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KAIST attended the World Economic Forum’s “Summer Davos Forum” held from September 13 to 15 in Tianjin, China. The Summer Davos Forum hosted various sessions and meetings with international dignitaries from governments, business and public organizations, and academia on the main theme of “Driving Growth through Sustainability.”
On September 14, four subjects including “Electric Vehicles,” “Humanoid Robotics,” “Next Generation of Biomaterials,” and “New Developments in Neuroengineering” were presented by KAIST, followed by discussions with forum participants.
Professor Jae-Seung Jeong of the Bio and Brain Engineering Department, Sang-Yup Lee of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, Joon-Ho Oh of the Mechanical Engineering Department, and President Nam-Pyo Suh participated in the forum as presenters of the topic. Of these speakers, Professors Jae-Seung Jeong and Sang-Yup Lee were nominated by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as members of the “Young Global Leader” and “Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies,” respectively.
President Suh was also invited to the CEO Insight Group and delivered an opening speech on OLEV (Online Electric Vehicle) and the Mobile Harbor. President Suh plans to sign an MOU for research cooperation with Jong-Hoo Kim of Bell Lab and Shirley Jackson of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the near future, respectively.
Since 2007, the WEF, in charge of the world’s largest international conference called “Davos Forum” has hosted a “Summer Davos Forum,” also called as the “Annual Meeting of New Champions.” The Summer Davos Forum consists of nations, rising global companies, next generation of global leaders, and cities or nations that lead technological innovations. Unlike the annual Davos Forum held in January, the “Annual Meeting of New Champions” is held in September of each year in Tianjin and Dalian, China.
Since 2009, the WEF has added a special session called IdeasLab in the Davos and Summer Davos Forums. Through IdeasLab, prominent universities from all over the world, research organizations, venture businesses, NGOs, and NPOs are invited to exchange and discuss innovative and creative ideas that can contribute to the development of mankind. Until now, universities including INSEAD, EPFL-ETH, MIT, Oxford, Yale, Harvard, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Tsinghua University, and Keio University have been invited to the IdeasLab. KAIST is the first Korean university to attend this session.
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research KAIST Turns Once-Troublesome Protons into an Energy Storage Resource for Batteries
Batteries that use water-based electrolytes have a relatively low risk of fire and are inexpensive, but they have faced limitations in storing large amounts of energy. KAIST researchers have succeeded in using a reaction previously regarded as a “troublemaker” that degrades battery performance to store more energy instead. This achievement opens up the possibility of next-generation water-based batteries capable of storing more energy while charging and discharging rapidly. KAIST
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event KAIST Hosts Special Lecture by Jeff Dean, a Silicon Valley Legend
KAIST (President Chungsik Bae) announced on August 18 that the National AI Research Lab (NAIRL), together with the KAIST Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI, hosted a special lecture by Jeff Dean, Co-Founder and CEO of Discovery Loop, at Seoul AI Hub on August 13. Dean joined Google in 1999 as one of its earliest employees. Over 27 years, he led the development of MapReduce and Bigtable — the backbone of Google's search infrastructure — as well as TensorFlow and TPUs, which became f
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research Patient-Specific "Blood–Brain Tumor Barrier Chip" Predicts How Glioblastoma Patients Will Respond to Treatment
Even for the same brain tumor treated with the same anticancer drug, the effect can differ from patient to patient. A Korean research team has developed a chip that recreates a patient's own tumor cells together with the surrounding peritumoral vascular environment, making it possible to predict patient-specific treatment responses in advance. KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced on August 18 that a research team led by Professor Song Ih Ahn from the Department of Mechanical Engineering,
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event KAIST Professor Insu Yun, Students and Alumni Finish Second at DEF CON CTF 2026, the World’s Premier Hacking Competition
KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced on August 14 that the Korean hacking team “0x4b52,” which included Professor Insu Yun of the School of Electrical Engineering as well as numerous KAIST students and alumni, finished second at DEF CON CTF 2026, held in Las Vegas, the United States, from August 7 to 9. Comprising approximately 30 Korean hackers, 0x4b52 competed against world-class multinational teams to claim the runner-up position. This marks the best result achieved by an
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research KAIST Controls the Rotation Direction of Light Without Complex New Materials
A new pathway has opened for controlling the rotation direction of light simply by changing how molecules are arranged, without having to synthesize complex new materials. Circularly polarized light is a special form of light that travels while rotating like a pinwheel either to the left or to the right. Because different rotation directions can carry different information, it is drawing attention as a key light source for next-generation displays, optical communications, and security technolo
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