“Increasing International Recognition through Cooperative Research with Foreign Companies” First in Korea to Hire International Full-time Faculty Globalization Efforts Including Accreditation Program and International Internship Programs “Quality Counts More than Quantity” TMS stands for Telecommunication, Multimedia, and SoC. SoC is the abbreviation of the phrase “System on Chip”, which means realizing an entire system within a single chip. The School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering TMS Information Technology Center aims to fuse telecommunication and multimedia technology with this SoC technology. The MIT School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering was named the top institution in the world by the US News and World Report. However, the number of articles published by MIT ranked 10th. This means that “best institution” does not equal “most articles”. The TMS Center is led by Professor Yoon Young-joong. “The important thing is not to publish a lot of articles but to publish articles of high quality,” Professor Yoon points out. “The recent stampede of Korean universities trying to publish articles in international journals has resulted in low expectations regarding the quality of research conducted in Korea.” Top Level for SCI Articles and Research Funds In Korea, the TMS Center is ranked second for industrial funding, third for governmental funding, and sixth for SCI and IF scores. However, patent and technology transfer related numbers have been sharply rising recently. Internationally, the TMS Center is in the 30th to 40th range. The average number of SCI articles per participating faculty is 4.5, and the average IF was 4.0. The number of SCI articles and research funds are in the 10th place range. However, the Center believes that low peer review scores due to low level of international familiarity with the Center’s name caused the Center’s ranking to drop. First in Korea to Hire International Full-Time Faculty – Moving Toward Globalization This has caused the TMS Center to fortify efforts to increase global standing. The first goal is to realize inbound and outbound globalization. In 2006, the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering hired Professor Toh Kar Ann. An employment notice was recently placed in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) journal Spectrum. “Publishing this notice greatly helped to increase the international community’s awareness of both Yonsei University and our department,” states Professor Yoon. “Rather than inviting famous scholars to come to Yonsei and hold week-long seminars, it is much better to hire full-time faculty to teach courses.” Recruiting international students is also important. Professor Yoon believes international dorms and scholarships are efficient strategies for achieving this purpose. Long-term opportunities for students to train at an international institution are also important. The School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering has an exchange agreement with Illinois State University which gives students and faculty members valuable opportunities. Active student participation is also crucial. International Research Cooperation and Academic-Industrial Activities Within the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, various research centers coexist, making international research cooperation and industrial cooperation possible. In 2000, an international research cooperation agreement was reached with Qualcomm, creating a synergy effect in research. Through the Accreditation Board for Engineering Education of Korea (ABEEK) system, the School has changed its undergraduate curriculum, creating a better environment in which to train qualified research personnel Pioneering Areas of Research Director Yoon’s closing remarks emphasized the importance of the future. “Research facilities, student scholarships, research funding, practical courses, and professional education are essential if the Center is to reach its goals. The world of IT is a rapidly changing one. While the focus has been on communication and IT, in the future we must move into new areas created by merging different technologies, such as the BT-IT field.”