GEEF

1. Background & Rationale

The Institute for Global Engagement and Empowerment (IGEE) at Yonsei University promotes interdisciplinary collaboration to address global challenges while advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through research, education, and international partnerships, IGEE focuses on equity, policy, and social responsibility to foster sustainable and inclusive global health solutions. The Yale Institute for Global Health (YIGH) advances research and practice aimed at reducing global health disparities through innovative, evidence-based approaches.

Immigration and ethnicity are critical determinants of health, shaping disease burden, access to care, and health outcomes worldwide. Migrant and ethnic minority populations often face structural barriers and disproportionate health risks, highlighting the importance of addressing these issues to achieve health-related SDGs.

This joint forum by IGEE Yonsei and YIGH brings together multidisciplinary experts to examine immigration, ethnicity, and the global burden of disease, with the goal of advancing evidence-based strategies to promote health equity in an increasingly interconnected world.

2. Session Objectives

This forum aims to introduce the Yonsei–Yale partnership and to discuss evidence-based approaches to reducing the global health burden through collaborative research and policy dialogue.

3. Potential Outcomes and Future Directions 

Through this session, we suggest 3 practical actions that universities, policymakers, or institutions can take to promote sustainable development.

   1) Universities

At the university level, this forum is expected to stimulate interdisciplinary education and research on immigration, ethnicity, and global health. Universities can integrate these themes into curricula, support collaborative research across disciplines, and train future global health leaders with a strong foundation in evidence-based and equity-oriented approaches. Strengthening data-sharing platforms and international research networks will further enhance the generation and dissemination of impactful knowledge.

   2) Policy makers 

For policymakers, the forum provides a platform to engage directly with academic evidence and expert insights. By translating research findings into actionable policies, policymakers can develop inclusive health strategies that address the needs of immigrant and ethnic minority populations. Emphasis should be placed on evidence-informed decision-making, cross-sector collaboration, and the incorporation of health equity considerations into national and global policy frameworks.

    3) Institutions (IGEE Yonsei–Yale Institute for Global Health Collaboration)

At the institutional level, collaboration between IGEE Yonsei and the Yale Institute for Global Health can serve as a model for sustained global partnership. Future directions include joint research initiatives, co-hosted academic forums, shared training programs, and policy-oriented outputs aimed at reducing the global health burden. Through continued collaboration, both institutions can amplify their impact by aligning academic research with practical solutions and global health priorities.

1. Background & Rationale

The goal of IHEI (Institute for Higher Education Innovation) at Yonsei is to nurture future talent and provide a driving force for social innovation in higher education by granting the highest level of commitment and status within the university. IHEI operates an all-round support system to enhance the social innovation capabilities of participating students and maximize the effectiveness of the program.

‘Workstation’ is a team-based unit for student-led extracurricular programs run by IHEI where students who are willing to make meaningful changes in the society, develop their own projects and ideas to initiate future social innovation. Their projects are based on SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production).

MILEAT provides GluMeal, a personalized medifood service that uses CGM device data to track blood sugar trends for the 800 million global population at risk for diabetes.

Kids Closet is a social project that transforms the waste-heavy children's clothing market into a sustainable circular economy through a professional collection and sorting service.

Peering is an AI-powered SaaS designed to alleviate the extreme administrative burden on special education teachers by automating complex tasks like documentation and timetable generation.

2. Session Objectives

• To share students’ social innovative activities and achievements for SDGs

• To discuss how SDGs 3, 4 and 12 can be achieved

3. Potential Outcomes and Future Directions 

Through this session, we suggest 3 practical actions that universities, policymakers, or institutions can take to promote sustainable development.

   1) Universities

Universities should integrate real-world social challenges into education, enabling students to design, test, and scale practical solutions for sustainability.

   2) Policy makers / Government

Policy makers should create flexible regulatory and funding frameworks that support  experimentation, cross-sector collaboration, and rapid scaling of proven social innovations.

    3) Institutions (NGOs / International Organizations / Public Agencies)

Institutions should actively adopt, co-develop, and scale innovative solutions by opening their operational environments and forming long-term partnerships.

Encourage policy environments that recognize and incorporate university-based student innovation as a complementary tool in advancing national strategies for SDGs 3 and 4.

1. Background & Rationale

We are witnessing a paradigm shift from Generative AI, which creates content, to Agentic

AI, which executes actions. These autonomous agents can plan, reason, and interact with

the world to achieve complex goals without constant human oversight. While this promises

unprecedented efficiency in manufacturing, governance, and daily life, it raises critical questions about the structural limits of computation and the integrity of our sociotechnical systems.

As highlighted in recent research on the “Computational Limits of Deep Learning,” the brute-force scaling of AI systems poses significant economic and environmental challenges. Furthermore, delegating decision-making power to algorithms demands rigorous frameworks for accountability and trust. This session embodies this year’ s GEEF theme by exploring how we can harness the power of Autonomous Agents while addressing the urgent challenges of Sustainability (SDG 12, 13) and Institutional Accountability (SDG 16). It calls for a “White Web”—a transparent and reliable digital ecosystem where human values and agent autonomy coexist.

2. Session Objectives

In this session, we aim to move beyond the hype of AI capabilities and focus on the sustainable and accountable integration of AI agents into society. By focusing on inclusivity, transparency, and accountability, the session seeks to:

1) Assess Sustainability: Discuss the physical and economic boundaries of scaling AI agents in 

     industrial applications.

2) Audit Autonomy: Explore frameworks for verifying agent decision logic and 

     ensuring accountability in automated workflows.

3)  Ensure Trust: Propose the “White Web” concept and blockchain-based

      reliability infrastructures to guarantee transparency.

4) Actionable Strategies: Identify concrete policy and technical roadmaps for building resilient

     human-AI ecosystems.

3. Potential Outcomes and Future Directions

1) Policy Framework for Sustainable Agents: 

     Guidelines balancing industrial efficiency with environmental sustainability (SDG 12).

2) Technical Standards for Transparency: 

     Consensus on ”trust infrastructures” (e.g., blockchain) to ensure data integrity (SDG 16).

3) Global R&D Collaboration

     Fostering international partnerships to advance ethical and controllable Multi-Agent Systems.

1. Background & Rationale

As societies across the globe experience rapid population aging and deepening care crises, digital technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and virtual reality (VR) are increasingly promoted as solutions to care shortages and rising care demands. Governments and international organizations have embraced technology-driven approaches to care as efficient, scalable, and future-oriented responses. However, a growing body of research questions whether these technologies genuinely transform care in inclusive and sustainable ways, or whether they simply reconfigure care responsibilities while obscuring structural and political dimensions of care.

This session addresses the tension between two dominant perspectives on care technologies. One perspective critically examines techno-solutionism, arguing that technology-centered policies risk outsourcing responsibility, depoliticizing care, and reducing care to technical efficiency rather than relational and ethical practice. The other perspective, grounded in empirical research, highlights the inclusive potential of care technologies when they are designed and implemented through participatory, user-centered, and context-sensitive approaches.

By bringing these perspectives into dialogue, the session seeks to critically explore the conditions under which technologies can expand care without reinforcing exclusion or inequality. The session aims to connect policy, research, and on-the-ground care practices through an accessible and reflective discussion, ultimately contributing to broader debates on inclusive care transitions in aging societies.

2. Session Objectives

In response to the growing care crisis and rapidly aging societies, digital technologies such as robots, artificial intelligence (AI), and virtual reality (VR) are being rapidly adopted worldwide. However, a fundamental question remains: do technologies truly rescue care, or do they merely reconfigure care-related problems in different ways?

This session brings together two contrasting perspectives on care technologies—a critical stance toward techno-solutionist approaches and an empirically grounded optimism about the inclusive potential of technology—to reflectively explore the question of a care transition society enabled by inclusive technologies. Centering on the question of when and under what conditions technology can expand care without producing exclusion, the session aims to create a forum that connects the languages of policy, research, and practice in an accessible and public-oriented discussion.

3. Potential Outcomes and Future Directions 

Through this session, we suggest 3 practical actions that universities, policymakers, or institutions can take to promote sustainable development.

   1) Universities

Universities can play a critical role by advancing interdisciplinary research on care technologies that integrate social sciences, humanities, and health studies. By fostering collaborative research and educating future professionals, universities can help ensure that technological innovation in care is grounded in ethical, social, and contextual understanding.

   2) Policy makers

Policymakers can use insights from this session to design care technology policies that prioritize inclusion, accountability, and participatory design. Policies that embed user-centered approaches and recognize care as a social relationship, rather than a purely technical problem, can help prevent exclusion and depoliticization in care systems.

    3) Institutions 

Institutions such as healthcare providers, international organizations, and research institutes can collaborate to develop and implement care technologies that are responsive to local contexts and diverse user needs. Cross-institutional cooperation can support sustainable and inclusive care systems that enhance well-being while respecting autonomy and dignity.