visual
Home > Academic > Academic Programs
Academic Programs
• College of Information Science & Technology

Department of Computer Science

URL : http://cs.kaist.ac.kr

 

Introduction

Since its establishment in 1971, the Department of Computer Science has produced more than 3,000 graduates (1,190 B.S; 1,517 M.S; and 471 Ph.D. as of Feb. 2009), which is a major pool of talents in the entire IT industry in Korea. The department curriculum covers all topics related to design, implementation, and application of the computer system hardware and software. Especially holding pervasive computing as the basic concept, the department focuses on interdisciplinary education and research. With its excellent faculty (49 faculty members as of December 2009) and state-of -art facilities, the department is actively involved in many types of government-funded and university-industry cooperation research projects and is committed to a leadership role in the field of computer science in the 21st century.

 

 

Research areas

In order to keep up with the ever-increasing advancement of the computer technology, the department is currently conducting creative and practical research in the following areas.

 

 

 

Awards

Kyu-Young Whang, Distinguished Professor of the department, is the one and only ACM, IEEE Fellow in Korea, and Kilnam Chon, Professor Emeritus, was named as ACM’s "100 Most Influential People in Computer Science". Furthermore, young professors of the department have received much attention from all over the world by receiving Microsoft Young Professorship Award, distinguished paper awards, Real-time System’s Best Paper Award, etc. The students have also proven their excellence by receiving ACM ICPC awards (frequently ranked the first in Asia) and other paper awards from various academic competitions and Microsoft Fellowships.

 

 

Career after graduation

Most graduates of the department advance to higher degree programs at KAIST or other universities, work as senior members or obtain positions of CEO level administrators in various companies and research institutes, and work as IT leaders of Government agencies. In addition, the graduates’ active involvement in start-up business has led to the listing of 8 companies on the Korean stock market and to the founding of some 80 venture companies.

 

The department as a creative business incubator has produced many renowned founding members of the computer-related companies, who have enhanced the prestige of Korea, such as Dr. Bum Chun Lee (one of the first KAIST doctoral graduates) of Qnix, the company that developed the world’s first computer operating in Korean and the world’s first laser printers in 1980s; Dr. Jin Ho Hur, CEO of Neowiz, the Korea’s first internet-supplying company; Sang Soo Oh, the founder of the world’s first internet phone DialPad; Hae Jin Lee of NHN (Next Human Network), the Naver internet search service company surpassing Google Korea; Jung Joo Kim of NEXON, Korea’s representative network game company; Young Dal Kim, CEO of IDIS (Intelligent Digital Integrated Security), the world’s # 1 DVR (Digital Video Recorder) company.

 

The department supplies professors and researchers to colleges and universities that offer courses and conduct research in computer science related topics. A high percentage of the graduates are not only employed as professors at Seoul National University, POSTECH and other universities in Korea but also working as researchers and professors at overseas universities such as Queen Mary, University of London. As mentioned above, the graduates have been playing a leading role in the development of national IT industry including Finance IT and Bio IT Industry as well as in cutting-edge research in the field of Computer Science.