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March 8th, Dr. Ryu Geun Chul Passes Away
Korea’s renowned, leading donator Dr. Ryu Geun Chul (KAIST Invited Visiting Professor) passed away on the 8th of March (Tues) in 3:24pm. The late Dr. Chul was diagnosed with cerebral infarction in January and has been braving the illness and even went through an operation. However despite these efforts, his condition worsened and passed away. He leaves behind his wife, two sons, and three daughters.
The sending away ceremony was held on the 10th of March 6:50am.
An article detailing his achievements and contributions will be posted shortly.
2011.03.18 View 9263 -
'S+ Convergence CEO Program' Completion Ceremony
KAIST will be holding the first Completion Ceremony for the ‘S+ Convergence CEO Program’ which is a differentiated course with a new paradigm. The program offers a different syllabus from the existing CEO training programs and focuses on the fusion of industries and IT, fusion of management and security, and fusing together other future technologies. The course should provide the future CEO’s with the ability to plot a suitable creative management strategy in this day of rapid change and growth.
The program invited a guest speaker every month, apart from the planed lectures. The guest speakers were the top of their respective fields. In addition, various activities like riding the OLEV or domestic workshops or educational trips abroad imparted the ability to take on a global perspective.
The use of Social Network Services like twitter or facebook was educated in the free study period before the lecture began. As a result most of the graduates can now use these SNS freely, better preparing them for the technology oriented direction the world is striving in.
The program will have a total of 54 graduates who come from companies from various industries, are politicians, and/or are government officials.
The program name “S+ Convergence CEO Program” is imbedded with the program goal of training the best CEO’s by fusing together Smart Technology, Security, and Strategy.
2011.03.18 View 10100
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KAIST and Coverity sign MOU for the Analysis of Static in Software
KAIST signed an ‘Interdisciplinary Cooperation in Software Static Analysis Agreement’ with America’s Coverity (representative: Anthony Bettencourt) on the 24th of February.
Dignitaries like Dean of the department of Computer Science of KAISt Choi Gee Son and Andy Chow CTO of Coverity attended the ceremony.
The agreement will allow the application of Coverity’s family of integral product software to research and education at KAIST. This will strengthen KAIST’s ability to develop software and be used in the education of software quality related subjects.
CTO of Coverity Andy Chow had a special seminar for KAIST researches and students after the signing on the topic of ‘Understanding the Present Condition of Static Analysis Technology and its Future’.
Rich Cerruto, in charge of Coverity in Asia, commented that the software developed by Coverity is being used by Samsung, LG electronics, and other domestic companies carrying out R&D for product quality improvement and that he hopes that through this agreement the development of quality-driven software will be educated in a structural manner in the domestic education market together with KAIST.
Coverity has signed MOU with other major universities like Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, and UC Berkeley but KAIST is the first in Asia to sign.
2011.03.02 View 12181
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KAIST paves the way to commercialize flexible display screens
Source: IDTechEX, Feb. 28, 2011
KAIST paves the way to commercialize flexible display screens
28 Feb 2011
Transparent plastic and glass cloths, which have a limited thermal expansion needed for the production of flexible display screens and solar power cells, were developed by researchers at KAIST (Korea Advance Institute of Science & Technology).
The research, led by KAIST"s Professor Byoung-Soo Bae, was funded by the Engineering Research Center under the initiative of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation. The research result was printed as the cover paper of "Advanced Materials".
Professor Bae"s team developed a hybrid material with the same properties as fiber glass. With the material, they created a transparent, plastic film sheet resistant to heat. Transparent plastic film sheets were used by researchers all over the world to develop devices such as flexible displays or solar power cells that can be fit into various living spaces. However, plastic films are heat sensitive and tend to expand as temperature increases, thereby making it difficult to produce displays or solar power cells.
The new transparent, plastic film screen shows that heat expansion index (13ppm/oC) similar to that of glass fiber (9ppm/oC) due to the presence of glass fibers; its heat resistance allows to be used for displays and solar power cells over 250oC.
Professor Bae"s team succeeded in producing a flexible thin plastic film available for use in LCD or AMOLED screens and thin solar power cells.
Professor Bae commented, "Not only the newly developed plastic film has superior qualities, compared to the old models, but also it is cheap to produce, potentially bringing forward the day when flexible displays and solar panels become commonplace. With the cooperation of various industries, research institutes and universities, we will strive to improve the existing design and develop it further."
http://www.printedelectronicsworld.com/articles/kaist_paves_the_way_to_commercialize_flexible_display_screens_00003144.asp?sessionid=1
2011.03.01 View 14739
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Kazakhstan to develop E-Government, Green Economy innovative programs
Source: Trend, Feb. 25, 2011
The Kazakh Economic University (KazEU) and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have signed a memo on joint work in the field of development of "E-Government" and "Green Economy" innovative programs. For more news, please go to the link, http://en.trend.az/capital/business/1836138.html.
2011.03.01 View 8670
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Cho Cheon Shik Graduate School of Green Transportation Initiated
KAIST established the Graduate School of Green Transportation in efforts to participate actively in the green transportation market and train experts in the field.
The opening ceremony was conducted in the KI building with President of KAIST Seo Nam Pyo and other dignitaries from Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, Korea Rail Network Authority, Korea Airports Corporation, Korea Railroad Research Institute, Land, Transport and Maritime Experts Training Institute, Seoul Development Institute, LG Innotech, Hyundai Rotem, and other major companies in the field of transportation attending.
The graduate school was founded with funding from donation made by Chairman Cho Cheon Shik. Developer of OLEV Professor Cho Dong Ho is the dean of the school and 16 other professors are a part of the school.
Courses offered include ‘Transportation Technology’ and ‘Transportation management’ and will focus mostly on allowing students to be a part of the graduate school with flexibility.
In terms of research there is the OLEV and mobile harbor and research will be done on electric and electronics, mechanics, materials, aeronautics, maritime, construction, environment, and etc. and will be an interdisciplinary research.
A memorandum of understanding was signed by the companies mentioned above which has now paved the way for experts to be trained and thus upgrade the level of technology in the field of green transportation.
Professor Seo of KAIST commented, ‘Korea is ranked top 10 in the world for greenhouse gas emissions and it has become hard to avoid global pressure. The results of researched performed at KAIST will allow Korea to form a green, sustainable society leading in the field of green transportation and dominate the market.
2011.02.23 View 17234
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New Bio-Clock gene and its function found
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced that a Korean research team has found a new gene responsible for maintaining the bio-clock (twenty-four) and its mechanism.
Twnety-four was led by Professor Choi Joon Ho and Dr. Lee Jong Bin of KAIST (department of Biology) and was a joint operation with Professor Ravi Allada and Dr.Lim Jeong Hoon of Northwestern University (department of neurobiology) and the result was published in ‘Nature’ magazine.
The research team experimented with transformed small fruit flies for 4 years and found that there was an undiscovered gene that deals with the bio rhythm in the brain which they named ‘twenty-four’.
The understanding with genes prior to twenty-four was that these genes regulate biorhythm in the transcription phase (DNA to mRNA). Twenty-four operates in the step after transcription when the ribosome creates proteins. Especially twenty-four has a great effect on the ‘period protein’ which acts as a sub-atomic clock that regulates the rhythm and life of each cell.
The experiment was innovational in that it was able to scientifically prove the function of the protein produced by the gene.
The result is expected to help solve the problems associated with sleep disorders, jetlags, eating rhythms, bio rhythms, etc.
The name twenty-four was the fact that a day, a cycle, is 24 hours long and the gene’s serial numbers CG4857 adds up to twenty four.
2011.02.23 View 12924
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Professor Min Beom Ki develops metamaterial with high index of refraction
Korean research team was able to theoretically prove that a metamaterial with high index of refraction does exist and produced it experimentally.
Professor Min Beom Ki, Dr. Choi Moo Han, and Doctorate candidate Lee Seung Hoon was joined by Dr. Kang Kwang Yong’s team from ETRI, KAIST’s Professor Less Yong Hee’s team, and Seoul National University’s Professor Park Nam Kyu’s team. The research was funded by the Basic Research Support Program initiated by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology and Korea Research Federation.
The result of the research was published in ‘Nature’ magazine and is one of the few researches carried out by teams composed entirely of Koreans.
Metamaterials are materials that have physical properties beyond those materials’ properties that are found in nature. It is formed not with atoms, but with synthetic atoms which have smaller structures than wavelengths.
The optical and electromagnetic waves’ properties of metamaterials can be altered significantly which has caught the attention of scientists worldwide.
Professor Min Beom Ki’s team independently designed and created a dielectric metamaterial with high polarization and low diamagnetism with an index of refraction of 38.6, highest synthesized index value.
It is expected that the result of the experiment will help develop high resolution imaging system and ultra small, hyper sensitive optical devices.
2011.02.23 View 18082
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Interdisciplinary Research on World Environmental Problems with Humanities
KAIST’s Professor Michael Pak (department of Humanities and Social Sciences) has published a paper in ‘Environmental Science and Technology, ES&T’ and was made Lead Feature.
His was the only paper published with a humanities background and his topic of discussion was ‘Environmentalism Then and Now: From Fears to Opportunities, 1970-2010’ in which he discussed the history of pro-environment activities, the patterns it showed, and its outlook.
Professor Park noted that the problems and concerns over the environment is not a recent phenomenon. It took over 50 years for the environmental problems to resurface after being the ‘hot issue’ of the time during the industrial revolution in the 19th century.
Professor Park deduced that there is a clear historical pattern.
Professor Park insisted that the two areas of Environmental Research ‘Global Warming’ and ‘Change in Weather’. Especially because these two areas are rife with uncertainty as it is, and making policies based on inaccurate information is taking a gamble.
Professor Park majored in history in UC Berkeley, received his masters’ and doctorate at Harvard University and was the professor at Massachusetts College of Art and Design before coming to KAIST at 2008.
2011.02.23 View 11993
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Waking Up Is Hard to Do: Scientists have discovered a new mechanism in the core gears of the circadian clock.
The US News & World Report released an article (Feb. 18, 2011) on KAIST’s research collaboration with Northwestern University in the US to identify a gene that regulates the rhythm of a fruit fly’s circadian clock, which may be applied to explain human’s sleep-wake cycle. The research result was published February 17 in the journal Nature.
For the link of the US News & World Report article, please go to the following link:
http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2011/02/18/waking-up-is-hard-to-do_print.html
2011.02.21 View 10961
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Success in differentiating Functional Vascular Progenitor Cells (VPC)
KAIST’s Professor Han Yong Man successfully differentiated vascular progenitor cells from human embryonic stem cells and reversed differentiated stem cells.
The research went beyond the current method of synthesis of embryonic body or mice cell ball culture and used the careful alteration of signal transmission system of the human embryonic stem cells to differentiate the formation of vascular progenitor cells.
The team controlled the MEK/ERK and BMP signal transmission system that serves an important role in the self replication of human embryonic stem cells and successfully differentiated 20% of the cells experimented on to vascular progenitor cells.
The vascular progenitor cells produced with such a method successfully differentiated into cells forming the endodermis of the blood vessel, vascular smooth muscle cells and hematopoietic cells in an environment outside of the human body and also successfully differentiated into blood vessels in nude mice.
In addition, the vascular progenitor cell derived from human embryonic cells successfully formed blood vessels or secreted vascular growth factors and increased the blood flow and the necrosis of blood vessels when injected into an animal with limb ischemic illness.
The research was funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, 21st Century Frontier Research and Development Institution’s Cell Application Research Department and Professor Ko Kyu Young (KAIST), Professor Choi Chul Hee (KAIST), Professor Jeong Hyung Min (Cha Medical School) and Doctor Jo Lee Sook (Researcher in Korea Bio Engineering Institute) participated in it.
The results of the research was published as the cover paper of the September edition of “Blood (IF:10.55)”, the American Blood Journal and has been patented domestically and has finished registration of foreign PCT.
The results of the experiment opened the possibility of providing a patient specific cure using stem cells in the field of blood vessel illness.
2011.01.18 View 14891 -
Explanation for the polymerized nucleic acid enzyme's abnormal activation found
KAIST’s Professor Park Hyun Kyu of the Department of Bio Chemical Engineering revealed on the 23rd of December 2010 that his team had successfully developed the technology that uses the metal ions to control the abnormal activation of nucleic acids’ enzymes and using this, created a logic gate, which is a core technology in the field of future bio electrons.
The polymerized nucleic acid enzyme works to increase the synthesis of DNA and kicks into action only when the target DNA and primers form complimentary pairs (A and T, C and G).
Professor Park broke the common conception and found that it is possible for none complimentary pairs like T-T and C-C to initiate the activation of the enzyme and thus increase the nucleic acid production, given that there are certain metal ions present.
What Professor Park realized is that the enzymes mistake the uncomplimentary T-T and C-C pairs (with stabilized structures due to the bonding with mercury and silver ions) as being complimentary base pairs. Professor Park described this phenomenon as the “illusionary polymerase activity.”
The research team developed a logic gate based on the “illusionary polymerase activity’ phenomenon.” The logic gate paves the way to the development of future bio electron needed for bio computers and high performance memories.
Professor Park commented, “The research is an advancement of the previous research carried on about metal ions and nucleic acid synthesis. Our research is the first attempt at merging the concepts of the two previously separately carried out researches and can be adapted for testing presence of metal ions and development of a new single nucleotide polymorphic gene analysis technology.”
Professor Park added that, “Our research is a great stride in the field of nano scale electron element research as the results made possible the formation of accurate logic gates through relatively cost efficient and simple system designs.”
On a side note, the research was funded by Korea Research Foundation (Chairman: Park Chan Mo) and was selected as the cover paper for the December issue of ‘Angewandte Chemie International Edition’.
2011.01.18 View 12179