Grants and Writing Resources for Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
At the IEEE International Conference on Data Mining in November 2025, one paper out of 785 submissions took the Best Paper Award, and it came from KAIST's Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI. Two master's students and two PhD students wrote it with their professor. It was the first time in 23 years that a Korean university team had won the prize.
Research as an Undergraduate
KAIST undergraduates can propose their own research topic and carry it out with a faculty advisor and teaching assistants through the Undergraduate Research Participation Program (URP). Long-term projects receive 4 to 5 million KRW in research funds plus a 1.2 to 1.5 million KRW scholarship. Shorter winter and spring projects receive 2 to 2.5 million KRW and a scholarship of 800,000 KRW to 1 million KRW. Since 2006 the program has supported about 1,200 projects, which have produced about 100 papers, patents, competition awards and conference presentations.
The Global Leadership Center runs the KAIST Presidential Fellowship (KPF) for a small group of top undergraduates. Fellows get support for overseas summer programs and training, preference in URP, mentor professors, and a KPF note on their academic record.
The Writing Center
The KAIST Writing Center, part of the Korean Language Education Center, runs a placement level test each spring and autumn for the required essay course. It also offers one-on-one consultations. Students can bring coursework essays, personal statements for graduate school or job applications, or ask for an intensive session that assesses their writing and trains them in method. Online proofreading is open to students and staff.
Students and staff can also sit in on lectures on Korean orthography and usage rules, given each spring and autumn.
Writing Contests and Student Newspapers
The humanities faculty started 내사카나사카, short for "The KAIST I Loved, the KAIST That Loved Me" writing contest, in 2012, and its rounds have taken themes such as dormitory life, great lectures and the best science fiction. Winning entries from each round are collected in a published anthology. A separate Photo Essay Contest asks students to pair a photograph with a reflective essay, and the results posted on its page list a grand prize, five excellence awards and 29 encouragement awards.
The KAIST Herald is a monthly English-language newspaper published by KAIST undergraduates, with junior staff reporters as well as editors. Korean-language reporting runs in the KAIST Times (카이스트신문), which takes reader columns too.
Submitting a Thesis
Master's and doctoral students may write in Korean or English. Under KAIST's Guidelines on Completion and Submission of Dissertations, the final file is uploaded through the Thesis Submission service on the library website and bound copies go to the department office. The author decides whether the electronic version is made public, and a closed version needs stated reasons and a time limit.
When a paper, thesis, or dissertation is ready for a final edit, our editors can help. See our Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology dissertation and thesis editing and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.
From Our Writing Guides
Compiled by James Peterson Brown, PhD, Managing Editor of Editors For Students. Links checked October 2026.
Editors For Students is an independent editorial service and is not affiliated with Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your KAIST writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.