The Korea Institute of Materials Science and Engineering and Seoul National University have launched a joint research hub to fully integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into materials research, marking a transition to a data-driven research system. This move is noteworthy as an attempt to shift away from the existing development approach centered on iterative experiments toward research focused on design and prediction.

The Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS, President Choi Chul-jin) held a plaque unveiling ceremony for the establishment of the 'KIMS-Seoul National University Materials AI Research Center' at its headquarters in Changwon, Gyeongnam, on February 23, in collaboration with Seoul National University. This event was a follow-up to the agreement on the establishment of the research center signed at the Seoul National University Gwanak Campus on January 23, concretizing the cooperation into the actual establishment of a research base.

Both institutions plan to establish and operate centers at Seoul National University and KIMS, respectively, to build a collaborative platform that leads from basic research to applied and demonstration research. Recently, design automation utilizing data accumulation and AI modeling has been spreading in the global materials research field, and the need to advance related research infrastructure has been raised in Korea as well.

The center systematically promotes AI research in materials and process design across the entire field of materials, including metals. The goal is to simultaneously achieve material property prediction and process optimization through convergence research that links experimental data, theory, and model development. Through this, the plan is to streamline the existing development process, which relied on long-term repetitive experiments, and to refine the formulation of research strategies.

In particular, by combining Seoul National University’s basic theoretical research capabilities with KIMS’s applied and demonstration infrastructure, they will cooperate in planning large-scale joint projects and establishing mid-to-long-term research strategies. They also plan to strengthen the talent development system in the field of materials AI by operating mutual research visits and joint seminars between graduate students and researchers.

A commemorative seminar and a plaque unveiling ceremony were held at the event. Lee Ho-won, Head of the Materials Data and Analysis Research Division at KIMS; Lee Myung-kyu, Dean of the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Seoul National University; and Jung In-ho, Director of the Joint Research Institute for Advanced Materials at Seoul National University, shared research directions and cooperation strategies for materials AI.

Director Choi Cheol-jin stated that materials technology is a strategic asset determining national competitiveness, and that the transition to AI-based research is a necessity, not an option. He explained that the establishment of this research center will position itself as a collaborative model leading a paradigm shift in domestic materials research.