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KAIST, Microsoft Research to Set up Research Collaboration Center
KAIST, Korea"s premier institution for science and technology research and education, and Microsoft Research (MSR), the research arm of Microsoft Corp, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish a joint research collaboration center in Korea on Oct. 20.
The research collaboration center to be located at the KAIST campus in the Daedeok science and technology town 150 kilometers south of Seoul will be dedicated to promoting joint researches, curriculum innovation, talent fostering and academic exchange in the Asian region.
The MOU signing ceremony at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul was attended by President Nam-Pyo Suh and Vice President Soon-Heung Chang from KAIST, and Craig Mundie, Chief Research and Strategy Officer of Microsoft Corp, and Hsiao-Wuen Hon, Managing Director of MSR Asia from Microsoft.
“We are excited to be working so closely with Microsoft Research,” KAIST President Suh said. “This is the first of many alliances we hope to establish with the world’s industrial leaders that will enable us to resolve some of the toughest problems in computer science and accelerate the next generation of innovation in computing technology and its application in other scientific researches.”
Dr. Hon said: “For over 10 years, Microsoft Research has been committed to working with leading universities throughout Asia to spur computer science research and to strengthen Asia’s knowledge economies by helping foster their capabilities. The Microsoft-KAIST Research Collaboration Center demonstrates our continued efforts to strengthen relations with universities in Korea and build new partnerships with academia here.”
In the last three years, Microsoft Research and KAIST have engaged in close collaboration through research projects, student support programs, and various academic exchange activities. One of the major projects was to construct software development library specifically dedicated to systems biology. A number of excellent students from KAIST participated in the internship program at Microsoft Research in Beijing, China and Redmond, United States.
The establishment of the Microsoft-KAIST research collaboration center will bring the collaborative relations between KAIST and MSR to a new level. The center will provide a platform which unites the innovative minds of KAIST and Microsoft Research to develop technologies that will impact the way people live, learn, work, and play, a KAIST spokesman said.
2008.10.30 View 18749 -
KAIST To Hold Robot Competition
KAIST To Hold Robot Competition
KAIST (President Nam-Pyo Suh) will be holding ‘the 6th Intelligent SoC Robotwar 2007’ and is now receiving online applications at the official web site of the competition, www.socrobotwar.org. Application deadline is May 31, Thursday.
‘Intelligent SoC Robotwar’ is a competition of intelligent robots employing System on Chip (SoC) that commenced in 2002.
In the competition, participants will embody their ideas in the same intelligent robot platforms and robot bodies, and how well the ideas are embodied will decide winners.
In the part of tank robot competition (left photo), tank-like robots attack enemy robots by using laser, which demands technologies of scene analysis, radio communication and speech recognition. Hence, a variety of recognition algorithms and motion algorithms significantly affect match results.
Taekwon robot competition is a fight competition of two-leg robots. In the competition, robots equipped with scene analysis technologies perceive the location, distance and motion of enemy robots and do motions of attack and defense with no control by operators.
Teams must be made up of two or more persons including undergraduate or graduate students and all teams are entitled to participate in theoretical and practical education on platform boards for robots and intelligent robots. Final winner will be decided through qualifying test, preliminary matches and main matches.
“The most distinct characteristic of this competition is robot’s intelligence takes top priority. It’s not remote control-operated robots but autonomously operating intelligent robots that will make Korean robot-related industries further profitable. Considering that last year, total 138 teams participated in the competition and an award from the Prime Minister was given to the winner, the competition undoubtedly hold the top position among robot-related competitions,” said Hee-Joon You, President of the competition committee and a professor of Electrical Engineering.
Details on the competition are as follows:1. Purpose● To foster highly specialized technicians in the field of SoC through the embodiment of intellectual robots adopting SoC● To pave foundations for the enhancement of national competitiveness through the vitalization of IT-SoC and intellectual robot fields, next-generation growth momenta
2. Introduction(1) Sponsor: Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy(2) Organizer: KAIST(3) Competition parts: SoC tank robot competition, SoC taekwon robot competition(4) Rules of matches① SoC Tank Robot competition- 4M X 4M square field, 2 to 2 survival format- Three three-minute rounds per game (Winning two out of three rounds is required to win a game)- 5-minute long intermission
② SoC Taekwon Robot competition- Octagonal field with a radius of 2 M, 1 to 1 match format- Three three-minute rounds per game (Winning two out of three rounds is required to win a game)- Four downs per round make a loss, In the case of less-than-four-time downs within three minutes, attack points decide winner.- 5-minute long intermission (5) ScheduleApril 1 thru May 31, 2007 ApplicationJuly, 2007 OrientationAugust, 2007 Qualifying test August, 2007 Preliminary matchesOctober18 - 21, 2007 Main matches
(6) ContactWeb site: http://www.socrobotwar.orgPerson in charge: Min-Hee Shin, 042-869-8937, maiwind@kaist.ac.kr
2007.04.26 View 18667 -
3rd Ubiquitous Fashionable Computer Contest
KAIST will be receiving until May 31, Thursday, applications for ‘the 3rd Ubiquitous Fashionable Computer (UFC)’ Contest, which will take place under the title of ‘Enjoy U-life with UFC’.
The contest has begun in 2005 by KAIST and the Korean Society for Next-Generation Computing to raise people’s concern over next-generation computing and to prepare for the upcoming ubiquitous era.
‘UFC’ refers to a wearable computer small and light enough to be worn on human bodies or clothes so that users can use computers with no restriction while moving. This terminology was created by Korea.
The contest includes designated items division and free items division, and not only university students but also general public can participate in the free items division. Teams qualified for the final contest in the designated items division will be offered wearable computer platform and 1.5 million won of production cost. The final contest will take place at the UFC fashion show stage ‘Next-Generation Computing Exhibition’ at KOEX in November.
Hee-Joon You, Co-president of the Contest Committee and a professor of Electrical Engineering, stressed on the future life made joyful by IT technologies by saying, “Considering the title of the contest, we’ve selected ‘games enjoyed with UFCs’ as a mission of the designated items division to combine games, rising software, and wearing computers, hardware.”
UFC is a brand-new field that fuses IT technologies and fashion, seeking the improvement of computer technologies and fashion creation. UFC, a further advanced wearable computer than existing ones, is an important advanced field that leads computer industries in the ubiquitous era.
2007.04.23 View 16651 -
KAIST Develops Thinking, Feeling Human-Like Robot
By Kim Tae-gyu / Staff ReporterTHE KOREA TIMES 2005.1.31(page 1)
South Korean scientists created the world"s first artificial species, a software robot with ``genes"" and ``chromosomes.""
Kim Jong-hwan, professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, said Sunday his team had developed a robot with 14 chromosomes, which gives the machine a ``personality.""
``This robot is a software-based one, sometimes called a sobot. It has a unique synthetic character determined by its specific combination of 14 chromosomes,"" the 47-year-old Kim said.
When Kim"s team gave a stimulus to the chromosome-equipped sobots, they showed totally different responses even under the same environment due to their distinctive personalities.
Several cognitive sensors enable the prototype models to identify 47 differing outside stimuli. The virtual robots also have 77 behavior patterns.
``Because a sobot is basically a software system, it can easily travel to other robots and multiply. In the middle of such processes, it can evolve through crossover and mutation,"" Kim said.
With the development of associated technologies, Kim expected the number of chromosomes would be augmented as sobots evolve to a more sophisticated species in the future.
The capacity to load large volumes of data is related to the evolution of sobots. Currently, 14 chromosomes consist of roughly 2,000 bytes of data.
The effort to incorporate the sobot into a platform, robot hardware, is now underway and Kim"s team looks to unveil the new-concept species as soon as next month.
``Diverse behavior patterns driven by sobots" specific personalities will be precisely translated into action just like the soul rules the body,"" Kim said.
Kim did not think the robotic evolution would lead to the human race being threatened; the concept of the recent blockbuster ``I, Robot.""
``If we design the chromosomes safely, the self-reproducing robot will not post a threat back to us,"" Kim said.
Kim first revealed the robotic breakthrough at a keynote speech of the International Conference on Autonomous Robots and Agents, held in New Zealand last December.
Kim is also known as pioneer in the field of robot football and has headed the Federation of International Robot-soccer Association (FIRA) since its foundation in 1999.
voc200@koreatimes.co.kr
2005.02.02 View 18015
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18th Student Council Elected
The KAIST Herald December 3, 2003
The votes were cast and counted on November 27. Donggodongrak won the election of the 18th Undergraduage Student Council of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Of the 2,340 eligible voters for the 18th student council election, 1,304 votes, or about 56 percent of the total, were amassed after a full day of election on November 27.
The two candidate teams, waiting to hear the result with much anxiety, were juniors Hye-min Kim and Jung-mo Kim running for the president and vice president positions, respectively, of the team "Donggodongrak" and juniors Dong-geun Kim and Yong-jae Yoon running for the same positions, respectively under the name "Woorung Chonggak."
Donggodongrak secured over 58 percent of the votes, with 760 supporting ballots, while Woorung Chongak polled 503 votes, or about 39 percent of the votes. Forty-one votes, or three percent of the votes cast were spoiled votes. With more than half the voters having participated, the election was valid, and Donggodongrak was declared the new student council of KAIST.
The election platform of the Donggodongrak team largely consist of four themes, composed of several smaller goals. First, they assert the "togetherness" of the student government and plan to achieve it by publishing monthly newsletters, hosting an open outdoor student council every other week, and creating various committees.
Secondly, they assert under the theme of an "improving" student government that they will promote festivals and events among the sixteen departments, form an official "class" of the freshmen, and broaden the association of the student representatives.
Third, Donggodongrak declares it wants to create an "open and just environment" by holding periodic meetings with the school for direct discussions of school policies; and by taking care of the welfare of the students in detail.
Finally, they advocate "a student government that communicates with society"; they will support opportunities to become more aware of various issues of society.
President Hye-min Kim, a graduate of Pusan Science High School, has participated in various intramural, socially active groups, and is majoring in applied mathematics. Vice-president Jung-mo Kim is a graduate of Mokpo High School and studies mechanical engineering.
2004.03.15 View 22134