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Declaration of 2011 International Presidential Forum on Research Universities
The 4th International Presidential Forum on Research Universities was held in Seoul on November 8, 2011. The forum attracted a wide range of participants from around the world, presidents and leaders from 44 higher education institutions in 27 nations. Participants had a full-day of in-depth discussion on the theme of “borderless and creative education.”
At the end of the forum, 29 keynote speakers, representing 120 attendees of the meeting, released a declaration that sums up the main points of consensus on the principles and commitments to be supported by research universities for the development of higher education in the 21st century. For the declaration, please open the attached file.
2011.11.09 View 6581 -
New Technology Developed for Analysis of New Drugs by Using Smart Nano-Sensors
Doctor Sang-Kyu Lee
Doctor Sang-Kyu Lee of the Department of Biological Sciences, KAIST, has developed the technology that allows biological nano particles to be implanted into human cells for monitoring the effect of new drugs in real time from within the cell. It is expected that this technology will boost the ability to weigh the effects and properties of a new drug more quickly and accurately.
Conventionally, the candidate drug was injected into the human body, and then its cells are extracted to analyze the effects of the drugs. The problem with this method was that the cells were analyzed at a ‘dead’ state which made it incredibly difficult to find candidate substances due to uncontrollable side effects. This made the development of new drugs very difficult despite the large costs and efforts invested into its development.
The research team latched onto the idea that nanoparticles can connect to form a large complex. The complex acts as a nanosensor which allows for real time observation of drug target and the drug itself binding.
The team named the nanosensor technology ‘InCell SMART-i’ and was named ‘Hot Paper’ of the September edition of ‘Angewandte Chemie International Edition’ magazine, a world famous Chemistry Magazine.When a new drug injected into the human body, the drug and drug targets are gradually combined, and the smart nanosensor detects in real time the effect of the new drug as shown in the pictures above (shaded spot).
2011.09.19 View 7589 -
Late Dr. Ryu Geun Chul's Achievements and Generous Contributions
First Doctor in the field of Korean Traditional Medicine
The late Dr. Ryu was born in 1926 and is the father figure of Korea’s Traditional Medicine and is its First Doctor (1976 Kyung Hee University), and was the vice-professor of Kyung Hee University of Medicine, Vice-Director of Kyung Hee Institute of Korean Traditional Medicine, and was the first chairman of the Association of Korea Oriental Medicine. He developed the painless acupuncture administering device for the first time in Korea in 1962, and succeeded in anesthetizing a patient for cesarean procedure using acupuncture in 1972.
He even was the first to receive a medical engineering doctorate degree from the Moscow National Engineering School in April of 1996 and developed a stroke rehabilitation machine.
Korea’s Most Generous Donor
Dr. Ryu surprised the world by donating 57.8billion Won worth of real estate to KAIST in August of 2008. Dr. Ryu revealed that his reason for donating such a huge sum to KAIST was due to its focused students giving him the belief that the future of Korea is at KAIST and that the development of science and technology is necessary for Korea to develop into a world class nation and KAIST is the institute most suitable to lead Korea in the field.
Dr. Ryu lived on KAIST campus after donating his entire fortune and even established ‘KAIST scholars and spacemen health research center’ and ‘Dr. Ryu Health Clinic’ as he also wanted to donate his knowledge.
Even when he was a professor at Moscow National Engineering University in the late 1990s he carried out free medical work throughout Korea and in recognition of his devoted work, he was named honorary citizen from Chun Ahn city, San Chung city, and DaeJeon city. In 2007 he donated 450million Won to Cheon Dong Elementary School in Chun Ahn city to build a gymnasium and an indoor golf practice range.
Role as Science and Technology Public Relations Officer
Dr. Ryu volunteered to numerous lectures and interviews after donation to advertise science and technology. His belief that the development of science and technology is necessary for Korea’s development was the driving force behind his efforts at increasing interest and support for the field of science and technology.
In addition, through interviews with MBC, KBS, SBS, KTV, Joong Ang Newspapers, Dong Ah Newspaper and other media mediums, Dr. Ryu improved the public perception on donations whilst increasing the pride of scientists and researchers by highlighting their importance and the importance of science and technology.
In recognition of Dr. Ryu’s efforts, he received the 43rd Science Day Science and Technology Creation Award, 2010 MBC Social Service Special Award, and 2010 ‘Proud Chung Cheong Citizen’ Award.
2011.03.22 View 11027
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International Workshop on EEWS 2010 was held.
On October 7 and 8th at Fusion Hall of KI Building, KAIST, the 2010 International Workshop on EEWS (Energy, Environment, Water, and Sustainability) was held.
The third to be held, forty national and international academic professionals including Mark Shannon, professor at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Domen Kazunari, Tokyo University professor, Dong Sub Kim, CTO of SK Energy and Doyoung Seung, Senior Vice President of GS Caltex, participated at this year’s workshop.
In twelve sessions, themes including Artificial Photosynthesis, Wireless Power Transfer, Green Aviation, Safe Nuclear Fuel Reuse, Fuel Cells in Action, LED 2.0, Foundation of Energy-Water Nexus, and Flexible Battery & Solar Cell were presented and discussed.
“Through this workshop, current EEWS policy and research progress from different countries and the future of related technologies will be foreseen,” said Jae Kyu Lee, Dean of KAIST EEWS Initiative. “I hope it became an opportunity to create cooperative relationships with leading researchers.”
EEWS is a research project conducted by KAIST to solve global issues that mankind faces today such as depletion of energy, environmental pollution, water shortage, and sustainability.
2010.10.15 View 11380
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Nanowerk Spotlight: Bacteria as environmentally friendly nanoparticle factories, Sep. 24, 2010
The Nanowerk.com is a leading portal site for nanotechnology and nanosciences, which runs a daily news section called “Spotlight.” On September 24, 2010, the Spotlight published an article on the latest developments of the research by a KAIST team headed by Distinguished Professor Sang-Yup Lee of the Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering Department. For the article, please click the link below:
Nanowerk Spotlight: Bacteria as environmentally friendly nanoparticle factories, Sep. 24, 2010
By Michael Berger.
http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=18188.php
2010.09.25 View 8421
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KAIST was invited to the World Economic Forum's fourth "Summer Davos."
KAIST attended the World Economic Forum’s “Summer Davos Forum” held from September 13 to 15 in Tianjin, China. The Summer Davos Forum hosted various sessions and meetings with international dignitaries from governments, business and public organizations, and academia on the main theme of “Driving Growth through Sustainability.”
On September 14, four subjects including “Electric Vehicles,” “Humanoid Robotics,” “Next Generation of Biomaterials,” and “New Developments in Neuroengineering” were presented by KAIST, followed by discussions with forum participants.
Professor Jae-Seung Jeong of the Bio and Brain Engineering Department, Sang-Yup Lee of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, Joon-Ho Oh of the Mechanical Engineering Department, and President Nam-Pyo Suh participated in the forum as presenters of the topic. Of these speakers, Professors Jae-Seung Jeong and Sang-Yup Lee were nominated by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as members of the “Young Global Leader” and “Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies,” respectively.
President Suh was also invited to the CEO Insight Group and delivered an opening speech on OLEV (Online Electric Vehicle) and the Mobile Harbor. President Suh plans to sign an MOU for research cooperation with Jong-Hoo Kim of Bell Lab and Shirley Jackson of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the near future, respectively.
Since 2007, the WEF, in charge of the world’s largest international conference called “Davos Forum” has hosted a “Summer Davos Forum,” also called as the “Annual Meeting of New Champions.” The Summer Davos Forum consists of nations, rising global companies, next generation of global leaders, and cities or nations that lead technological innovations. Unlike the annual Davos Forum held in January, the “Annual Meeting of New Champions” is held in September of each year in Tianjin and Dalian, China.
Since 2009, the WEF has added a special session called IdeasLab in the Davos and Summer Davos Forums. Through IdeasLab, prominent universities from all over the world, research organizations, venture businesses, NGOs, and NPOs are invited to exchange and discuss innovative and creative ideas that can contribute to the development of mankind. Until now, universities including INSEAD, EPFL-ETH, MIT, Oxford, Yale, Harvard, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Tsinghua University, and Keio University have been invited to the IdeasLab. KAIST is the first Korean university to attend this session.
2010.09.17 View 12817 -
KAIST has developed a powerless and wireless keyboard that can be folded and easily carried around.
The KAIST Institute for Information Technology Convergence (KIITC) has developed the next generation keyboard that does not need power and wires.
The powerless/wireless keyboard developed by KIITC is flexible, foldable, portable, and compact, making the possession of keyboard easier and more convenient.
The idea of this technology was derived from "Idea Contest for Future Device" opened by KIITC in 2007, and Future Device Team (Team Leader: Dr. Sungkwan Jung) of KIITC embodied the idea and developed full-flexible powerless/wireless keyboard by using the passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to support the convenient data input for daily mobile life.
Through the technology, KAIST expects to realize ubiquitous computing and communication environment, open a new market for foldable keyboards, and secure the competitiveness of mobile devices industries in the world market.
KIITC has also successfully transferred the technology of powerless/wireless keyboard to Hanyang Demitech for commercialization.
2010.08.12 View 9144 -
The thermal fluctuation and elasticity of cell membranes, lipid vesicles, interacting with pore-forming peptides were reported by a research team at KAIST.
A research team from KAIST, consisted of Sung-Min Choi, Professor of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering Department, and Ji-Hwan Lee, a doctoral student in the Department, published a paper on the “thermal fluctuation and elasticity of lipid vesicles interacting with pore-forming peptides.” The paper was carried by Physical Review Letters, an internationally renowned peer-review journal on physics on July 16, 2010.
Cell membranes, which consist of lipid bilayers, play important roles in cells as barriers to maintain concentrations and matrices to host membrane proteins. During cellular processes such as cell fission and fusion, the cell membranes undergo various morphological changes governed by the interplay between protein and lipid membranes. There have been many theoretical and experimental approaches to understand cellular processes driven by protein-lipid membrane interactions. However, it is not fully established how the membrane elastic properties, which play an important role in membrane deformation, are affected by the protein-membrane interactions.
Antimicrobial peptides are one of the most common examples of proteins that modify membrane morphology. While the pore-forming mechanisms of antimicrobial peptides in lipid bilayers have been widely investigated, there have been only a few attempts to understand the mechanisms in terms of membrane elastic properties. In particular, the effects of pore formation on the membrane fluctuation and elastic properties, which provide key information to understand the mechanism of antimicrobial peptide activity, have not been reported yet. The research team reports the thermal fluctuation and elasticity of lipid vesicles interacting with pore-forming peptides, which were measured by neutron spin-echo spectroscopy.
The results of this study are expected to pay an important role in understanding the elastic behavior and morphological changes of cell membranes induced by protein-membrane interactions, and may provide new insights for developing new theoretical models for membrane fluctuations which include the membrane mediated interaction between protein patches.
(a) (b)
Figure
(a) Schematics for bound melittin and pores in lipid bilayers
(b) P NMR signal ratio (with/without Mn2+) of DOPC LUV-melittin vs P/L at 30˚C. The dashed line is a guide for eyes.
2010.07.23 View 9145 -
The 2010 International Forum on Electric Vehicle will be held at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon, South Korea.
Universities, industries, and governments from the world gathered to make an important endeavor for the commercialization of electric vehicles that has emerged as a strong option to replace conventional cars with an internal combustion engine.
With the potential benefit of electric cars, in view of environmental protection and less dependence of oil import, they still have limitations for the daily use in customers’ perspective. Electric cars are still very expensive to own with relatively short distance of driving with one charging and with the expensive and bulky nature of the batteries, in addition to the safety concerns with the Lithium batteries.
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) will hold an international forum, at which it hopes to address a wide range of issues related to the development and commercialization of electric vehicles. The 2010 International Forum on Electric Vehicle will be held for three days at KAIST’s campus in Daejeon, South Korea, from June 17th to 19th, 2010.
Internationally renowned speakers from Korea and overseas will present their views and conduct a discussion forum on the technology, market, and policy on electric vehicles. The event is open to the public.
Major discussions, however, will take place on the second day, Friday, June 18, 2010, which will proceed with two sessions. In the first session, conference participants will discuss the topic of “policies and markets for electric vehicles,” and at the second session, they will take up the issue of “electric vehicle technologies.”
Dr. Andrew Brown, president of SAE International and the executive director and chief technologist of Delphi, is scheduled to give a key note speech. The SAE International is a global association of more than 128,000 engineers and related technical experts in the aerospace, automotive, and commercial vehicle industries.
Topics to be covered by Dr. Brown during his key note speech are, among other things, elements of market forces for hybrid electric vehicles, electric vehicles, or battery-powered vehicles; clean technologies necessary for sustainable development; pending issues facing the automotive industry to create a substantial share by electric cars and government aids to increase consumers’ buying power for expensive electric cars; technology innovation required for the improvement of batteries and power electronics; development of smart grids; and other key issues that would mature an ever-growing market for electric vehicles.
President Nam Pyo Suh of KAIST will also deliver a key note remark on the overall accomplishments of online electric vehicle (OLEV) developed by KAIST. While stressing the OLEV’s technological breakthrough to succeed in the wireless in-motion power transfer through electromagnetic induction, President Suh will review the necessity of developing electric cars as a corresponding measure against climate changes and address the issues of battery weight and lifespan, charging time, and the limited amount of reserved Lithium.
Dr. Steven Shladover from the California Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways (California PATH), established in 1986 in collaboration with the University of California in Berkeley and the California Transit, will attend the conference. California PATH is a multi-disciplinary program with universities statewide and cooperative projects with private industry, state and local agencies, and non-profit institutions to find solutions to the problems of California’s surface transportation systems through cutting edge research.
California PATH once implemented a bold, innovative research project in the early 1990s in order to overcome the most difficult technical hurdle to reduce the heavy dependence of batteries for electric cars by adopting a non-contact transfer of electric power during vehicles’ movement. Despite the research declared as “unsuccessful” by California PATH, the implications of their innovative approach to solve an important issue inspired many researches subsequently followed—one of them is KAIST’s OLEV project.
In addition, the Infineon Technologies AG, a leading semiconductor and system manufacturer based in Germany, which offers solutions for automotive, industrial and multimarket sectors for applications in communication and memory products, will come to the forum and present a paper on its expertise to develop the necessary components for electric vehicles.
On the last day of the forum, all participants will have a chance to ride the Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV) at KAIST’s campus.
For details of the event, please visit the website of “www.olev.co.kr/en/ifev or refer to the invitation attached herewith.
About KAIST’s Online Electric Vehicle:
The Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV) developed by KAIST is a dynamic plug-in electric car that receives electricity while running or stopping and thus acquired a complete mobility unlike other type of electric cars, whether hybrid or not. The OLEV reduces the size of a battery to one-fifth of the current battery installed in an electric car. Pure electric cars depend on a large bulky battery that has been a major obstacle to make the cars commercially accessible to the mass market. The OLEV gets charged wirelessly, a distinct difference to other dynamic plug-in electric cars including a tram or trolley, which directly picks up electricity from the road.
To explain it further, the OLEV is electrified through power lines buried underground; when flowing low frequency of currents, an electric magnetic field is created around the underground power lines, and the pick-up gadget installed underbody of an electric vehicle converts the field into electricity; and the vehicle then uses electricity either for operation or stores it at a battery to be used for running the road that is not equipped with the power lines. The electric power generated from the underground travels to the surface of the road above 20cm-25cm.
KAIST has succeeded to develop a commercial model of OLEV with a safe Electromagnetic Field (EMF), well below the international safeguard of 65mG. The actual model has been up and running at an amusement park in Seoul for the transportation of passengers. The non-contact charging method applied to the OLEV will accelerate the commercialization of electric cars by making a battery affordable and safer for a consumer.
2010.06.25 View 10605 -
"The 2010 Artificial Intelligence Robot War Competition" begins to receive applications
[Event Notice]
“The 2010 Artificial Intelligence Robot War Competition” begins to receive applications
A good opportunity to gauge the intelligence of your robots
“The 2010 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Robot War Competition” will be held in October 2010, and the Competition has been receiving applications from contestants since April 1st. The deadline for the application will be May 31st, 2010.
Qualified contestants must be a minimum of two, but less than six, team members, and they will compete in one of the two fields: System on Chip (SoC) Taekwon Robot and Humanoid Robot (HURO). Winners will be decided based on the intelligence capabilities presented by a robot’s platform that mimics key functions of the human brain.
SoC Taekwon Robot will compete against one another by using a camera installed on its head to recognize visual images, locations, distances, and gestures of the other competing robot.
HURO competition is a new entry begun this year, and winners will be determined in accordance with the robot’s ability to perform given missions and fights. Missions are to go through a track installed with obstacles, recognize colors and shapes of barriers, and knock down barriers to earn scores. Fighting will be performed in the form of a Korean martial art, Tae-kwon-do.
The Korean government has nominated Robotics as one of the key growth engines to develop IT industry and Korean economy. Robotics converge many of different engineering fields, such as machinery, materials, components, and embedded software. In particular, the SoC is an essential technology for Korea to continuously take lead in the semi-conductor industry in the world, which is an important element for robotics.
SoC stands for System on Chip, an integrated chip that assembles various chips and components to be fabricated together on a single chip, instead of building them on a circuit board. The SoC technology has advantages of higher performance, smaller space requirements, lower memory requirements, higher system reliability, and lower consumer costs.
An artificial intelligence SoC robot is autonomous because it can adapt itself to changes in various environments and reach a given goal without constantly receiving external orders.
For details of the event, please refer to the website of www.socrobotwar.org.
2010.04.06 View 9656
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President Suh Hosted Press Conference with Seoul-based Correspondents, on March 9, 2010
President Suh Hosted Press Conference with Seoul-based Correspondents, on March 9, 2010
President Nam-Pyo Shu had a press conference with foreign correspondents based in Seoul, South Korea, on March 9, 2010 at Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club (SFCC).
Prior to the conference, the president and correspondents attended a ceremony for the completion of Online Electric Vehicles (OLEV) that carries passengers to look around the amusement park, Seoul Grand Park, in Gewacheon City. OLEV was developed and built by KAIST. Following President Suh’s opening speech, a questions and answers (Q&A) session between the president and reporters proceeded.
In his opening speech, President Suh said electric vehicles are an alternative to conventional automobiles with combustion engines, and in order to manufacture affordably priced electric vehicles on a large scale, their charging should be streamlined. In response, KAIST has come up with the online electric vehicle concept.
He added, without installing separate charging stations, OLEV receives electric power from the cables buried underground while driving, idling, or parking. Its connection to a power source is non-contact.
President Suh expressed his excitement for demonstrating OLEV at Seoul Grand Park that its system works as KAIST has designed and predicted. He showed his confidence that KAIST is indeed at the stage to implement OLEV in Seoul City soon and hoped to demonstrate it at the upcoming G-20 Summit to be held in November 2010 in Seoul City.
During the Q&A session, reporters cited the construction of OLEV at the amusement park and mainly asked about a possibility of its commercialization. Other topics, they also questioned about, were hurdles related to the development and commercialization of OLEV; level of cooperation received from industries and central/local governments; technological breakthroughs and accomplishments; future development plans for the commercialization; and reactions from the public and government.
Media outlets participated in the conference were Reuters, AFP, the International Herald Tribune, ABC News, Bloomberg News, Businessweek, Voice of America, Sankei Shimbun, and etc.
2010.03.16 View 8293
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Indoor Localization System for Mobile Devices Developed by KAIST Research Team
The technology will be available to smart phone users around the world through Goole Apps Store.
The wireless fidelity (WiFi)-based indoor localization can be installed on smart phones for commercialization, a technology developed by a research team at KAIST. The KAIST research team, led by Professor Dong-Soo Han, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, explained that the technology offers smart phone users, e.g., Google’s Android phone and Apple’ iPhone, a unique way to recognize their location through WiFi Open Radio Map. WiFi Open Radio Map is built with WiFi Location Fingerprint that contains wireless local area network (LAN)’s signal strength and wireless access points (AP) number, and with location information.
Through using the Map, WiFi-based indoor localization recognizes the location of smart phones and sends the location information to the phones. Since the technology uses WiFi signal information only to recognize the whereabouts of phones, it can be widely used in the future, without installing extra machines and equipment for detection, for a complicated, large indoor environment, where the Global Positioning System (GPS) is not available.
Currently, Professor Han has established WiFi Open Radio Map inside and outside of a few buildings at KAIST and developed several location based application services to perform a beta testing. He plans to open and distribute the technology to smart phone users through Google and Apple Apps Store in early 2010. Collaborations with major smart phone makers such as SK Telecom, Korea Telecom, and Samsung as well as outdoor/indoor localization manufactures and suppliers will also be sought, according to Professor Han.
Professor Han is invited to an international conference, Eighth Annual IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications, slated for early April 2010, in recognition of his work. At the conference, he will give a presentation on WiFi based indoor localization technology and conduct its demo version.
2010.02.10 View 9468