KAIST

< (From left) Professor Sukyoung Ryu from the KAIST School of Computing; Beomgyu Lee, CEO of TeamSparta; Jae-Gil Lee, Dean of the KAIST School of Computing >

KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced on the 16th of July that Beomgyu Lee, CEO of AI education company TeamSparta, donated 100 million KRW (approximately $66,000 as of July 2026) to the School of Computing to support a research program centered on the use of generative AI agents.

With the support of this donation, KAIST plans to run a two-year program enabling master’s and doctoral researchers from all departments to use generative AI agents. Participating researchers will receive access to the latest AI development agents, including Claude Code and Codex, along with related training and regular seminars.

The donation ceremony was held on the 15th of July at KAIST's main campus in Daejeon and was attended by Beomgyu Lee; Jae-Gil Lee, Dean of the KAIST School of Computing; and Professor Sukyoung Ryu from the School of Computing. This marks Lee’s second private contribution, following his first donation in September 2025.

The program will operate in six-month cycles, with 20 researchers selected for each cohort. KAIST aims to select the first cohort by the end of 2026 and plans to gradually expand both the scope of support and donor participation.

The program is meaningful in that, amid the rapid spread of generative AI across research settings, it lays the groundwork for KAIST researchers to be early adopters of cutting-edge AI tools and apply them to their research. In particular, the program is expected to foster a new research culture in which master’s and doctoral researchers actively incorporate AI agents into their research workflows and share their experiences with one another.

“I sincerely thank alumnus Beomgyu Lee for once again making a meaningful contribution in support of junior researchers,” said KAIST President Choongsik Bae. “His generous commitment will provide a strong foundation for researchers to actively use generative AI and pursue new research challenges. KAIST will continue to provide sustained support so that researchers can produce creative and innovative outcomes in the best possible environment during this era of AI transformation.”

“AI agents have already become a new standard across industry, and I was concerned that researchers who will lead the development of future technologies were unable to make full use of them because of the associated costs,” said Beomgyu Lee. “I hope this support will help researchers freely use cutting-edge AI tools to help produce world-class research outcomes.”

Professor Sukyoung Ryu from the KAIST School of Computing said, "I am deeply grateful to alumnus Beomgyu Lee for continuing to support junior researchers for a second year in a row." She added, “As generative AI agents are significantly enhancing research productivity and transforming approaches to problem-solving, I hope this program will encourage researchers to actively use the latest AI tools and foster a new culture of sharing their experiences.”

Jae-Gil Lee, Dean of the KAIST School of Computing, said, “We will actively support training and regular seminars so that researchers across all KAIST departments—not just the School of Computing—can use the latest generative AI agents in their research, allowing AI-driven research innovation to spread across the university.”