As it began the recruitment process for its first cohort of the Innovation Academy program, the recently launched project “HuStar”is now in full swing. HuStar is a project to foster innovative talents in the Daegu-Gyeongbuk area, aiming to cultivate local workforce within the region. HuStar is led by our regional government offices, and its objective is to produce innovative workers customized for local corporate demands together with regional universities, research institutions, and industrial corporations.
While existing projects to cultivate innovative workforce have exclusively been led by universities in charge of education and research, HuStar operates its programs together with the university and corporations for all tasks ranging from making plans, selecting students, as well as designing courses and practicums. In its final stage, HuStar mutually cooperates with the employers to connect students with their future jobs.
HuStar can be divided into two major programs of the Innovation University and of the Innovative Academy. The Innovation University program is a two-year educational course for third and fourth year undergraduate students in five different industrial fields. The Innovation Academy program is for recent graduates and is eight months long, consisting of a five-month internship in the four industrial fields in the Daegu area as well as five in Gyeongbuk area. The innovation Academy program aims to help young skilled workers settle down in our city and province by finding permanent jobs at corporations in the area.
Kyungpook National University was selected as the main body who will operate the Innovation Academy program in the field of ICT; and chosen as a participating organization in the fields of robotic and medical technologies. For the Innovation University program in the field of robotic technology, our university’s School of Mechanical Engineering was selected as the core academic discipline; and our Department of Precision Mechanical Engineering and School of Electronics Engineering as its participation majors. In the ICT field, our school of Electronics Engineering was selected as the core academic discipline; as well as our School of Computer Science and Engineering as a participating major along with the Department of Computer Software.
Kyungpook National University is planning to foster regional talents together with 25 corporations of ICT and 24 corporations of robotic technology, such as Hyundai Robotics and Winitech.
We expect that this project, which is the first one of its kind in our nation, will establish a model of virtuous cycle to prevent quality local workforce from leaving the region and to attract talented young workers to settle down in the region to develop the local communities. Through HuStar, the Daegu city and Gyeongbuk provincial government offices plan to invest 160 billion Won to produce 50 innovative leaders and 3,000 quality workers by 2027.