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KAIST Fabricates Green Hydrogen Cells in Just 10 Minutes Like Using a Microwave
<(From Left) Ph.D candidate Hyeongmin Yu, Ph.D candidate Seungsoo Jang, Ph.D candidate Donghun Lee, Ph.D candidate Gayoung Yoon, Professor Kang Taek Lee>
Solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs), a key technology for producing green hydrogen without carbon emissions, require a high-temperature “sintering” process to harden ceramic powders. Researchers at KAIST have successfully shortened this process from six hours to just ten minutes, while also reducing the required temperature from 1,400°C to 1,200°C. This innovation dramatically cuts both energy consumption and production time, marking a major step forward for the green hydrogen era.
KAIST (President Kwang Hyung Lee) announced on the 25th of October that a research team led by Professor Kang Taek Lee from the Department of Mechanical Engineering has developed an ultra-fast manufacturing method capable of producing high-performance green hydrogen electrolysis cells in only ten minutes.
The core of this technology lies in sintering—a process in which ceramic powders are baked at high temperatures to form a dense, tightly bonded structure. Proper sintering is critical: it ensures that gases do not leak (as hydrogen and oxygen mixing could cause explosions), oxygen ions move efficiently, and the electrodes adhere firmly to the electrolyte to allow smooth current flow. In short, the precision of the sintering process directly determines the cell’s performance and lifetime.
To address these challenges, the KAIST team applied a “volumetric heating” technique that uses microwaves to heat the material uniformly from the inside out. This approach shortened the sintering process by more than thirtyfold compared to conventional methods. Whereas traditional sintering requires prolonged heating above 1,400°C, the new process uses microwaves to heat the material internally and evenly, achieving stable electrolyte formation at just 1,200°C within 10 minutes.
In conventional fabrication, the essential materials—ceria (CeO₂) and zirconia (ZrO₂)—tend to intermix at excessively high temperatures, degrading material quality. KAIST’s new method allows these two materials to bond firmly at the right temperature without mixing, producing a dense, defect-free bilayer electrolyte.
The total “processing time” includes heating, holding, and cooling. The conventional sintering process required about 36.5 hours, whereas KAIST’s microwave-based technique completes the entire cycle in only 70 minutes—over 30 times faster.
<Figure 1. (a) Schematic illustration of the microwave-based ultrafast sintering process and the conventional sintering process (b) Cross-sectional SEM images of the bilayer ceramic electrolyte according to the sintering process>
The resulting electrochemical cells demonstrated remarkable performance: they produced 23.7 mL of hydrogen per minute at 750°C, maintained stable operation for over 250 hours, and exhibited excellent durability. Using 3D digital twin simulations, the team further revealed that ultra-fast microwave heating improves electrolyte density and suppresses abnormal grain growth of nickel oxide (NiO) particles within the fuel electrode, thereby enhancing hydrogen production efficiency.
<Figure 2. 3D reconstruction, contact area, and electrochemically active site images of the solid oxide electrochemical cell according to the sintering process>
Professor Kang Taek Lee stated, “This research introduces a new manufacturing paradigm that enables the rapid and efficient production of high-performance solid oxide electrolysis cells.” He added, “Compared to conventional processes, our approach drastically reduces both energy consumption and production time, offering strong potential for commercialization.”
This study was co-first-authored by Hyeongmin Yu and Seungsoo Jang, both Ph.D. candidates in Mechanical Engineering at KAIST, with Donghun Lee and Gayoung Youn as collaborators. The research was published online on October 2 in Advanced Materials (Impact Factor: 26.8) and was selected as the Inside Front Cover feature paper for its scientific significance.
※ Paper title: “Ultra-Fast Microwave-Assisted Volumetric Heating Engineered Defect-Free Ceria/Zirconia Bilayer Electrolytes for Solid Oxide Electrochemical Cells”, DOI: 10.1002/adma.202500183)
This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT through the H2 Next Round Program, the Mid-Career Researcher Program, and the Global Research Laboratory (GRL) Program.
2025.10.29 View 941 -
KAIST to Foster a 'Robot Valley' in Daejeon with $10 Million Initiative
<Group Photo of Kick-off Meeting>
On September 3, KAIST announced the official launch of the "2025 Deep Tech Scale-up Valley Nurturing Project" with a kick-off meeting at the KAIST Department of Mechanical Engineering.
KAIST was selected for this project by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Research and Development Special District Foundation. With this selection, the university plans to create a "Robot Valley".
Over the next three and a half years, KAIST will receive a total of 13.65 billion won (approximately $10 million) in funding. The university's goal is to intensively nurture globally competitive, innovative robotics companies based on foundational technologies and to develop Daejeon into a global hub for the robotics industry.
The initiative will leverage Daejeon's exceptional research talent and its startup and investment ecosystem to create a model for regional revitalization and to cultivate the robotics industry as a next-generation strategic sector.
KAIST's vision for this project is to develop "Human-Friendly Robots (HFR)" that are more than just automated machines; they are collaborative partners that share space, roles, and emotions with people.
The project will implement a multi-stage strategy that includes promoting the commercialization of robotics technology, supporting the startup ecosystem, securing global technological competitiveness, and developing robot commercialization platforms. This will establish a virtuous cycle of technology development, startup and investment growth, and reinvestment.
Unlike traditional startup support and scale-up programs, this project aims for the simultaneous growth of the entire robotics industry, not just individual companies. A key element is an open innovation model where leading robotics firms like Angel Robotics Inc. and EuRoBotics Inc. (led by Professor Byung-ho Yu and Professor Hyun Myung) will share common core technologies related to actuators, circuits, AI, and standardized data. This will allow startups to focus on developing robot products that directly meet customer needs.
The project team includes key KAIST robotics researchers. The project leader is Professor Jung Kim (President of the Korea Robotics Society) from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Other participating professors include Geon-Jae Lee from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (human augmentation sensors), Hyun Myung from the School of Electrical Engineering (winner of the QRC 2023 quadruped robot autonomous walking competition at IEEE ICRA), Kyung-Chul Kong from the Department of Mechanical Engineering (two-time champion of the Cybathlon International Competition and founder of Angel Robotics), and Suk-Hyung Bae from the Department of Industrial Design (winner of the ACM SIGGRAPH robot sketching competition).
In addition, the KAIST Technology Commercialization Office, KAIST Holdings, Global Techno Valley Lab (GTLAB), and the Daejeon Center for Creative Economy and Innovation will manage technology commercialization and valley construction. The Daejeon Technopark will also participate to provide comprehensive commercialization support.
"The strategic cooperation between Daejeon City's robotics industry nurturing plan and KAIST was the driving force behind the selection for this project," said Geon-Jae Lee, Director of the KAIST Technology Commercialization Office. "We will create a robotics innovation ecosystem based in Daejeon and systematically foster global companies to rival the likes of ABB in Switzerland and KUKA in Germany, which are considered among the top three robotics companies in the world."
< Kick-off Meeting Scene>
Project leader Jung Kim stated, "We will spearhead efforts to discover and nurture over 15 future unicorn companies by promoting the commercialization of deep-tech robotics developed at KAIST. The entire KAIST robotics research team will dedicate its full efforts to ensure that our research and development achievements lead to real-world industries and startups."
KAIST President Kwang-Hyung Lee emphasized, "As Korea's leading research-oriented university, KAIST will actively support Daejeon's growth into a global robotics hub. This project is more than just research and development; it will be a turning point for KAIST to stand at the center of the global robotics ecosystem and create a new growth engine for the region and the nation."
In collaboration with Daejeon City, KAIST plans to form an "HFR Valley Innovation Council" to share and review project outcomes, ultimately building a self-sustaining ecosystem. This initiative aims to establish Daejeon as a world-class robotics industry hub.
2025.09.03 View 2531 -
Approaches to Human-Robot Interaction Using Biosignals
<(From left) Dr. Hwa-young Jeong, Professor Kyung-seo Park, Dr. Yoon-tae Jeong, Dr. Ji-hoon Seo, Professor Min-kyu Je, Professor Jung Kim >
A joint research team led by Professor Jung Kim of KAIST Department of Mechanical Engineering and Professor Min-kyu Je of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering recently published a review paper on the latest trends and advancements in intuitive Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) using bio-potential and bio-impedance in the internationally renowned academic journal 'Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering'.
This review paper is the result of a collaborative effort by Dr. Kyung-seo Park (DGIST, co-first author), Dr. Hwa-young Jeong (EPFL, co-first author), Dr. Yoon-tae Jeong (IMEC), and Dr. Ji-hoon Seo (UCSD), all doctoral graduates from the two laboratories. Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering is a review specialized journal in the field of electrical, electronic, and artificial intelligence technology, newly launched by Nature Publishing Group last year. It is known to invite world-renowned scholars in the field through strict selection criteria. Professor Jung Kim's research team's paper, titled "Using bio-potential and bio-impedance for intuitive human-robot interaction," was published on July 18, 2025. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44287-025-00191-5)
This review paper explains how biosignals can be used to quickly and accurately detect movement intentions and introduces advancements in movement prediction technology based on neural signals and muscle activity. It also focuses on the crucial role of integrated circuits (ICs) in maximizing low-noise performance and energy efficiency in biosignal sensing, covering thelatest development trends in low-noise, low-power designs for accurately measuring bio-potential and impedance signals.
The review emphasizes the importance of hybrid and multi-modal sensing approaches, presenting the possibility of building robust, intuitive, and scalable HRI systems. The research team stressed that collaboration between sensor and IC design fields is essential for the practical application of biosignal-based HRI systems and stated that interdisciplinary collaboration will play a significant role in the development of next-generation HRI technology. Dr. Hwa-young Jeong, a co-first author of the paper, presented the potential of bio-potential and impedance signals to make human-robot interaction more intuitive and efficient, predicting that it will make significant contributions to the development of HRI technologies such as rehabilitation robots and robotic prostheses using biosignals in the future. This research was supported by several research projects, including the Human Plus Project of the National Research Foundation of Korea.
2025.07.24 View 3543 -
KAIST Research Team Develops World’s First Humanoid Pilot, PIBOT
In the Spring of last year, the legendary, fictional pilot “Maverick” flew his plane in the film “Top Gun: Maverick” that drew crowds to theatres around the world. This year, the appearance of a humanoid pilot, PIBOT, has stolen the spotlight at KAIST.
< Photo 1. Humanoid pilot robot, PIBOT >
A KAIST research team has developed a humanoid robot that can understand manuals written in natural language and fly a plane on its own. The team also announced their plans to commercialize the humanoid pilot.
< Photo 2. PIBOT on flight simulator (view from above) >
The project was led by KAIST Professor David Hyunchul Shim, and was conducted as a joint research project with Professors Jaegul Choo, Kuk-Jin Yoon, and Min Jun Kim. The study was supported by Future Challenge Funding under the project title, “Development of Human-like Pilot Robot based on Natural Language Processing”. The team utilized AI and robotics technologies, and demonstrated that the humanoid could sit itself in a real cockpit and operate the various pieces of equipment without modifying any part of the aircraft. This is a fundamental difference that distinguishes this technology from existing autopilot functions or unmanned aircrafts.
< Photo 3. PIBOT operating a flight simulator (side) >
The KAIST team’s humanoid pilot is still under development but it can already remember Jeppeson charts from all around the world, which is impossible for human pilots to do, and fly without error. In particular, it can make use of recent ChatGPT technology to remember the full Quick Reference Handbook (QRF) and respond immediately to various situations, as well as calculate safe routes in real time based on the flight status of the aircraft, with emergency response times quicker than human pilots.
Furthermore, while existing robots usually carry out repeated motions in a fixed position, PIBOT can analyze the state of the cockpit as well as the situation outside the aircraft using an embedded camera. PIBOT can accurately control the various switches in the cockpit and, using high-precision control technology, it can accurately control its robotic arms and hands even during harsh turbulence.
< Photo 4. PIBOT on-board KLA-100, Korea’s first light aircraft >
The humanoid pilot is currently capable of carrying out all operations from starting the aircraft to taxiing, takeoff and landing, cruising, and cycling using a flight control simulator. The research team plans to use the humanoid pilot to fly a real-life light aircraft to verify its abilities. Prof. Shim explained, “Humanoid pilot robots do not require the modification of existing aircrafts and can be applied immediately to automated flights. They are therefore highly applicable and practical. We expect them to be applied into various other vehicles like cars and military trucks since they can control a wide range of equipment. They will particularly be particularly helpful in situations where military resources are severely depleted.”
This research was supported by Future Challenge Funding (total: 5.7 bn KRW) from the Agency for Defense Development. The project started in 2022 as a joint research project by Prof. David Hyunchul Shim (chief of research) from the KAIST School of Electrical Engineering (EE), Prof. Jaegul Choo from the Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI at KAIST, Prof. Kuk-Jin Yoon from the KAIST Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Prof. Min Jun Kim from the KAIST School of EE. The project is to be completed by 2026 and the involved researchers are also considering commercialization strategies for both military and civil use.
2023.08.03 View 21245 -
KAIST Holds 2023 Commencement Ceremony
< Photo 1. On the 17th, KAIST held the 2023 Commencement Ceremony for a total of 2,870 students, including 691 doctors. >
KAIST held its 2023 commencement ceremony at the Sports Complex of its main campus in Daejeon at 2 p.m. on February 27. It was the first commencement ceremony to invite all its graduates since the start of COVID-19 quarantine measures.
KAIST awarded a total of 2,870 degrees including 691 PhD degrees, 1,464 master’s degrees, and 715 bachelor’s degrees, which adds to the total of 74,999 degrees KAIST has conferred since its foundation in 1971, which includes 15,772 PhD, 38,360 master’s and 20,867 bachelor’s degrees.
This year’s Cum Laude, Gabin Ryu, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering received the Minister of Science and ICT Award. Seung-ju Lee from the School of Computing received the Chairman of the KAIST Board of Trustees Award, while Jantakan Nedsaengtip, an international student from Thailand received the KAIST Presidential Award, and Jaeyong Hwang from the Department of Physics and Junmo Lee from the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering each received the President of the Alumni Association Award and the Chairman of the KAIST Development Foundation Award, respectively.
Minister Jong-ho Lee of the Ministry of Science and ICT awarded the recipients of the academic awards and delivered a congratulatory speech.
Yujin Cha from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, who received a PhD degree after 19 years since his entrance to KAIST as an undergraduate student in 2004 gave a speech on behalf of the graduates to move and inspire the graduates and the guests.
After Cha received a bachelor’s degree from the Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, he entered a medical graduate school and became a radiation oncology specialist. But after experiencing the death of a young patient who suffered from osteosarcoma, he returned to his alma mater to become a scientist. As he believes that science and technology is the ultimate solution to the limitations of modern medicine, he started as a PhD student at the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering in 2018, hoping to find such solutions.
During his course, he identified the characteristics of the decision-making process of doctors during diagnosis, and developed a brain-inspired AI algorithm. It is an original and challenging study that attempted to develop a fundamental machine learning theory from the data he collected from 200 doctors of different specialties.
Cha said, “Humans and AI can cooperate by humans utilizing the unique learning abilities of AI to develop our expertise, while AIs can mimic us humans’ learning abilities to improve.” He added, “My ultimate goal is to develop technology to a level at which humans and machines influence each other and ‘coevolve’, and applying it not only to medicine, but in all areas.”
Cha, who is currently an assistant professor at the KAIST Biomedical Research Center, has also written Artificial Intelligence for Doctors in 2017 to help medical personnel use AI in clinical fields, and the book was selected as one of the 2018 Sejong Books in the academic category.
During his speech at this year’s commencement ceremony, he shared that “there are so many things in the world that are difficult to solve and many things to solve them with, but I believe the things that can really broaden the horizons of the world and find fundamental solutions to the problems at hand are science and technology.”
Meanwhile, singer-songwriter Sae Byul Park who studied at the KAIST Graduate School of Culture Technology will also receive her PhD degree.
Natural language processing (NLP) is a field in AI that teaches a computer to understand and analyze human language that is actively being studied. An example of NLP is ChatGTP, which recently received a lot of attention. For her research, Park analyzed music rather than language using NLP technology.
To analyze music, which is in the form of sound, using the methods for NLP, it is necessary to rebuild notes and beats into a form of words or sentences as in a language. For this, Park designed an algorithm called Mel2Word and applied it to her research.
She also suggested that by converting melodies into texts for analysis, one would be able to quantitatively express music as sentences or words with meaning and context rather than as simple sounds representing a certain note.
Park said, “music has always been considered as a product of subjective emotion, but this research provides a framework that can calculate and analyze music.”
Park’s study can later be developed into a tool to measure the similarities between musical work, as well as a piece’s originality, artistry and popularity, and it can be used as a clue to explore the fundamental principles of how humans respond to music from a cognitive science perspective.
Park began her Ph.D. program in 2014, while carrying on with her musical activities as well as public and university lectures alongside, and dealing with personally major events including marriage and childbirth during the course of years. She already met the requirements to receive her degree in 2019, but delayed her graduation in order to improve the level of completion of her research, and finally graduated with her current achievements after nine years.
Professor Juhan Nam, who supervised Park’s research, said, “Park, who has a bachelor’s degree in psychology, later learned to code for graduate school, and has complete high-quality research in the field of artificial intelligence.” He added, “Though it took a long time, her attitude of not giving up until the end as a researcher is also excellent.”
Sae Byul Park is currently lecturing courses entitled Culture Technology and Music Information Retrieval at the Underwood International College of Yonsei University.
Park said, “the 10 or so years I’ve spent at KAIST as a graduate student was a time I could learn and prosper not only academically but from all angles of life.” She added, “having received a doctorate degree is not the end, but a ‘commencement’. Therefore, I will start to root deeper from the seeds I sowed and work harder as a both a scholar and an artist.”
< Photo 2. From left) Yujin Cha (Valedictorian, Medical-Scientist Program Ph.D. graduate), Saebyeol Park (a singer-songwriter, Ph.D. graduate from the Graduate School of Culture and Technology), Junseok Moon and Inah Seo (the two highlighted CEO graduates from the Department of Management Engineering's master’s program) >
Young entrepreneurs who dream of solving social problems will also be wearing their graduation caps. Two such graduates are Jun-seok Moon and Inah Seo, receiving their master’s degrees in social entrepreneurship MBA from the KAIST College of Business.
Before entrance, Moon ran a café helping African refugees stand on their own feet. Then, he entered KAIST to later expand his business and learn social entrepreneurship in order to sustainably help refugees in the blind spots of human rights and welfare.
During his master’s course, Moon realized that he could achieve active carbon reduction by changing the coffee alone, and switched his business field and founded Equal Table. The amount of carbon an individual can reduce by refraining from using a single paper cup is 10g, while changing the coffee itself can reduce it by 300g.
1kg of coffee emits 15kg of carbon over the course of its production, distribution, processing, and consumption, but Moon produces nearly carbon-neutral coffee beans by having innovated the entire process. In particular, the company-to-company ESG business solution is Moon’s new start-up area. It provides companies with carbon-reduced coffee made by roasting raw beans from carbon-neutral certified farms with 100% renewable energy, and shows how much carbon has been reduced in its making. Equal Table will launch the service this month in collaboration with SK Telecom, its first partner.
Inah Seo, who also graduated with Moon, founded Conscious Wear to start a fashion business reducing environmental pollution. In order to realize her mission, she felt the need to gain the appropriate expertise in management, and enrolled for the social entrepreneurship MBA.
Out of the various fashion industries, Seo focused on the leather market, which is worth 80 trillion won. Due to thickness or contamination issues, only about 60% of animal skin fabric is used, and the rest is discarded. Heavy metals are used during such processes, which also directly affects the environment.
During the social entrepreneurship MBA course, Seo collaborated with SK Chemicals, which had links through the program, and launched eco-friendly leather bags. The bags used discarded leather that was recycled by grinding and reprocessing into a biomaterial called PO3G. It was the first case in which PO3G that is over 90% biodegradable was applied to regenerated leather. In other words, it can reduce environmental pollution in the processing and disposal stages, while also reducing carbon emissions and water usage by one-tenth compared to existing cowhide products.
The social entrepreneurship MBA course, from which Moon and Seo graduated, will run in integration with the Graduate School of Green Growth as an Impact MBA program starting this year. KAIST plans to steadily foster entrepreneurs who will lead meaningful changes in the environment and society as well as economic values through innovative technologies and ideas.
< Photo 3. NYU President Emeritus John Sexton (left), who received this year's honorary doctorate of science, poses with President Kwang Hyung Lee >
Meanwhile, during this day’s commencement ceremony, KAIST also presented President Emeritus John Sexton of New York University with an honorary doctorate in science. He was recognized for laying the foundation for the cooperation between KAIST and New York University, such as promoting joint campuses.
< Photo 4. At the commencement ceremony of KAIST held on the 17th, President Kwang Hyung Lee is encouraging the graduates with his commencement address. >
President Kwang Hyung Lee emphasized in his commencement speech that, “if you can draw up the future and work hard toward your goal, the future can become a work of art that you create with your own hands,” and added, “Never stop on the journey toward your dreams, and do not give up even when you are met with failure. Failure happens to everyone, all the time. The important thing is to know 'why you failed', and to use those elements of failure as the driving force for the next try.”
2023.02.20 View 30719 -
KAIST and Google Jointly Develop AI Curricula
KAIST selected the two professors who will develop AI curriculum under the auspices of the KAIST-Google Partnership for AI Education and Research. The Graduate School of AI announced the two authors among the 20 applicants who will develop the curriculum next year. They will be provided 7,500 USD per subject.
Professor Changho Suh from the School of Electrical Engineering and Professor Yong-Jin Yoon from the Department of Mechanical Engineering will use Google technology such as TensorFlow, Google Cloud, and Android to create the curriculum.
Professor Suh’s “TensorFlow for Information Theory and Convex Optimization “will be used for curriculum in the graduate courses and Professor Yoon’s “AI Convergence Project Based Learning (PBL)” will be used for online courses. Professor Yoon’s course will explore and define problems by utilizing AI and experiencing the process of developing products that use AI through design thinking, which involves product design, production, and verification. Professor Suh’s course will discus“information theory and convergence,” which uses basic sciences and engineering as well as AI, machine learning, and deep learning.
2019.12.04 View 21741 -
Cross-Generation Collaborative Labs Open
KAIST opened two cross-generation collaborative labs last month. This novel approach will pair up senior and junior faculty members for sustaining research and academic achievements even after the senior researcher retires.
This is one of the Vision 2031 innovation initiatives established to extend the spectrum of knowledge and research competitiveness. The selected labs will be funded for five years and the funding will be extended if necessary. KAIST will continue to select new labs every year.
A five-member selection committee including the Nobel Laureates Professor Klaus Von Klitzing at the Max-Planck Institute for Solid State Research and Dr. Kurt Wüthrich from ETH Zürich selected the first two labs with senior-junior pairs in March.
(Two renowned scholars' Cross-Generation Collaborative Labs which opened last month.
Distinguished Professor Lee's lab (above) andChair Professor Sung's lab)
Both labs are run by world-renowned scholars: the Systems Metabolic Engineering and Systems Healthcare Laboratory headed by Distinguished Professor Sang-Yup Lee in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Acousto-Microfluidics Research Center for Next-Generation Healthcare led by Chair Professor Hyung Jin Sung in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Distinguished Professor Lee will be teamed up with Professor Hyun Uk Kim, and their lab aims to mass produce new eco-friendly chemical materials as well as higher-value-added materials which will be used for medicine. The new platform technologies created in the lab are expected to provide information which will benefit human healthcare.
Meanwhile, the Acousto-Microfluidics Research Center for Next-Generation Healthcare will team up with Professors Hyoungsoo Kim and Yeunwoo Cho under Chair Professor Sung. The lab will conduct research on controlling fluids and objects exquisitely on a micro-nano scale by using high-frequency acoustic waves. The lab plans to develop a next-generation healthcare platform for customized diagnoses as well as disease treatment.
KAIST President Sung-Chul Shin, who introduced this novel idea in his research innovation initiative, said that he hopes the Cross-Generation Collaborative Labs will contribute to honoring senior scholars’ research legacies and passing knowledge down to junior researchers in order to further develop their academic achievements. He said, “I sincerely hope the labs will make numerous research breakthroughs in the very near future.”
2018.05.03 View 17350 -
Animal Cyborg: Behavioral Control by 'Toy' Craving Circuit
Children love to get toys from parents for their birthday present. This craving toward items also involves object hoarding disorders and shopping addiction. However, the biological meaning of why the brain pursues objects or items has remained unknown. Part of the answer may lie with a neural circuit in the hypothalamus associated with “object craving,” says neuroscientist Daesoo Kim from the Department of Biological Sciences at KAIST.
His research team found that some neurons in the hypothalamus are activated during playing with toys in mice. Thanks to optogenetics, they proved that these neurons in the hypothalamus actually governs obsessive behavior toward non-food objects in mice.
“When we stimulate a neuron in the hypothalamus of mice, they anxiously chased target objects. We found evidence that the neural circuits in the medial preoptic area (MPA) modulate “object craving,” the appetite for possessing objects” said Professor Kim.
Researchers also proved that the MPA circuit facilitate hunting behavior in response to crickets, a natural prey to mice, showing the role of this circuit for catching prey. Further, the MPA nerves send excitatory signals to the periaqueductal gray (PAG), located around the cerebral aqueduct, to create such behavior. The team named this circuit the ‘MPA-PAG’ circuit.
The team showed that they could control mammalian behavior for the first time with this scheme of MPA-Induced Drive Assisted Steering (MIDAS), in which a mouse chase the target objects in the front of head during stimulation of the MPA-PAG circuit. MIDAS allows mice to overcome obstacles to move in a desired path using optogenetics.
(Professor Daesoo Kim)
Professor Kim, who teamed up with Professor Phill Seung Lee in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, explained the significance of the research, “This study provides evidence to treat brain disorders such as compulsive hoarding and kleptomania. It also contributes to the development of technology to control the behavior of animals and humans using strong innate motivation, and thus could impact neuro-economics, defense, and disaster relief.”
He said the team would like to complete the neural circuit map governing behaviors of possession and hunting in the near future by exploring correlations with other neural behaviors controlling possessing and hunting activities.
This research was funded by the Samsung Science and Technology Foundation and published in Nature Neuroscience in March 2018.
(Figure 1: Schematics showing possessive behavior induced by the MPA neural circuit)
(Figure 2: Schematics of the MIDAS system that controls mammals behavior using the desire to possess. A MIDAS mouse is following the bait object controlled wirelessly.)
2018.04.23 View 12635 -
The 8th KINC Fusion Research Awardees
The KAIST Institute for NanoCentury held the 8th KINC Fusion Research Award in order to encourage professors’ convergence studies and instill students’ willingness to research. The award ceremony took place in the KI Building at KAIST on March 13.
The KINC Fusion Research Award selects the most outstanding convergence studies among research undertaken last year, and awards researchers who participated in that research.
The 8th KINC Fusion Research Award went to Professor Yoon Sung Nam from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Professor Inkyu Park from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Their research reported the spontaneous self-biomineralization of palladium (Pd) ions on a filamentous virus to form ligand-free Pd nanowires without reducing reagents or using additional surface stabilizers (Title: Virus-Templated Self-Mineralization of Ligand-Free Colloidal Palladium Nanostructures for High Surface Activity and Stability, Advanced Functional Materials (2017)).
Professor Hee-Tae Jung, the Director of KAIST Institute for the NanoCentury and the host of the KINC Fusion Research Award said, “Convergence will be the crucial keyword that will lead to revolutionary change. Hence, the importance of convergence study should be improved. We will put every effort into creating a research environment for increasing convergence study.
The KAIST Institute for the NanoCentury was established in June 2006 under the KAIST Institute with a mission of creating convergence study by tearing down boarders among departments and carrying out interdisciplinary joint research. Currently, approximately 90 professors from 14 departments participate the institute. It aims to become a hub of university institutes for nano-fusion research.
2018.03.19 View 18326 -
13 KAIST Faculty Named as Inaugural Members of Y-KAST
The Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST) launched the Young Korean Academy of Science and Technology (Y-KAST) and selected 73 scientists as its inaugural members on February 24. Among them, 13 KAIST faculty were recognized as the inaugural members of Y-KAST.
Y-KAIST, made up of distinguished mid-career scientists under the age of 45, will take the leading role in international collaboration as well as innovative agenda-making in science and technology.
The inaugural members include Professor Hyotcherl Ihee of the Department of Chemistry and Dr. Sung-Jin Oh of the Center for Mathematical Challenges at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS), affiliated with KAIST. Professor Ihee is gaining wide acclaim in the fields of physics and chemistry, and in 2016, Dr. Oh was the youngest ever awardee of the Presidential Award of Young Scientist.
The other Y-KAIST members are as follows: Professors Haeshin Lee of the Department of Chemistry; Mi Young Kim, Byung-Kwan Cho, and Ji-Joon Song of the Department of Biological Sciences; Song-Yong Kim of the Department of Mechanical Engineering; Sang-il Oum of the Department of Mathematical Sciences; Jung Kyoon Choi of the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering; Seokwoo Jeon, Sang Ouk Kim, and Il-Doo Kim of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering; Jang Wook Choi of the Graduate School of EEWS (Energy, Environment, Water and Sustainability); and Jeong Ho Lee of the Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering.
The leading countries of the Academy of Science, which include Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Canada, and Japan, have established the Young Academy of Science since 2010 in order to encourage the research activities of their young scientists and to establish a global platform for collaborative research projects through their active networking at home and abroad.
President Myung-Chul Lee of KAST said, “We will spare no effort to connect these outstanding mid-career researchers for their future collaboration. Their networking will make significant impacts toward their own research activities as well as the global stature of Korea’s science and technology R&D.
(Photo caption: Members of Y-KAST pose at the inaugural ceremony of Y-KAST on February 24.)
2017.03.02 View 24263 -
KAIST and Samsung Heavy Industries Celebrate 20 Years of Cooperation
KAIST and Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) celebrated the twentieth anniversary of their university-industry cooperation in shipbuilding and ocean technology research. Established in 1995, the cooperation has remained steadfast for two decades, even times when Korea suffered gravely from its financial crisis in late 1990s.
A ceremony to commemorate the cooperation took place at the Mechanical Engineering Building on October 17, 2014. About thirty distinguished guests including the Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Professor Choong-Sik Bae, and the chief engineer of SHI Marine Research Institute, Dr. Jong-Soo Seo, participated in the ceremony.
The cooperation programs included appointing advisory professors for technological support, implementing business-based academic courses, offering university-industry wide open lectures, opening regular courses for auditing, and finding possible joint researches. Through this cooperation, Samsung has secured technologies needed for industry, and KAIST has produced students who have real-world experience in industrial fields.
Twenty years of cooperation has produced shining results by running various programs such as technological advice, special lectures, small-scale research projects, consignment research projects, and courses for research and design personnel.
For example, what started as a small-scale research project with USD 4,800 in funding, the LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) related research has grown into a large-scale research project with a total of USD 2.85 million in funding. As a result, they developed a secondary barrier for LNG carriers which was recognized by Lloyd‘s Register. Their research eventually lowered ship manufacturing costs tremendously.
In 2003, the cooperation project received the presidential citation from the University-Industry Cooperation Competition organized by the Federation of Korean Industries.
KAIST and SHI planned to increase their cooperation to make it Korea’s leading university-industry cooperation program.
Professor Bae said, “Our programs to focus on solving industrial problems have turned out quite successful.” He emphasized that “for this reason, the cooperation even continued during the Asian financial crisis in 1997.”
He added, “By expanding the current cooperation, we aim to make it an exemplary program that contributes to Korea’s shipbuilding and ocean plant industries.”
2014.10.21 View 12938 -
Professor Hwang Kyu Young and Professor Yang Dong Yeol Receives Engineer of Korea Award
Emeritus Professor Hwang Kyu Young (Department of Computer Sciences) and Professor Yang Dong Yeol (Department of Mechanical Engineering) were named as the 2012 Engineer of Korea by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology and Korea Science Foundation.
The Engineer of Korea Award is awarded biannually to scientists and engineers that have contributed to the development of Korea’s science and technology and national economy.
Professor Hwang’s work with DBMS and close coupling architecture of information search and overall new theories and application technology development in the field of database system has aided the opening and expansion of IT software industry development and the advent of internet information culture era.
Professor Yang is a word renowned scholar in the field of net shape manufacturing and is considered to have opened a new page in the field of nano-molding technique.
In addition, Professor Eum Sang Il (Department of Mathematical Science) has been selected as the 2012 Young Scientist Award.
2013.01.22 View 17013