During the USC Global Conference in Seoul, USC leadership had the opportunity to hold meetings with several prominent members of the higher education and business sectors of Korea. President C. L. Max Nikias visited Seoul National University and met with the university’s president, Yeon-Cheon Oh. Seoul National University has a number of educational partnerships with USC in academic areas including engineering, business, and public policy.
President Nikias and Dean Yannis Yortsos of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering jointly signed an agreement formalizing a partnership—the Airbus Institute for Engineering Research (AIER)—between the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, aircraft manufacturer Airbus, Inha University and Korea Aerospace University (KAU).
The president of Inha University, Choonbae Park, signed the agreement along with KAU president, Junku Yuh, and Mr. Jean-Francois Laval, executive vice president, Asia for Airbus. Under the agreement, Airbus will provide funding to support the work of all three universities working together collaboration is to conduct joint research projects in aerospace engineering. 
USC Trustee Y. H. Cho, co-chair of the USC Global Conference (where the signing took place), presided over the event.
President Nikias and USC Marshall School of Business Dean James Ellis also connected with several prominent alumni—Mong-Won Chung, chairman and CEO of Halla Engineering & Construction Corp., (who is the current president of the USC Alumni Club of Seoul) and Seung-Yu Kim, former chairman of the Hana Financial Group, Inc. Both alumni are graduates of the USC Marshall School of Business.
The conference also provided a setting for USC Trustees and supporters to learn about recent developments in research by USC faculty, as well as forecasts into the fields of biomedicine, digital education, business and politics, arts, technology, and a wide array of other contemporary global issues. After the first day of panel sessions, USC Trustees and leadership had the opportunity to discuss the events of the conference at a private event attended by keynote speaker Arnold Schwarzenegger, held at the Seoul National Museum.