The South Korean Government is planning to utilize “artificial intelligence (AI)” in order to develop the country’s material, component and equipment industries. It will look to standardize data related to the industries and establish a “virtual engineering platform” based on AI. Also, it plans to apply “AI workflow” from material selection to process development stage in order to drastically reduce time and cost required for commercialization. It is expected that efforts by industries, universities, government agencies, and research institutes to be independent from foreign countries on various materials, components, and equipment since the Japanese Government imposed export restrictions on South Korea last year will create synergy through AI.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) recently begun working on standardizing data in material, component and equipment industries with key organizations that are related to these industries. The main goal of the standardization is to unify data that is scattered throughout in various forms based on certain criteria and apply the data to AI solutions.
“AI will be used in establishing a management system with data related to the industries.” said a spokesperson from the industry. “This process will take some time considering the fact that we are dealing with an enormous amount of data.”

Photo Image

Building of AI-based platform for the three industries will be part of the MOTIE’s “Virtual Engineering Platform Construction project”. The ministry has conducted product development stage of companies in the industries virtually through simulation software (SW) and focused on coming up with optimal production process. It has expanded the range of the project to the “material innovation data” field. AI will be used to analyze database that is stored in virtual engineering platform and prepare a system that recommends optimal process based on one’s conditions. SW-based virtual engineering platform has been supporting 191 companies through 53 simulation software. As a result, there has been a reduction of $3.66 million (4.32 billion KRW) in product development costs and a decrease in average development period by about 35.2%.
It is expected that AI-based platform will be able to provide simulations that are more accurate than SW-based platform and help companies reduce their product development costs and period even more. This is because AI can be used for various purposes such as material design, property prediction, process design, interpretation of parts and finished products, and reliability evaluation related to property and lifespan.
It is heard that the MOTIE has secured tens of millions of dollars in budget until the end of next year regarding the project. It is expected that the ministry will try to speed up standardization and securement of data on materials and components in order to implement AI learning in major industries such as chemistry, metal, ceramic, and fiber.
AI-based platform is expected to play a key role in the “Materials, Parts and Equipment 2.0” strategy that is being carried out by the entire government as digital transformation and contactless ways have recently emerged as important keywords throughout industries due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Staff Reporter Yun, Heeseok | pioneer@etnews.com