THE
-
Professor Kyung-Wook Paik Receives the Best Presentation Award from 2014 Pan Pacific Symposium
The Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA) hosted its 19th Annual Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium on February 11-13, 2014 in Hawaii.
The 2014 conference, promoting international technical exchange and extensive networking among microelectronics professionals from around the world, presented over 50 papers from 17 countries.
Professor Kyung-Wook Paik of Materials Science Engineering at KAIST received the Best Presentation Award for his paper titled, “Novel Nanofiber Anisotropic Films for Nine Pitch Assembly” at the conference.
SMTA is an international network of professionals in electronics assembly technologies, including Microsystems, emerging technologies, and related business operations.
2014.03.17 View 9852 -
The Korea Herald: Synthetic Biology Holds Key to Future
The Korea Herald
, a leading English newspaper in Korea, published an article on the production of gasoline by a metabolically engineered microorganism. For the article, please go to the link below:
The Korea Herald
March 14, 2014
"Synthetic biology holds key to future"
KAIST professor makes breakthrough in biorefining using E. coli’s metabolic process
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20140314001343
2014.03.17 View 7951 -
Tae-Wan Kim, a doctoral candidate, receives the best paper award from ECTC
The 2014 Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC) will take place on May 27-30 in Florida, USA. Tae-Wan Kim, a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Materials Science Engineering (MSE), KAIST, will receive the Intel Best Student Paper Award at the conference.ECTC is the premier international conference that brings together the best researchers and engineers in packaging, components and microelectronic systems science, technology and education in an environment of cooperation and technical exchange. The conference is sponsored by the Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology (CPMT) Society of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering).The paper describes research on novel nanofiber anisotropic conductive films for ultra fine pitch electronic package application, which was written under the guidance of Professor Kyung-Wook Paik of the MSE Department. In the past ten years, two of his students have received the best paper award from ECTC.
2014.03.14 View 12011 -
Visit by Sir Paul Maxime Nurse, President of the Royal Society
Sir Paul Maxime
Nurse, who is an English geneticist and cell biologist, visited KAIST and gave
a lecture entitled The Great Ideas of
Biology on March 11, 2014.
Sir Paul was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine with Leland H. Hartwell and R. Timothy Hunt for their discoveries
of protein molecules that control the division of cells in the cell cycle.
He was Professor of Microbiology at the University
of Oxford, CEO of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and Cancer Research UK, and
President of Rockefeller University in New York. Sir Paul is currently the President of
the Royal Society as well as Director and Chief Executive of the Francis Crick
Institute.
Founded in London in 1660, the Royal Society is composed of the world’s most distinguished scientists drawn from all areas of
science, engineering, and medicine.
Below is a summary of his lecture, The Great Ideas of Biology:
Four major ideas of biology
are the theory of genes, evolution by natural selection, the proposal that the
cell is the fundamental unit of all life, and the chemical composition of a cell.
When considering the
question “what is life?” these ideas come together. The special way cells reproduce
provides the conditions by which natural selection takes place, allowing living
organisms to evolve. The organization of chemistry within the cell provides
explanations for life’s phenomena.
In addition, an emerging idea
is the nature of biological self-organization with which living cells and organisms
process information and acquire specific forms. These great ideas have
influenced one another and changed the way we perceive biology and science
today.
2014.03.11 View 10959 -
KAIST Holds the 2014 System on Chip (SoC) Robot War in August and October
Domestic and international competitions for robots with artificial intelligence are organized by Professor Hoi-Jun Yoo of Electrical Engineering.
KAIST will host two robot competitions this year: The Robot Integration Festival will be held in August at the Convention Center in Daejeon and the International Robot Contest in October at the Kintex in Ilsan. Participating robots are developed based on the System on Chip (SoC).
SoC robots refer to an autonomous robot that has a processor, a memory, peripheral devices, logic, and other system components combined on a single chip, which enables the robots to handle tasks and make decisions without human intervention.
The competitions include three entries: Taekwon Robot, HURO-competition, and SoC Drone which was added for the first time this year.
The Taekwon Robot involves a one-on-one sparring match, using a Korean traditional martial art, between two robots. Competitors score points based on front and side kicks, as well as punching. The HURO-competition pits robots in a competition to perform assignments such as hurdling, barricade clearing, crossing bridges, and overcoming other obstacles. The SoC Drone evaluates robots' capability to track miniature cars and navigate between buildings while in flight. The drone should have two cameras and a SoC brainboard equipped to offer autonomous, remote-controlled flight.
The director of the competitions, Professor Hoi-Jun Yoo of Electrical Engineering at KAIST, commented that with the integration of Korea’s world-class semiconductor technology, the competitions would lead to improvements in robotics engineering and unmanned aerial vehicle technology.
The competitions are open to anyone interested in SoC robots and unmanned aerial vehicles. For more information about the competitions, please visit http://www.socrobotwar.org . The application deadline is April 15, 2014.
2014.03.11 View 11003 -
The 4th Meeting of Korea and Denmark Alliance for Green Growth
President Steve Kang attended the “Fourth Meeting of Korea and Denmark Alliance for Green Growth” which took place on March 6, 2014 at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul. President Kang was a keynote speaker at the meeting and gave a lecture on sustainable energy.
KAIST and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the “Cooperation for Innovation and Entrepreneurship” at the meeting.
In the MOU, KAIST and DTU agreed to post the information on their websites regarding the patents acquired through the implementation of joint research programs. In addition, KAIST students will attend conferences and idea competitions organized by DTU, e.g., the Green Challenges. DTU students will participate in KAIST’s conferences and competitions including “Startup KAIST Global Idea Competition.”
2014.03.07 View 8761 -
Seung-Han Lee, a doctoral student in electrical engineering, receives the best paper award from ISQED 2014
Seung-Han
Lee, a doctoral candidate in the department of electrical engineering at KAIST,
received a Best Paper Award from the International Symposium on Quality
Electronic Design (ISQED), a high-profile international conference started in 2000 to promote innovation and quality in electronic and
engineering designs through inter- and multidisciplinary approaches. The
award ceremony will take place at the 2014 ISQED on March 3-5, 2014 at the Convention
Center in Santa Clara, CA, USA.
Professor
Chong-Min Kyung, an advisor to Seung-Han, expressed his excitement about his student's achievement.
“This is
the first time a Korean has ever received the best paper award at this academic
conference. It’s great news to our student as well as to KAIST.”
The topic
of Lee’s research paper was dynamic cache data management for minimizing the
energy consumption of three-dimensional multi-processor semiconductor chips.
2014.03.03 View 10910 -
Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings by Subject 2014
The QS
World University Rankings are annual university rankings published by
Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) which provides the overall rankings of top global
universities as well as the rankings for individual subjects. The 2014 QS World
University Rankings by Subject is a comprehensive guide to the world’s best universities
in 30 popular subjects of 5 academic disciplines: arts & humanities,
engineering & technology, life sciences & medicine, natural sciences,
and social sciences.
According
to the 2014 subject rankings, released on February 26, KAIST made the list of top
50 universities in 9 subjects: physics & astronomy; materials sciences;
chemistry; chemical engineering; mechanical, aeronautical & manufacturing
engineering; electrical & electronic engineering; civil & structural engineering;
computer science & information systems; and biological sciences.
Among
them, KAIST was ranked number one in Korea for 5 subjects: materials sciences
(16th); mechanical, aeronautical & manufacturing engineering (21st);
civil & structural engineering (32nd); computer science &
information systems (36th), and biological sciences (43rd).
For basic sciences, KAIST has made good progress as well. For example, in
mathematics, KAIST took first place in Korea and was ranked in the 51st-100th
of the world’s top universities. Another notable result was that its business college
in Seoul campus, a relatively new addition to KAIST, made the rankings list of
51st-100th in accounting & finance.
The 2014
QS subject rankings used the following criteria for its evaluation of
university performance: a survey of academic and employer reputation, citations
per paper, inclusion of specialists, and the h-index, known as the Hirsch index or Hirsch number, which was
suggested by Jorge E. Hirsch, a physicist at the University of California in
San Diego, as a tool for determining theoretical physicists’ relative quality.
Today, the h-index is used to measure
both the productivity and impact of the published work of a scientist or
scholar.
2014.02.28 View 11320 -
KAIST President Held One-year Anniversary Press Conference
President Steve Kang had a press conference
on February 25, 2014 at the Faculty Club on campus, commemorating the first
year of his presidency. About 30 different media representatives nationwide
attended the meeting.
At his first press conference on the anniversary of his tenure, President Kang
described what he has achieved in the past year, which were: 1) rebuilding the
campus culture to start a campaign for mutual respect, trust, and open
communication by holding meetings with the members of the KAIST community more
than 60 times, 2) establishing core values, creativity and challenge, to
enhance the fabric of the community, 3) restructuring of the university
administration, and 4) the announcement of the mid- and long-term development
plan.
He also mentioned that “2014 will be another exciting year for KAIST to make
more progress” and laid out a few major projects to be implemented this year:
launching of the “Committee for Engineering Education Innovation,” “Startup
KAIST” (an entrepreneurship program), “Greater Collaboration in Technology
Translation and Management with Seoul National University,” and “KAIST End Run”
(a global business incubation program).Explanation of 2014 Major Endeavors by President KangFor
the past decade, domestic engineering schools weighed SCI dissertation
publication more heavily in university evaluations, yielding a world-class
research level. However, such an approach resulted in placing less importance
on entrepreneurship, commercialization, or creating economic values.As a
result, engineering Professors have been evaluated as being too focused on theoretical
SCI dissertation research rather than practical research that could yield
economic benefits through commercialization of developed technology. In
addition, some have criticized that engineering universities have not educated
creative researchers demanded by the industry.KAIST
has begun responding to these criticisms and has made a few suggestions to strengthen
engineering education, promote entrepreneurship in engineers, and globalize Korean
venture companies.As
part of such efforts, KAIST established the KAIST Education and Research
Innovation Committee, composed of various individuals from the industry,
research institutes, alumni, faculty members, and others, to discuss ways to reinforce
engineering education.
A
course to encourage entrepreneurship will be implemented.Startup
KAIST will develop and commercialize innovative ideas from members of KAIST, and
the End Run project will enable students and faculty to establish a global,
venture company. KAIST hopes that a new entrepreneurial culture will be created
on campus, thereby the research success of KAIST members will lead to commercialization
and startups.KAIST
plans on releasing free internet lectures as part of its knowledge contribution
and sponsoring programs which will level the playing field in eduation.KAIST
will establish the KAIST Open Online Course (KOOC). An entrepreneurship
curriculum will be developed for KOOC. KAIST will start trials for KOOC from
2015, gradually expanding to include more courses.
2014.02.27 View 9675 -
A game enthusiast received a Ph.D. at the 2014 commencement
A high school student, who was addicted to video gaming and had barely managed to gain entrance to KAIST, became a star of its 2014 commencement ceremony.
The student was Tae-Woo Park who received his Ph.D. in games at 32 years of age.
Park entered KAIST in 2002 as an undergraduate student. However, owning to bad grades, he was not accepted to the graduate school of KAIST until 2006. He began playing games at the age of 7, which distracted him from his studies at an early age. Nevertheless, he was able to complete master’s degree after two and a half years, which normally takes two years for average students.
Professor Joon-Hwa Song saw a possibility from his student’s experience of producing and commercializing a mobile puzzle game while Park was working as a president of the game club, HAJE, at KAIST. Professor Song advised him to take the advantage of his interests and try developing game platforms and contents. Park decided to develop a game that could help others and would change people’s negative views of games. He created a whole new generation of games.
In order to find ideas for games that can be easily enjoyed in daily lives, Park went to numerous gyms, swimming pools, daycare centers, and parks to analyze people’s behaviors and discussed with his colleagues who were also interested in games. During this process, the experience of organizing creative ideas through cooperation and discussions became a great foundation for his future research.
He observed some people quitting midway during a workout on treadmills because they were bored with working out alone. From this, Park embarked on developing a new style of game that allowed people to exercise together.
Park used the system on a treadmill, which recognizes the speed of the person running to automatically adjust the machine’s speed, to develop an interactive game platform for Swan Boat. The Swan Boat game is a race exercise game that adjusts the direction according to speed difference between two players. The game utilizes the difference of running speed between two people on treadmills to change the direction of the boat.
With the Swan Boat game, people can now play games and exercise at the same time. The technology also allows online access anywhere in the world, which means checking friends’ rankings at nearby gyms or homes, or even a World Gym Running Contest.
In addition, Park helped develop various next generation exercise games and life-based services, including the sparrow chirp application, which finds children that go astray, or an avatar game that utilizes the user’s daily life patterns. These results and papers attracted attention from international societies and have also won a number of awards.
Professor Song said, “There has been no precedent of receiving a Ph.D. at KAIST for developing games, however, Park’s case has given courage to many people that if you can create what is really required in everyday life, you can indeed receive a doctor’s degree.”
Park remarked, “I’d like to express my gratitude to my advisor, Professor Song, for giving me courage. I want to continue to make games that can help people’s lives in the future.”
Park will continue his work at the NASA Ames Research Center this June.
2014.02.27 View 10952 -
KAIST held its 2014 Commencement Ceremony
The KAIST Commencement Ceremony for 2014 was held on Friday, 21st February, at Sports Complex, KAIST.
On this day, a total of 2,619 students
received their degrees. This included 499 doctorates, 1,220 masters, and 900 students with bachelor’s degrees. Since its establishment in 1971,
KAIST has produced 9,881 Ph.D., 25,161 MA and 13,693 BA,
which amounts to 48,735 scientific and engineering personnel.
The former Minister for Science and Technology
of the Republic of Korea, Dr. KunMo Chung, received an honorary doctorate for his effort in establishing the Korea Advanced Institute of Science (KAIS) to foster talented scientists and engineers, thus contributing to the significant growth
of Korea that has led it to stand as a scientifically advanced nation today.
The student graduating with summa cum laude was Jang-Geun
Kim from the Department of Biological Sciences. Mr. Kim received the Minister of Science, ICT and
Future Planning Award.
Mr. Kim said, “I am honored to receive the
award from the minister. I hope a lot of talented students will go onto science and
engineering field, so that Korea can earn a place among the technologically
elite countries.” Jang-Geun Kim will continue his
study of genomic medicine at KAIST graduate school.
President Steve Kang spoke
to the graduates:
“The whole nation has given their wholehearted support to KAIST so that students can study in a good environment. Please have
great aspirations and hopes, and continue to
broaden your knowledge and solve the challenges that humanity is facing today,
so our country and the world can advance.”
2014.02.27 View 9472 -
Professor Yong-Tak Im of Mechanical Engineering Appointed as President of Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials
Yong-Tak Im, Professor of the Department of
Mechanical Engineering at KAIST, was sworn in on February 25, 2014 as
the 16th president of the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials
(KIMM), a leading government-funded research institution in Korea. KIMM was
established in 1976 to contribute to the development of
Korea through the invention of source technology and technology transfer in
mechanical engineering.
President Im graduated from Seoul National
University, obtaining degrees of Bachelor of Science and Master’s in mechanical
engineering. He later studied at the University of California in Berkeley and
received a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering.
After working as an assistant professor of
the Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Ohio State University,
President Im joined KAIST as a professor of mechanical engineering in 1989.
President Im took many important posts at
KAIST, including Dean of Planning Office, Dean of External Affairs and Public
Relations Office, and Associate Vice President of Special Projects and
Institutional Relations, making a great addition to the university’s endeavors for
globalization.
Among the awards President Im received was the
William Johnson Award in 2007 presented by the Advances in Materials and
Processing Technologies, the Research Achievement Award in 2010 by the Global
Congress on Manufacturing and Management, and the Presidential Award in 2012 by
the Republic of Korea. He was also elected as the vice president of the Korean
Society of Mechanical Engineers, the largest association of professionals in
the mechanical engineering field in Korea.
President Im is currently a professor at
POSCO, an internationally known Korean steel company, and a member of the
Korean Academy of Science and Technology and the National Academy of
Engineering of Korea, respectively.
President Im will serve KIMM for three
years until February 24, 2017.
2014.02.25 View 11280