The No. 83 lecture of Tsinghua Information Forum was successfully held in Lecture Hall of FIT building on Apr. 16, 2012. Dr. Chang-Gyu Hwang, currently the National Chief Technology Officer and the President of the Strategic R&D Planning of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy in Korea, professional in semiconductor gave a talk on “SMARTOPIA inspires the next big thing!” The fusion of technology - the merging of IT, BT, NT on the silicon technology platform - has already started. Now, all digital devices are moving towards an integrated form as his Second Ladder “Fusion Technology”. The ultimate future that we are currently pursuing is, what he might call, the “SMARTOPIA”, which is located on the peak of his three ladders. All the attendees could shared a vision of what the “SMARTOPIA” might look like in the future, and what initiatives the world is currently undertaking to climb up to Hwang’s 3rd Ladder. This lecture was hosted by Prof. Zhisheng Niu, and more than 100 faculty members and students attended this lecture.

Dr. Hwang joined Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. in 1989 after working at Intel and as a researcher associate at Stanford University. Dr. Hwang oversaw the development of the world’s first 256Mb DRAM in 1994 and world’s first NAND Flash in 1999. He contributed to the creation of new markets for semiconductor industry in mobile and consumer electronics, and in 2004, he was named President & CEO of Semiconductor Business. From 2008 to 2009, Dr. Hwang served ad the Chief Technology Officer of Samsung Electronics Co. In April, 2010, he was appointed the National Chief Technology Officer and the Head of the Office of Strategic R&D Planning, Ministry of Knowledge Economy after serving as an advisor to Samsung Electronics counseling on the research and development of Samsung Electronics’ future technologies. According to government protocol, his current position is a minister-level.