Engineering
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Professor Hwang Gyu Young Elected as Chairman of IEEE TCDE.
Professor Hwang Gyu Young (Department of Computer Science) was elected as the Chairman of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) TCDE (Technical Committee on Data Engineering).
IEEE TCDE is one of the three academic organizations (including VLDB Endowment, ACM SIGMOD) and Professor Hwang is the first to be elected as Chairman from the Asia-Pacific region.
Professor Hwang’s tenure begins on New Year’s Day for two years.
IEEE TCDE holds the world’s most prestigious academic competition IEEE ICDE and hosts the Working Group and publishes the IEEE Data Engineering Bulletin.
2012.12.21 View 9247 -
Firefly inspired high efficiency LED technology developed
A firefly inspired, high efficiency self-illuminating LED has been developed.
Professor Jeong Gi Hoon (Department of Bio and Brain Engineering) mimicked the nanostructure of the external layer of the illumination organ of a firefly and succeeded in fabricating high illumination efficiency LED lenses.
Conventional lenses required expensive anti-reflection coating. The developed lenses utilize the bio-inspired nanostructure on the surface of the lenses themselves to reduce the reflectivity of the lenses thereby decreasing production costs.
The developed antireflection nanostructure is expected to be applied to various digital devices and lighting fixtures.
Antireflective structures have been applied in various fields in order to enhance light efficiency However these structures have been limited to flat surfaces and therefore was difficult to implement to curved surfaces like LED lenses.
Professor Jeong’s team solved this problem by using three dimensional micro molding processes.
The team fabricated the nanostructure by forming a single nanoparticle layer on the silicon oxide and performing dry etching. On this nanostructure PDMS was poured and manipulated to fabricate a lens structure similar to that of a firefly.
The fabricated lens showed similar efficiency as conventional antireflection coating.
2012.11.29 View 8457
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KAIST shocks the world with its creativity
Researchers at KAIST yielded great results at the world’s leading international Human Computer Interaction Society.
Professor Lee Gi Hyuk’s (Department of Computer Sciences) and Professor Bae Seok Hyung’ (Department of Industrial Design) respective teams received awards in two criteria in student innovation contest and was the only domestic university that presented their thesis at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software.
The ACM UIST holds a student innovation contest prior to its opening. This year’s topic was the pressure sensing multi touch pad of Synaptics and involved 27 prestigious universities including MIT and CMU.
The KAIST team (Ki Son Joon Ph.D. candidate, Son Jeong Min M.A. candidate of Department of Computer Sciences and Woo Soo Jin M.A. candidate of Department of Industrial Design) designed a system that allows modulated control by attaching a simple structure to the pressure sensing multi touch pad.
The second KAIST team (Huh Seong Guk Ph.D. candidate, Han Jae Hyun Ph.D. candidate, Koo Ji Sung Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Computer Sciences, and Choi Ha Yan M.A. candidate at Department of Industrial Design) designed a system that utilizes a highly elastic fiber to allow the sensing of lateral forces. They also created a slingshot game application which was the second most popular system.
In the thesis session Professor Bae’s team (Lee DaWhee Ph.D. candidate, Son Kyung Hee Ph.D. candidate, Lee Joon Hyup M.A. candidate at Department of Industrial Design) presented a thesis that dealt with the technology that innovated the table pen for displays.
The new ‘phantom pen’ solved the issue arising from the hiding effect of the pen’s contact point and the display error due to the thickness of the display. In addition the ‘phantom pen’ has the ability to show the same effects as crayons or markers in a digital environment.
2012.11.29 View 10559
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The control of light at the nano-level
Professor Min Bumki
Professor Min Bumki’s research team from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at KAIST have successfully gained control of the transmittance of light in optical devices using graphene* and artificial 2-dimensional metamaterials**.
* Graphene : a thin membrane composed of pure carbon, with atoms arranged in a regular hexagonal pattern
** Metamaterials : artificial materials engineered to have properties that may not be found in nature
The research results were published in the recent online edition (September 30th) of Nature Materials, a sister journal of the world renowned Nature journal, under the title ‘Terahertz waves with gate-controlled active graphene metamaterials’
Since the discovery of graphene in 2004 by Professors Novoselov and Geim from the University of Manchester (2010 Nobel Prize winners in Physics), it has been dubbed “the dream material” because of its outstanding physical properties.
Graphene has been especially praised for its ability to absorb approximately 2.3% of near infrared and visible rays due to its characteristic electron structure. This property allows graphene to be used as a transparent electrode, which is a vital electrical component used in touch screens and solar batteries. However, graphene’s optical transmittance was largely ignored by researchers due to its limited control using electrical methods and its small optical modulation in data transfer.
Professor Min’s team combined 0.34 nanometer-thick graphene with metamaterials to allow a more effective control of light transmittance and greater optical modulation. This graphene metamaterial can be integrated in to a thin and flexible macromolecule substrate which allows the control of transmittance using electric signals.
This research experimentally showed that graphene metamaterials can not only effective control optical transmittance, but can also be used in graphene optical memory devices using electrical hysteresis.
Professor Min said that “this research allows the effective control of light at the nanometer level” and that “this research will help in the development of microscopic optical modulators or memory disks”.
figure 1. The working drawing of graphene metamaterials
figure 2. Conceptual diagram (Left) and microscopic photo (right) of graphene metamaterials
2012.11.23 View 10446 -
DNA based semiconductor technology developed
Professor Park Hyun Gyu’s research team from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST has successfully implemented all logic gates using DNA, a feat that led the research to be published as the cover paper for the international nanotechnology paper "Small".
Even with the latest technology, it was impossible to create a silicon based semiconductor smaller than 10nm, but because DNA has a thickness of only 2nm, this could lead to the creation of semiconductors with groundbreaking degrees of integration.
A 2 nm semiconductor will be able to store 10,000 HD movies within a size of a postage stamp, at least 100 times more than the current 20nm semiconductors.
DNAs are comprised of 4 bases which are continually connected: Adenine (A) with Thymine (T), and Guanine (G) with Cytosine (C).
For this research, the team used the specific binding properties of DNA, which forms its helix-shape, and a circular molecular beacon that has fluorescent signaling properties under structural changes.
The research team used input signals to open and close the circular DNA, the same principle that is applied to logic gates in digital circuits.
The output signal was measured using the increase and decrease of the fluorescent signal from the molecular beacon due to the opening and closing of the circular DNA respectively.
The team overcame the limited system problems of the existing logic gates and managed to implement all 8 logic gates (AND, OR, XOR, INHIBIT, NAND, NOR, XNOR, IMPlCATION). A multilevel circuit that connects different logic gates was also tested to show its regenerative properties.
Professor Park said that “cheap bio-electric devices with high degrees of integration will be made possible by this research” and that “there will be a large difference in the field of molecular level electronic research”
Mr. Park Gi Su, a doctoral candidate and the 1st author of this research, said that “a DNA sequence of 10 bases is only 3.4nm long and 2nm thick, which can be used to effectively increase the degree of integration of electronic devices” and that “a bio computer could materialize in the near future through DNA semiconductors with accurate logic gates”.
XOR Gate: The output signal 1 comes through the open circular DNA when either input DNA A or input DNA B is present. When both inputs are not present, the flourescent signal does not come through
2012.09.27 View 9612 -
Distinguished Professor Lee Sang Yeop Appointed as Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers
Professor Lee Sang Yeop (Dean of the Department of Biological Sciences) has become the first Korea Scientist to be appointed as the Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
The American Institute of Chemical Engineers was founded in 1908 and boasts a 100 year history. It is composed of 43,000 members over 90 countries and is the largest international Academic Institute in the field of Chemical Engineering.
The Institute appoints Fellows after a rigorous procedure of recommendation and evaluation and Professor Lee is the first Korean to become a Fellow.
Professor Lee’s expertise is the field of Metabolic Engineering and successfully applied the system design method and optimization strategy of chemical engineering to biological systems thereby developing numerous core technologies for the biology based chemical industries.
Professor Lee is the founder of the System Metabolic Engineering and enabled the medical application of microorganisms by manipulating the metabolic pathways on a systems level in addition to making great progress in synthesizing various oil originated chemical materials using biology based, environmentally friends methods.
Professor Lee received the Marvin J. Johnson Award, Charles Thom Award, and has been appointed by the first Chairman of the Biotech Global Agenda Counsel of the World Economic Forum.
2012.09.22 View 8968
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Professor Soon-Heung Chang meets with Bill Gates and discusses possible collaboration
Professor Soon-Heung Chang from the Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, KAIST, who is also the president of Korea Nuclear Society (KNS), met Bill Gates, the co-founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Microsoft, on August 16, 2012 and discussed ways to cooperate for the development of a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), a next generation nuclear power reactor.
According to Professor Chang, Bill Gates was amazed at Korea’s successful bids for nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates, even though Korea was a latecomer in the field of nuclear power. Bill Gates also showed a keen interest in Korea’s low electricity rates.
Gates focuses on solving fundamental problems in order to help improve the quality of life for humanity, rather than short-term temporary solutions, through infrastructure development such as energy. Particularly, he considers nuclear power as one of the most effective ways to supply clean energy which can provide electricity at a low cost while keeping carbon dioxide emission levels much lower than fossil fuels.
Bill Gates is a primary investor for an energy company called “TerraPower” based in Bellevue, Washington. TerraPower develops and commercializes nuclear power technology for a traveling wave reactor (TWR) that is designed to use spent fuels, i.e., depleted uranium, and runs technically “forever” because once fueled, the reactor does not need to be refueled for over 50 years. TerraPower’s TWR is to use metallic fuel, and Korea is the only country that currently develops SFR (KALIMER 600) using metallic fuel.
“Korea has an outstanding supply chain for the entire lifecycle of a nuclear power station from equipment manufacturing to operation,” said Professor Chang, while emphasizing the synergistic effects of forming partnership between Korea and TerraPower.
Professor Chang emphasized that Korea should create an opportunity based on lessons learned from the Fukushima crisis and actively move forward to achieve its leading position in the field of next generation nuclear reactors. He said that cooperation with Bill Gates will be a significant step towards the development of next generation nuclear reactors.
About Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR)
Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) is a next-generation nuclear power reactor that will use spent fuels from conventional reactors. Arrangement of a fuel recycling system in
conjunction with currently-developing pyroprocessing technology would enable U-238, which makes up over 99% of natural uranium, to be used as a nuclear fuel. This would greatly reduce the toxicity and volume of spent fuels by up to 1,000 times and 100 times respectively when compared to existing reactors. This is truly a breakthrough innovation in spent fuel disposal and recycling.
2012.09.20 View 10525 -
Liver Damage Mechanism of Hepatitis C Proven
KAIST researchers found mechanics behind a Hepatitis C virus, thereby taking a step closer to the development of a cure for Hepatitis C.
Professor Choi Chul Hui (Department of Biological and Brain Engineering) and Professor Shin Eui Chul (Graduate School of Medical Sciences) proved, for the first time in the world, the mechanism behind liver damage of a patient with Hepatitis C.
It is anticipated that this discovery will allow for the development of a Hepatitis C cure that has no side effects and little Liver damage.
Hepatitis C is an immune response of the body to the Hepatitis C virus and causes liver irritation.
Around 170million people are infected with Hepatitis C worldwide including 1% of the Korean population. Once infected, most cases turn into chronic cases and may lead to liver cancer.
However it was impossible to infect Hepatitis C within a test tube cell environment until 2005 and up till then Chimpanzees were used to study the virus which proved to be a huge barrier to research.
The research team used cells infected with Hepatitis C virus and found out that the virus works by increasing the destruction of cells by the TNF-a protein responsible for the cell’s immune response.
In addition the protein structure of the virus that causes this reaction was successfully found.
Conventionally the Hepatitis C medication focused on the suppressing the growth of the virus and therefore had many side effects.
The experimental results allow new medication aimed at suppressing the actual mechanism of liver damage to be discovered.
The result was selected as the cover dissertation of the September Edition of the Hepatolog magazine.
2012.09.11 View 12212
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Professor Kim Eun Joon receives In Chon Award
Professor Kim Eun Joon (Department of Biological Sciences) received the In Chon Awarded hosted by In Chon Memorial and Dong Ah Newspaper.
The Award Ceremony will be held on the 8th of October in Seoul Lotte Hotel and Professor Kim will be given a medal and prize money amounting 100million Korean Won.
Professor Kim is a world renowned research in the field of Synapses. Professor Kim graduated from the Department of Pharmacy in Pusan University, B.A. at KAIST, and Ph.D at Michigan University. He has been a Professor at KAIST since 2000.
2012.09.11 View 8170
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Professor Song Joon Hwa develops new Location Tracking Application
Professor Song Joon Hwa developed a location tracking application that alerts the teacher when students on field trips stray too far from the group via a smartphone and a headset.
Conventional Location Tracking Applications utilize GPS systems and as a consequence does not function indoors where the satellite signal is nonexistent. However Professor Song’s method is unique in the fact that it utilizes radio waves which allows signal transfer both indoors and outdoors.
In addition different alerts are given off in difference locations and therefore the technology can be applied in finding the effectiveness of the field trip and the social behaviors of students.
2012.09.11 View 7981
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Jellyfish removal robot developed
Professor Myung Hyun’s research team from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at KAIST has developed a jellyfish removal robot named ‘JEROS’ (JEROS: Jellyfish Elimination RObotic Swarm).
With jellyfish attacks around the south-west coast of Korea becoming a serious problem, causing deaths and operational losses (around 3 billion won a year), Professor Myung’s team started the development of this unmanned automatic jellyfish removal system 3 years ago.
JEROS floats on the surface of the water using two long cylindrical bodies. Motors are attached to the bodies such that the robot can move back and forth as well as rotate on water. A camera and GPS system allows the JEROS to detect jellyfish swarm as well as plan and calculate its work path relative to its position.
The jellyfish are removed by a submerged net that sucks them up using the velocity created by the unmanned sailing. Once caught, the jellyfish are pulverized using a special propeller.
JEROS is estimated to be 3 times more economical than manual removal. Upon experimentation, it showed a removal rate of 400kg per hour at 6 knots. To reach similar effectiveness as manual net removal, which removes up to 1 ton per hour, the research team designed the robot such that 3 or more individual robots could be grouped together and controlled as one.
The research team has finished conducting removal tests in Gunsan and Masan and plan to commercialize the robot next April after improving the removal technology. JEROS technology can also be used for a wide range of purposes such as patrolling and guarding, preventing oil spills or removing floating waste. This research was funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology since 2010.
2012.08.29 View 11878
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Hosting of Third Annual 2012 Social Web International Workshop
KAIST Department of WebScience Engineering hosted the 2012 Social Web International Workshop in JaeJu Ramada Hotel.
The 3rd Annual International Workshop involves the coming together of domestic and international experts on various fields like sociology, journalism, electronics, economics, and etc. to introduce and discuss the direction of social web’s numerous factions.
Dr. Krishna Gummadi (Max Plank Research Institute), Professor Irwin King (Chinese University of Hong Kong), Dr. Winter Mason (Stevens Technology Research Institute), and Professor Daniele Quercia (Cambridge University) made up the international participants of the workshop.
Professor Kim Yong Chan (Yonsei University), Professor Kim Ye Ran (KwangWoon University), Professor Park Ju Yong (Kyung Hee University), Professor Oh Hae Yeon and Professor Lee Won Jae (KAIST) made up the domestic participants to the workshop.
The workshop was a place for free discussion of social networks and apps and the research direction of social sciences.
2012.08.21 View 7576