SNU–Samsung Heavy Industries Joint Research Team Wins Ministerial Award at the 2025 Industry–Academia Project Challenge
Recognized for Developing Limit-State-Based Evaluation Technology for Welding Residual Stress and Curved Plate Structures in Smart Ocean Mobility Applications


▲ (From left) Jusin Park, Head of the Structural Research Group, Samsung Heavy Industries; Heeyoung Yang, PhD candidate, Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Seoul National University; Yieun Kim, PhD candidate, Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Seoul National University; and Prof. Do Kyun Kim, Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Seoul National University

Seoul National University College of Engineering announced that a joint research team comprising the Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering at SNU and Samsung Heavy Industries has won the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Award at the 2025 Industry–Academia Project Challenge, hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT).

The SNU research team—operating under the team name “Gokpanda” and consisting of PhD candidates Heeyoung Yang and Yieun Kim, supervised by Prof. Do Kyun Kim—collaborated with Samsung Heavy Industries to achieve this recognition.

The Industry–Academia Project Challenge is a competitive forum in which graduate students, faculty advisors, and industry researchers working on MOTIE-funded workforce development programs present solutions to technical challenges faced in industrial practice. This year, 530 teams participated, making the competition particularly rigorous.

Heeyoung Yang and Yieun Kim, PhD candidates in the Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering at SNU, successfully carried out an industry–academia collaboration project involving Samsung Heavy Industries (project lead: Jusin Park, overall supervision: Vice Chairman Sung-An Choi), earning the competition’s highest honor, the Ministerial Award.

The joint research team conducted an in-depth investigation into how welding residual stress and curved plate geometry in shipbuilding and offshore structures affect ultimate compressive strength and buckling behavior.

Based on these findings, the SNU Ocean and Shore Technology (OST) research group and the Structural Research Group at Samsung Heavy Industries advanced a final-limit-state-based (ULS-based) structural integrity assessment methodology. They also proposed a comprehensive design verification framework for curved plate structures by integrating existing experimental results with finite element analysis data. In particular, by quantitatively evaluating the effects of key design parameters—such as curvature, plate thickness, and boundary conditions—the team established a stronger foundation for improving the reliability of structural design and safety assessments in actual shipyard practice.

In addition, the team developed a user-friendly structural evaluation graphical user interface (GUI) that can be directly applied in industrial settings. The interface allows designers to intuitively assess buckling strength and residual stress distributions in curved plate structures. This technology is expected to integrate seamlessly with Samsung Heavy Industries’ design automation and verification processes, thereby contributing to enhanced digital design competitiveness in the shipbuilding industry.

Prof. Do Kyun Kim, who supervised the research, stated, “This study experimentally verified the complex nonlinear behavior of curved plate structures and the effects of residual stress, and systematically translated these findings into tools that can be directly applied to industrial design. At a time when Korea–U.S. shipbuilding cooperation is strengthening and a new cycle of innovation in ship structural technology is emerging, I am grateful that this successful industry–academia collaboration has further tightened the link between academic research and industrial practice while helping to cultivate outstanding talent. I hope that meaningful outcomes will continue to emerge through the Samsung Heavy Industries–Seoul National University collaborative research program, now in its 10th year.”

This research was supported by the Eco-Friendly Smart Shipbuilding Workforce Development Program of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, administered by the Korea Offshore & Shipbuilding Association (KOSHIPA).


▲ Certificate of the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Award presented to PhD candidates Heeyoung Yang and YieunKim at the 2025 Industry–Academia Project Challenge


▲ (From left) Heeyoung Yang, PhD candidate, Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Seoul National University; Yieun Kim, PhD candidate, Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Seoul National University; Prof. Do Kyun Kim, Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Seoul National University; Jusin Park, Head of the Structural Research Group, Samsung Heavy Industries


[Contact Information]
Prof. Do Kyun Kim, Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Seoul National University / +82-2-880-7129 / do.kim@snu.ac.kr