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KAIST Welcomes Global Participants to AI World Cup 2018
KAIST will host the AI (Artificial Intelligence) World Cup 2018 in August, and this time it is open to the international community. AI World Cup 2018 will be a very exciting challenge for extending the limit of academic and industrial applications based on AI technology.
KAIST, after launching its AI World Cup 2017 for domestic participants, is now hosting the AI World Cup 2018 for everyone. The AI World Cup will be comprised of three events: 1) Five on five AI Soccer 2) AI Commentator and 3) AI Reporter. Winner of each category, runner-up of AI Soccer, and 2nd runner-up of AI Soccer will receive awards with cash prizes.
For AI Soccer in which AI controlled robots team up to compete, the preliminary rounds will be held in July in a league format, and the final rounds will be played on August 20-22.
For AI Commentator and AI Reporter, eight finalists will be selected for each category based on scoring criteria, and their performance will be evaluated by the judges to select the winner from each category on August 22.
During the final rounds, a variety of events will also take place at KAIST, including tutorial sessions on AI technology, a poster session where students present their research works on AI, not necessarily limited to the scope of AI Soccer, AI Commentator, and AI Reporter, and panel discussions by prominent experts in the field of AI.
Moreover, renowned experts on AI will deliver their keynote addresses. The Cyberbotics CEO Olivier Michel will address his keynote speech on the topic ‘Simulation benchmarks and competitions: a fundamental tool to foster robotics research.’
The AI World Cup was established by the College of Engineering at KAIST to show that AI technology can be further extended to sports, soccer in particular.
Professor Jong-Hwan Kim, the inventor of AI World Cup and chairman of the organizing committee said, “I hope that this event will offer a great chance to develop AI technology for use in the coming years. I wish many people can enjoy the AI World Cup 2018. I would recommend that prospective teams not worry about the technical barrier when deciding whether to participate in the games. Participants from academia and industry can test whether their code runs well in the competition simulator; this way, they will know their level of play and perhaps they can further develop their algorithms.”
“We will also broadcast the final round of AI Soccer online so that people in remote areas can also enjoy watching the games. I am looking forward to seeing all of you at the AI World Cup. Any participant with a passion to prove excellence in AI technology is welcomed with open arms,” he added.
Anyone interested in the AI World Cup 2018 can register online via aiworldcup.org . Registration starts from April 1. The deadline for registration and final code submission is June 30.
(Cubical players in the figure for domestic AI Soccer competition have been replaced with cylindrical players for more agile movements while playing)
(Opening ceremony of AI World Cup 2017)
(Trophy and prize)
(Interview of participant)
(Casters commentating on game playing)
2018.03.30 View 8108 -
KAIST-KU Sign MOU on 4th Industrial Technology Development
(President Shin(second from left) poses with Khalifa University President Tod Laursen after signing an MOU in the UAE on March 25. Far left is Chairman of the NST Kwangyun Wohn and far right is the UAE Minister of Educatiion Hussain Al Hammadi.)
KAIST President Sung-Chul Shin and Khalifa University Interim President Tod Laursen signed an MOU on the Fourth Industrial Technology Development on March 25 in the UAE.
They signed the MOU during the UAE-ROK Nuclear Friendship and KAIST Alumni Night at Khalifa University co-hosted by KAIST and the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). The MOU will bring new opportunities to further expand bilateral cooperation in education and training in the relevant technologies called for the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
More than 100 dignitaries including Chairman of National Research Council of Science and Technology (NST) in Korea Dr. Kwangyun Wohn, President of KAERI Jaejoo Ha, the UAE Minister of Education His Excellency Hussain Al Hammadi, Minister of State for Advanced Sciences Her Excellency Sarah bint Yousef Al Amiri, and His Excellency Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) Director General Christopher Viktorsson attended the event. In particular, a significant number of Emirati graduates of the KUSTAR-KAIST education program and many others who completed various KAIST training programs joined the event.
The Nuclear Friendship Night was celebrating the completion of the first nuclear power plant in Barakah exported by Korea. This is the first nuclear reactor in the Middle East, which is to start operation later this year. The event also coincided with Korean President Moon Jae-In’s state visit to the UAE.
KAIST and KAERI gathered distinguished leaders from the higher education and nuclear industries at the event in response to the UAE government’s top national agenda of fostering future talents and promoting the nuclear industry in order to ensure energy security.
KAIST and Khalifa University signed an initial agreement in education and research in 2009 when the governments of Korea and the UAE signed a contract to build four nuclear power plants in Barakah. Since then, the two universities have worked together closely in the areas of nuclear engineering, bio-medical engineering, robotics, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, and materials science. With this signing on the new MOU, the partnership between the two institutions will mark the second phase of educating high-caliber human resources in science and technology of the two countries.
The KAIST Alumni Night also brought more opportunities to appreciate the achievements that the two countries have made through collaboration in education and research, mostly represented in the field of nuclear technology between KAIST and Khalifa University. During the event, KAIST graduates also shared their experiences from the education at KAIST, followed by the welcoming speeches from the UAE Minister of Education and the UAE Minister of State for Advanced Sciences.
KAIST President Shin, in his welcoming speech at the event, said, “I look forward to more students in the UAE having the opportunity to experience the world’s top-level education and global environment that KAIST offers. The collaboration with Khalifa University and the UAE is very important for building both countries’ future growth.”
KU President Laursen said, “This MOU on research cooperation focusing on technologies for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, nuclear engineering, and other technical areas will further consolidate our partnership with KAIST and support us in developing human capital suitable to take on future challenges in the science and technology sectors. We firmly believe the talent pool of experts created by this initiative will contribute to the overall economic growth of the UAE.”
2018.03.26 View 9862 -
Open Online Course in Science and Technology, STAR-MOOC
Four universities specializing in science and technology, along with POSTECH and UST, teamed up to establish programs for innovation in education programs, responding to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
KAIST held an opening ceremony for the Science & Technology Advanced Research - Massive Open Online Course (STAR-MOOC) and signed an MoU with GIST, DGIST, UNIST, POSTECH, and UST.
STAR-MOOC was launched on February 26 to provide educational service to the public. It is a joint platform where people can take courses featuring lectures from professors from universities specializing in science and technology as well as national research universities.
It offers 15 courses covering basics, majors, and electives related to science and technology developed by the STAR-MOOC committee. Students can take a variety of courses.
At the opening ceremony, KAIST President Sung-Chul Shin, DGIST President Sang Hyuk Son, UST President Kil Choo Moon, POSTECH Vice President Wankyun Chung, UNIST Vice President Jae Sung Lee, GIST Vice President of Public Affairs Pil-hwan Park came to sign the MoU for provising educational services for the public.
During the ceremony, there was also time to introduce a technical agreement with a non-profit organization founded by NAVER, the CONNECT Foundation, for its courses and platform.
Universities participating in STAR-MOOC will put effort into capacity building in response to changes driven by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
President Shin said, “STAR-MOOC is a platform that provides science and technology courses from basics to electives and major courses. It will become a leading educational platform.”
Students can register and choose courses from the website (http://starmooc.kr).
2018.03.19 View 8442 -
The 8th KINC Fusion Research Awardees
The KAIST Institute for NanoCentury held the 8th KINC Fusion Research Award in order to encourage professors’ convergence studies and instill students’ willingness to research. The award ceremony took place in the KI Building at KAIST on March 13.
The KINC Fusion Research Award selects the most outstanding convergence studies among research undertaken last year, and awards researchers who participated in that research.
The 8th KINC Fusion Research Award went to Professor Yoon Sung Nam from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Professor Inkyu Park from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Their research reported the spontaneous self-biomineralization of palladium (Pd) ions on a filamentous virus to form ligand-free Pd nanowires without reducing reagents or using additional surface stabilizers (Title: Virus-Templated Self-Mineralization of Ligand-Free Colloidal Palladium Nanostructures for High Surface Activity and Stability, Advanced Functional Materials (2017)).
Professor Hee-Tae Jung, the Director of KAIST Institute for the NanoCentury and the host of the KINC Fusion Research Award said, “Convergence will be the crucial keyword that will lead to revolutionary change. Hence, the importance of convergence study should be improved. We will put every effort into creating a research environment for increasing convergence study.
The KAIST Institute for the NanoCentury was established in June 2006 under the KAIST Institute with a mission of creating convergence study by tearing down boarders among departments and carrying out interdisciplinary joint research. Currently, approximately 90 professors from 14 departments participate the institute. It aims to become a hub of university institutes for nano-fusion research.
2018.03.19 View 12022 -
Scientist of March, Professor Hee-Seung Lee
(Professor Hee-Seung Lee)
Professor Hee-Seung Lee from the Department of Chemistry at KAIST received the ‘Science and Technology Award of the Month’ awarded by the Ministry of ICT and Science, and the National Research Foundation of Korea for March 2018.
Professor Lee has been recognized for successfully producing peptide-based molecular machines, which used to be made of metals.
The methodology can be translated into magnetotactic behavior at the macroscopic scale, which is reminiscent of magnetosomes in magnetotactic bacteria.
The team employed foldectures, self-assembled molecular architectures of β-peptide foldamers, to develop the peptide-based molecular machines that uniformly align with respect to an applied static magnetic field.
Professor Lee said, “Molecular machines are widely used in the field of medical engineering or material science; however, there were limitations for developing the machines using magnetic fields. By developing peptide-based molecular machines, we were able to develop body-friendly molecular machines.”
Every month, the Ministry of ICT and Science and the National Research Foundation of Korea award a cash prize worth 10,000,000 KRW to a scientist who has contributed to science and technology with outstanding research and development performance.
2018.03.15 View 9136 -
Seong-Tae Kim Wins Robert-Wagner All-Conference Best Paper Award
(Ph.D. candidate Seong-Tae Kim)
Ph.D. candidate Seong-Tae Kim from the School of Electrical Engineering won the Robert Wagner All-Conference Best Student Paper Award during the 2018 International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) Medical Imaging Conference, which was held in Houston last month.
Kim, supervised by Professor Yong Man Ro, received the award for his paper in the category of computer-aided diagnosis. His paper, titled “ICADx: Interpretable Computer-Aided Diagnosis of Breast Masses”, was selected as the best paper out of 900 submissions. The conference selects the best paper in nine different categories. His research provides new insights on diagnostic technology to detect breast cancer powered by deep learning.
2018.03.15 View 10170 -
The 2018 Commencement of KAIST at a Glance
KAIST awarded a total of 2, 736 degrees at the 2018 commencement ceremony on February 23. Among the honorees, Chairman and CEO of Samsung Electronics and Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) Oh-Hyun Kwon was recognized as the first alumnus honorary doctorate recipient of KAIST.
More than 5,000 family, friends, and graduates including distinguished guests of Minister of Science and ICT Young-Min Yu, the Member of National Assembly Kyung-Jin Kim, Chairman of the KAIST Board of Trustees Jang-Moo Lee, and the Chairperson of the KAIST Development Foundation Soo-Young Lee attended to celebrate the graduates. During the commencement, a total of 2,736 students earned degrees: 644 PhD degrees, 1,352 master’s degrees, and 740 bachelor’s degrees.
(Minister of Science and ICT Young-Min Yu)
(The Member of National Assembly Kyung-Jin Kim)
This year, Chairman and CEO of Samsung Electronics and SAIT Kwon shared the spotlight with many other graduates. Kwon received his Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from KAIST in 1977 and completed his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1985. During his more than 33-year career at Samsung, he has made significant contribution to the development of 4M DRAM and the world’s first 64M DRAM. The success of 4M DRAM and 64 DRAM led Samsung to clinch the top position in the DRAM and NAND flash business around the world. This helped Samsung emerge as a global leader in the semiconductor industry.
(From left: Chairman and CEO of Samsung Electronics and SAIT Oh-Hyun Kwon and KAIST President Sung-Chul Shin)
During the commencement speech, Kwon and President Shin both highlighted the importance of collaboration instead of competition.
Kwon encouraged the graduates to understand others to make wonderful synergy. “When you first notice the true value of another person and interact with them, the value of the individual will be doubled and will bring about a greater impact,” he said.
Also, he stressed having a collaborative mindset by saying, “All of you here, including myself, are people who have benefited from society. We must cooperate with each other and give back to society for the vest results.”
While highlighting the core values of KAIST, creativity, challenge and caring, President Shin also emphasized collaboration with others. He said, “In the future, expertise in a single discipline will not lead to new inventions or discoveries. This highlights the importance of multidisciplinary, convergence research. The key to success lies in the acknowledgement of your peers as partners for mutual growth. Your partners will make up your weak areas and become your most important asset. May you expand your personal network by finding valuable partners not only within your laboratory and workplace, but beyond Korea.”
“Go out into the world and change it as a global shaper, global innovator, and global mover. I hope that each and every one of you will add benefits the world and your legacy will be remembered for generations to come. This is your obligation as a graduate of KAIST,” he said.
Click here to view the full text of President Sung-Chul Shin’s address to the graduates
+ List of academically outstanding undergraduate degree recipients who received honors during the Commencement 2018 of KAIST
Award
Department
Winner
Minister of Science and ICT Award
Dept. of Mathematical Sciences
Seong-Hyeok Park
KAIST Board Chairperson Award
School of Computing
Hyeong-Seok Kim
KAIST President Award
Dept. of Chemistry
Hoi-Min Cheong
KAIST Development Foundation Chairperson Award
Dept. of Biological Sciences
Gi-Song Kim
Dept. of Industrial & Systems Engineering
Seung-Hun Lee
2018.02.23 View 11257 -
KAIST, First to Win the Cube Satellite Competition
Professor Hyochoong Bang from the Department of Aerospace Engineering and his team received the Minister of Science and ICT Award at the 1st Cube Satellite Competition.
The team actually participated in the competition in 2012, but it took several years for the awarding ceremony since it took years for the satellites to be designed, produced, and launched.
The KAIST team successfully developed a cube satellite, named ‘Little Intelligent Nanosatellite of KAIST (LINK)’ and completed its launch in April 2017.
LINK (size: 20cmx10cmx10cm, weight: 2kg) mounted mass spectrometry and Langmuir probe for Earth observation. The Langmuir probe was developed by Professor Kyoung Wook Min from the Department of Physics, KAIST.
Yeerang Lim, a PhD student from the Department of Aerospace Engineering said, “I still remember the feeling that I had on the day when LINK launched into orbit and sent back signals. I hope that space exploration is not something far away but attainable for us in near future.”
2018.02.22 View 10959 -
Professor Il-Doo Kim Recevies the Song-gok Award
Professor Il-Doo Kim from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at KAIST received the 20th Song-gok Science and Technology Award from Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KSIT).
The Song-gok Science and Technology Award was established to praise the accomplishments of the first president, Hyung-seop Choi, whose penname is Song-gok. The award selects a recipient in the field of materials and technology every other year.
Professor Kim, in recognition of his outstanding research and contributions to materials science in Korea, received the award during the 52nd anniversary ceremony of KIST on February 9.
Professor Kim focuses on developing nanofiber gas sensors for diagnosing disease in advance by analyzing exhaled biomarkers with electrospinning technology.
He has published more than 211 papers and has recorded more than 9,650 citations and 50 h-index.
Professor Kim has registered 107 patents and applied 38 patents in Korea while registering 29 patents and applying 16 patents overseas. Also, he transferred four technologies in 2017.
Professor Kim is recognized as one of the researchers who is leading nanofiber technology. On January 17, he made a keynote speech at the 5th International Conference on Electrospinning, which was his fourth keynote speech at that conference.
Moreover, he received the Technology Innovation Award at the College of Engineering, KAIST on December 19, 2017.
Professor Kim said, “It is my great honor to receive the Song-gok Science and Technology Award. I would like to bring distinction to KAIST by taking the lead in the commercializing a nanofiber-based highly sensitive nanosensors, diversifying and commercializing technology using nanofiber.”
2018.02.13 View 8405 -
First Female Grand Prize Awardee of Samsung Humantech
Yeunhee Huh, PhD candidate (Professor Gyu-Hyeong Cho) from the School of Electrical Engineering received the grand prize of the 24th Humantech Paper Award. She is the first female recipient of this prize since its establishment in 1994. The Humantech Paper Award is hosted by Samsung Electronics and sponsored by the Ministry of Science and ICT with JoongAng Daily Newspaper. Her paper is titled, ‘A Hybrid Structure Dual-Path Step-Down Converter with 96.2％ Peak Efficiency using 250mΩ Large-DCR Inductor’. Electronic devices require numerous chips and have a power converter to supply energy adequately. She proposed a new structure to enhance energy efficiency by combining inductors and capacitors. Enhancing energy efficiency can reduce energy loss, which prolongs battery hours and solves overheating of devices; for instance, energy loss leads to the overheating issue affecting phone chargers. This technology can be applied to various electronic devices, such as cell phones, laptops, and drones. Huh said, “Power has to go up in order to meet customers’ needs; however the overheating problem emerges during this process. This problem affects surrounding circuits and causes other issues, such as malfunctions of electronic devices. This technology may vary according to the conditions, but it can enhance energy efficiency up to 4%.”During the ceremony, about eight hundred million KRW worth cash prizes was conferred to 119 papers. KAIST (44 papers) and Gyeonggi Science High School (6 papers) received special awards given to the schools.
2018.02.12 View 9009 -
Professor Jungwon Kim Wins Haerim Optics and Photonics Award
(Professor Jungwon Kim)
Professor Jungwon Kim from the Department of Mechanical Engineering received the 8th Haerim Optics and Photonics Award from the Optical Society of Korea (OSK).
He was recognized for his dedication to pioneering the field of microwave photonics by developing ultra-low noise fiber photonics lasers.
The Haerim Optics and Photonics Award is given to an outstanding researcher who has made academic contributions in the field of optics and photonics for the last five years.
The name of the award (Haerim) comes from the pen-name of the renowned scholar, Professor Un-Chul Paek, because it is maintained using funds he contributed to the OSK.
The OSK will confer the award on February 8 during the 29th OSK Annual Meeting and Winter Conference of 2018.
2018.02.07 View 7371 -
KAIST to Host the THE Innovation & Impact Summit in 2019
KAIST and Times Higher Education (THE) agreed to co-host the THE Innovation & Impact Summit at KAIST from April 1 to 3, 2019.
Global leaders from higher education, government, and industry will gather at KAIST to discuss how universities can better innovate for creating a greater impact.
(from left: THE Managing Director Trevor Barratt and KAIST President Sung-Chul Shin)
President Sung-Chul Shin and Trevor Barratt, managing director at the THE, signed an agreement to host the 2019 THE Innovation & Impact Summit at KAIST next April. The agreement was signed on February 6 during the THE Asia Universities Summit held at SUSTech in Shenzhen in China. Phil Baty, editorial director at the THE was also present during the agreement.
By hosting the 2019 THE Innovation & Impact Summit, KAIST has a chance to introduce its innovative research and performance and its educational environment and startup ecosystem to the world. Having educational and industrial leaders meet at KAIST will add more power to the global status and capacity of KAIST.
The THE Innovation & Impact Summit, first held in 2017, is one in the seven presidential summit series held by THE. During the second summit at KAIST, THE will launch their world university innovation rankings for the first time.
As innovation at universities and its impact have been a crucial indicator in building an institutional brand and reputation, leading universities are gearing up to encourage startups and entrepreneurship education. Even more, innovation at universities is emerging as one of the growth engines of economies.
The innovation indicators of KAIST have been highly recognized by many global ranking institutions in terms of the volume of patents and the patents-to-article citation impact. Thomson Reuters has recognized KAIST for two consecutive years as the most innovative university in Asia, and sixth in the world.
President Shin has high expectations for the hosting of the Innovation & Impact Summit at KAIST. He explained, “Innovation makes up the DNA of KAIST and it has been our institutional mission from the start in 1971. KAIST was commissioned to make innovation for industrialization and economic development through education and research. I do not see any university more suitable than KAIST to host this innovation summit. I hope the summit at KAIST will serve as a global platform to provide very creative ideas for making innovation and collaboration among the leading universities for all the participants.”
Meanwhile, at the THE Asia Universities Summit in Shenzhen, how to respond to the implications of the Fourth Industrial Revolution was the key agenda piercing the two-day sessions.
As a panelist, President Shin shared his experiences on innovative strategies viable for spearheading university reform for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, along with Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield Sir Keith Burnett, President of Monash University Margaret Gardner, and President of Hong Kong Polytechnic University President Timothy W. Tong. He said that universities should foster young talents by equipping them with creativity, collaboration, and convergent minds. To swiftly respond to the new industrial environment, President Shin said that universities should remove the high barriers between departments and establish cross- and inter-disciplinary education systems, convergence research and technology commercialization.
2018.02.06 View 8834