POSCO E&C has attempted to automate the entire process of designing structures. To this end, since our PEC days that began in 1989, we have continued to further with our research and development efforts as well as any supplementary work that were needed. And in the end, the efforts were brought to fruition in commercializing our MIDAS Family Program in November 1996.

Structural analysis technology is a core technology that applies to almost all the structural designing in the field of engineering, including civil engineering, construction, machinery, shipbuilding and aviation. The development of MIDAS began at the end of 1989 by combining such structural analysis technology with optimization algorithm. It took seven years to develop MIDAS based entirely on Korea's own technology, and it now serves an optimal integrated system for Korea's first structural analysis in the areas of civil engineering and construction.

Currently only five or six developed nations in the world own the commercial technology for structural analysis and building-specific programs. The MIDAS program has become so valuable that it is now used as a standard for gauging the ranks of our national technology in the field of construction. In light of this fact, the development of MIDAS has emerged a monumental turning point in providing opportunities to develop our own building technology in the construction sector. Despite Korea's poor conditions that existed for developing technologies, POSCO E&C's accomplishments in developing the advance software were indeed worthy of high praises.

Whereas existing foreign software products have been developed mostly for the analysis field, POSCO E&C's MIDAS is a dedicated system that includes not just the area of analysis, but also the post-processing areas ranging from the absence of validation based on both national and international standards, creating statements of accounts, and calculating the output of quantity. That is the reason why compared to foreign-made programs, MIDAS has been outperforming remarkably in terms of enhancing productivity, increasing the safety of structures, and designing the optimally lightweight buildings.

MIDAS, during its commercialization in November 1996, has launched its MIDAS family product line of MIDAS/GEN, a program for structural analysis and optimal building in the construction sector, MIDAS/BDS, a program exclusively used for buildings, and MIDAS/SDS, a base plate-exclusive program.

The MIDAS program has been applied to some 300 working projects including the POSCO Center, already well recognized for being an "intelligent" building. The outcome of its application has proven that the program is excellent in terms of reliability and functionality, and also noted by the experts has been its outstanding applications in the field of steel structures. The application carries significance in that it has opened doors to developing computing-applications in the building discipline. Besides, the application's role as a turning point for the structural design has been well received in the industry.

With the MIDAS launch in November 1996, POSCO E&C has donated the program to the department of civil engineering and construction in approximately 150 universities nationwide in conjunction with the Ministry of Education to contribute to nurturing the growth of distinguished technical workforce in the construction field. In many universities the MIDAS program has been introduced as a course in their computing structural engineering curriculum.

MIDAS has sold more than 140 packages in just three months since its launch, and has registered a much higher-than-expected sales record than had previously projected. Even when we compare the figure to those of comparable commercial software programs that usually sell 20-30 packages a year developed by prominent overseas manufacturers, our three-month sales record stands out way ahead of others.

The MIDAS sale has continued its track of success even after its record-breaking sales, selling massively 303 products in total, 101 copies in 1996, 202 in 1997, and has taken over the structural analysis market. In June 2003, MIDAS with its MIDAS/GEN product alone has sold 1,000 copies in the Korean market of professional software for the engineering sector.

Through the subsequent product's diversification and integration changes, as of July 2004, in addition to the existing three types of products available in the market, we have successfully developed six more programs. The programs include MIDAS/Civil, a universal program for civil engineering sector, MIDAS/ADS program that is exclusively used for apartment building, MIDAS/ FX+, a program for mesh automatic generation, MIDAS/Abutment program that specializes in the automated system for building bridge abutments, and MIDAS/Pier automated system for building bridge piers. The four programs in development include MIDAS/GeoTech, the ground and tunnel program, MIDAS/Mec, a universal program used in the mechanical field, among others.