NAVER LABS CEO Sangok Seok delivers a keynote speech at the Winter Enrichment Program(WEP) at KAUST, the “MIT of Saudi Arabia”
NAVER LABS CEO Sangok Seok delivers a keynote speech at the Winter Enrichment Program(WEP) at KAUST, the “MIT of Saudi Arabia”
On January 7, 2024, Sangok Seok, CEO of NAVER LABS, was invited to deliver a keynote speech at the Winter Enrichment Program (WEP) held at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia. This article addresses some of the highlights from his speech along with what it meant to participate in the event.
Seok takes the stage at the WEP, the Middle East's center of tech innovation with over 1 million attendees
Every January, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the biggest tech event of the world, attracts the attention of many companies. Instead of Las Vegas, NAVER LABS chose to visit Jeddah this year, a port city on the Red Sea coast, where King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is located.
Often referred to as the MIT of Saudi Arabia, KAUST is a prestigious engineering school that was recognized as number one in citations per faculty member, according to the Times Higher Education Rankings. It is considered the incubator of the leaders in science and technology in the Middle East. KAUST has conducted a workshop called the Winter Enrichment Program (WEP) every year since its establishment, attracting more than 1 million participants to date. It has been fostering synergy and innovation across multiple technologies.
NAVER LABS was invited to this year's WEP under the theme of “Digital Adventure – Ride to the Future.” Its CEO delivered a keynote speech titled “AI, Robot, Cloud and Digital Twin Technology for the New World.”
NAVER’s future technologies, ranging from robots and AI to digital twins, amazed all participants
▲ Sangok Seok, CEO of NAVER LABS, introducing NAVER's technology during the keynote speech at the WEP in Saudi Arabia
The speech mainly covered R&D topics such as digital twins, AI, cloud, robotics, and autonomous driving, where NAVER has long made extensive investments, as well as 1784, NAVER's headquarters, designed to be the world's first robot-friendly building, The CEO also addressed the cooperation with the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs of Saudi Arabia to build a digital twin platform last year.
The core technologies of digital twins drew significant attention, as they connect users in the physical world to the platform services. Those are “ALIKE,” which uses aerial photography and AI to generate core data, “ARC” (AI, Robot, Cloud), a multi-robot intelligence system, and the autonomous driving robot technology deployed in 1784 and Data Center GAK Sejong.
*Digital Twin : a virtual representation of the physical world
NAVER emerges as an up-and-coming player in the global IT scene
Whereas NAVER was lesser known in the Middle East, light has been shed on NAVER’s technologies after signing a contract with Saudi Arabia for the digital twin platform in October 2023. Recently, countries and companies around the globe have been paying phenomenal attention to NAVER.
The WEP at KAUST this year has laid a cornerstone for the long-term digital transformation cooperation between NAVER and Saudi Arabia. NAVER will unceasingly strive to develop technologies to demonstrate South Korea's competitiveness in the global IT market ●
