Advanced Products, Technology Galore at State R&D Exhibition

2011 MKE R&D Performance Show attracts 176 exhibitors



(L) Dignitaries, including Rep. Kim Young-hwan, chairman of the National Assembly Knowledge Economy Committee, Ahn Hyun-ho, vice minister of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, and KEIT President Suh Young-ju, look around the 2011 MKE R&D Performance Show that took place at COEX from April 21-23. (R)Young spectators join VIPs during a ceremony to open the 2011 MKE R&D Performance Show.

The following are excerpts of a written interview between NewsWorld and Suh Young-ju, president & CEO of Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT), who touched on the 2011 MKE R&D Performance Show.

Question: Will you explain the roles of KEIT, which organized the 2011 MKE R&D Performance Show that took place at COEX from April 21-23?
Answer: KEIT is a government agency responsible for planning, evaluating and managing R&D projects under the control of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE). We now handle 2 trillion won out of the 4.5 trillion won allocated to the MKE in government R&D outlays. Through not just the distribution of R&D outlays, but also the transparent, specialized planning, evaluating and managing of industrial technology, we do our utmost in providing support so that companies, research institutes and universities, which carry out R&D projects, can develop creative and challenging future technologies.

Q: The 2011 MKE R&D Performance Show was the second one. Will you compare any changes in terms of size and content from the first one?
A: This year's exhibition, which displayed approximately 260 R&D-related technologies and products, saw the number of booths and exhibitors surge from 240 and 116 in 2010 to 600 and 176 this year.
The 2011 MKE R&D Performance Show was substantial in content. The fair served not just as an opportunity to display advanced products and technologies that have the potential to evolve into the nation's future growth engines, but also Korea's biggest R&D event to show off representative shared growth practices among large- and small-sized companies and to organize a job fair for excellent R&D firms.
The exhibition offered opportunities to share technology information among exhibitors as well as ordinary participating R&D organizations, commercialization firms and venture capital firms. The general public was given an opportunity to see first-hand what R&D outcomes the government's R&D budgets －taxpayer money －have created.

Q: Will you explain what technologies and products, the nation's top-rated R&D outcomes, were on display?
A: The Shared Growth Pavilion offered a glimpse at the outcomes of shared growth practices among large- and small-sized concerns, while visitors at the Future Technology Pavilion experienced the spillover effects technologies had on our daily lives. The R&D Hall of Fame Pavilion displayed excellent award-winning technologies, while the Representative R&D Outcome Pavilion chronicled the representative R&D outcomes of each period. The Special Pavilion offered the results of four R&D support programs, including one tailored to develop parts and materials technology.
Technologies and products that have been on par with world-class ones or have the potential to create future growth engines in the information technology, IT convergence, automobile, aviation/shipbuilding, new and renewable energy, robot, parts and materials, textile/fashion and pharmaceuticals/bio fields have been converged at the exhibition.

Q: The Representative R&D Outcome Pavilion displayed the research outcomes of R&D support that lasted from 1988 until recently. Among the exhibited items related to public life were electronic pianos, plasma display panels (PDP), digital inkjet printers and cellular phone headsets. Please introduce a few technologies we now enjoy and will enjoy in the future during our lifetime?
A: Many people perceive R&D as a difficult and unfamiliar concept, but in reality, R&D is closely related to our daily life. Such common things as office equipment and home appliances we use daily as well as IT infrastructure all people enjoy comfortably without huge costs are created through R&D activities. The 2011 MKE R&D Performance Show displayed lots of state-of-the-art technologies and products. Here's a look at a few products and technologies: There are an aircraft imbedded system, a core technology serving as the brain of the homegrown supersonic T-50 trainer; an SIP-based technology for protecting software from outside assaults, including DDOS attacks, like the recent banking network shutdown at Nonghyup; and the world's first health-conscious chairs designed to protect the pelvis.

Q: Reports say that the MKE R&D performance exhibition will be regularized. Will you elaborate on future plans?
A: Even though the government set aside a huge R&D budget, the general public was never given an opportunity to appreciate the research outcomes of the government's R&D outlays in a large-scale fashion before the first MKE R&D Performance Show. We will hold the MKE R&D Performance Show every year as an opportunity to not only publicize the outcomes of state-financed R&D programs but also to communicate with people by submitting the outcomes to a public review. The key purpose of the exhibition is also to become an opportunity to share R&D products, developed by domestic firms and researchers, and technology information. nw


Photo on Courtesy of the MKE