecting the technology assets and infrastructure of Seoul National University to small and medium-sized companies, the center will become a stepping stone for many small and medium sized companies. "