IBM Builds Research Center at Dogok-dong with 38 Billion Won

IBM announced on October 24 that they would make a contract with Institute of Information Technology Assessment (IITA) under the Ministry of Information and Communication to build an “Ubiquitous Computing Institute” with the 800 pyong’s building area at Dogok-dong, Kangnam-gu, Seoul.

According to IBM and the Ministry of Information and Communication, IBM and ITTA will put $16 million each (about 19 billion won) respectively, totaling $32 million (about 38 billion won) into the institute for the next four years, conducting the projects in which they will develop Internet network for vehicles, contents providing technology (telematics), the operating system for mobile instruments such as cellular phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), and programs (Embedded Software). IBM formerly collaborated with Hyundai Motors to develop telematics last year.

Dr. Lee Ho-su, who is the current chief in the technology Institute of IBM Korea and had been a researcher of the U.S. IBM Jobson Institute for 17 years, will become a head and the Institute will open with a staff of 70 researchers, including 10 researchers from Jobson Institute, 25 from the Technology Institute of IBM Korea, and 45 new employees in December. They will hire up to 100 more researchers.

Various expenses including maintenance costs will be covered by IBM, and the existing building will be used by lease.

This build-up of the IBM Institute is the second case in which multinational IT companies were lured to build its R&D center in Korea following Craig Barrett, the CEO of Intel, who on August 29 declared, “The R&D center will be built in Korea.” The process was done faster on account of a close relation to Jin Dae-je, the Minister of Information and Communication, who worked at the Jobson Institute from 1983 to 1985. Nick Donofrio, senior vice president of IBM, mentioned, “It was decided so because the IT infrastructure of Korea is superior.”

Seong-Yub Ra cpu@donga.com