August 8, 2008

South Korean students to tour Discovery Park, Purdue Research Park

Pankaj Sharma
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Senior Kang Min-Seok and juniors Lee Young-Hoon, Lee Jin-Young and Lee Joo-Won will spend Monday (Aug. 11) on Purdue's campus to see how the university's interdisciplinary approach to research is accelerating efforts to move projects from the laboratory to the marketplace.

"We hope to learn more about Purdue's innovative approach to research and the role Discovery Park and the Purdue Research Park play in growing a cluster of high-tech and life sciences businesses," Young-Hoon said. "We are coming to Purdue to see, listen and learn."

Administrators from Discovery Park and Purdue Research Park and researchers at the Bindley Bioscience Center and Birck Nanotechology Center will participate in the visit by the four students, who are all studying biomedical engineering.

"Yonsei is proud of its history and reputation as a leading institution of higher education and research in Asia," said Pankaj Sharma, associate director of operations and international affairs for Discovery Park. "This is a great opportunity to showcase how Discovery Park has led Purdue's efforts in generating more record levels of sponsored research and assisted in the startup of 24 companies, many now at Purdue Research Park."

The Wonju Medical Industry Techno-Valley Project was launched in 1998 in Wonju, South Korea, to work with industry, academia, research institutions and government agencies to develop the region's medical and medical equipment industry. The project offers human resources development, technology, business incubation, production and marketing support to help launch startup companies and innovative products from research started in the laboratory.

"The goal of the cluster is to increase the Korean medical industry's international competitiveness as well as revitalize the regional economy," said Charles Buck, Bindley's director of operations. "Purdue University, through what it has accomplished from Discovery Park in recent years and its longstanding success at the Purdue Research Park, provides a complementary model for the innovative biomedical device industry cluster in Wonju, South Korea."

Buck and Kinam Park, the Showalter Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Pharmaceutics at Purdue, hosted visitors from Wonju in February. In June, they met in South Korea with Wonju Medical director Kim Young Ho, who also is a biomedical engineering professor at Yonsei.

Through the LG Global Challenger event, the Yonsei students selected an expedition  theme about interdisciplinary research and commercialization efforts under way at Discovery Park and the Purdue Research Park. By winning their category, they received an all-expenses paid trip to Purdue.

"The purpose of LG Global Challenger is to give students the opportunity to visit places of innovation from the around world and to broaden our worldview," Young-Hoon said.

Yonsei University, Korea's oldest private university, was established in 1885 by Christian missionaries associated with the Presbyterian and Methodist churches. With 30,000 students, its main campus is minutes from the economic, political and cultural centers of Seoul's metropolitan downtown. The university has 3,500 faculty members, 18 graduate schools, 19 colleges and 131 subsidiary institutions. Two-thirds of Yonsei's faculty holds doctorates from U.S. institutions.

Purdue ranks second among U.S. public institutions in international student enrollment academic year and is fifth in the nation among all institutions, according to the Institute of International Education. Of the 4,994 international students enrolled at Purdue in fall 2007, there were 818 students from South Korea, behind only India's 1,182 students.

Writer:  Phillip Fiorini, (765) 496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu 

Sources: Pankaj Sharma, (765) 496-7452, sharma@purdue.edu

Charles Buck, (765) 494-2208, cbuck@purdue.edu

Lee Young-Hoon, (82) 10-3596-46

Lee Jin-Young, (82) 10-6500-6432

Kang Min-Seok, (82) 10-3117-6363

Lee Joo-won, (82) 10-5101-8888

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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