On January 2, Hanyang University ERICA (President Lee Ki-jeong) announced that it signed a 'Joint Cooperation Agreement for Ansan Science Valley ("ASV" hereafter) Robot Industry Promotion' with Ansan City, leading Korea's robotics and manufacturing industry and related organizations, on December 28, at Hanyang University ERICA Convention Center.

This agreement was made to make ASV Korea's representative robot industry R&D industry complex so that it can lead the Banwol-Sihwa National Industrial Complex, the largest complex in the metropolitan area, as a high-end manufacturing innovative ecosystem and to be named finally as a high-end robot and manufacturing centered economic free zone.

Especially, six robotics SMEs from southern Gyeonggi Province including Gun Solution (CEO Kim Sam-sung), Daeho CNC (CEO Yoo Hyo-sang), WTM (CEO Kim Young-nam), Assembly Fastening Systems (CEO Seo Jae-hyeong), Korea R&D (CEO Park Beom-yeol), and Hexar Human Care (CEO Han Chang-soo) made an investment agreement for the ASV with Ansan City.

Last May, Hanyang University ERICA officially launched a working-level council between local government, university, and robot-related organizations to realize robot city Ansan and showed a step-earlier move for intelligent robot field talent cultivation by opening a training center for working-level human resources, K-High Tech Joint Training Center and Doosan Robotics Cooperative Robot Education Center at the Gyeonggi Technopark.

At this agreement ceremony, a total of twelve organizations including Mayor Lee Min-geun of Ansan City, Vice President Lee Ki-hyung of Hanyang University ERICA Industry-University Cooperation Foundation, Director Son Woong-hee of Korea Institute for Robot Industry Advancement, Full-time Vice President Cho Yeong-hoon of Korea Association of Robot Industry, President Lee Seong-ho of Ansan Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Director Yoo Dong-jun of Gyeonggi Technopark, Director Lee Sang-mok of Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, Director Kim Se-jong of Korea Testing Laboratory, Director Kim Nam-gyun of Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute, Director Seo Sang-gi of Rural Research Institute, Vice Director Lee Joo-han of Korea University Ansan Hospital, and Director Lee Byeong-cheol of Korea SMEs and Startups Agency, took place. 

Hanyang University ERICA, through this agreement, decided to make the ASV a high-end robot industrial complex that leads an innovative growth of Korea by ▲ cooperating in the promotion of the ASV into an economic free zone, ▲ preparing and operating intelligence robot test beds, ▲ human resources for high-end robot and manufacturing cultivation, ▲ co-researching high-end robot and manufacturing, ▲ industry-university cooperation and international cooperation, and ▲ technology support for robot companies.

Before this agreement ceremony, Director Park Tae-joon (Professor at the Department of Robotics) of the Shared AI-Robotics Education Center presented the established six core promotion plans and how they were carried out in the previous year for robot City Ansan. Also, as this year's core promotion plans, he presented the expansion and establishment of intelligence robot testbed infrastructure together with ASV organizations including Ansan City and Gyeonggi Technopark, the establishment of robot and AI specialized education center, and the designation of ASV as a free economic zone that specializes in high tech robot and manufacturing.

Vice President of Hanyang University ERICA Campus Lee Ki-hyeong said in his ceremonial speech at the joint cooperation agreement ceremony, "Hanyang University, as the best intelligence robot specialized university, will tightly cooperate with Ansan City, the ASV, and its relevant organizations to continuously establish high-tech robot and manufacturing infrastructure so that we can support Ansan City to have more high-tech robot companies and further, to have the ASV designated as a free economic zone."

In the meantime, Hanyang University ERICA has been cultivating intelligence robot core human talent cultivation, together with Kwangwoon University, Pukyong National University, 
Sangmyung University, Yeungjin University, Chosun University, and the Tech University of Korea, as a managing university of the Innovative Convergence University Project in the Advanced Field of Intelligent Robotics, supported by the Ministry of Education and the National Research Foundation for six years, from 2021 to 2026.

Also, by signing a memorandum with Ansan City, Gyeonggi Technopark, Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, Korea Testing Laboratory, Korea Institute of Robotics & Technology Convergence, and Doosan Robotics, and being supported by K-High-Tech Platform Project that the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Human Resources Development Service of Korea support for five years from 2023 to 2027, it provides a free course for intelligence robot professional cultivation course for free, for general people, job seekers, and cooperative robot field workers.