[Edaily Reporter Choi Oh-hyun ] SamsungElectronics hosted “SPARK 2026,” an integrated industry-academia exchange event, to broaden its industry-academia collaboration with domestic universities and jointly explore future directions for semiconductor research.

SamsungElectronics announced on the 28th that it held the “SPARK 2026” integrated industry-academia exchange event on the 19th at “The UniverSE” in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. SPARK stands for “Samsung Partnership with Academia’s Research & Knowledge,” signifying the creation of innovation in the fields of semiconductor research and knowledge based on collaboration between SamsungElectronics’ Device Solutions (DS) Division and universities.

A total of 1,177 people attended the event, including representatives from 11 domestic universities currently engaged in industry-academia collaboration with SamsungElectronics, as well as faculty members from Stanford University in the U.S. SamsungElectronics has been expanding its industry-academia collaboration with domestic universities since 2016 and has been operating the exchange program as a unified event since last year, having previously held separate sessions for each university.

At this year’s event, 358 ongoing industry-academia research projects across six fields—△AI, △Design, △Process & Devices, △Software, △Infrastructure & Environment, and △Measurement & Analysis—were presented in poster format. University professors and researchers, along with SamsungElectronics executives and employees, shared research findings and trends in semiconductor technology and discussed ways to collaborate.

The “Tech Session,” held for the first time this year, featured professors delivering simultaneous lectures in separate venues, focusing on seven fields spanning the entire semiconductor spectrum. In the design session, under the theme “Chips for AI & AI for Chips: What’s Next?,” discussions centered on the limits of semiconductor miniaturization, chip performance in the AI era, design automation, and power and thermal management issues.

Professor Thomas Lee of Stanford University presented research on “coupled oscillator networks,” which connect multiple oscillators to solve problems using less energy than conventional computing methods, addressing the rapid increase in energy consumption in computing. In the process and device sector, next-generation semiconductor technologies—including back-side power delivery (BSPDN), silicon photonics-based photonic integrated circuits (PIC), CPO (Co-Packaged Optics), and advanced packaging—were covered as key agenda items.

In the AI session, participants discussed next-generation technologies—such as generative AI, Agent AI, and world models—and their potential applications in the semiconductor manufacturing sector. Professor Kang Seok-ju of Sogang University, Professor Oh Tae-hyun of KAIST, and Professor Cho Min-soo of POSTECH presented on related research and future directions for technological development.

SamsungElectronics also held an awards ceremony that day to recognize outstanding industry-academia collaboration papers and patents. A total of 43 recipients were honored, including 9 Encouragement Award winners, 12 Excellence Award winners, 9 Grand Prize winners, and 13 Outstanding Patent Award winners.

Lee Jong-myung, Vice President of SamsungElectronics’ Semiconductor Research Institute, stated, “Industry-academia collaboration is essential to solving the complex technical challenges that have emerged in the AI era,” adding, “We expect the industry to accurately define the problems demanded by the market and customers, and the academic community to provide diverse ideas and core technologies to solve them.”