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Future of Electric Automobile Glimpsed from KAIST​
View : 10736 Date : 2010-03-03 Writer : ed_news



Etnews.co.kr. printed an interview with Professor Edward A. Lee, from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California in Berkeley, who visited KAIST to attend the 2010 International Workshop on Information Technology (IT) Convergence. During the workshop, Professor Lee had a chance to ride KAIST’s Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV), and etnews.co.kr. asked him about his impressions.

 
Article published on Friday, February 19, 2010
(For the Korean article, please click the link at http://www.etnews.co.kr/news/detail.html?id=201002190158)
The below is a translation from the Korean text.
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Reported by Hee-Bum Park (hbpark@etnews.co.kr)

"Future of Electric Automobile Glimpsed from KAIST"s Online Electric Vehicle Project," said Professor Lee.

Distinguished Professor Edward A. Lee, from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California in Berkeley, expressed his impressions after a ride on KAIST’s Online Electric Vehicle.
 
“KAIST’s Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV) really grabs my attention because the vehicle receives its needed electricity from a cable buried underground, not from batteries. Still, many challenges lie ahead for the electric vehicle to be commercialized, but I think, today, I saw the future of electric vehicles from the KAIST project,” explained Professor Lee.
 
Professor Lee came to Daejeon to attend the “2010 International Workshop on Information Technology (IT) Convergence,” which was held on February 19, 2010 at KAIST’s Information and Communication Convergence (ICC) Campus.
 
“I rode the bus and saw its instrument panel, which displays figures of electricity picked up from the ground. The bus presents the possibility of an electric car that can actually be built in the near future,” added Professor Lee.
 
Professor Lee, however, pointed out that a number of issues should be addressed beforehand to commercialize OLEV, such as public concerns about magnetic waves, the economic impact of laying power strips underground, and battery efficiency as an alternative to petroleum based fuel. Nonetheless, he said that given people’s increased awareness of the problems associated with CO2 emissions, OLEV’s development is timely. 
 
“As far as I know, there has been no research in the US to develop an electric car that receives electricity from cables buried beneath the road. It is creative and ambitious for KAIST to try to find the technological breakthrough necessary for the development of electric cars,” Professor Lee stated.
 
Professor Lee further commented, “So far, batteries on electric cars are heavy and bulky, and they require frequent recharging. I think KAIST has provided a solution to address this issue.”
 
Graduating from Yale University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Professor Lee earned his doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from UC Berkeley. He worked for Bell Telephone Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey.

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