All seven startups recommended by UNIST Holdings Co., Ltd. for the 2026 Tech Incubator Program for Startup (TIPS) under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) have been selected for government R&D support. Five companies were selected for the TIPS General Track—Guardian AI, COFA, NU, SMCC, and Quantize Labs—while Ternell and Cheongmyeong Advanced Materials were selected for Deep Tech TIPS. Ternell is a UNIST faculty startup, while Quantize Labs was founded by a UNIST student; the other five companies were identified from outside the university. TIPS combines private investment with government R&D funding. Designated operators invest in and recommend startups, which then undergo government evaluation. In 2026, General Track companies can receive up to KRW 800 million over two years, while Deep Tech TIPS provides up to KRW 1.5 billion over three years. The two Deep Tech selections extend UNIST Holdings' involvement beyond initial investment. It participated in follow-on investment in Ternell before recommending the company for Deep Tech TIPS and also recommended Cheongmyeong Advanced Materials after its completion of the General Track. UNIST Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of UNIST, became Ulsan's second TIPS operator in 2025. Its current and planned funds total KRW 38.6 billion, which the company plans to leverage for follow-on investment and international expansion. “These companies now have a foundation to turn their technological potential into business results,” said Tae-Gyu Han, Director of UNIST Holdings. “We will work closely with them as they meet their R&D goals and strengthen their competitiveness in the market.” “Startups built on university research can bring new momentum to industry,” said UNIST President Chong Rae Park. “We will continue to support researchers and students pursuing entrepreneurship and create an environment where one success can lead to the next.”

UNIST marked its 19th anniversary on September 22, with President Chong Rae Park calling on the university to think bigger as it looks to its next stage of growth. In his anniversary address, President Park pointed to UNIST's relative youth as a strength—one that should encourage greater ambition in research, education, and its engagement with industry and society. “We are still a young university, and that gives us every reason to dream bigger and take on bold challenges,” President Park said. “Innovation that begins here in Southeastern Korea can strengthen the nation, while what we accomplish with partners around the world can contribute to a better future for humanity.” Founded with a mission to strengthen Ulsan's industrial base and educate future scientists and engineers with global reach, UNIST continues to pursue that mission through its “UNIque & beST, Science & Technology NEXUS” vision, connecting research, industry, and talent across traditional boundaries. The anniversary program also highlighted UNIST's major achievements in 2026 and recognized faculty, staff, students, and teams for contributions across research, education, industry collaboration, and university service. Han Gi Chae, Director of the Office of Budget and Planning, presented the university's progress over the past year and outlined priorities for 2027. Three faculty members received Outstanding Faculty Awards. Professor Jungho Im of the Department of Civil, Earth, and Environmental Engineering was recognized for research; Professor Taejoon Kwon of the Department of Biomedical Engineering for education; and Professor Changwook Jeong of the Graduate School of Semiconductor Materials and Components for industry collaboration. Professor Im was honored for his leadership as an international journal editor and principal investigator of a major interdisciplinary research program. Professor Kwon was recognized for developing educational programs connecting medicine and engineering, while Professor Jeong was honored for advancing industry partnerships and securing privately funded research. Awards also recognized staff, students, and university teams for their contributions to the UNIST community. Kyu Hwan Shim of the U Institute for Future Strategies received the top staff award. Top excellence honors went to staff members from the IP Management Team, Development Fund Team, Startup Incubation Team, and General Affairs Team. Eleven additional staff members received excellence awards, representing the Educational Affairs Team, Department of Nuclear Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Health Care Center, Student Affairs Team, Planning Team, Planning and Operation Team, Academic Planning Team, Finance Team, Leadership Center, and Budget Team. Student honors went to 10 individuals and one nine-member team, representing the School of Business Administration, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Industrial Engineering, Department of Chemistry, School of Exploratory Studies, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Department of Nuclear Engineering, and Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Six university units—the Academic Affairs Team, IT Strategy Team, Planning Team, Research Planning Team, Regional Industry Innovation Team, and Development Fund Team—were recognized for outstanding performance. The Human Resources Team received special awareness for strengthening internal controls and reducing costs. The ceremony concluded with a performance by Music Factory Delight: Ulsan Youth Union Percussion, a professional performing arts group designated by Ulsan Metropolitan City, bringing the university's 19th anniversary celebration to a close.

UNIST held its inaugural 2026 UNIST SEMI Research Day on September 21–22, bringing together undergraduate and graduate students to share research and explore work across the university’s semiconductor community. The two-day event featured 14 semiconductor laboratories and 31 student research posters, alongside networking and interactive programs designed to encourage exchange across research groups and disciplines. At the SEMI LAB SHOWCASE, participating laboratories presented their research areas and current work, giving students an opportunity to explore research beyond their own fields. The poster session featured 14 undergraduate projects from the Department of Semiconductor Engineering and the interdisciplinary semiconductor program, along with 17 graduate projects in semiconductor materials and components. Students presented their work to fellow researchers and other members of the UNIST community, with outstanding projects selected separately in undergraduate and graduate categories. Interactive programs complemented the research sessions, including a Networking Zone and activities that encouraged participants to visit laboratory exhibits and student posters. A semiconductor-themed keycap workshop provided a more informal setting for students to connect. “We hope Research Day gives students an opportunity to experience the breadth of semiconductor research at UNIST, understand one another’s work, and discover new areas of interest,” said Soo-Hyun Kim, Head of the Department of Semiconductor Engineering. “We will continue to expand exchange across laboratories and disciplines and develop the event as a forum for UNIST’s semiconductor research community.” The event was jointly organized by the Department of Semiconductor Engineering and UNIST semiconductor education programs supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Education.

UNIST will lead a five-and-a-half-year research project to develop security technologies for agentic AI, with a focus on preventing malicious inputs from manipulating how AI agents make decisions and carry out tasks. The project has been selected for the 2026 AI Star Fellowship , supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) and the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP). A consortium, led by UNIST will receive KRW 11 billion in government funding through December 2031, working with Sungkyunkwan University and three AI and cybersecurity companies. Professor Hyungon Moon, Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, will lead the project. The UNIST team also includes Professors Seongil Wi, Minkyung Park, Saerom Park, and Hyungho Na, alongside researchers from Sungkyunkwan University and industry partners SecuLayer, S2W, and RaonData. Agentic AI systems can use large language models (LLMs) to read documents, search the web, access external tools, and carry out tasks. These capabilities also introduce security risks: malicious inputs can manipulate an agent's decisions and potentially influence the actions it takes. Current defenses often protect individual components separately, for example by detecting malicious inputs or isolating execution environments. The research team will instead coordinate safeguards across the model, interface, and execution environment, creating multiple lines of defense so that an attack that bypasses one layer can still be contained at another. The consortium will pursue three projects addressing security challenges across these layers and test the resulting technologies in services operated by its industry partners. Professor Moon's group brings expertise spanning systems security and AI, including trusted execution environments (TEEs), formal verification, knowledge distillation, and methods for evaluating the performance and limitations of deepfake defenses. Its systems security research has been presented at major international conferences including USENIX Security and the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy. The project will also train early-career researchers working at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity, while seeking to expand the use of AI agents in settings where security concerns have limited their adoption. “Securing agentic AI requires more than protecting the model itself; the pathways through which inputs enter the system and the environments in which actions are executed must also be protected,” said Professor Moo, Chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. “Through this project, we aim to develop core security technologies spanning all three layers and train researchers who can help advance the safe use of agentic AI.”

Students at UNIST brought low-carbon behaviours into their Chuseok celebrations this September, connecting sustainable travel with one of Korea's most important traditional holidays. and traditions into opportunities for everyday climate action. Held on September 22, 2026 UNIST REBOOT 2: The Chuseok Green Bridge Project brought together more than 80 Korean and international students for activities combining sustainable choices with the spirit of the holiday. The event was organized by the Graduate School of Carbon Neutrality in collaboration with the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering. The program builds on the first UNIST REBOOT campaign held in June, when more than 180 students took part in a five-day sustainability challenge and 87 completed all missions to become Net-Zero Masters. While the first campaign focused broadly on changing carbon-intensive habits, REBOOT 2 brought the concept into the Chuseok holiday period. Students were encouraged to document low-carbon choices, including the use of public transportation for holiday travel, and share their Chuseok wishes through an interactive sticker board. Participants also received holiday snack kits, while selected wish-board entries earned gifts intended for students to share with their parents. International students joined the activities alongside their Korean peers, adding a cross-cultural dimension to a program rooted in one of Korea's major holidays. “This second REBOOT project brought our two academic units together and was made possible by the enthusiastic participation of our students,” said Dong Suk Kim, Dean of the Graduate School of Carbon Neutrality. “We will continue to develop campus programs that reflect student ideas while making sustainability both meaningful and engaging.”

UNIST and DGIST brought approximately 600 students together on September 12 for their first joint student festival, combining interuniversity sports with performances and student-led activities across the UNIST campus. The inaugural 2026 UNIST×DGIST Student Festival drew approximately 400 students from UNIST and 200 from DGIST. Soccer, basketball, badminton, and esports competitions were held alongside club performances, student-run booths, and exchange programs. UNIST won the soccer match 5–0, while DGIST prevailed 37–24 in basketball and 3–1 in esports. DGIST also won all three badminton matches, including two men's doubles events and one mixed doubles event. Students from both universities filled the stands throughout the day, cheering on their teams. The program extended beyond athletics. Student clubs from both universities performed on campus, while booths and activities organized by students created additional opportunities for participants to meet and interact. The festival was planned and organized by the student unions of both universities, with students taking the lead in developing the sports and cultural programs. UNIST and DGIST plan to build on the inaugural event by expanding student exchanges and establishing the festival as a regular fixture between the two institutions. At the opening ceremony, Seung Geol Lee, Dean of Student Affairs at UNIST, described the event as a first step toward a lasting relationship between the two universities. He encouraged students to look beyond the results of the competitions and use the occasion to build connections through shared experiences. “Organizing the event for the first time brought plenty of challenges, but seeing UNIST and DGIST students compete, cheer, and come together made it all worthwhile,” said MinSeo Kim, Director of External Relations for the UNIST Undergraduate Student Union. HwanKyo Jung, Chair of the Emergency Committee of the UNIST Undergraduate Student Union, said the lack of a previous model meant organizers had to build the event from the ground up. He thanked the student representatives from both universities who contributed to the preparations and said hosting the inaugural event at UNIST made the occasion particularly meaningful.

UNIST Department of Nuclear Engineering has earned recognition for both workforce development and student achievement. Two nuclear energy training programs were selected as outstanding projects, while a doctoral researcher was honored for research on the long-term safety of spent-fuel storage materials. A program, led by Professor In Cheol Bang was recognized for its training of master's and doctoral students in the next-generation nuclear technologies and intellectual property. Students integrate patent analysis and IP strategy into research on advanced reactor safety systems, structural materials for extreme environments, and intelligent operation and safety-support technologies. Working with industry partners, including Hyundai Engineering & Construction and HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, the program incorporate industry needs into research and training and provides students with experience at research institutes. To date, it has produced 19 SCI(E)-indexed papers, 49 intellectual property applications, and 14 master's and doctoral graduates. Another program, involving Professor Ji Hyun Kim's research group was recognized for its approach to nuclear workforce development. Led by Pusan National University, the initiative brings together seven universities across Southeastern Korea, combining shared curriculum with industry research and internships. Training spans advanced reactors, nuclear components and equipment, research reactors and radiation applications, radioactive waste, and environmental remediation. Recognition for Professor Kim's group also extended to student research. DaeHyeon Park, a doctoral researcher in the group, received the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) President's Award in the Regional Talent category at the 2026 Climate and Energy Job Fair and Energy Innovation Talent Forum on August 25, 2026. Park studies borated stainless steel (BSS), a neutron-absorbing material used in spent nuclear fuel storage to prevent criticality accidents. Because storage facilities operate for decades, assessing whether the material retains its function after prolonged corrosion is important to long-term safety. Park conducted a two-year accelerated corrosion test at 250°C, simulating approximately 60 years of storage conditions. The study identified general surface corrosion, early-stage localized corrosion, and selective oxidation of boron-containing secondary phases. Microstructural analysis also revealed how boron and chromium leach from the material and oxide layers from over time, providing data for assessing the long-term integrity and service life of neutron-absorbing materials. Park published the research in the Journal of Materials Research and Technology last year and filed two patent applications related to the simulation and evaluation of spent-fuel storage environments. He also received a Best Presentation Paper Award at the Spring Conference of Korean Radioactive Waste Society. “Spent-fuel storage facilities operate for decades, so it is important to understand not only short-term material performance, but also how materials change over extended periods,” Park said. “This research sought to characterize long-term degradation experimentally and connect those findings to safety assessments of actual storage facilities.” Professor Kim said the work goes beyond characterizing corrosion to address the long-term integrity and safety of neutron-absorbing materials. “We hope to expand this research from predicting long-term degradation in spent-fuel storage materials to developing new neutron-absorbing structures, contributing to nuclear safety and spent-fuel management.” Professor Bang's project is supported by KETEP with funding from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), while the collaborative project involving Professor Kim's group is supported through MOTIE and KETEP's energy workforce development initiative.

UNIST has received more than 10,000 early admission applications for the first time since its founding, setting a new record for the 2027 undergraduate intake. A total of 11,211 applications were received for 565 places, resulting in an overall applicant-to-place ratio of 19.84:1. Applications increased 41.6% from 7,919 last year and have more than doubled from 5,359 for the 2022 intake. The Department of Semiconductor Engineering, operated in partnership with Samsung Electronics, recorded the highest applicant-to-place ratio. The program received 3,940 applications for 35 places, reaching 112.57:1, compared with 70.51:1 last year. The newly introduced GRIT Talent Admission Track received 248 applications for 10 places, with an applicant-to-place ratio of 24.8:1. The track is designed to identify students who demonstrate sustained commitment to a particular field, creative insight, and an ability to connect ideas across disciplines. The general admissions track received 8,975 applications for 380 places, recording a ratio of 23.62:1, up from 19.96:1 last year. The opportunity-based admissions track received 1,099 applications for 40 places, with a ratio of 27.48:1. “Universities in the AI era must help students develop the ability to formulate their own questions, persevere through failure, and find their own answers,” said UNIST President Chong Rae Park. “We will continue to create an environment where students can develop creative insight and learn to connect ideas across disciplines.”

The rapid growth of generative AI and large language models is pushing up both computing demand and power consumption. A new UNIST project will explore whether more of that computation can be performed with light, reducing the energy required for data movement and signal processing in conventional electronic AI hardware. Led by Professor Il-Sug Chung of the Department of Electrical Engineering, with Professors Jongeun Lee and Heein Yoon as co-investigators, the project has received KRW 9 billion in government funding for research from 2026 through 2030. UNIST will lead the project in collaboration with Lambda Innovation. The team will integrate lasers, photonic integrated circuits (PICs), and electronic integrated circuits (EICs) into a single photonic-electronic computing system. Directly modulated vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) will generate high-speed optical signals, while optical interference will perform core neural network computations with less reliance on energy-intensive electronic data movement. To scale the architecture, the researchers will combine time-division multiplexing with optical signal distribution, allowing a limited number of physical optical channels to process larger numbers of inputs and weights. The project will also address one of the central challenges in photonic neural networks: nonlinear activation. Optical systems can perform linear operations such as matrix multiplication efficiently, but nonlinear operations often require electronic post-processing. The team will instead exploit nonlinear effects arising from coherent optical interference and detection, reducing the need to move between optical and electronic processing. The researchers aim to demonstrate an integrated system with approximately 100 optical channels and an energy efficiency of 100 trillion operations per second per watt (100 TOPS/W) at the optical computing core. Light sources, PICs, EICs, packaging, system boards, and AI algorithms will be co-designed to support larger AI workloads. “Meeting the computational demands of generative AI will require new approaches that move beyond the energy-efficiency limits of conventional electronic processors,” said Professor Chung. “By integrating lasers, photonic circuits, and electronic circuits, we aim to establish core technologies for the next generation of AI computing hardware.” The project extends Chung's work in heterogeneous photonic-electronic integration. Since 2025, his team has led a separate KRW 11 billion national project to develop an all-in-one frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) LiDAR chip and system, integrating lasers, silicon photonics, electronic circuits, and optical transmit-and-receive components. While the LiDAR project applies photonic-electronic integration to 3D sensing, the new project extends the technology to AI computing. The two efforts will provide a technology base spanning sensing and computation, with potential applications in autonomous systems, robotics, physical AI, aerospace, and defense.