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Professor Sang-Yup Lee Receives the Order of Service Merit Red Stripes from the Korean Government
The government of the Republic of Korea named Professor Sang-Yup Lee of the Department of Chemical and Bio-molecular Engineering at KAIST as the fiftieth recipient of the Order of Service Merit Red Stripes on May 19, 2015.
This medal is awarded to government employees, officials, and teachers in recognition of their contributions to public services including education.
Professor Lee is regarded as a leading scientist in the field of metabolic engineering, genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and bioinformatics on microorganism producing various primary and secondary metabolites. He contributed significantly to the advancement of bio-based engineering research in Korea.
In addition, his research in microorganism metabolic engineering propelled him to the front of his field, making him the world’s founder of systems metabolic engineering, inventing numerous technologies in strain development.
Professor Lee has received many patent rights in bioprocess engineering. While at KAIST, he applied for 585 patents and registered 227 patents. In particular, he has applied for 135 patents and registered 99 patents in the past five years, successfully turning research results into commercial applications.
Professor Lee said, “I’m glad to contribute to the development of Korean science and technology as a researcher and teacher. I would like to share this honor with my students, master’s and doctoral students in particular, because without their support, it wouldn’t have been possible to pull off the highest level of research results recognized by this medal.”
2015.05.21 View 8727 -
KAIST to Host Conference on the Financial Technology Industry
To take place in the Korea Federation of Banks building on May 21, 2015, Seoul
Around 200 individuals to be present including Oh-Kyu Kwon, the former Minister of Finance and Economy and Chang-Hyun Yun, the former president of Korea Institute of Finance
KAIST will hold a conference to discuss prospects for Korea’s financial technology industry (FinTech) and to address the rapid changes taking place in both national and global finance markets.
The conference will be held in the Convention Hall of the Korea Federation of Banks building in Myeongdong, Seoul on May 21, 2015 with a theme entitled “The Challenge and the Task of Korean FinTech Industry in the Global Finance Market.”
Around 200 individuals including Oh-Kyu Kwon, the former Minister of Finance and Economy, Jiwon Jung, a member of a standing committee of Financial Services Commission, and Steve Kang, the President of KAIST will attend the meeting.
The term “FinTech” originates from the combination of two words, finance and technology, to describe a new form of financial system based on Information Technology (IT). The precise definition and boundary of FinTech is not fully established yet, but this will provide Korea with an opportunity to take the lead in the finance industry with its cutting-edge IT.
The conference will focus on the methods by which Korean FinTech companies can acquire a competitive edge in the global finance market. The keynote speaker, Tong-Suk Kim, the Dean of College of Business, KAIST, will speak about “The Challenge and the Task of Korean FinTech.” The talk will emphasize how the FinTech industry can create an innovative industry, destroying the existing paradigm of payment system and Internet-only banks.
The keynote speech will be followed by a talk on “The Requirements for Establishing Korean FinTech Ecosystem” by Jong-Hyun Kim, a researcher at Woori Finance Research Institute, Korea.
Additional talks, which will be given by KAIST professors, are:
“Korean Economy and the Role of FinTech” by Professor Young-Sun Kwon of the Department Business and Technology Management;
“Korean FinTech in ICT Perspective” by Professor Yoon-Joon Lee of the Department of Computer Science;
“The Current State and Possibilities of Korean FinTech” by Professor Byung-Tae Lee of the School of Management Engineering; and
“The Task and Challenge of Promoting FinTech Industry” by Professor Byung-Chun Kim of the School of Management Engineering.
Also, Professor Chang-Hyun Yoon of the School of Business Administration, University of Seoul, will give a talk on “The Crisis in Korean Finance Industry and the Role of FinTech.”
The conference will also hold a discussion session on “The Promotion Methods for Korean FinTech Industry.” Participants for the discussion will include Jae-Sung Song from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, Dong-Hwan Kim from the Financial Services Commission, Jeon Jin from Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI), Hyo-Jin Lee of 8Percent, In-Chang Hwang from the Korea Insurance Research Institute, and Jae-Kyu Lee from Koscom.
Byung-Chun Kim, the Director of KAIST’s Financial Engineering Research Center, who organized the FinTech conference said, “FinTech industry will evolve from simply attempting to attract consumers to understanding the lifestyle patterns of consumers to provide customized service and information.”
2015.05.20 View 10156 -
KAIST Holds a Ceremony to Present the Cho Jeong-Hoon Academic Award
Doctor Gyu-Tae Kim from General Electric (GE) received the eleventh Cho Jeong-Hoon Academic Award. The award ceremony took place in the main conference room of the administration building on campus on May 13, 2015.
Dr. Kim, a graduate of KAIST, conducts research in the field of instable swirl combustion of gas turbines and has contributed to the development of aircraft engines. He earned his name as a researcher by identifying, for the first time in the world, the correlation between the thermoacoustic instability of gas turbine engines and the complex response of swirl flames.
Along with Dr. Kim, Shin-Jae Kang of the Aerospace Engineering Department, KAIST, Yong-Gyun Bae of the Mechanical Engineering Department, Korea University, and Ji-Won Kim from Kongju National University High School, received the Cho Jeong-Hoon scholarship.
The award was created in commemoration of Cho Jeong-Hoon who was killed in an explosion during his research at the KAIST Rocket Laboratory on May 13, 2003. Cho’s parents donated USD 450,000 to KAIST in his memory. Since 2005, a total of four students from KAIST, Korea University, and Kongju National University High School, all of which the late Honorary Doctor Cho attended, have received the scholarship.
2015.05.19 View 8245 -
Professor Duck-Joo Lee Is Elected Vice Chairman of the American Helicopter Society
Professor Duck-Joo Lee of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at KAIST was elected to become the first Korean vice president of the American Helicopter Society (AHS). He will serve a two-year term, starting this July, and his responsibilities will cover Asia, Australia, and Russia.
AHS, established in 1943, is the biggest association in the field with 6,800 members. The society is intended to advance helicopter technology and vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) in airplane technology.
The AHS’s board of directors consists of thirty experts in rotorcrafts, including the president of Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, a renowned American helicopter manufacturing company.
Professor Lee started his career as a researcher in NASA Ames Research Center in the United States, and is now an acknowledged scholar in the field of aircraft jet engines and helicopter Aero-Acoustics. He also worked as the Assistant Editor-in-Chief of Journal of the American Helicopter Society, the President of the first Asia-Australia Rotorcraft Forum, and the leader of National Task Force Team of Korean Military and Civil Helicopter.
2015.05.18 View 8612 -
KAIST's Patina Engraving System Awarded at ACM CHI
Professor Tek-Jin Nam’s research team of the Industrial Design Department of KAIST received the Best Paper Award in the 2015 Association for Computing Machinery’s (ACM) Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) which was held from April 18 to 23, 2015. The team consisted of two KAIST students: Moon-Hwan Lee, a Ph.D. candidate, and Sejin Cha, a master's student. The team was the first in Asia to receive the award.
The ACM CHI represents the premier conference in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). This year’s event, held in Seoul, South Korea, was the first conference that the ACM had held in Asia in its thirty-three year history. The KAIST team’s paper, entitled “Patina Engraver: Visualizing Activity Logs as Patina in Fashionable Trackers,” ranked in the top 1% of 2,000 submitted papers.
The team developed Patina Engraver, an activity tracker, which monitors and tracks fitness-related metrics such as distances walked or run, calorie consumption, heartbeat, sleep quality, and blood pressure. The device wirelessly connects to a computer or smartphone so that it can store and utilize long-term tracking data.
However, what makes Patina Engraver, a smart wristband, different from other health trackers is its ability to display different design patterns based on users’ activity on the surface of the wristband. The research team was inspired to build this system from the fact that wearable electronics including activity trackers can be used not only as health care devices, but also as fashion items to express emotions and personalities.
Equipped with an engraving feature, the charging pad or holder for Patina Engraver draws individualized patterns to reflect the user’s activities, such as walking or running, while the device is being charged. The pattern display syncs with the frequency of usage, therefore, the more the tracker is used, the greater the number of patterns will show up.
According to the team, since Patina Engraver provides users with a personalized illustration of their activity on the tracker, users are more motivated to put on the tracker and exercise.
Professor Nam said, “This research can be applied in producing other wearable devices to enhance users’ emotional satisfaction. When wearable technology is combined with design and emotion, the industry market will quickly expand.”
Figure 1: Patina engraving system developed by KAIST research team
Figure 2: The process of engraving illustrations of the activity records onto the tracker
Figure 3: Personalized activity trackers based on activity records
2015.05.15 View 14070 -
KAIST Hosts the Wearable Computer Contest 2015
Deadlines for Prototype Contest by May 30, 2015 and August 15 for Idea Contest
KAIST will hold the Wearable Computer Contest 2015 in November, which will be sponsored by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Wearable computers have emerged as next-generation mobile devices, and are gaining more popularity with the growth of the Internet of Things. KAIST has introduced wearable devices such as K-Glass 2, a smart glass with augmented reality embedded. The Glass also works on commands by blinking eyes.
This year’s contest with the theme of “Wearable Computers for Internet of Things” is divided into two parts: the Prototype Competition and Idea Contest.
With the fusion of information technology (IT) and fashion, contestants are encouraged to submit prototypes of their ideas by May 30, 2015. The ten teams that make it to the finals will receive a wearable computer platform and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) education, along with a prize of USD 1,000 for prototype production costs. The winner of the Prototype Contest will receive a prize of USD 5,000 and an award from the Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) of the Republic of Korea.
In the Idea Contest, posters containing ideas and concepts of wearable devices should be submitted by August 15, 2015. The teams that make it to the finals will have to display a life-size mockup in the final stage. The winner of the contest will receive a prize of USD 1,000 and an award from the Minister of MSIP.
Any undergraduate or graduate student in Korea can enter the Prototype Competition and anyone can participate in the Idea Contest.
The chairman of the event, Hoi-Jun Yoo, a professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering at KAIST, noted:
“There is a growing interest in wearable computers in the industry. I can easily envisage that there will be a new IT world where wearable computers are integrated into the Internet of Things, healthcare, and smart homes.”
More information on the contest can be found online at http://www.ufcom.org.
Picture: Finalists in the last year’s contest
2015.05.11 View 8391 -
Big Data Reveals the Secret of Classical Music Creation
Professor Juyong Park of the Graduate School of Culture Technology at KAIST and his research team have recently published the result of their study (“Topology and Evolution of the Network of Western Classical Music Composers”) on the dynamics of how classical music is created, stylized, and disseminated in EPJ Data Science online on April 22, 2015. For the press release issued by the journal, please go to the link below:
EPJ Data Science, May 6, 2015
“EPJ Data Science Highlight—Big Data Reveals Classical Music Creation Secrets”
http://www.epj.org/113-epj-ds/941-epjds-highlight-big-data-reveals-classical-music-creation-secrets
Researchers used big-data analysis and modelling technique to examine the complex, undercurrent network of classical music composers, which was constructed from the large volume of compact disc (CD) recordings data collected from an online retailer, ArkivMusic, and a music reference website, AllMusicGuide.
The study discovered that the basic characteristics of composers’ network are similar to many real-world networks, including the small-world property, the existence of a giant component, high clustering, and heavy-tailed degree distributions. The research team also found that composers collaborated and influenced each other and that composers’ networks grew over time.
The research showed that consumers of classical music CDs tend to listen together to the music of a certain group of different composers, offering a useful tool to understand how the music style and market develops. Based on this, the research team predicted the future of the classical music market would be centered on top composers, while maintaining diversity due to the growing number of new composers.
Professor Park said, “In recent years, technology greatly affects the way we consume culture and art. Accordingly, we see more and more artists and institutions try to incorporate technology into their creative process, and this will lead us to larger- and higher-quality data that can allow us to learn more about culture and art. The quantitative methodology we have demonstrated in our research will give us an opportunity to explore the nature of art and literature in novel ways.”
The European Physical Journal (EPJ) comprises a series of peer-reviewed journals, eleven in total, which cover physics and related subjects such as The Large Hadron Collider, condensed matter, particles, soft matter, and biological physics. The EPJ Data Science is the latest journal launched by EPJ.
Figure: Backbone of the Composer Network
The composer-composer network backbone, projected from the CD-composer network, reveals the major component of the network. The node sizes represent the composers’ degrees, and the colors represent their active periods.
2015.05.07 View 10789 -
Forbes, "The World's Best New universities 2015"
The American business magazine, Forbes, covered the Times Higher Education’s recently released rankings of top 100 global universities that are less than 50 years old. KAIST ranked third in the list. See the link below for details.
Forbes, April 29, 2015
The World’s Best New Universities 2015
http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2015/04/29/the-worlds-best-new-universities-2015/.
2015.04.30 View 5019 -
Professor Jinwoo Shin Receives the Bloomberg Scientific Research Award
Professor Jinwoo Shin (https://sites.google.com/site/mijirim/) of the Electrical Engineering Department at KAIST has been selected as one of the three winners to receive the first Bloomberg Scientific Research Award this month. The newly created award is presented to researchers in computer science who conduct high-quality research in such areas as machine learning, natural language processing, machine translation, statistics, and theory.
Professor Shin submitted his research proposal entitled “Scalable Probabilistic Deep Leaning,” and the award will support funding his research for one year. For details, please click on the link below for an article released by Bloomberg News, announcing the winners of the award:
Bloomberg News, April 28, 2015
“Announcing the Winners of the Bloomberg’s First Scientific Research Program”
https://3blmedia.com/News/Announcing-Winners-Bloombergs-First-Scientific-Research-Program
2015.04.30 View 8493 -
2015 QS World University Rankings by Subject: KAIST's Chemical Engineering ranks 17th and 19th for Materials Science in the World
Chemical Engineering (1st in Korea)
1
MIT (US)
2
UC Berkeley (US)
3
Stanford University (US)
4
University of Cambridge (UK)
5
National University of Singapore (Singapore)
17
KAIST (Korea)
Materials Science and Engineering (1st in Korea)
1
MIT (US)
2
Stanford University (US)
3
UC Berkeley (US)
4
University of Cambridge (UK)
5
North Western University (US)
19
KAIST (Korea)
Electrical and Electronic Engineering (1st in Korea)
1
MIT (US)
2
Stanford University (US)
3
UC Berkeley (US)
4
Harvard University (US)
5
ETH Zurich – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Switzerland)
22
KAIST (Korea)
Civil and Structural Engineering (1st in Korea)
1
MIT (US)
2
Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands)
3
National University of Singapore (Singapore)
4
Imperial College London (UK)
5
University of Cambridge (UK)
22
KAIST (Korea)
Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering (1st in Korea)
1
MIT (US)
2
Stanford University (US)
3
University of Cambridge (UK)
4
UC Berkeley (US)
5
Michigan University (US)
26
KAIST (Korea)
Chemistry (2nd in Korea)
1
MIT (US)
2
UC Berkeley (US)
3
University of Cambridge (UK)
4
Harvard University (US)
5
University of Oxford (UK)
26
KAIST (Korea)
Computer Science and Information Systems (1st in Korea)
1
MIT (US)
2
Stanford University (US)
3
University of Oxford (UK)
4
Carnegie Mellon University (US)
Harvard University (US)
39
KAIST (Korea)
The QS World University Rankings released its 2015 rankings by subject on April 29, 2015.
According to the rankings, KAIST’s Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Materials Science Engineering were listed in the top 20 global universities, 17th and 19th, respectively.
KAIST took first place in six subjects among Korean universities, including electrical and electronic engineering; civil and structural engineering; mechanical, aeronautical and manufacturing engineering; and computer science and information systems.
The QS World University Rankings by Subject highlights the world’s top universities in a range of popular subject areas, covering 36 subjects as of this year. Published annually since 2011, the rankings are based on academic reputation, employer reputation, citation count, and research impact.
For a full list of the rankings: http://www.topuniversities.com/subject-rankings/2015
2015.04.29 View 5976 -
Jong Hoon Kim, a former president of Bell Labs, speaks at KAIST
Dr. Jong-Hoon Kim, who was the youngest person to serve as the President of Bell Labs and selected as one of the ten most influential Asian-Americans, will give a lecture at KAIST at 5 pm on April 28, 2015 in the KI building.
In 1992, Dr. Kim founded a telecommunication company, Yurie System. After listing the company on NASDAQ, he sold the company to Lucent Technologies for USD one billion. Dr. Kim served as the President of Lucent Technologies, taught as the University of Maryland, and subsequently served as the President of Bell Labs. He is currently the President of Kiswe Mobile.
In his lecture entitled “Aim High, Take Action,” Dr. Kim will share his personal stories and speak about ways young people can set goals for future and put those into practice. He will focus on his experiences in the United States to list his own company, Yurie System, on NASDAQ and to sell the company as well as the management innovations, which he brought about during his presidency at Bell Labs.
KAIST and Kiswe Mobile have been cooperating on a project, "Global Entrepreneurship by Doing," since 2014 to foster entrepreneurship in Korean youth. While working for Kiswe Mobile in the United States, KAIST students will have an opportunity to conduct project management, market research, and marketing, and to build local networks.
The details of the program can be found on the website of the KAIST Center for Science-based Entrepreneurship, http://eship.kaist.ac.kr.
2015.04.27 View 6376 -
Fast, Accurate 3D Imaging to Track Optically-Trapped Particles
KAIST researchers published an article on the development of a novel technique to precisely track the 3-D positions of optically-trapped particles having complicated geometry in high speed in the April 2015 issue of Optica.
Optical tweezers have been used as an invaluable tool for exerting micro-scale force on microscopic particles and manipulating three-dimensional (3-D) positions of particles. Optical tweezers employ a tightly-focused laser whose beam diameter is smaller than one micrometer (1/100 of hair thickness), which generates attractive force on neighboring microscopic particles moving toward the beam focus. Controlling the positions of the beam focus enabled researchers to hold the particles and move them freely to other locations so they coined the name “optical tweezers.”
To locate the optically-trapped particles by a laser beam, optical microscopes have usually been employed. Optical microscopes measure light signals scattered by the optically-trapped microscopic particles and the positions of the particles in two dimensions. However, it was difficult to quantify the particles’ precise positions along the optic axis, the direction of the beam, from a single image, which is analogous to the difficulty of determining the front and rear positions of objects when closing an eye due to a lack of depth perception. Furthermore, it became more difficult to measure precisely 3-D positions of particles when scattered light signals were distorted by optically-trapped particles having complicated shapes or other particles occlude the target object along the optic axis.
Professor YongKeun Park and his research team in the Department of Physics at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) employed an optical diffraction tomography (ODT) technique to measure 3-D positions of optically-trapped particles in high speed. The principle of ODT is similar to X-ray CT imaging commonly used in hospitals for visualizing the internal organs of patients. Like X-ray CT imaging, which takes several images from various illumination angles, ODT measures 3-D images of optically-trapped particles by illuminating them with a laser beam in various incidence angles.
The KAIST team used optical tweezers to trap a glass bead with a diameter of 2 micrometers, and moved the bead toward a white blood cell having complicated internal structures. The team measured the 3-D dynamics of the white blood cell as it responded to an approaching glass bead via ODT in the high acquisition rate of 60 images per second. Since the white blood cell screens the glass bead along an optic axis, a conventionally-used optical microscope could not determine the 3-D positions of the glass bead. In contrast, the present method employing ODT localized the 3-D positions of the bead precisely as well as measured the composition of the internal materials of the bead and the white blood cell simultaneously.
Professor Park said, “Our technique has the advantage of measuring the 3-D positions and internal structures of optically-trapped particles in high speed without labelling exogenous fluorescent agents and can be applied in various fields including physics, optics, nanotechnology, and medical science.”
Kyoohyun Kim, the lead author of this paper (“Simultaneous 3D Visualization and Position Tracking of Optically Trapped Particles Using Optical Diffraction Tomography”), added, “This ODT technique can also apply to cellular-level surgeries where optical tweezers are used to manipulate intracellular organelles and to display in real time and in 3-D the images of the reaction of the cell membrane and nucleus during the operation or monitoring the recovery process of the cells from the surgery.”
The research results were published as the cover article in the April 2014 issue of Optica, the newest journal launched last year by the Optical Society of America (OSA) for rapid dissemination of high-impact results related to optics.
Figure 1: This picture shows the concept image of tweezing an optically-trapped glass bead on the cellular membrane of a white blood cell.
Figure 2: High-speed 3-D images produced from optical diffraction tomography technique
2015.04.24 View 12182