GIST Science and Technology Applied Research Institute hosts 2017 Tech to Market Program

□ On September 8, 2017, the Science and Technology Applied Research Institute (Director Jin Hee Ahn) at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST, President Seung Hyeon Moon) signed an agreement with the five entrepreneurial teams selected for the 2017 Tech to Market program.

∘ 'Tech to Market' is a program to commercialize the technology and research achievements developed in in GIST laboratories. This program was introduced last year and helps to foster GIST members' interest in technology commercialization by helping them create and prepare business plans.

□ The entrepreneur teams selected for the 2017 Tech to Market Program include: ▲ Long-term operation of drones for agricultural control (Professor Chun Taek Rim, Institute of Integrated Technology), ▲ Ultrasonic Communication for the City and Hearing Impaired (Professor Hong Kook Kim, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science), ▲ Real-time Monitoring System of Pollution Particles in Semiconductor Manufacturing Process (Professor Kihong Park, School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Engineering), ▲ Automatic Mining Smart Window Film (Professor Kwanghee Lee, School of Material Science and Engineering), and ▲ Degenerative Muscular Disease based on cell transformation (Professor Darren Williams, Schools of Life Sciences).

□ The Five entrepreneurial teams will be provided with actual investment funding of 20 million won and a dedicated coordinator *. In addition, investors will have an opportunity to participate in a systematic program that will lead to real investment through IR (Public Investment).

* Coordinator: Market researchers who link the technology with the market and support the process so that the research results can be commercialized in accordance with the market demand without ending the patent.

□ GIST Science and Technology Applied Research Institute Director Jin Hee Ahn said, "Through the Tech-to-Market Program and the agreements we have signed, we hope that teachers, researchers, and students studying at GIST will have more business sense and become more entrepreneurial."