Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) is fully introducing ‘Microsoft 365 Copilot’ and is embarking on a full-scale digital transformation by establishing an artificial intelligence (AI) platform specialized for universities.

On the 10th, UNIST signed an agreement with Microsoft Korea (MS) for a 'strategic partnership based on AI and digital transformation' at the university headquarters.

With this agreement, UNIST will fully introduce MS 365 Copilot and build Korea’s first university-specific AI platform utilizing Azure AI Foundry.

The signing ceremony was attended by Vice President for Academic Affairs Bae Seong-cheol, Director of the Academic Information Center Kim Jae-jun, Director of the Information Strategy Team Lim Jong-hee, and officials from MS Korea.

Vice President Bae Seong-cheol said, “Through MS 365 Copilot and our own AI platform, all members will be able to enjoy various services, such as customized chatbots and AI secretaries,” and added, “We will create an independent AI ecosystem unique to UNIST, with the goal of a pilot opening in the second half of this year.”

There are two key points to this partnership.

First, with the introduction of MS 365 Copilot, faculty and students can immediately use generative AI across Office, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, to automatically summarize reports, quickly visualize research data, and easily produce lecture slides.It can be small.

Work efficiency and academic productivity are expected to significantly improve.

Second, UNIST is developing its own platform that can freely call the latest large-scale language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4o, Llama, and Mistral by linking with Azure AI Foundry.

Through this, we plan to gradually introduce university-specific services such as customized AI tutors for each major, support for writing research proposals, and multilingual translation and proofreading.

MS supports cultural expansion programs such as AI experience booths and Prompthone (prompt competition).

Members can learn the principles of generative AI and learn how to write optimal prompts, naturally enhancing their digital literacy.

UNIST's AI strategy is expected to create synergy with the Ulsan region's industries. Local companies can quickly verify data analysis and service prototypes in fields such as smart factories, energy, and bio by utilizing the university platform. This is expected to lead to strengthening the local innovation ecosystem and promoting technology commercialization.

This agreement is evaluated as a signal that domestic universities are beginning to transition to cloud-based AI in earnest.

An education industry insider said, “This is the first time that a university has directly built a multi-LLM environment,” and “This will be an opportunity to standardize AI-based education and research models.”