Pukyong National University

'Securing maritime hegemony and nurturing convergence talent'

- President Jang Young-Soo on the column of <Busan Ilbo>

The column 'securing maritime hegemony and nurturing convergence talent’ written by President Jang Young-Soo at Pukyong National University was published on page 23 of the Busan Ilbo dated January 8.

President Jang Young-Soo begins with a sentence, "Since the release of the movie 'Noryang: Deadly Sea', the wars that took place at sea in our history are once again taking center stage," saying, "Oceans have always been at the center of global hegemony wars."

He continued, "Industries surrounding the sea have been recognized individually, such as marine bio, fisheries, shipping, shipbuilding, and offshore plants, but in the current era, the boundaries of such industries are collapsing. Especially, while experiencing rapid changes resulting from artificial intelligence, big data, and digitalization, convergence between industries is moving even faster," emphasizing "We need to compete for global hegemony through maritime education and research at a new level."

'War for talent' was also a talking point. President Jang Young-Soo pointed out, "Global companies such as Tesla, Google, Alibaba, and Meta are leading the battle to secure talent by establishing their own educational institutions to directly train the best talent. In the end, it is difficult for a university to survive if it cannot foster talent of the level required by the times."

Then what other kind of talent should we foster now and how? His answer to this was 'the future convergence talent'.

President Jang Young-Soo proposed, "Now, even humanities majors must understand technology and engineering, and engineering majors are also required to have insight into the humanities, which deals with fundamental human problems and culture. Accordingly, future education needs to accept the flexible changes required by the current era, like digital curriculum."

His suggestions equally apply to industrial competitiveness in the marine and fisheries sector. President Jang Young-Soo predicts that only diverse and convergent industries will be globally competitive and uses the salmon industry in Norway as an example to support his analysis. His analysis is that the Norwegian salmon farming industry has dramatically improved productivity and economic feasibility by equipping a smart unmanned pool farming system by combining bio, IT, R&D, and digital from artificial hatching to the rearing process.

President Jang Young-Soo said, "To foster future convergence talent, Pukyong National University and Korea maritime and ocean university, which have so far carried out specific educational and research areas in the ocean, must pursue courageous innovation and become a comprehensive marine science university with over 40,000 students," he continued, "I hope that in the new year, the world's best maritime KAIST will be established in the maritime capital Busan, and that it will be the 'year of the blue dragon' where our young talents can pioneer a new future and leap forward." <Pukyong Today>