Campus/People
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KAIST Team Reaching Out with Appropriate Technology
(The gold prize winning team of KATT)
The KAIST Appropriate Technology Team (KATT) consisting of international students at KAIST won the gold and silver prizes at ‘The 10th Creative Design Competition for the Other 90 Percent.’
More than 218 students from 50 teams nationwide participated in the competition hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT last month.
The competition was created to discover appropriate technology and sustainable design items to enhance the quality of life for those with no or few accessible technologies.
A team led by Juan Luis Gonzalez Bello, graduate student from the School of Electrical Engineering received the gold prize for presenting a prosthetic arm. Their artificial arm was highly recognized for its affordability and good manageability. The team said that it cost less than 10 US dollars to construct from materials available in underprivileged regions and was easy to assemble.
Sophomore Hutomo Calvin from the Department of Materials Science & Engineering also worked on the prosthetic arm project with freshmen Bella Godiva, Stephanie Tan, and Koptieuov Yearbola.
Alexandra Tran, senior from the School of Electrical Engineering led the silver prize winning team. Her team developed a portable weather monitor, ‘Breathe Easy’. She worked with Alisher Tortay, senior from the School of Computing, Ashar Alam, senior from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bereket Eshete, junior from the School of Computing, and Marthens Hakzimana, sophomore from the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
This weather monitor is a low-cost but efficient air quality monitor. The team said it just cost less than seven US dollars to construct the monitor.KAIST students have now won the gold prize for two consecutive years.
2018.06.19 View 8851 -
P.V. Danckwerts Memorial Lecture Awards Distinguished Professor Lee
(Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee)
Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering was selected as the awardee of the 2018 P.V. Danckwerts Memorial Lecture.
Professor Lee was named the recipient in recognition of his distinguished achievements developing innovative eco-friendly and sustainable chemical materials by applying metabolic engineering. The award is co-sponsored by the Chemical Engineering Science, the Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the European Federation of Chemical Engineering.
The award ceremony and Professor Lee’s lecture will be held at the annual meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in October in Pittsburgh, PA in the US. He will give a lecture titled “Biotechnology to Help Achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.”
The P.V. Danckwerts Lecture was established in 1985 in honor of Professor Peter V. Danckwerts at the University of Cambridge who made significant contributions to the chemical engineering field. Professor Danckwerts served as executive editor of the Chemical Engineering Science and the president of the Institute of Chemical Engineers.
Professor Lee, currently the dean of KAIST Institutes, a multi-and interdisciplinary convergence research center, is taking the lead in biotechnology, especially in the field of metabolic engineering.
Professor Lee’s research team’s novel approaches have been gaining notable attention in the sustainable chemical engineering field and future health care innovations. His team recently presented research on drug-drug and drug-food interactions by using AI, a recombinant E.coli strain that biosynthesizes 60 different nanomaterials covering 35 elements on the periodic table, bio-degradable aromatic polymer’s enzyme production, and a molecular mechanism for PET degradation.
With this award, Professor Lee joined other prominent recipients including Dr. Neal Amundson at the University of Houston, the late Professor Octave Levenspiel at Oregon State University, and Professor Rutherford Aris at the University of Minnesota. Professor Lee is the second Asian recipient, following Dr. Mooson Kwauk at the Institute of Process Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who won the lecture award in 1989.
2018.06.18 View 5028 -
KAISTians Receive Future Ocean Science and Technology Awards
(From left: PhD candidates Minseok Kang and Junkeon Ahn)
PhD candidates Minseok Kang and Junkeon Ahn from the Department of Mechanical Engineering received Future Ocean Science and Technology Awards from the Korean Association of Ocean Science and Technology Societies (KAOSTS).
Since 2017, KAOSTS has conferred this award upon graduate students who have published outstanding papers on ocean science and technology in order to encourage young researchers in this area.
Kang published ‘Ship block assembly sequence planning considering productivity and welding deformation’ in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering in which he proposed an assembly sequence planning method for block assemblies that considers the geometric characteristics of blocks to determine feasible assembly sequences as well as assembly process and productivity factors.
Ahn published ‘Fuzzy-based FMEA of hybrid MCFC and gas turbine system for marine propulsion’ in Power Sources. In this research, he conducted a study proposing a fuzzy-based failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) for a hybrid molten carbonate fuel cell and gas turbine system for liquefied hydrogen tankers.
2018.06.15 View 6139 -
Emeritus Professor JaeKwan Kim Makes Generous Gift
(From left: Dean of the Dept. Physics Eunseong Kim, Emeritus Professor JaeKwan Kim, KAIST President Sung-Chul Shin and Professor Soon Chil Lee)
Emeritus Professor JaeKwan Kim from the Department of Physics made a one hundred million won contribution to KAIST.
He joined KAIST in 1972 and for the next 25 years he dedicated himself to carrying out research and fostering students.
Professor Kim said, “It was a great pleasure and honor to dedicate myself to the development of KAIST as well as Korea. Although I only contributed a small amount of money, I hope that it will help to sustain the development of KAIST. I will continue to support the school behind the scenes.”
He also mentioned that it is meaningful to deliver this fund to KAIST President Sung-Chul Shin, who is the first alumnus president and also his former student.
President Shin said, “His warm heart towards his students will be a priceless gift for the development of KAIST. Not only the Department of Physics, but the entire school will need to work together to help us become a global value-creative leading university and contribute to the country and its people.”
2018.06.12 View 2999 -
Czech Technology Mission with KAIST
Members of the Czech research community visited KAIST to discuss medium to long-term cooperation with KAIST. This visit was hosted by the Fourth Industrial Revolution Intelligence Center (FIRIC).
The community is comprised of people from Czech enterprises and academic institutes that are leading core technologies for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the fields of AI, robotics, and biotechnology. They had a chance to meet KAIST professors and visit research labs.
Professor Il-Doo Kim from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Professor Seongsu Kim from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Professor Hyun Uk Kim from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering attended the meeting, which took place in the Mechatronics, Systems, and Control Lab under the Vice President for Planning and Budget Soo Hyun Kim and Professor Kyung Soo Kim from the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Professor Petr Novák from the Technical University of Ostrava said, “It was a meaningful meeting to help understand research trends on industrial robots in Korea.” Professor So Young Kim from FIRIC said, “The Czech research community is strong in basic research where KAIST has outstanding source technology. I hope this visit will open up a path for medium to long-term cooperation on sharing research and technology know-how between the Czech research community and KAIST.”
2018.06.07 View 5534 -
KAIST Ranked 40th in the QS World University Rankings
KAIST ranked 40th in the 2018 QS World University Rankings, one place higher than last year. According to the QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) World’s Top 100 universities released on June 7, KAIST is the second highest ranked Korean university among the five Korean universities listed, following Seoul National University which ranked 36th.
KAIST displayed outstanding performance by ranking 16th in citations per faculty. In the 2018 rankings, universities that are strong in science, technology, and engineering claimed some of the highest positions. MIT topped the list and Caltech took fourth, ETH Zurich seventh, followed by Imperial College London which took eighth.
According to the analysis compiled by QS, universities focusing on science and technology are dominating the global universities rankings. This tendency comes from the fact that engineering schools have an advantage when evaluating the quality of research according to the number of citations per faculty member.
Provost O Ok Park predicts that science and technology will be key players in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era. “In the coming years, universities that excel in multi and interdisciplinary research will lead future growth. KAIST also continues to focus on transdisciplinary education and research,” he said.
2018.06.07 View 3762 -
KAIST Ranked the Most Innovative University in Asia 3 Years in a Row
KAIST was ranked the most innovative university in the Asia Pacific region for the third consecutive year. The 2018 Reuter Top 75: Asia’s Most Innovative Universities announced that KAIST topped three of the ten indicators identifying the educational institutions doing the most to advance science, invent new technologies, and power new markets and industries.
KAIST was the top for the number of total patents, patents granted, and commercial impact. KAIST filed 1,000 patents from 2011 to 2016, and earned a 79.8% success rate for patent registrations. In terms of commercial impact, KAIST has almost double the score (59.6) of the University of Tokyo (31.3), who was ranked second. Among top ten most innovative universities in Asia, there were four Korean universities, including Postech, Seoul National University, and Sungkyunkwan University, four Japanese universities, and one each from China and Singapore.
KAIST researchers submitted more patents than any other university on the list, and those patents are frequently cited by outside researchers in their own patents and papers. Those are key criteria in Reuters’ ranking of Asia Pacific’s Most Innovative Universities, which was compiled in partnership with Clarivate Analytics, and is based on proprietary data and an analysis of indicators including patent filings and research paper citations.
2018.06.05 View 6032 -
The Center for Anthropocene Studies (CAS) Opens
KAIST will start Anthropocene research, a convergence field of study, to address issues related to the commencement of human activities that have had scientific, industrial, and economic impacts on the Earth’s ecosystem. The National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea endorsed the KAIST Center for Anthropocene Studies as its Convergence Research Center project.
Anthropocene refers to a new geological age in which various polluting materials that humans have made during the post-industrial revolution era have made a significant impact on the Earth and the lives of humankind. The studies expand the diverse socio-economic and environmental sectors for responding to climate change, natural disasters, ecological destruction, the polarization of the inequality and wealth, and many others.
The KAIST research group at the center, in collaboration with the Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy, the Graduate School of Culture Technology, the School of Humanities & Social Sciences, the Department of Industrial Design, the School of Electrical Engineering, the Satellite Technology Research Center (SaRTec), and the KAIST Initiative for Disaster Studies will conduct multidisciplinary research to address intriguing challenges with complex but creative approaches incorporating the fields of engineering, socioeconomics, and art.
The group will investigate topics such as▲ surface and marine changes to the Earth by applying satellite data ▲disaster prediction and governance system building through AI modeling ▲sustainable housing, transportation, and lifestyles ▲ engineering and artistic approaches for envisioning a new future for humankind and the Earth.
Professor Buhm Soon Park, who is in charge of the center, said, “This pioneering research work will inspire the re-creation of a new paradigm of convergence studies in science, engineering, humanities, and social science. We will contribute to making the world better by designing new technologies and social policies.
2018.06.05 View 9544 -
Professor YongKeun Park Wins the 2018 Fumio Okano Award
(Professor Park)
Professor YongKeun Park from the Department of Physics won the 2018 Fumio Okano Award in recognition of his contributions to 3D display technology development during the annual conference of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) held last month in Orlando, Florida in the US.
The Fumio Okano Best 3D Paper Prize is presented annually in memory of Dr. Fumio Okano, a pioneer and innovator of 3D displays who passed away in 2013, for his contributions to the field of 3D TVs and displays. The award is sponsored by NHK-ES.
Professor Park and his team are developing novel technology for measuring and visualizing 3D images by applying random light scattering. He has published numerous papers on 3D holographic camera technology and 3000x enhanced performance of 3D holographic displays in renowned international journals such as Nature Photonics, Nature Communications, and Science Advances. His technology has drawn international attention from renowned media outlets including Newsweek and Forbes.
He has established two startups to commercialize his technology. Tomocube specializes in 3D imaging microscopes using holotomographic technology and the company exports their products to several countries including the US and Japan. The.Wave.Talk is exploring technology for examining pre-existing bacteria anywhere and anytime.
Professor Park’s innovations have already been recognized in and out of KAIST. In February, he was selected as the KAISTian of the Year for his outstanding research, commercialization, and startups. He was also decorated with the National Science Award in April by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Hong Jin-Ki Innovation Award later in May by the Yumin Cultural Foundation.
Professor Park said, “3D holography is emerging as a significant technology with growing potential and positive impacts on our daily lives. However, the current technology lags far behind the levels displayed in SF movies. We will do our utmost to reach this level with more commercialization."
2018.05.31 View 8796 -
KAIST Class of '78 Celebrates 40-Year Reunion
(from left: Chairman Hyung Kyu Lim from the KAIST Alumni Scholarship Foundation and KAIST President Sung-Chul Shin)
The Class of 1978 reunited on May 26 at the College of Business on the KAIST Seoul Campus, which was the main campus when they were students 40 years ago. Now leaders of Korea in the sectors of industry, academia, and research, the Class of ’78 held a homecoming event in celebration of the 40th anniversary of their graduation.
Approximately 120 guests attended the event, including the head of the KAIST Alumni Association Ki-Chul Cha, Emeritus Professor Jae-Kyoon Kim, and Emeritus Professor Choong-Ki Kim from the School of Electrical Engineering.
The Class of ’78 includes Man Gi Paik from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Chairman Hyung Kyu Lim from the KAIST Alumni Scholarship Foundation, President Sang Hyuk Son from Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology, and Provost and Executive Vice President O Ok Park from KAIST.
At the event, the Class of ‘78 donated a scholarship worth 1.5 billion KRW. Chairman Lim said, “We will put every effort into helping KAIST students who will be future leaders. We hope this fund will go toward students who will create new value and contribute to society.”
President Shin added, “The effort and affection of the alumni will be a strong foundation for KAIST taking the next big step. In response to the support and affection of 61,125 KAIST alumni, KAIST will make every effort to become a world-leading university.”
2018.05.30 View 4646 -
ICISTS 2018: Presence of the Wall, Constraint or Control
A KAIST undergraduates body, ICISTS (International Conference for Integration of Science, Technology and Society) will host the 2018 international conference from July 30 to August 3 at KAIST. Under the theme of “Presence of the Wall: Constraint or Control,” participants will share their opinions on the limits the global world is facing today and look for answers discussing various social issues and technologies. More than 300 students from 60 universities in 15 countries will attend the conference.
Speakers include CEO Sebastien Gendron of TransPod Inc., a Canadian company designing and manufacturing ultra-high-speed transportation technology and vehicles, researcher Sven Kreiss from the Visual Intelligence for Transportation of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Professor Des Freedman from the Department of Media and Communications of Goldsmiths, University of London and political scientist-technologist Wilneida Negrón at the Data & Society Research Institute of Ford Foundation in the US.
The conference will hold programs to facilitate the exchange of ideas among speakers and participants. Participants will make small teams for free discussions to share their ideas and thoughts about issues affecting the human race. Participants will be also assigned a team project in which they must come up with creative ideas based on the lectures. Moreover, they can try new gadgets from companies during the Experience Session.
ICISTS was established in 2005 by undergraduate students from KAIST. The organization holds an international conference every year to explore ways to create harmonization among society, science, and technology. It has grown to become Asia’s largest international student conference.
For learn more and register for the program, please visit http://www.icist.org
2018.05.30 View 5833 -
2018 KAIST Research Day Honors Outstanding Research Achievements
(KAIST President Sung-Chul Shin and Professor Jong-Hwan Kim) Professor Jong-Hwan Kim from the School of Electrical Engineering was recognized at the 2018 KAIST Research Day as the Research Grand Prize Awardee. The ten most distinguished research achievements of the past year were also recognized.
The Research Grand Prize recognizes the professor whose comprehensive research performance evaluation indicator was the highest over the past five years. The indicator combines the number of research contracts, IPR and royalty income.
During the May 25th ceremony, Professor Hyochoong Bang from the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Professor In so Kweon from the School of Electrical Engineering also won the Best Research Award prize.
This year, the Research Innovation Award went to Professor Dong Soo Han from the School of Computing. The Research Innovation Award combines scores in the categories of foreign patent registrations, contracts of technological transfer, and income from technology fees, technology consultations, and startups.
The Convergence Research Award was given to Professor Junmo Kim from the School of Electrical Engineering and Professor Hyun Myung from the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. The Convergence Research Award recognizes the most outstanding research team that created innovative research results over a one-year period.
President Sung-Chul Shin said, “KAIST has selected the ten most outstanding research achievements of 2017 conducted by our faculty and researchers. All of them demonstrated exceptional creativity, which opens new research paths in each field though their novelty, innovation, and impact.”
KAIST hosts Research Day every year to introduce major research performances at KAIST and share knowledge about the research and development.
During Research Day, KAIST also announced the ten most distinguished research achievements contributed by KAIST professors during the previous year. They are listed below.
▲ High-Speed Motion Core Technology for Magnetic Memory by Professor Kab-Jin Kim from the Department of Physics
▲ A Double Well Potential System by Professor Jaeyoung Byeon from the Department of Mathematical Sciences
▲ Cheap and Efficient Dehydrogenation of Alkanes by Professor Mu-Hyun Baik from the Department of Chemistry
▲ A Dynamic LPS Transfer Mechanism for Innate Immune Activation by Professor Ho Min Kim from the Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering
▲ A Memristive Functional Device and Circuit on Fabric for Fibertronics by Professor Yang-Kyu Choi and Professor Sung-Yool Choi from the School of Electrical Engineering
▲ A Hippocampal Morphology Study Based on a Progressive Template Deformable Model by Professor Jinah Park from the School of Computing
▲ The Development of a 6-DOF Dynamic Response Measurement System for Civil Infrastructure Monitoring by Professor Hoon Sohn from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
▲ Cooperative Tumour Cell Membrane Targeted Phototherapy by Professor Ji-Ho Park from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering
▲ HUMICOTTA: A 3D-Printed Terracotta Humidifier by Professor Sangmin Bae from the Department of Industrial Design
▲ Ultrathin, Cross-Linked Ionic Polymer Thin Films by Professor Sung Gap Im from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
2018.05.28 View 9123