Pusan National University (President Choi Jae-won) announced on October 28 the official launch of the “Jang Young-sil AI Nexus Institute,” envisioned as a core hub to lead Korea‘s new AI era.

This establishment marks a strategic expansion of PNU’s “AX (Artificial Intelligence Transformation) Project,” serving as a critical infrastructure to strengthen national technological sovereignty through artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced convergence science - and to position Korea as a leader in the era of global scientific competition.

Earlier this year, PNU demonstrated its international AI competitiveness when Prof. Seung-Jun Lee‘s research team achieved 1st place worldwide with the highest score ever at the world’s largest AI robotics competition, RoboCup 2025 (July).

In September, Prof. Ji-Hee Kim‘s team published a landmark study in Science Advances, becoming the first in the world to identify the reversible mechanism of photoconductive signal switching at the 2D semiconductor-metal van der Waals interface - signaling new possibilities for AI semiconductor and quantum information device innovation.

The institute embodies the spirit of Jang Young-sil, the great Joseon-era scientist renowned for his creativity and practical ingenuity. Its vision is to “Lead Korea’s AI Convergence.”

Vision and Strategic Framework of the Jang Young-sil AI Nexus Institute. (Pusan National University)

The institute‘s strategic framework, ACTS, represents:

 ● A (Acceleration): Accelerating AI industrialization to transfer research outcomes directly into industrial fields, building an AI industrialization hub.

 ● C (Core): Strengthening basic science and nurturing AI-native talent through core AI technologies (language, vision, data, semiconductors).

 ● T (Transformation): Promoting AI transformation across national strategic industries such as maritime, manufacturing, healthcare, and energy.

 ● S (Superiority): Securing national competitiveness and developing next-generation sovereign technologies through AI Superiority.

Among these, AI Transformation and AI Superiority form the institute’s central pillars. Research will focus on AI convergence fields where PNU already demonstrates global excellence - including Maritime, Logistics, and Port AI, Bio-Medical AI, and AI convergence specialized for industrial growth in the Southeast region of Korea.

World-class studies will be conducted in areas such as marine data analytics, smart shipbuilding, future mobility, advanced manufacturing AI, age-tech, and next-generation energy.

President Choi Jae-won stated: “Jang Young-sil combined the practicality of science with human-centered innovation. Pusan National University will inherit that spirit and evolve into the central hub of AI convergence science - an open platform where researchers worldwide gather and collaborate to usher in a new era of maritime sovereignty. ”

Uniquely, the Jang Young-sil AI Nexus Institute is the first in Korea to incorporate the quantum field into its AI convergence framework. Through interdisciplinary research combining AI with quantum physics, quantum computing, and AI semiconductors, the institute aims to pioneer the next computational revolution and establish a practical research foundation for Quantum AI, overcoming the current limitations of conventional AI.

Another core value of the institute is openness. Rather than functioning as a closed, university-exclusive facility , it is designed as an Open Research Platform accessible to all AI researchers and institutions - domestic and international.

A flexible organizational structure called the “Project Center” will allow researchers from universities, government-funded institutes, and private companies to freely join projects under their chosen themes. This will create a cooperative research ecosystem encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration.

Through this system, PNU will establish a structure for long- and short-term participation by global AI scholars and corporate researchers, positioning the university as an international hub for joint research in national strategic sectors such as AI marine science, medical data, quantum computing, and AI semiconductors - as well as key industries in Korea‘s southeastern region.

By consolidating PNU’s AI competitiveness and research capabilities, the Jang Young-sil AI Nexus Institute will become a strategic hub that concentrates and expands diverse AI convergence research activities both domestically and globally.

Director Prof. Gil-Tae Song (School of Information and Computer Engineering) remarked: “Through the ACTS strategy, our institute aims to build an AI innovation ecosystem where research, industry, and education are tightly connected . We aspire to establish Korea‘s AI sovereignty and lead the paradigm of global scientific civilization.”