Korea Institute of Science and Technology

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) is arguably Korea’s first comprehensive, government-funded research institute, founded in 1966 to lead national science and technology development. Headquartered in Seoul, KIST conducts multidisciplinary research spanning advanced materials, energy and environment, life sciences, artificial intelligence, and etc. Its environmental research programmes address pressing challenges in water quality, pollutant treatment, and global abnormal climate issues, increasingly pairing experimental science with data-driven approaches.

PFAS — often called “forever chemicals” — pose one of the most urgent and technically demanding challenges in environmental protection, owing to their persistence, mobility, and the sheer number of individual compounds involved. Monitoring them comprehensively is costly and analytically complex, which is precisely the kind of problem KIST’s environmental AI research is positioned to solve. Through participation in UPeM, KIST aims to apply artificial intelligence to real-world water quality problems and advance monitoring technologies such as the analysis of electrochemical PFAS generation and behavior.

KIST develops the artificial-intelligence component of UPeM. We build and validate machine-learning models that estimate the full PFAS profile of a water sample from measurements of only a small number of indicator compounds, enabling reliable yet low-cost indirect monitoring. These models are designed to track how PFAS levels change throughout the electrochemical process, giving the consortium a practical tool to assess overall PFAS behaviour. KIST also collaborates closely with the experimental and engineering partners to ensure the models are trained on representative data and remain robust under real operating conditions.