In a move to take the lead in future transportation and smart city agendas, Gyeonggi Province will host an open forum inviting information technology experts and interested citizens, officials said.

The Bigdata Initiative of Gyeonggi Forum 2016, or the B.I.G. Forum, is to take place in the Gyeonggi Creative Economy Innovation Center and the Pangyo Start-up Campus on Wednesday and Thursday, according to the provincial government.

The event, titled “The Innovation of Autonomous Vehicles and the Future Smart City,” is co-hosted by Gyeonggi Province and Seoul National University, and supervised by the Gyeonggi Content Agency and SNU’s Advanced Institutes of Convergence Technology.

Its official sponsors are the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, and the Ministry of Interior.

The two-day session is scheduled to start with a keynote speech by Gyeonggi Gov. Nam Kyung-pil, followed by international experts in automobile and information technology.

Participants include Fawzi Nashashibi, director of the robotics and intelligent transportation system team at France’s national IT institute INRIA, Li Keqiang, professor and chair of Tsinghua University’s department of automotive engineering, and Martin Woehrle, director of BMW Korea’s Research & Development Center.

On the first day, the forum will focus largely on discussing the changes that autonomous vehicles have brought upon modern society, as well as the technology needed to establish a big data-based smart city model.

A session will also look at “Pangyo Zero City,” an upcoming technology district where Gov. Nam has pledged to realize zero levels of regulations, accidents, carbon emissions and environmental pollution.

On the second day, there will be a seminar to share a vision of the future based on autonomous transportation and smart city technology. There will also be events such as a startup champion contest and an AI-human omok (a kind of board game) battle.

Throughout the two-day period, simulation driving tracks will be available for visitors to experience autonomous vehicles.

Those who wish to participate may register themselves, either online or at the site, free of charge. For details of the event, visit the website http://www.bigforum.or.kr or call the headquarters at 031-5171-5300.

By Bae Hyun-jung(


koreaherald@heraldcorp.com