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Next Generation Robots Roaming Shipyards and City Centers
< Diden Robotics Research Team Co., Ltd (Leftmost person in the front row is CEO Joon-Ha Kim)>
KAIST announced on the September 30th that domestic robot startups, founded on KAIST research achievements, are driving new innovation at shipyards and urban worksites.
An industrial walking robot that freely climbs walls and ceilings and a humanoid walking robot that walks through downtown Gangnam are attracting attention as they enter the stage of commercialization. The stars are DIDEN Robotics Co., Ltd. and Eurobotics Co., Ltd.
Diden Robotics is providing a new breakthrough in the industrial automation market, including the shipbuilding industry, by commercializing its innovative 'Seungwol (Ascend and Cross) Robot' technology, which allows it to move freely and work on steel walls and ceilings. Eurobotics is commercializing world-class humanoid walking technology, and this achievement is scheduled to be officially presented at the international humanoid robot conference, 'Humanoids 2025,' to be held on October 1st.
< Diden Robot's Outer Plate (Longi) and Welding Test >
Diden Robotics is a robotics startup jointly founded in March 2024 by four alumni from the KAIST Mechanical Engineering Hu-bo Lab DRCD research team (Professor Hae-Won Park). Its flagship product, 'DIDEN 30,' is a quadrupedal robot designed for use in high-risk work environments that are difficult for humans to access, combining autonomous driving technology, a foot-shaped leg structure, and magnetic feet.
The 'DIDEN 30' successfully completed the 'Longitudinal (longi) Overcoming Test,' in which it stepped over steel stiffeners (longitudinals) densely installed as part of the structure at a ship construction site, proving its potential for field deployment. Currently, the company is conducting research to enhance its functionality so it can stably pass through access holes, the narrow entryways inside ships. It is also pushing for performance improvements so it can be deployed for real tasks such as welding, inspection, and painting starting in the second half of 2026.
A next-generation bipedal walking robot, 'DIDEN Walker,' is also under development. Targeting the completion of a prototype in the fourth quarter of 2025, it is being designed for stable walking in cramped and complex industrial environments. Plans are also underway to equip it with an upper-body manipulator for automated welding in the shipbuilding industry.
Diden Robotics is accelerating the advancement of its proprietary 'Physical AI' technology. The core is the self-developed AI learning platform, 'DIDEN World,' which applies an offline reinforcement learning method where the AI generates optimal motion data in a virtual simulation beforehand and learns without trial and error, increasing learning efficiency and stability.
< Diden Robot (DIDEN 30) >
Furthermore, to actually implement the AI technology, the company is internalizing its hardware and advancing its 3D recognition technology, which serves as the robot's 'eyes.' It is aiming for a completely autonomous walking system that requires no worker intervention by 2026, using technology such as 3D mapping based on four cameras.
In addition to this technological development, Diden Robotics successfully performed the longitudinal overcoming, Seungwol test, and welding work on blocks under construction through a joint development with Samsung Heavy Industries in September. This is a significant achievement, meaning Diden Robotics' technology has been validated in actual industrial settings, moving beyond the laboratory level.
Meanwhile, Diden Robotics is collaborating with major domestic shipyards, including Samsung Heavy Industries, HD Hyundai Samho, Hanwha Ocean, and HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, to develop site-customized robots.
Joon-Ha Kim, CEO of Diden Robotics, stated, "The successful tests at the Samsung Heavy Industries site proved the practicality and stability of our technology. We will establish ourselves as a leading company in solving labor shortages and driving automation in the shipbuilding industry."
< (Eurobotics Research Team Co., Ltd.)(Leftmost person in the top row is CEO Byung-ho Yoo) >
Eurobotics is an autonomous walking startup jointly founded by three alumni from Professor Hyun Myung's research team at KAIST. It is promoting the commercialization of autonomous walking technology for indoor and outdoor industrial sites, including rough terrain. In a recently released video, a humanoid equipped with control technology developed by Eurobotics attracted attention by walking naturally through the crowd in downtown Gangnam.
The core technology is the 'Blind Walking Controller.' It determines locomotion based only on internal information without external sensors like cameras or LiDAR, enabling stable walking regardless of day, night, or weather. The robot performs locomotion by 'imagining' the terrain without precise terrain modeling, demonstrating robust performance with the same controller across various environments such as sidewalks, downhill slopes, and stairs.
This technology originated from the quadrupedal walking competition at the 2023 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), where Professor Myung's lab participated, and proved its world-class capability by winning, beating MIT by a large margin. At the time, Byungg-ho Yoo, CEO of Eurobotics, led the team, and Co-CTOs Min-ho Oh and Dong-kyu Lee directly participated in developing the core autonomous walking technology. Based on this, they continued further development tailored to the humanoid environment and have entered the commercialization stage.
< Eurobotics' Humanoid Walking >
Byung-ho Yoo, CEO of Eurobotics, emphasized, "This video is the first step toward complete humanoid autonomous walking. We will develop KAIST's research achievements into technologies that can be immediately utilized in industrial settings."
Hyeonmin Bae, Head of the KAIST Startup Center, said, "We will provide close support from the initial stages to help the on-campus robotics industry grow actively and assist them in settling down stably."
Kwang Hyung Lee, President of KAIST, stated, "This achievement is a representative case showing that KAIST's fundamental technologies are rapidly spreading to industrial fields through startups. KAIST will continue to actively support innovative entrepreneurship based on challenging research and help lead the global robotics industry."
※ https://2025humanoids.org https://www.seoulairobot.com/
2025.09.30 View 8221 -
KAIST Develops Semiconductor Neuron that Remembers and Responds Like the Brain
<(From left, clockwise) Professor Kyung Min Kim, Min-Gu Lee, Dae-Hee Kim, Dr. Han-Chan Song, Tae-Uk Ko, Moon-Gu Choi, and Eun-Young Kim>
The human brain does more than simply regulate synapses that exchange signals; individual neurons also process information through “intrinsic plasticity,” the adaptive ability to become more sensitive or less sensitive depending on context. Existing artificial intelligence semiconductors, however, have struggled to mimic this flexibility of the brain. A KAIST research team has now developed next-generation, ultra-low-power semiconductor technology that implements this ability as well, drawing significant attention.
KAIST (President Kwang Hyung Lee) announced on September 28 that a research team led by Professor Kyung Min Kim of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering developed a “Frequency Switching Neuristor” that mimics “intrinsic plasticity,” a property that allows neurons to remember past activity and autonomously adjust their response characteristics.
“Intrinsic plasticity” refers to the brain’s adaptive ability- for example, becoming less startled when hearing the same sound repeatedly, or responding more quickly to a specific stimulus after repeated training. The “Frequency Switching Neuristor” is an artificial neuron device that autonomously adjusts the frequency of its signals, much like how the brain becomes less startled by repeated stimuli or, conversely, increasingly sensitive through training.
The research team combined a “volatile Mott memristor,” which reacts momentarily before returning to its original state, with a “non-volatile memristor,” which remembers input signals for long periods of time. This enabled the implementation of a device that can freely control how often a neuron fires (its spiking frequency).
<Figure 1. Conceptual comparison between a neuron and a frequency-tunable neuristor. The intrinsic plasticity of brain neurons regulates excitability through ion channels. Similarly, the frequency-tunable neuristor uses a volatile Mott device to generate current spikes, while a non-volatile VCM device adjusts resistance states to realize comparable frequency modulation characteristics>
In this device, neuronal spike signals and memristor resistance changes influence each other, automatically adjusting responses. Put simply, it reproduces within a single semiconductor device how the brain becomes less startled by repeated sounds or more sensitive to repeated stimuli.
To verify the effectiveness of this technology, the researchers conducted simulations with a “sparse neural network.” They found that, through the neuron’s built-in memory function, the system achieved the same performance with 27.7% less energy consumption compared to conventional neural networks.
They also demonstrated excellent resilience: even if some neurons were damaged, intrinsic plasticity allowed the network to reorganize itself and restore performance. In other words, artificial intelligence using this technology consumes less electricity while maintaining performance, and it can compensate for partial circuit failures to resume normal operation.
Professor Kyung Min Kim, who led the research, stated, “This study implemented intrinsic plasticity, a core function of the brain, in a single semiconductor device, thereby advancing the energy efficiency and stability of AI hardware to a new level. This technology, which enables devices to remember their own state and adapt or recover even from damage, can serve as a key component in systems requiring long-term stability, such as edge computing and autonomous driving.”
This research was carried out with Dr. Woojoon Park (now at Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany) and Dr. Hanchan Song (now at ETRI) as co-first authors, and the results were published online on August 18 in Advanced Materials (IF 26.8), a leading international journal in materials science.
※ Paper title: “Frequency Switching Neuristor for Realizing Intrinsic Plasticity and Enabling Robust Neuromorphic Computing,” DOI: 10.1002/adma.202502255
This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea and Samsung Electronics.
2025.09.30 View 4813 -
MICCAI 2025 Eve KAIST Day Successfully Held
< Scene of the KAIST Day Symposium Lectures >
KAIST announced on the September 23rd that the 'KAIST Day' special symposium, held on the eve of 'MICCAI 2025' at the Jeong Geun-mo Conference Hall of the KAIST Academic and Cultural Center on September 22, was successfully held with the attendance of more than 30 overseas scholars and 200 domestic researchers and students.
This event was a special program prepared to commemorate the hosting of MICCAI 2025 (The 28th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention, Conference Chair: Professor Jina Park of KAIST School of Computing), the world's largest medical imaging conference. It was sponsored by the KAIST College of Engineering and Daejeon City, and was held under the theme of "From Insight to Intervention: Intelligent Imaging in Biomedicine."
KAIST and world-class scholars gathered to share the latest research results combining medical imaging and artificial intelligence, and to have an in-depth discussion on the future direction of next-generation medical technology, encompassing diagnosis and treatment.
Seven world-renowned scholars from the Americas, Europe, and Asia introduced their latest research, and about 30 overseas scholars toured KAIST's advanced medical imaging infrastructure and sought possibilities for collaboration by interacting with domestic researchers. In addition, attending domestic researchers and students had the opportunity for collaboration and international joint research through a networking session.
< A group photo from KAIST Day with President Kwang Hyung Lee and Conference Chair Jina Park >
This event provided an opportunity for domestic researchers to meet world-class scholars ahead of the opening of MICCAI 2025 and served as a starting point and symbolic place for KAIST and Daejeon City to foster Korea as a global hub for medical AI research. The event was planned and moderated by Professor Seungryong Cho and Associate Vice President Hyunju Lee, and was composed of four sessions. First, Professor Hyunwook Park introduced the history and development of medical imaging research at KAIST. Following this, in the "AI for Diagnosis & Disease Understanding" session, Professors Anne Martel, Kenji Suzuki, Hayit Greenspan, and Dimitris Metaxas presented their latest research on AI-based medical imaging, including cancer diagnosis, early detection, rare disease analysis, and multi-modal fusion.
In the next "Imaging Intelligence for Intervention" session, Professors Nasir Navab, Yongkwan Park, James Ji, Leo Joskowicz, and Hyunmin Bae shared clinical application cases such as AR/VR surgical assistance, ultra-high-resolution imaging, atlas-based analysis, surgical planning support, and personalized treatment with neuroimaging.
Each presentation demonstrated the possibilities of future medical imaging expanding beyond diagnosis to treatment and personalized medicine, and active exchanges continued through discussions and Q&A. After the lectures, overseas researchers toured KAIST's advanced infrastructure and conducted in-depth discussions with domestic researchers.
In addition, with the support of NVIDIA, the "NVIDIA Isaac for Healthcare Hands-on Lab" was held, allowing researchers and students to directly experience the latest AI medical platform.
< Invited speakers and attendees of the symposium >
Professor Jina Park of the KAIST School of Computing and Conference Chair of MICCAI 2025 said, "MICCAI is the world's top-level medical AI conference with a focus on clinical application. We organized this event to introduce KAIST's challenging research to the international community and to create new synergy through academic exchange. We expect MICCAI 2025, which will be held from the 23rd to the 27th at the Daejeon Convention Center, to become a representative international academic event for Daejeon, with more than 3,200 people registered."
KAIST President Kwang Hyung Lee said, "The hosting of MICCAI 2025 is an achievement that shows the international status of Korean science and technology. In particular, this pre-conference symposium held at KAIST was a meaningful event where world-class scholars gathered to discuss the future of medical imaging and AI, and it was an opportunity to once again confirm KAIST's status. KAIST will continue to take the lead in research and education that contributes to the promotion of human health by expanding global cooperation."
※ MICCAI 2025 Website: https://conferences.miccai.org/2025/en/
2025.09.23 View 4059 -
Next-Generation Humanoid Robot Capable of Moonwalk Developed
<From the middle of the back row, clockwise: Professor Hae-Won Park, Dongyun Kang (Ph.D. candidate), Hajun Kim (Ph.D. candidate), JongHun Choe (Ph.D. candidate), Min-su Kim (Research Professor)>
KAIST research team's independently developed humanoid robot boasts world-class driving performance, reaching speeds of 12km/h, along with excellent stability, maintaining balance even with its eyes closed or on rough terrain. Furthermore, it can perform complex human-specific movements such as duck walk and moonwalk, drawing attention as a next-generation robot platform that can be utilized in actual industrial settings. Professor Park Hae-won's research team at the Humanoid Robot Research Center (HuboLab) of KAIST's Department of Mechanical Engineering announced on the 19th that they have independently developed the lower body platform for a next-generation humanoid robot. The developed humanoid is characterized by its design tailored for human-centric environments, targeting a height (165cm) and weight (75kg) similar to that of a human. The significance of the newly developed lower body platform is immense as the research team directly designed and manufactured all core components, including motors, reducers, and motor drivers. By securing key components that determine the performance of humanoid robots with their own technology, they have achieved technological independence in terms of hardware. In addition, the research team trained an AI controller through a self-developed reinforcement learning algorithm in a virtual environment, successfully applied it to real-world environments by overcoming the Sim-to-Real Gap, thereby securing technological independence in terms of algorithms as well.
<Developed 'KAIST Humanoid' Lower Body Platform>
Currently, the developed humanoid can run at a maximum speed of 3.25m/s (approximately 12km/h) on flat ground and has a step-climbing capability of over 30cm (a performance indicator showing how high a curb, stairs, or obstacle can be overcome). The team plans to further enhance its performance, aiming for a driving speed of 4.0m/s (approximately 14km/h), ladder climbing, and over 40cm step-climbing capability.
<‘KAIST Humanoid’ Lower Body Platform running>
Professor Hae-Won Park's team is collaborating with Professor Jae-min Hwangbo's team (arms) from KAIST's Department of Mechanical Engineering, Professor Sangbae Kim's team (hands) from MIT, Professor Hyun Myung's team (localization and navigation) from KAIST's Department of Electrical Engineering, and Professor Jae-hwan Lim's team (vision-based manipulation intelligence) from KAIST's Kim Jaechul AI Graduate School to implement a complete humanoid hardware with an upper body and AI. Through this, they are developing technology to enable the robot to perform complex tasks such as carrying heavy objects, operating valves, cranks, and door handles, and simultaneously walking and manipulating when pushing carts or climbing ladders. The ultimate goal is to secure versatile physical abilities to respond to the complex demands of actual industrial sites.
<An Intermediate Result: A Single-Leg Hopping Robot Has Been Developed>
During this process, the research team also developed a single-leg 'Hopping' robot. This robot demonstrated high-level movements, maintaining balance on one leg and repeatedly hopping, and even exhibited extreme athletic abilities such as a 360-degree somersault. Especially in a situation where imitation learning was impossible due to the absence of a biological reference model, the research team achieved significant results by implementing an AI controller through reinforcement learning that optimizes the center of mass velocity while reducing landing impact. Professor Park Hae-won stated, "This achievement is an important milestone that has achieved independence in both hardware and software aspects of humanoid research by securing core components and AI controllers with our own technology," and added, "We will further develop it into a complete humanoid including an upper body to solve the complex demands of actual industrial sites and furthermore, foster it as a next-generation robot that can work alongside humans."
<Key Components of the Directly Developed Robot: (a) Reducer, (b) Motor Stator, (c) Motor Driver, (d) EtherCAT-CAN convert board>
The results of this research will be presented by JongHun Choe, a Ph.D. candidate in Mechanical Engineering, as the first author, on hardware development at 'Humanoids 2025', an international humanoid robot specialized conference held on October 1st. Additionally, Ph.D. candidates Dongyun Kang, Gijeong Kim, and JongHun Choe from Mechanical Engineering will present the AI algorithm achievements as co-first authors at 'CoRL 2025', the top conference in robot intelligence, held on September 29th. ※Paper Titles and Papers: Learning Impact-Rich Rotational Maneuvers via Centroidal Velocity Rewards and Sim-to-Real Techniques: A One-Leg Hopper Flip Case Study, Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL), Seoul, Korea 2025, Dongyun Kang, Gijeong Kim, JongHun Choe, Hajun Kim, Hae-Won Park, arxiv version: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.12222 Design of a 3-DOF Hopping Robot with an Optimized Gearbox: An Intermediate Platform Toward Bipedal Robots, IEEE-RAS, International Conference on Humanoid Robots, Seoul, Korea, 2025, JongHun Choe, Gijeong Kim, Hajun Kim, Dongyun Kang, Min-Su Kim, Hae-Won Park, arxiv version: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.12231 This research was supported by research funding from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology Planning and Evaluation (KEIT) (RS-2024-00427719). ※ Related Video: https://youtu.be/ytWO7lldN4c
2025.09.19 View 7698 -
Accurate Real time ECG Measurement While Comfortably Lying Down at Home
< (From left) Professor Chul Kim of the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Ph.D. candidate Minjae Kim, researcher Premravee Teeravichayangoon >
KAIST's research team has developed a technology that can measure electrocardiogram (ECG) and heart rate variability (HRV) in real time by simply lying on a bed with clothes on, without having to go to the hospital. This technology is expected to evolve into a daily heart health monitoring platform in conjunction with remote healthcare, and further expand into various bio-healthcare fields such as sleep and stress analysis, contributing to personalized prevention and early diagnosis for patients.
KAIST announced on the 19th that Professor Chul Kim's research team from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering has developed an 'in-bed cardiac monitoring on-device system'.
The research team manufactured a flexible substrate sensor that integrates the electronic circuit and electrodes into one to increase precision, and implemented an integrated system that can perform signal-noise separation, heart beat signal (R-peak) detection, and heart rate variability analysis in real time through on-device signal processing.
Existing ECG measurement had the inconvenience of visiting a hospital, taking off clothes, and attaching wet electrodes to the skin. Because of this, long-term monitoring was difficult, and it was not easy for the elderly or patients with chronic diseases to use it daily. Non-contact methods also had a technical limitation of being vulnerable to external noise.
To solve these problems, the research team applied a circuit that blocks external noise (active shielding) and a circuit that stably captures minute current changes in the human body (right-leg drive circuit). In addition, they implemented a mathematical transformation technique (wavelet transform) that extracts only the important parts from the heart beat signal and a calculation method (peak detection algorithm) that accurately identifies the moment of the heart's electrical beat (R-peak) as on-device signal processing techniques, allowing for precise real-time analysis of the signal.
As a result, users can obtain stable and accurate ECG signals even when lying on their backs with clothes on.
< Figure. Overall structural diagram of the developed non-contact in-bed cardiac monitoring on-device system, schematic diagram of the R-peak detection algorithm, real-time ECG and HRV measurement screen >
This research presents new possibilities for managing chronic cardiovascular diseases and supporting the health of the elderly, as it can be easily used not only in hospitals but also at home.
Professor Chul Kim said, "This system, which can extract signals in real time even in a noisy environment, can be used to easily check heart health in daily life," and added, "In the future, it will become the foundation of sleep health management by adding the measurement of various bio-signals."
This paper, in which Ph.D. candidate Minjae Kim and researcher Premravee Teeravichayangoon from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering participated as co-first authors, was published online in the international journal 'Biosensors and Bioelectronics' on August 9, 2025.
※ Paper title: A homecare in-bed hardware system for precise real-time ECG and HRV monitoring with layered clothing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2025.117838
※ Author information: Minjae Kim (KAIST Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, First Author), Premravee Teeravichayangoon (KAIST Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, First Author), Chul Kim (KAIST Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Corresponding Author)
Meanwhile, this research was carried out with the support of the National Research Foundation of Korea's Basic Research Lab and Bio-medical Technology Development Project, and the KAIST-Ceragem Future Healthcare Research Center.
2025.09.19 View 2954 -
POSTECH KAIST 22nd Student Festival in KAIST... Korea's Top Engineering Schools are Alive!"
<The 22nd POSTECH-KAIST Student Festival Poster>
The annual rivalry match between Korea's leading engineering universities, KAIST and POSTECH, will be held for the 22nd time on September 19th and 20th at the KAIST campus, the university announced on September 18th.
The POSTECH-KAIST Student Festival, also known as "Pokajeon," began in 2002 to promote exchange between the two schools. This year's event features a variety of programs, including science and athletic competitions, performances, and broadcasts.
Held every September, Pokajeon alternates between Daejeon (KAIST's location) and Pohang (POSTECH's location). This year it's being called "Pokajeon" because POSTECH is the visiting team, and the custom is to put the visiting team's name first. The event is also known as the "Science War," a fitting nickname for a competition featuring the nation's top engineering students.
This year's Pokajeon will feature seven events: three science competitions (Hacking, AI Contest, Science Quiz) and four athletic events (Baseball, Soccer, Basketball, and E-sports).
<Cheering Scene for the 2023 Basketball Game>
The science competitions are unique and a highlight of the festival. The hacking competition kicks off on the first day at 2 p.m. and continues for 12 hours until 2 a.m. the next morning. In this contest, participants earn points by solving information security problems, including cryptography. All team members must participate in rotation, and using generative AI tools is allowed. A live broadcast will show real-time scores and solution processes, giving spectators a sense of the excitement.
The AI contest will take place on the same day at 5 p.m. at the Daejeon e-Sports Stadium. Based on the car-soccer game "Rocket League," the competition features AI programs created by the students themselves. The AI programs will control the cars to score goals. Matches are a best-of-five series, with each set lasting five minutes.
The Science Quiz will be held on the second day at the Ryu Geun-chul Sports Complex. Participants will solve problems on scientific knowledge and current research trends while also playing a modified version of the strategic card game "Battle Line." They must use strategy cards and soldier cards to secure flags. This event tests not just knowledge but also strategic thinking and teamwork.
<2024 Science Quiz>
The athletic events combine traditional sports with e-sports. Baseball, soccer, and basketball games will be played on the KAIST campus fields, while the e-sports event ("League of Legends") will be a best-of-three series. Each game will have on-site events to boost participation and excitement for students and spectators alike.
The university that wins at least four of the seven events will be the overall champion. KAIST currently holds a 12-8 record, having won the last three consecutive years.
"I hope this year's Pokajeon fosters a sense of belonging and pride in the students of both universities through healthy competition, and that it becomes an opportunity to create cherished memories for engineering students," said Oh Sang-jun, head of the Pokajeon planning committee (KAIST, Aerospace Engineering, class of '23).
KAIST President Lee Kwang-hyung added, "Pokajeon is a special festival where KAIST and POSTECH students connect through science and sports. I hope they feel pride as key players representing the future of Korean engineering and work together to open up the future of science and technology."
2025.09.18 View 2806 -
KAIST Develops AI Crowd Prediction Technology to Prevent Disasters like the Itaewon Tragedy
<(From Left) Ph.D candidate Youngeun Nam from KAIST, Professor Jae-Gil Lee from KAIST, Ji-Hye Na from KAIST, (Top right, from left) Professor Soo-Sik Yoon from Korea University, Professor HwanJun Song from KAIST>
To prevent crowd crush incidents like the Itaewon tragedy, it's crucial to go beyond simply counting people and to instead have a technology that can detect the real-
inflow and movement patterns of crowds. A KAIST research team has successfully developed new AI crowd prediction technology that can be used not only for managing large-scale events and mitigating urban traffic congestion but also for responding to infectious disease outbreaks.
On the 17th, KAIST (President Kwang Hyung Lee) announced that a research team led by Professor Jae-Gil Lee from the School of Computing has developed a new AI technology that can more accurately predict crowd density.
The dynamics of crowd gathering cannot be explained by a simple increase or decrease in the number of people. Even with the same number of people, the level of risk changes depending on where they are coming from and which direction they are heading.
Professor Lee's team expressed this movement using the concept of a "time-varying graph." This means that accurate prediction is only possible by simultaneously analyzing two types of information: "node information" (how many people are in a specific area) and "edge information" (the flow of people between areas).
In contrast, most previous studies focused on only one of these factors, either concentrating on "how many people are gathered right now" or "which paths are people moving along." However, the research team emphasized that combining both is necessary to truly capture a dangerous situation.
For example, a sudden increase in density in a specific alleyway, such as Alley A, is difficult to predict with just "current population" data. But by also considering the flow of people continuously moving from a nearby area, Area B, towards Area A (edge information), it's possible to pre-emptively identify the signal that "Area A will soon become dangerous."
To achieve this, the team developed a "bi-modal learning" method. This technology simultaneously considers population counts (node information) and population flow (edge information), while also learning spatial relationships (which areas are connected) and temporal changes (when and how movement occurs).
Specifically, the team introduced a 3D contrastive learning technique. This allows the AI to learn not only 2D spatial (geographical) information but also temporal information, creating a 3D relationship. As a result, the AI can understand not just whether the population is "large or small right now," but "what pattern the crowd is developing into over time." This allows for a much more accurate prediction of the time and place where congestion will occur than previous methods.
<Figure 1. Workflow of the bi-modal learning-based crowd congestion risk prediction developed by the research team.
The research team developed a crowd congestion risk prediction model based on bi-modal learning. The vertex-based time series represents indicator changes in a specific area (e.g., increases or decreases in crowd density), while the edge-based time series captures the flow of population movement between areas over time. Although these two types of data are collected from different sources, they are mapped onto the same network structure and provided together as input to the AI model. During training, the model simultaneously leverages both vertex and edge information based on a shared network, allowing it to capture complex movement patterns that might be overlooked when relying on only a single type of data. For example, a sudden increase in crowd density in a particular area may be difficult to predict using vertex information alone, but by additionally considering the steady inflow of people from adjacent areas (edge information), the prediction becomes more accurate. In this way, the model can precisely identify future changes based on past and present information, ultimately predicting high-risk crowd congestion areas in advance.>
The research team built and publicly released six real-world datasets for their study, which were compiled from sources such as Seoul, Busan, and Daegu subway data, New York City transit data, and COVID-19 confirmed case data from South Korea and New York.
The proposed technology achieved up to a 76.1% improvement in prediction accuracy over recent state-of-the-art methods, demonstrating strong perf
Professor Jae-Gil Lee stated, "It is important to develop technologies that can have a significant social impact," adding, "I hope this technology will greatly contribute to protecting public safety in daily life, such as in crowd management for large events, easing urban traffic congestion, and curbing the spread of infectious diseases."
Youngeun Nam, a Ph.D candidate in the KAIST School of Computing, was the first author of the study, and Jihye Na, another Ph.D candidate, was a co-author. The research findings were presented at the Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD) 2025 conference, a top international conference in the field of data mining, this past August.
※ Paper Title: Bi-Modal Learning for Networked Time Series ※ DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3711896.3736856
This technology is the result of research projects including the "Mid-Career Researcher Project" (RS-2023-NR077002, Core Technology Research for Crowd Management Systems Based on AI and Mobility Big Data) and the "Human-Centered AI Core Technology Development Project" (RS-2022-II220157, Robust, Fair, and Scalable Data-Centric Continuous Learning).
2025.09.17 View 3994 -
Professor Jinsoo Kim Donates 3.4 Billion Won in Stocks to Pioneer Solutions for Climate and Food Crises through Gene Editing
< (From left) Daesoo Kim, Dean of College of Life Sciences and BioEngineering / Kyunmin Lee, Vice President for Academic Affairs/ Professor Jinsoo Kim/ Kwang Hyung Lee, President / Sang Yup Lee, Vice President for Research>
KAIST announced that Professor Jinsoo Kim of the Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering has donated 85,000 shares of ToolGen Inc. stock to help overcome climate disasters and agricultural crises. The shares are valued at approximately 3.438 billion won as of September 15, and KAIST plans to use them to actively promote innovative research in the fields of agriculture and life sciences.
The donation will be used to establish the "Center for Plant-based Carbon Capture," which is scheduled to be founded in the second half of this year. Based on this, KAIST aims to contribute to a sustainable future by fully embarking on research to address climate change and global food security issues.
The research center will focus on developing technologies that maximize the photosynthetic efficiency of plants and microalgae. The goal is to contribute to carbon neutrality by increasing the absorption rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide, while also significantly improving food productivity to enhance food security.
The core technology is the "direct editing technology for organelle DNA (chloroplasts and mitochondria)," which Professor Kim developed for the first time in the world. Chloroplasts, which perform photosynthesis using sunlight, and mitochondria, which act as the cell's energy powerhouse, have their own DNA that could not be edited with existing CRISPR technology. This new technology can precisely edit even this DNA, and it can also be used in the future for research and treatment of intractable genetic diseases.
Furthermore, because the crops developed with this technology involve direct editing of the DNA already present in the plant rather than inserting foreign genes, they are not considered GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). They are recognized as "Non-GMOs" in countries like the United States and Japan. This lowers regulatory barriers and increases consumer acceptance, greatly expanding the potential for commercialization and market entry.
With the establishment of this research center, KAIST anticipates various achievements, including overcoming the food crisis amid climate change, a revolutionary increase in agricultural productivity, the presentation of sustainable carbon reduction methods, and the creation of a next-generation bioenergy industry.
Applying Professor Kim's core technology, high-efficiency crops that can absorb a large amount of carbon dioxide and be used as an energy source can be mass-produced. These crops can be used as a raw material for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), an eco-friendly aviation fuel, which is expected to be an important stepping stone for Korea to emerge as a powerhouse in future aviation fuels.
Professor Kim stated, "The climate change and food security crises facing humanity are no longer issues that we can turn a blind eye to. I decided to make this donation with the hope of contributing to a sustainable future through the advancement of gene editing science and technology, talent cultivation, and industry-academia-research collaboration."
KAIST President Kwang Hyung Lee emphasized, "Professor Jinsoo Kim's donation is a role model that shows a scientist's dedication and social responsibility. KAIST will lead innovative technologies and take the lead in solving the global climate and food crises through the Center for Plant-based Carbon Capture."
2025.09.16 View 3075 -
Planting 1,000 Mugunghwa Trees to Open a New Path of Scientific and Technological Excellence
< (From right) President Kwang Hyung Lee, donors Namkyung Ko and Haeyoung Oh, and KAIST management >
On September 15, KAIST announced that it held a commemorative ceremony at 11:30 a.m. in front of the main building (E14) in Daejeon to plant 1,000 Mugunghwa trees, symbolizing the university's mission and challenging spirit as a leading science and technology institution in Korea.
This project was made possible by a donation from the couple Haeyoung Oh and Namkyung Ko, and the ceremony was attended by President Kwang Hyung Lee, other key university officials, and the donors.
The KAIST campus is already well-known for its spectacular cherry blossom-lined paths in the spring and its charming scenery with ducks and geese. The addition of a new Mugunghwa path, which will beautify the campus in the summer, will transform it into a place where the beauty of nature and the passion for learning coexist year-round.
Approximately 700 trees will be planted at the main Daejeon campus, with around 300 to be planted at the Seoul and Munji campuses. The Mugunghwa trees are expected to become a new landmark of the campus, alongside the cherry blossoms. Students, faculty, staff, and visitors will be able to walk along the flowered paths and find rest, inspiration, and a message of challenge.
Established in 1971 to realize the national goal of economic development through science and technology, KAIST is Korea's first specialized university for science and engineering. Over the past half-century, it has led the nation's remarkable industrialization and advanced technological development by nurturing world-class scientific and technological talent and conducting innovative research. Today, it is recognized as a key driving force behind Korea's leap toward becoming a global leader in artificial intelligence. This journey has always been centered on KAIST's challenges and achievements.
< (From left) Haeyoung Oh, Namkyung Ko, and President Kwang Hyung Lee >
Considering this history and mission, planting the national flower, Mugunghwa, on campus is not just a simple planting but a symbolic act of creating a path that represents the development of Korean science and technology. The Mugunghwa’s persistent vitality and challenging spirit align with the very spirit of KAIST.
Currently, KAIST is home to over 1,580 students and researchers from 108 countries. Just as "K-pop Demon Hunters" recently garnered global attention and showcased a new face of Korean culture, the Mugunghwa path will also serve as a place for international members to directly experience Korean culture and as a symbol of KAIST's openness, diversity, and innovative spirit.
Donors Haeyoung Oh and Namkyung Ko have no direct ties to KAIST but are supporters who have been making monthly donations since 2022 out of a shared belief in the importance of scientific and technological development. Haeyoung Oh, who attended the event, shared, "I am delighted to be part of this meaningful event of planting our national flower, the Mugunghwa." He added, "I hope KAIST continues to grow as a resilient and ever-blooming university, just like the Mugunghwa."
President Kwang Hyung Lee stated, "The Mugunghwa is the flower that represents Korea and a symbol of the KAIST spirit." He continued, "Following the noble intentions of our donors, KAIST will grow even further as a cradle of scientific and technological challenges that change the world." President Lee also expressed his hope that "this Mugunghwa path will become a space of inclusion where global community members can experience Korean culture and find rest and inspiration."
< Donors and KAIST management participating in the Mugunghwa tree planting ceremony >
2025.09.15 View 1910 -
World's First Quantum Computing for Lego-like Design of Porous Materials
<(From Left to Right)Professor Jihan Kim, Ph.D. candidate Sinyoung Kang, Ph.D. candidate Younghoon Kim from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering>
Multivariate Porous Materials (MTV) are like a 'collection of Lego blocks,' allowing for customized design at a molecular level to freely create desired structures. Using these materials enables a wide range of applications, including energy storage and conversion, which can significantly contribute to solving environmental problems and advancing next-generation energy technologies. Our research team has, for the first time in the world, introduced quantum computing to solve the difficult problem of designing complex MTVs, opening an innovative path for the development of next-generation catalysts, separation membranes, and energy storage materials.
On September 9, Professor Jihan Kim's research team at our university's Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering announced the development of a new framework that uses a quantum computer to efficiently explore the design space of millions of multivariate porous materials (hereafter, MTV).
MTV porous materials are structures formed by the combination of two or more organic ligands (linkers) and building block materials like metal clusters. They have great potential for use in the energy and environmental fields. Their diverse compositional combinations llow for the design and synthesis of new structures. Examples include gas adsorption, mixed gas separation, sensors, and catalysts.
However, as the number of components increases, the number of possible combinations grows exponentially. It has been impossible to design and predict the properties of complex MTV structures using the conventional method of checking every single structure with a classical computer.
The research team represented the complex porous structure as a 'network (graph) drawn on a map' and then converted each connection point and block type into qubits that a quantum computer can handle. They then asked the quantum computer to solve the problem: "Which blocks should be arranged at what ratio to create the most stable structure?"
<Figure1. Overall schematics of the quantum computing algorithm to generate feasible MTV porous materials. The algorithm consists of two mapping schemes (qubit mapping and topology mapping) to allocate building blocks in a given connectivity. Different configurations go through a predetermined Hamiltonian, which is comprised of a ratio term, occupancy term, and balance term, to capture the most feasible MTV porous material>
Because quantum computers can calculate multiple possibilities simultaneously, it's like spreading out millions of Lego houses at once and quickly picking out the sturdiest one. This allows them to explore a vast number of possibilities—which a classical computer would have to calculate one by one—with far fewer resources.
The research team also conducted experiments on four different MTV structures that have been previously reported. The results from the simulation and the IBM quantum computer were identical, demonstrating that the method "actually works well."
<Figure2. VQE sampling results for experimental structures and the structures that reproduce them, using IBM Qiskit's classical simulator. The experimental structure is predicted to be the most probable outcome of the VQE algorithm's calculation, meaning it will be generated as the most stable form of the structure.>
In the future, the team plans to combine this method with machine learning to expand it into a platform that considers not only simple structural design but also synthesis feasibility, gas adsorption performance, and electrochemical properties simultaneously.
Professor Jihan Kim said, "This research is the first case to solve the bottleneck of complex multivariate porous material design using quantum computing." He added, "This achievement is expected to be widely applied as a customized material design technology in fields where precise composition is key, such as carbon capture and separation, selective catalytic reactions, and ion-conducting electrolytes, and it can be flexibly expanded to even more complex systems in the future."
Ph.D. candidates Sinyoung Kang and Younghoon Kim of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering participated as co-first authors in this study. The research results were published in the online edition of the international journal ACS Central Science on August 22.
Paper Title: Quantum Computing Based Design of Multivariate Porous Materials
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.5c00918
Meanwhile, this research was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT's Mid-Career Researcher Support Program and the Heterogeneous Material Support Program.
2025.09.09 View 3758 -
KAIST Holds Opening Ceremony for Advanced Semiconductor Research Equipment
KAIST announced on the 8th of September that its Graduate School of Semiconductor Technology held an opening ceremony for advanced equipment at 3 p.m. on the 8th at the Department of Electrical Engineering (E3-2) in the main campus in Daejeon. The event unveiled state-of-the-art research infrastructure that can be utilized by industry, academia, and research institutions.
The event was attended by approximately 80 people, including KAIST President Kwang Hyung Lee, Daejeon Mayor Jang Woo Lee, and officials from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology, companies, and research institutions. The ceremony included a plaque of appreciation presented to Synopsys Korea, congratulatory speeches, and an introduction to the equipment. Attendees toured the newly established equipment and facilities, expressing high expectations for the development of local industries.
<Group photo of attendees at the opening ceremony of advanced equipment at the Graduate School of Semiconductor Technology>
The advanced equipment introduced this time is a key infrastructure for research in semiconductor devices, materials, and packaging. It provides a comprehensive research environment that covers the entire semiconductor development process, from design and simulation to fabrication and evaluation. It is expected to function as a practical hub for collaboration between industry, academia, and research institutions, as it will be open not only to KAIST professors and students but also to local companies and research organizations.
In particular, the Graduate School of Semiconductor Technology is a core institution that simultaneously promotes next-generation technology development and talent cultivation in the semiconductor sector, a national strategic industry. It serves as a hub for strengthening the competitiveness of the Korean semiconductor industry. Semiconductors, which are the foundation of all advanced industries, including artificial intelligence, batteries, autonomous driving, and defense, are in a field of fierce global supply chain competition. Therefore, establishing an educational and research hub where industry, academia, and research can closely cooperate is essential. The opening of this advanced equipment facility holds national significance, extending beyond simple research to support the establishment of a sustainable semiconductor ecosystem.
Daejeon City is actively supporting this project with an investment of 4.9 billion KRW. This reflects the city's commitment to consolidating its excellent research infrastructure and talent in the semiconductor industry to use it as a new growth engine for the local economy. The city's key strategy is to foster Daejeon into a practical hub for the Korean semiconductor industry through cooperation with KAIST.
<KAIST President Kwang Hyung Lee giving a welcoming speech at the opening ceremony of advanced equipment at the Graduate School of Semiconductor Technology>
KAIST also received a donation of a semiconductor process/device simulation software (TCAD) license from Synopsys Korea, a leading global semiconductor design software company, which provides it with world-class semiconductor education and research infrastructure.
The support project for the Graduate School of Semiconductor Technology is being pursued over a five-year period from 2023 to 2028, with a total budget of 21.5 billion KRW (15 billion KRW from the national government, 4.9 billion KRW from the city, and 1.6 billion KRW from KAIST's own funds). A faculty of 34 professors from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Physics, Mechanical Engineering, and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering plan to cultivate more than 225 highly skilled master's and doctoral level professionals. Currently, 123 students are enrolled in the graduate school, and it has achieved tangible results, such as carrying out collaborative projects with about 20 companies in an industry-academia consortium.
Daejeon Mayor Jang Woo Lee emphasized, "I hope that the combination of Daejeon's research infrastructure and talent will lead to the development of local industries. We will continue to strengthen cooperation with and actively support KAIST."
Gyeong-shin So, CEO of Synopsys Korea, stated, "I hope KAIST students will gain advanced simulation experience using TCAD and grow into key talents who will lead the global semiconductor industry."
<Photo of the tour of the Graduate School of Semiconductor Technology's equipment room>
President Kwang Hyung Lee said, "Daejeon is the optimal location for the semiconductor industry, equipped with the best research infrastructure and personnel in Korea. With the opening of this advanced equipment facility as an opportunity, KAIST will further contribute to strengthening national semiconductor competitiveness by creating innovative research results and fostering global talent."
This opening of the advanced equipment facility and the donation from Synopsys Korea are evaluated as important milestones that will lead to the qualitative growth of the Korean semiconductor industry. KAIST plans to cultivate global-level semiconductor talent and contribute to the development of the semiconductor industry on a national scale beyond Daejeon by developing new curricula and textbooks and promoting joint industry-academia projects in the future.
2025.09.09 View 4424 -
The 4th Korea AI System Forum Breakfast Lecture Successfully Concluded
A special event was held to explore the trend of "Physical AI," where artificial intelligence directly connects with the physical world and rapidly permeates industrial sites. On the morning of Monday, September 8, KAIST's Graduate School of AI Semiconductor held the "4th Korea AI System Forum (KAISF)" breakfast lecture at the Onoma Hotel in Daejeon.
At the lecture, Yoon-seok Pyu, a director at ROBOTIS, Inc., gave a special presentation on the topic, "Physical AI Research Trends and the Development History of Task-Oriented Humanoid AI Workers." Director Pyu introduced the current state of global Physical AI research and specifically explained ROBOTIS's strategy for developing humanoid robots tailored to industrial sites.
<Group photo of attendees at the 4th Korea AI System Forum>
In particular, the participants were shown the potential of a robot platform that can be applied in real industrial settings, thanks to technical advances in core components like the robot's ability to learn tasks through imitation learning, and the company's small, high-power actuators and self-developed reducers. He shared examples of the company's "AI Worker" development, which is specialized for the manufacturing, logistics, and service sectors, based on ROBOTIS's vision of "Freedom from Work."
Beyond simple technological concepts, attendees actively exchanged opinions and deeply agreed on the need for Physical AI robots that can be used stably and efficiently in the field.
Hoe-jun Yoo, chairman of the Korea AI System Forum (a KAIST professor), stated, "Physical AI is a field where countries around the world are fiercely competing to secure a leading position. KAISF will support our
companies to lead in the global market by building a Korean-style industrial ecosystem."
Going forward, KAISF plans to focus on ensuring that Korean Physical AI technology gains a competitive edge on the global stage by closely connecting industry, academia, and research institutions. Through this effort, it will promote the creation of a differentiated industrial ecosystem that encompasses AI semiconductors, robotics, and system integration.
2025.09.09 View 4726