Collaboration with Volkswagen Group Korea... 10 students per year to spend a year in Germany
Internship matching with local startups
Mentored for one year in five fields including future vehicles and AI to learn on the job

Kookmin University (President Jeong Seung Ryul) is promoting innovation to address its five missions: building an education ecosystem without boundaries, assessing competitiveness by academic field, shifting the paradigm of academic-industrial cooperation, establishing a global campus, and transforming community pride into innovation energy.

Entrepreneurship, which Kookmin University emphasizes as its educational philosophy, refers to the ability to challenge challenges without fear of failure based on problem-solving skills, creativity, and interdisciplinary knowledge, and is considered a driving force to address the above missions.

As part of this effort, Kookmin University is running various programs to produce talented people with entrepreneurial DNA on the global stage. The SEA:ME program in Germany in collaboration with Volkswagen Group Korea and the I-PBL program in California, USA are representative examples.

SEA:ME, a global education program in Germany

The Software Engineering in Automotive and Mobility Ecosystems (SEA:ME) program is part of the social responsibility activities of Volkswagen Group Korea and Kookmin University, and is a curriculum that develops knowledgeable and creative talent to drive the digitalization of the automobile.

The program consists of three sub-modules - Embedded Systems, Autonomous Driving Systems, and Mobility Ecosystems - and aims to prepare students for employment in the mobility sector by enhancing their software competencies within one year. The program adopts a peer-to-peer learning approach, with experts from science and industry serving as Fellows.

Starting in 2023, 30 Korean university students, 10 per year for three years, will be sent to the 42 Wolfsburg campus in Germany for one year. All costs for the selected students will be covered by Volkswagen Group Korea.

In addition to Germans, the SEA:ME program hosts students from all over the world, including North America, South America, and the Middle East. In addition to gaining practical knowledge in their field of study, students can also develop global competencies by interacting with students from different countries.

The second Kookmin University team from Germany's SEA:ME program takes a photo after presenting their “Shared Vehicle Management Solution” at the Eclipse SDV Open Source Challenge.

I-PBL, a global education program in the United States

Another representative international education program of Kookmin University is the I-PBL program in California, USA. The I-PBL (International Project based Learning) program is a specialized international education curriculum of Kookmin University that trains students with the professional skills and competencies required by companies through the process of solving problems that are emerging in the industrial field.

In addition, the curriculum is structured to help students gain practical employment by providing on-the-job training opportunities through internship matching with local companies, mainly start-ups. Another great advantage of the program is that students can receive up to 12 credits under the credit transfer system during the program, and up to 18 credits (9 credits for majors) for overseas fieldwork during the fieldwork period.

The program aims to dispatch around 30 students per semester and 60 students per year, and dispatched 10 students for the first time in the first semester (March) of this year. The students were selected from the fields of future automotive, next-generation communications, artificial intelligence, big data, and UX/UI through a preliminary document review, including grade point average, English language performance, and motivation to apply, followed by a line-coding test, English interview, and general interview.

The students will stay in the U.S. for about a year and receive personalized mentoring from a group of mentors affiliated with companies and university research centers in Southern California and Silicon Valley to develop into globally minded, hands-on talents. The program is designed to foster global communication skills, including problem-solving and networking with local companies and organizations.

“The purpose of these programs is to foster talents who will play an active role in the international arena in the new industries of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, such as future automobiles, artificial intelligence, and big data,” said President Jeong Seung Ryul. “It is in line with Kookmin University's educational philosophy that students can live around the world and build practical skills in the process of designing and solving their own interests and learning goals beyond the limits of traditional classroom education.”

President Jeong Seung Ryul