Campus/People
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KAIST Professor Sung-Ju Lee Appointed a Technical Program Chair of INFOCOM
Professor Sung-Ju Lee of the Department of Computer Science at KAIST has been appointed to serve as a technical program chair of IEEE INFOCOME. The computer communication conference, started in 1982, is influential in the research fields of the Internet, wireless, and data centers.
Professor Lee is the first Korean to serve as a program chair. He has been acknowledged for his work in network communications. In the 34th conference, which will be held next year, he will take part in selecting 650 experts in the field to become members and supervise the evaluation of around 1,600 papers.
Professor Lee is the leading researcher in the field of wireless mobile network systems. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and served as the general chair of the 20th Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) SIGMOBILE Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing & Networking (MobiCom 2014). He is on the editorial boards of IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC) and IEEE Internet of Things Journals.
Professor Lee said, “I hope to continue the traditions of the conference, as well as integrating research from various areas of network communication. I will strive to create a program with high technology transfer probability.”
The 34th IEEE INFOCOM will take place in San Francisco in April 2016.
2015.07.02 View 7229 -
Professor Naehyuck Jang was Appointed Technical Program Chair of the Design Automation Conference
Professor Naehyuck Jang of the Electrical Engineering Department at KAIST was appointed as the technical program chair of the Design Automation Conference (DAC). He is the first Asian to serve the conference as the chair. At next year’s conference, he will select 150 program committee members and supervise the selection process of 1,000 papers.
Founded in 1964, DAC encompasses research related to automation of semiconductor processes, which usually involve billions of transistors. More than seven thousand people and 150 companies from all around the world participate, of which only the top 20% of the submitted papers are selected. It is the most prestigious conference in the field of semiconductor automation.
The Design Automation Conference also introduces optimization and automation of design processes of systems, hardware security, automobiles, and the Internet of things. Professor Jang specializes in low power system designs. As an ACM Distinguished Scientist, Professor Jang was elected as the chairman after contributing to this year’s program committee by reforming the process of selection of papers.
Professor Jang said, “This year’s conference represents a departure, where we move from the field of traditional semiconductors to the optimization of embedded system, the Internet of things, and security. He added that “we want to create a paper selection process that can propose the future of design automation.”
The 53rd annual DAC will take place at the Austin Convention Center in Texas in June 2016.
2015.07.02 View 5801 -
KAIST Ranks 39th Among Top 50 Patent Filers in the US
The US National Academy of Inventors and Intellectual Property Owners Association have just released a list of top universities worldwide, which filed the highest number of patents in the US last year. KAIST has ranked 39th with 59 patents. A total of three institutions from Korea made the list, including KAIST (114 patents) and Seoul National University’s R&DB Foundation (57 patents). For details, see the article below:
ChicagoInno, June 22, 2015
“Three Illinois Universities Are Among the Top 50 Universities Granted YS Utility Patents”
http://chicagoinno.streetwise.co/2015/06/22/patent-filings-northwestern-illinois-uchicago-among-top-patent-filers-worldwide/
2015.06.23 View 7071 -
Professor Kyoungsik Yu Receives the Young IT Engineer Award from IEEE and IEIE of Korea
Professor Kyoungsik Yu of KAIST’s Department of Electrical Engineering is the recipient of this year’s Young IT (Information Technology) Engineer Award that was co-hosted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea (IEIE), and Haedong Science Culture Foundation in Korea. The award was presented on June 22, 2015 at The Ramada Plaza Jeju Hotel on Jeju Island, Korea.
The Young IT Engineer Award is given to emerging scientists who have made significant contributions to the advancement of technology, society, environment, and creative education.
Professor Yu's main research interests are IT, energy, and imaging through miniaturization and integration of optoelectronic devices. His contribution to academic and technological development is reflected in his publication of more than 100 papers in international journals and conferences, which were cited over 2,200 times.
Professor Yu said, “I’m honored to receive this award and am encouraged by it. I also find the award meaningful because the United Nations has designated this year as the “International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies,” the field I have been involved in as a researcher.”
In addition to Korea, the IEEE has jointly hosted and presented this award to researchers in countries such as Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Singapore, and Italy.
2015.06.22 View 9848 -
Professor Jinwoo Shin of the Electrical Engineering Department Receives the 2015 ACM SIGMETRICS Rising Star Research Award
Professor Jinwoo Shin of the Electrical Engineering Department at KAIST was selected as the recipient of the 2015 ACM SIGMETRICS Rising Star Research Award.
As a computer systems performance evaluation community, SIGMETRICS annually awards a junior researcher. He was selected as the 8th annual recipient, being the first from an Asian university.
Professor Shin was recognized for his work in theoretical analysis of stochastic queueing networks and machine learning. He said, “I would like to contribute to the expansion of computing and network theory in Korea wherein those fields are unrecognized.”
He has received numerous awards including Kennneth C. Sevcik (Best Student Paper) Award at SIGMETRICS 2009, George M. Sprowls (Best MIT CS PhD Thesis) Award 2010, Best Paper Award at MOBIHOC 2013, Best Publication Award from INFORMS Applied Probability Society 2013, and Bloomberg Scientific Research Award 2015.
2015.06.21 View 8166 -
Professor Jeong-Guon Ih Is Appointed the Vice President of the International Commission for Acoustics
Professor Jeong-Guon Ih of the Mechanical Engineering Department at KAIST has been elected to serve as the Vice President of the International Commission for Acoustics (ICA) from June 2015 to the end of 2016. The appointment was made at the meeting of the ICA Board held on June 1, 2015, in Maastricht, the Netherlands.
Professor Ih currently also chairs the Asia-Pacific Acoustics Commission.
Instituted in 1951, the ICA is an academic society that promotes international development and collaboration in all fields of acoustics including research, advancement, education, and standardization. It has a membership of 44 national acoustical societies worldwide and four observer countries.
2015.06.17 View 5986 -
KAIST and Sejong City Goverment Agree to Establish a Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering
KAIST and the government of Sejong City will cooperate to establish a graduate school of medical science and engineering. On June 11, 2015, President Steve Kang of KAIST and Mayor Choon-Hee Lee of Sejong City signed a memorandum of understanding at the city hall of Sejong to establish the school.
Under the agreement, the two organizations will work out details to establish the graduate school in Sejong on such issues as administrative assistance, financial support, curriculum development, and the creation of an environment conducive to the growth of medical science.
President Kang said, “Once this graduate school is established, KAIST will be able to offer Korea and the world top-notch researchers in the field of medical science. I have high hopes that the school will produce high-impact research breakthroughs and lead in the advancement of interdisciplinary studies in biotechnology.”
In the picture below, President Steve Kang of KAIST (third from the left) holds the signed memorandum of understanding with Mayor Choon-Hee Lee of Sejong (fourth from the left).
2015.06.16 View 5971 -
Professor Sung Yong Kim Presents a Keynote Speech at the International Ocean Color Science Meeting (IOCS) 2015
Professor Sung Yong Kim of the Mechanical Engineering Department at KAIST delivered a keynote speech at the International Ocean Color Science Meeting (IOCS) 2015 held in San Francisco on June 15-18, 2015. His speech was entitled “Research and Applications Using Sub-mesoscale GOCI (Geostationary Ocean Color Imager) Data.”
The IOCS, organized by the International Ocean Color Coordinating Group (IOCCG), is a community consultation meeting providing communication and collaboration between space agencies and the ocean color community, building strong ties among international representatives of the ocean color communities, and providing a forum for discussion and the evolution of community thinking on a range of issues.
Professor Kim was recognized for his contribution towards the development of remote exploration of sub-mesoscale processes including eddies, fronts, and environmental fluid dynamics.
He also attended the 26th General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) in Prague, the Czech Republic, on June 22, 2015 and gave a presentation on the sub-mesoscale eddies circulation research.
2015.06.12 View 7793 -
Science and Technology Policy Professor Chihyung Jeon Awarded Rachel Carson Fellowship
KAIST Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy Professor Chihyung Jeon has been awarded the Rachel Carson Fellowship 2015-2016.
Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society is a research center for environmental humanities and social sciences, supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. It was founded by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany and the Deutsches Museum as a joint initiative in 2009.
Rachel Carson Center supports researches in humanities and social sciences on the interactions between the environment and the society, following the footsteps of Rachel Cason, who raised awareness on the chemical environmental damage and started global environmental movement through her published book “Silent Spring” in 1962.
The center is awarding Rachel Carson Fellowships to established researchers to fund their writing and promote exchange of research. This year, 31 fellowships were awarded.
Professor Jeon will conduct research on "A Dredged Nation: The Four Rivers Restoration Project and the Envirotechnical Transformation of South Korea" and will also hold an additional post of International Curatorial Fellow at the Deutsches Museum.
2015.06.11 View 8283 -
KAIST to support the Genetic Donguibogam Research Project for global market entry of a new natural drug produced by Green Cross Corporation HS
In the wake of the spread of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), sales of immune-enhancing products in Korea such as red and white ginseng have risen dramatically. Ginseng is one of Korea’s major health supplement it exports, but due to the lack of precise scientific knowledge of its mechanism, sales of ginseng account for less than 2% of the global market share.
The Genetic Donguibogam Research Project represents a group of research initiatives to study genes and environmental factors that contribute to diseases and to discover alternative treatments through Eastern medicine. The project is being led by KAIST’s Department of Bio & Brain Engineering Professor Do-Heon Lee.
Professor Lee and Chief Executive Officer Young-Hyo Yoo of Green Cross Corporation HS, a Korean pharmaceutical company, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), as well as a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to develop a naturally derived drug with an enhanced ginsenoside, pharmacological compounds of ginseng, for the global market entry of BST204 on June 10, 2015.
Donguibogam is the traditional Korean source for the principles and practice of Eastern medicine, which was compiled by the royal physician Heo Jun and first published in 1613 during the Joseon Dynasty of Korea.
Cooperating with Green Cross Co., HS, KAIST researchers will use a multi-component, multi-target (MCMT)-based development platform to produce the new natural drug, BST204. This cooperation is expected to assist the entry of the drug into the European market.
Green Cross Co., HS has applied a bio-conversion technique to ginseng to develop BST204, which is a drug with enhanced active constituent of aginsenosides. The drug is the first produced by any Korean pharmaceutical company to complete the first phase of clinical trials in Germany and is about to start the second phase of trials.
Professor Do-Heon Lee, the Director of the project said, “Genetic Donguibogam Research Project seeks to create new innovative healthcare material for the future using integrated fundamental technologies such as virtual human body computer modelling and multi-omics to explain the mechanism in which natural ingredients affect the human body.” He continued, “Especially, by employing the virtual human body computer modelling, we can develop an innovative new technology that will greatly assist Korean pharmaceutical industry and make it the platform technology in entering global markets.”
Young-Hyo Yoo, the CEO of Green Cross Co., HS, said, “For a new naturally derived drug to be acknowledged in the global market, such as Europe and the US, its mechanism, as well as its effectiveness and safety, should be proven. However, it is difficult and costly to explain the mechanism in which the complex composition of a natural substance influences the body. Innovative technology is needed to solve this problem.”
Professor Do-Heon Lee (left in the picture), the Director of Genetic Donguibogam Research Project, stands abreast Young-Hyo Yoo (right in the picture), the CEO of Green Cross Co., HS.
2015.06.10 View 7609 -
KAIST's DRC-HUBO Wins the DARPA Robotics Challenge 2015
DRC-HUBO finished all eight assignments in less than 45 minutes, taking first place among 24 international teams and claiming the USD 2 million prize offered by a US defense research agency.
The Robotics Challenge Finals 2015 hosted by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) took place on June 5-6, 2015 at the Fairplex in Pomona, California.
Team KAIST of the Republic of Korea led by Professor Jun-Ho Oh of the Mechanical Engineering Department at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Professor In-So Kweon of the Electrical Engineering Department, and researchers from Rainbow Co., the university’s spin-off company that builds the robots, won the DARPA Finals. The team received USD 2 million as a prize.
The DARPA’s Robotics Challenge (DRC) promotes a competition of robot systems and software teams which seek to develop robots capable of assisting humans in responding to natural and man-made disasters such as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear incident in 2011. The DRC consists of three competitions: a software-based Virtual Robotics Challenge which took place in June 2013; the Robotics Challenge Trials in Homestead, Florida, in December 2013; and the Finals in June 2015.
A total of 24 teams from universities and private and public research institutes from Korea, the US, Hong Kong, Germany, Japan, and Italy participated in the Finals. The participating teams had to finish eight assignments in 60 minutes, during which their robots were untethered and operated wirelessly without communication from their engineers.
Each team was assigned a series of tasks: they included driving a vehicle, getting out of a vehicle, opening a door, turning a valve, drilling a hole in a wall, a surprise task such as pushing a button or turning on a switch, walking over rubble or debris, and climbing stairs. Robots scored a point each time they completed their missions. To win, a team had to complete all the tasks successfully in the shortest amount of time possible.
Team KAIST completed the entire course in 44 minutes and 28 seconds, followed by the Institute of Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) Robotics in Pensacola, Florida in 50:26, and Team TARTAN Rescue of the National Robotics Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon University in 55:15.
For details, see an article below from the New York Times:
New York Times, June 6, 2015
“Korean Robot Makers Walk Off With $2 Million Prize”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/science/korean-robot-makers-walk-off-with-2-million-prize.html?_r=1
DRC-HUBO sticks a plug into an outlet for the surprise task at the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge on June 5-6, 2015, in Pomona, California.
DRC-HUBO turns a valve in a clockwise direction.
DRC-HUBO drills to cut a circle into the wall.
Members of Team KAIST pose together after the award ceremony on June 6, 2015.
2015.06.07 View 22337 -
KAIST to Kick-Start the Exchange of Young Researchers with Northern European Universities
KAIST promotes research exchange and cooperation with three universities in Northern Europe.
KAIST has signed a letter of intent (LOI) for the mutual exchange of young researchers and cooperation to collaborate with KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Lund University, both based in Sweden on June 2, 2015, and with Aalto University in Finland on June 4, 2015.
This LOI was the result of the cooperative projects of Korea-Sweden and Korea-Finland Joint Committees on Science and Technology supervised by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning of Korea.
As agreed in the LOI, KAIST will conduct joint research projects with the three universities by providing students and researchers with opportunities to visit each other through internship programs and workshops and by sharing information on education and research.
Sung-Hyon Mayeng, the Associate Vice President of the International Relations Office at KAIST, said, “It’s an encouraging sign that universities and governments recognize the importance of increasing exchanges among academic and research communities. Expecting more vibrant relationships to be formed between KAIST and the three northern European universities in coming years, I hope that today’s agreement becomes a good basis to spur technological innovations that will not only benefit the regions but also the world.”
Established in 1827, the KTH Royal Institute of Technology is the largest and oldest technical university in Sweden, accounting for one-third of the nation’s technical research and engineering education capacity at university level. The university offers education and research programs from natural sciences to all branches of engineering including architecture, industrial management, and urban planning. According to the QS World University Rankings in 2014, KTH Royal Institute of Technology ranked 27th in engineering and 1st in Northern Europe.
Lund University, Sweden, is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in northern Europe, consistently ranking among the world’s top 100 universities. In particular, its biological sciences and engineering have shown great strength, placing within the top 60 universities by the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings. The university also receives the largest amount of research funding from the Swedish government.
Aalto University in Finland was created as a merger of three leading Finnish universities: the Helsinki University of Technology (established 1849), the Helsinki School of Economics (established 1904), and the University of Art and Design Helsinki (established 1871). The university nurtures the close collaborations across science, business, and arts to foster multi-disciplinary education and research.
2015.06.04 View 7224