Investment in Future Technologies
Samsung Electronics Co. will provide its science research grants for the second half of this year to a total of 26 future technology R&D projects.
The 26 projects included seven in basic science, 10 in materials science and nine in information communications technology (ICT).
Samsung Science & Technology Foundation said on Oct. 7 that a total of 33 billion won (US$27.57 million) would be provided to fund these projects.
For the whole of this year, Samsung Electronics will provide a total 94.70 billion won (US$79.11 million) to 70 projects.
Samsung Electronics jointly established Samsung Research Funding & Incubation Center for Future Technology with Samsung Science & Technology Foundation in 2013and vowed to inject 1.5 trillion won for 10 years into promising science projects which will lead the future of South Korea.
When this round of research grants is included, Samsung Electronics would have funded a total of 718.2 billion won (US$600.10 million) in 560 research projects, including 187 in basic science, 182 in materials science and 191 in ICT, over the past seven years.
In basic science, seven projects in life science, physics and mathematics will be funded. Professor Lee Heung-kyu of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has been named for his project to find a new brain tumor treatment by studying a new immune cell that can recognize tumor cells and regulates the immune response.
In materials technology, a total of 10 projects will be funded, including projects that can strengthen the industrial competitiveness, including semiconductor materials, and ones in extensive research areas, such as analysis of materials and diagnosis and analysis of cancer. Jeong Kyung-woon of Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) has been selected for his research on organic materials that change colors in cancer cell metastasis.
In ICT, a total of nine creative projects has been included in future core technology such as brain signal analysis and deep learning. Professor JeongEun-ju of Hanyang University will receive the fund to conduct her research in reconstructing musical compositions by processing the brain signals of people imagining the music.