The opening ceremony of SCIGC was held successfully at IGC in Songdo International City on June 3. PARK Nam-chun, the Mayor of Incheon Metropolitan City, SHIN Eun-ho, the Chair of Incheon Metropolitan Council, LIM Dong-joo, Chairman of the Industry and Economy Committee of Incheon Metropolitan Council LEE Won-jae the Commissioner of Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority(IFEZA), Michael LEPECH(the Professor of the Department of Urban Engineering at Stanford University), General Manager of SCIGC, officials from Incheon Global Campus Foundation, and the Korean alumni of Stanford University came to honor the event.
In the opening address, the Mayor PARK said, “SCIGC, opening in Songdo, the first smart city in Korea and the innovative city that continuously challenge for the future, will bring new synergy effect to Songdo’s challenge and innovation,” showing his expectations. Marc Tessier LAVIGNE, President of Stanford University congratulated the opening of SCIGC through a video message and emphasized that “We will solidify the collaborative relationship between Stanford University, Korean government, alumni, and companies further.” On June 4, the day following the opening ceremony, the ‘SCIGC Smart City Symposium,’ participated by the research team at Stanford University in the U.S. and great scholars in the smart city field, was broadcast live online in real time, telling the world about SCIGC’s opening and sharing future research plans. SCIGC opened as a part of the project of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Incheon Metropolitan City to attract research institutes of prestigious universities outside the country in IFEZ to develop innovation eco system. In December 2019, IFEZA and Stanford University signed an agreement for the establishment and operation of a research institute affiliated to Stanford University in South Korea. Ten or more resident researchers of SCIGC with master’s and doctor’s degrees related to smart city will carry out interdisciplinary researches for efficient application of smart city technologies aiming at the environmental and social sustainability of smart city. Specifically, the researches will cover the smart financing for smart city, sustainable urban system, sustainable urban development and competitiveness, and smart city entrepreneur spirit. In the long-term, SCIGC is also planning to carry out researches on smart city FinTech and open a course integrated with smart city related industry-academy-institute collaboration.
SCIGC plans to become a cooperation hub connecting the Silicon Valley and Korea and an anchor facility inside IFEZ in the future. It is expected to contribute enormously to establishing an innovation ecosystem in IFEZ through joint researches and industry-academy-institute collaborations with global companies such as GS Caltex, Hyundai Motor, and Google, and introducing a cooperation model with companies and research institutes inside the Silicon Valley to IFEZ. In particular, its location inside IGC, the global hub of education, is expected to bring synergy effects by creating a cooperative relationship with five universities on campus through the exchange of human and material resources.
