The objective of this study is to develop education programs for cultivating smart aquaculture experts through a education demand survey of industries, high school students, university (graduate) students and field workers. The industry demand analysis was conducted as an in-depth interview on representives from seven companies. Education demand surveys were conducted on 96 students and field workers in the Jeonnam region. Results on the demand survey were analyzed using frequency analysis and cross-analysis. The company representatives responded that they want to participated in internship and retraining programs to proactively secure manpowers with convergence capabilities about smart aquaculture. Seven companies preferred manpowers with basic competencies on ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) or aquaculture. The most respondents in the demand survey want to participate in the education program for experience on advanced technology, self-development and enhancement of work capability. On the other hand, some respondents said that the education is time-consuming and that the education program does not fit their level. Thus, the education program should be developed in a way to minimize the spatial and temporal limitations of education targets and to improve understanding of non-majors by reflecting the demands of human resources in the industrial field.

The objective of this study is to establish a direction for smart aquaculture technology development in the Republic of Korea through patent analysis and a demand survey of experts and fishermen. The patent analysis was conducted using Wisdomain for patents in the Republic of Korea, the United States of America, Europe, Japan, and China from 2005 to 2016. This study conducted an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) survey of experts in the fields of fishery, marine, and ICT among others. Furthermore, it carried out a demand survey of 85 fishermen in Jeonnam and Jeju. The smart aquaculture technology market has moderately grown in the Republic of Korea until recently, and it is expected to expand further because of the expansion of national investment in the smart aquaculture field. The priority evaluation results for developing smart aquaculture technology show that land-based aquaculture has a higher priority than sea-based aquaculture. Of the fishermen that responded, 84% said that they need to introduce smart aquaculture technology to solve problems in the supply and demand of manpower, labor cost, and maintenance expenses. The direction of development should lie in developing biological and environment-based standard aquaculture models to spread high-tech systems and vitalize the aquaculture industry. This requires continual training of human resources in the smart aquaculture field.