IE School of Science and Technology builds bridges Europe-Asia at South Summit Korea

IE School of Science and Technology took center stage at the first ever South Summit Korea event that focused on Artificial Intelligence and Deep Tech and brought together more then 80 of the world’s leading voices in the field.

The event was held from September 25th to 27th last weekend at the Suwon Convention Center in the Gyeonggi Province of South Korea.

IE University CEO Diego Del Alcázar inaugurated the South Summit Korea 2024, which kicked off Sept. 25 at the Suwon Convention Center in the Gyeonggi Province, with president and founder of South Summit María Benjumea. Alcázar then held a fireside chat about "Startup 101: Student Life to Entrepreneurial Success" with Eric Sim, author of the book Small Actions: Leading Your Career To Big Success.

Vice Dean of IE School of Science and Technology Geoffroy Gerard spoke on the Tech Transfer Panel: The Europe Asia Bridge accompanied by Ryo Kawashima Deputy Director of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Guido Albanse COO of Koralo, and Seungjae Baek Adjunct Professor at UNIST. Together they explored how technology and innovation are exchanged between Europe and Asia with practical insights on upcoming challenges and finding solutions in the tech transfer process, as well as the importance of international partnerships, the effects of policies and regulations, emerging market trends, and future opportunities for collaboration.

The panel was broken into segments that included Technological Aspects, Culture and Innovation, Cross-Collaboration, Investments, Ecosystems and Educations. Over the 40 minutes the industry leaders discussed the importance of technical adjustments when moving tech between regions, the cultural dimension and challenges when making cross-border tech transfers, the importance of private-public co-investments for innovation, the rapid growth of exponential technologies, their personal insights and experiences in the field and finally their wishes for the future of innovation in science and tech.

"We need to empower more innovation out of the labs of our universities, we need to go from from discovery to development" said Geoffroy Gérard “cross-collaboration, and cross-learning are key in that endeavor and that’s why our school engage in partners networks like Rise Europe or great events as South Summit"

Out of the 80 top speakers, 32% were representatives of startups and scaleups, these included LottieFlies, Asteroid Technologies, DeepX, Rebelellions.AI, Paddle, and Quadratic VC among others. The summit was not only the stage for speakers, but for 30 finalist startups of the Startup Competition. The finalists competed for the title of best start up in the fields of Deep Tech and Artificial Intelligence.

Among the finalists were 3 Spanish startups, one of which is based in Madrid. The winners of the competition were Aqarios: a quantum computing company,  VSL labs: a generative AI startup dedicated to revolutionizing Sign Language translation, Tumi Robotics:a startup committed to using robotic solutions and AI to explore and digitize extreme environments and Norma. The global winner was Dtonic, a startup that's mission is to accelerate big data processing across smart-x industries.

The South Summit Korea will be followed by an edition in Brazil on April 9th - 11th 2025 and in Madrid from June 4th - 6th 2025. For IE students interested in Deep Tech and AI this is an  opportunity to learn from industry experts and network with leaders in the field. There is also the opportunity to volunteer at South Summit Madrid where individuals would support logistics, help speakers, gain invaluable experience, get an accredited certification and learn firsthand how the startup world works.