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IAMCOMPANY, an educational technology startup created by a KAIST student
In-Mo Chung, a senior student of the Department of Industrial Design at KAIST, developed a mobile homework book application, IAMSCHOOL, in order to help parents engage, more interactively, in their children’s school activities.
Chung said in an interview with KAIST:
“I came up with creating my company, IAMCOMPANY, when I worked as a volunteer for a student club in 2009 that provides an educational service to high school students living in a less-favored environment. I found out their educational environment very poor, which ultimately led me to build a public interest business model for education.”
Chung created a few mobile applications including IAMSCHOOL and IAMCLASS. The application, IAMSCHOOL, receives school’s notices, homework assignments, or any information related to classes and sends them directly and immediately to parents, allowing real-time communications between parents and teachers. In Korea, parents usually check as many as 50 school notices per month.
Once registered, private educational institutes and public organizations can also receive school information through this application.
In July 2011, the Department of Science Management at KAIST hosted a student competition for startup ideas, and Chung’s idea to build an educational application won the best award. In 2012, he received the grand prize at the KAIST E-5 Startup Competition.
An undergraduate student who is the chief executive officer of a tech startup
Chung established IAMCOMPANY with the seed fund of 13 million Korean won that he had received from the city government of Daejeon. His business idea was selected as one of the 300 College Student Startup Projects, a startup support program operated by Daejeon City to encourage entrepreneurship among college and university students.
Chung talked about the background of his business:
“I think that my idea to offer a “free educational application” helped me win the first prize at the student startup competition. At that time, I was still young, so I considered the winning of the competition as an “exercise” to build my own business in the future. But when I actually started my company, I found out that KAIST’s startup programs helped me a lot throughout the entire process and realized that these programs are good enough for young entrepreneurs to build up their company from a single idea.”
KAIST professors and staff support student startups.
Chung took in-depth mentoring from KAIST professors. Professor Min-Hwa Lee of the Department of Management Science and Professor Lak-Kyoung Song of the Department of Technology Management, who is also the president of the Daejeon Creative Economy Innovation Center, have supported Chung’s endeavors. President Taek-Su Kang of the KAIST Innovation Center gave Chung a lot of advice as he was developing IAMCOMPANY’s initial business model. Chung said that even now, they look for solutions together when his business ran into a brick wall.
Professor Lee said, “IAMCOMPANY does not aim for profit. Instead, by supplying free applications, they improve the environment of education and eventually create public interest. Also, they find out consumers’ hidden demands and satisfied it creatively.”
With 8,000 schools registered to IAMSCHOOL, 750,000 parents are using the application in just two years of its release. Parents and teachers responded enthusiastically.
The application “IAMSCHOOL” provides services for 8,000 schools in Korea. Currently, 750,000 parents are using this application.
The company offers the nation’s largest online education service. The reason behind their rapid growth is that their service solves communications problems between schools and parents in a simple and efficient manner.
Jung-Mi Hwang, a teacher at Galma Elementary School in Dajeon, said:
“After using this application, there are fewer occasions of students forgetting their school materials. We think this is because the parents can check the school notices and newsletters at any time through the application.”
She added, “I hope more and more schools will use this application because it is convenient and also available for free.”
Another teacher from Daedeok Elementary School in Daejeon, Dong-Min Nam, said that “many parents like this application since they are immediately notified with school events.”
KAIST’s Technology Business Incubation Center
“After moving around many places due to expensive rent,” Chung said that “we finally moved into the Technology Business Incubation Center (TBIC) at KAIST. The center helped us not only providing the space, but also mentoring and connecting us with venture investment companies. This was a great help in attracting initial investments.”
Chung added:
“At first, a staff member from TBIC was concerned about the viability of my company. I was then an undergraduate student with zero business experience, and from his standpoint, I was taking a huge risk.”
But in several months after its establishment, IAMCOMPANY has grown to have 16 employees.
An investment of 1.5 billion Korean won from a venture capital company led to a sustainable growth.
In early stage, IAMCOMPANY received 300 million Korean won from a venture capital company, and it recently attracted additional 1.2 billion won from a leading venture capital. With these investments, the company grew further. Moreover, investments from large educational corporations have proved the value and competitiveness of the company in the education market.
Chung plans to expand his service globally, particularly in China and Singapore.
He said that he would not forget how he had started his business, and with such a focused mind, he would strive to provide students and parents with quality educational services while proactively incorporating the advanced information technology (IT) into his products.
A bold movement to Pangyo Techno Valley, a Korean version of Silicon Valley
Although the company started with only two members, as of August 2014, it boasts of having twenty employees, a remarkable leap of growth within just two years.
In April this year, Chung relocated his office from TBIC to Pangyo Techno Valley, the Silicon Valley of Korea, in order to provide a better work environment to his staff.
It was not an easy decision for him to leave the comfortable, well-known place, the KAIST campus, and the colleagues, including TBIC staff and KAIST professors, who had helped his startup efforts in early days. However, in order to recruit better employees and to access additional IT resources and education-related companies, Chung decided to make a bold movement, relocating his business to Pangyo Techno Valley in Seoul.
A reputable American venture capital investor, Timothy C. Draper, invested in IAMCOMPANY
Chung was able to secure solid support from an eminent global investor, Timothy C. Draper, the founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a venture capital based in Menlo Park in California.
Recently, Draper, a legendary investor of the Silicon Valley, invested USD 20,000 in IAMCOMPANY. Draper discovered worldwide venture companies such as Hotmail, Skype, and Baidu. IAMCOMPANY received high marks from him as a company with a competitive edge in the global education market.
Chung met Draper in April 2014 when he participated in a television network’s (Korean Broadcasting System) audition program for startups. Draper was one of the judges for the program, and he was impressed by the robust growth of IAMCOMPANY. He eventually made a decision to chip in USD 20,000 in Chung’s company.
Chung said that he was glad to meet the tycoon of Silicon Valley who recognized the potential of his company.
In last October, IAMSCHOOL was selected for the K-APP Global Hub Program—a global market pioneering program to support the development of mobile applications—which was sponsored by the Small and Medium Business Administration in Korea.
IAMCOMPANY will bring ‘the Korean Wave’ in the area of educational applications.
Chung said, “We plan to sustainably manage the applications and add more functions, so that more educational institutions can adopt our application.”
The company aims to provide its service to over 11,000 schools and 100,000 academies nationally so that more parents are able to receive educational news and information easily.
Chung concluded his interview in an upbeat tone as he predicted the future of his company:
“I am proud that IAMSCHOOL is being recognized by the world’s best investor, and I have gained confidence to advance to the global market. Through global service, I want to make "the Korean Wave" in the field of educational applications and to receive appreciation from students, teachers, and parents worldwide.”
2014.09.04 View 9092 -
The 2014 CAMPUS Asia Summer Program
The CAMPUS Asia (Collective Action for Mobility Program of University Students in Asia) is an academic exchange program originally proposed at the third presidential meeting of three nations, Korea, China, and Japan, which was held in May 2010 on Jeju Island.
Under the proposal, three science and technology universities, Tsinghua University (China), KAIST (Korea), and Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan), created a program in 2012 for academic and research collaboration, TKT CAMPUS Asia. Since then, each university has been hosting an exchange program in rotation.
The 2014 summer program of TKT CAMPUS Asia was held from August 4th through 28th at KAIST. A total of 13 professors from the departments of chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and life science, as well as 25 students participated. Under the summer program, three courses in biotechnology, mechanical engineering, and Korean language were offered. The universities gave credits for all courses.
As part of TKT CAMPUS Asia, KAIST has also operated a semester study abroad and foreign exchange program and will begin a joint degree program by 2015.
Professor Jung Kim of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at KAIST said,
“Just as the Erasmus Program (European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students) contributed to the foundation of the European Union, we hope that the CAMPUS Asia will serve a similar goal for a greater Asia.”
2014.09.03 View 6290 -
KAIST's Advanced Biomass R&D Center and ToolGen will cooperate
The Advanced Biomass R&D Center (ABC) at KAIST and ToolGen, Inc., a Korean biotechnology company focused on the development of engineered nucleases that can be used as essential tools for editing genetic information in microbial, plant, animal, and human cells, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on August 18, 2014 for technology exchange and research collaboration.
ABC is headed by Executive Director Ji-Won Yang, a professor emeritus at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Chief Executive Officer Jong-Moon Kim for ToolGen.
The newly signed MOU encourages collaborations in the following areas:
- Development of genome editing technology for microalgae modification
- Development of microalgae that increases biofuel production through the
application of genome editing technology
- Creation of education and training programs for researchers
- Collaboration in other areas
In addition, the two organizations decided to cooperate in the improvement of biofuel yields using ToolGen’s genome editing technology, the commercialization of research outcomes, and the development of eco-friendly biofuels from biomass.
Executive Director Yang commented that “improving biofuel production is crucial to accelerate the commercialization of biofuels, and collaborating with ToolGen will help us realize that goal.” He further said that “The importance of this MOU lies in the fact that the global chemical industry including Korea has been making substantial efforts to shift its attention from a fossil fuel-based development to a more bio-based technology.”
Jin-Soo Kim, the director of the Genome Editing Research Center at the Institute of Basic Sciences in Korea and the cofounder of ToolGen, added that “ToolGen has successfully commercialized its third generation genetic scissors, which shows a lot of promise for commercialization. Our collaboration with KAIST will serve as the driving force to create new industries and accordingly, new jobs.”
2014.09.03 View 9686 -
The President of KAIST is appointed to the 10th International Academic Advisory Panel for the Singapore government
President Steve Kang will serve as a panelist to the 10th International Academic Advisory Panel (IAAP) of the Ministry of Education, Singapore, from February 2014 to February 2016. He was the first Korean who has ever served the panel for the Singapore government.
Chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance of Singapore and comprised of 11 eminent international academics and corporate leaders, the IAAP was established in 1997 by the Education Ministry to advise the government on developing world-class universities. Since its inaugural meeting in 1997, the panel has met nine times.
The IAAP has been a valuable source of advice and guidance for the Ministry as well as higher education institutions in Singapore. The IAAP’s recommendations have had a significant impact on the development of Singapore’s university sector.
President Kang received his letter of appointment on August 22, 2014. The letter stated that “his experience in leading KAIST and insights on the challenges facing universities internationally will contribute well to the IAAP discussions.”
The 10th IAAP meeting will be held on June 24-26, 2015 in Singapore.
2014.08.25 View 6614 -
Retiring Faculty Honored
This year’s retirement ceremony took place on August 20, 2014 at Fusion Hall, KI Building, on campus. The ten faculty members whose average service to KAIST exceeded 25 years were honored at the ceremony. They have been appointed emeritus professors this month.
President Steve Kang noted their contributions to the development of KAIST, offering appreciation and recognition of each retiree. The retiring faculty members were:
Ja-Kyung Koo, Professor of Mathematical Sciences
Jang-Hyuk Kwon, Professor of Aerospace Engineering
Sung-Hee Kim, Professor of College of Business
Jin-Hyung Kim, Professor of Computer Science
Hie-Tae Moon, Professor of Physics
Ji-Won Yang, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Chin-Wan Chung, Professor of Computer Science
Nam-Zin Cho, Professor of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering
Chul-Oh Cho, Professor of Biological Sciences
Byoung-Kyu Choi, Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering
2014.08.23 View 6401 -
The MIT Skoltech Initiative Report identifies KAIST as one of the core group of emerging leaders for academic entrepreneurship and innovation
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Skoltech Initiative was established in 2011 to support MIT’s multi-year collaboration in building the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), a private graduate research university in Skolkovo, Russia.
Recently, the office of the MIT Skoltech Initiative has published a benchmark report conducted from 2012 to 2014 by Dr. Ruth Graham, an internationally recognized leading consultant for engineering education and research as well as academic technology-driven entrepreneurship, under the guidance of MIT professors and the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the MIT Skoltech Initiative.
The report identified more than 200 institutions as the world’s most highly-regarded entrepreneurial universities and characterized the approach taken by them to build university-based ecosystems for entrepreneurship and innovation (E&I).
Among the top-ranked institutions, the report mentioned an emerging group of leaders (EGLs) that are “located within more challenging environments but establishing strong entrepreneurship and innovation profiles and reputations.” The report named, in particular, five universities, KAIST (Korea), Technion (Israel), Aalto University (Finland), the University of Michigan (US), and the University of Auckland (NZ), as the core group of the EGLs.
This benchmarking study was written to highlight key strategies and features associated with well-regarded university E&I transformations within more challenging environments and to address barriers and limits faced by the EGLs, thereby providing a good model to other universities wishing to make similar changes.
Through an in-depth case study of a small group of emerging universities, the report concluded that three major components play a critical role in the development of institutional E&I capacity and the growth of ecosystems for E&I:
Component 1: Inclusive grassroots community of E&I engagement across university populations and regional community;
Component 2: Strength in industry-funded research and licensing of university-owned technology; and
Component 3: University E&I agenda reflected in its policies, mission, budget allocations, incentives and curriculum
For more details, please visit the link below:
http://web.mit.edu/sktech/sktech-program/entrepreneurship-innovation/benchmark.html
2014.08.20 View 8252 -
IAMCOMPANY, an educational technology startup created by a KAIST student, featured online in EdSurge
EdSurge is a U.S.-based online news site focused on education and technology innovation, which published an article, dated August 12, 2014, on IAMCOMPANY (http://iamcompany.net), a startup created by a KAIST student, Inmo (Ryan) Chung.
The article introduced one of the company’s most popular and free smartphone applications called “IAMSCHOOL” that “funnels school announcements and class notices to parents’ smartphones using a format similar to Twitter and Google+.”
For more about IAMCOMPANY, please visit the link below:
EdSurge, August 12, 2014
“South Korea’s Biggest Educational Information App Plans Pan-Asian Expansion”
https://www.edsurge.com/n/2014-08-12-south-korea-s-biggest-educational-information-app-plans-pan-asian-expansion
2014.08.19 View 7704 -
EureCar, KAIST's Self-Driving Car, Made It to the Global Student Design Finalists at the 2014 National Instruments Annual Conference in Austin, Texas
The National Instruments Week 2014, an annual conference hosted by the National Instruments Corporation (NI), a global producer of automated test equipment and virtual instrumentation software, was held on August 4-7, 2014 at the Austin Convention Center in Texas. This international conference on graphical system design brought together more than 3,200 leading engineers and scientists across a spectrum of industries, from automotive to telecommunications, to robotics to energy.
On the third day of the keynote sessions at the conference, August 7, 2014, the winner of the Global Student Design Competition (GSDC) was announced.
EureCar, a self-driving car developed by Professor “David” Hyunchul Shim at the Department of Aerospace Engineering, KAIST, and his students, was one of the three finalists that were invited to the conference to contend for the Global Grand Prize.
The three finalists, each selected from a regional competition, were: EureCar from KAIST, Sepios, a nautical robot from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH Zürich), and NASA Student Launch Project from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. A total of 3,250 student research teams from 25 countries entered the 2014 GSDC, and the winner was ETH Zürich.
GSDC is designed to promote a better understanding and application by engineering students of NI’s system design software and hardware in their research and learning. Participating students utilized NI’s LabVIEW (software) and CompactRIO (hardware) to create their own solutions to engineering problems that encompass inexpensive medical devices to complex underwater autonomous vehicles.
For details about the finalists, please go to:
http://www.kaist.ac.kr/Upl/downfile/TS4159_Wahby_Student_Design_Showcase.pdf
2014.08.18 View 8584 -
The Fifth YLKamp Held at KAIST
The student leadership organization of KAIST, known as Young Leaders in KAIST (YLK), held its fifth annual camp called the YLKamp inviting high school students in rural areas across Korea from July 11th to 14th.
The YLKamp is a study mentee-mentor camp, where KAIST students teach and deliver their knowledge on “how to study” to high school students from the countryside. The camp helps young students who have passion and talent, but lack the opportunity to experience and learn more.
KAIST encourages students to participate in activities where they can donate their talent and learn leadership skills. About 20 KAIST students planned all the activities, from creating camp programs, selecting participants to requesting sponsorship from outside organizations including the KAIST Alumni.
This year, more than 150 high school students in rural areas applied for the camp, and of them, 60 students were chosen.
The camp activities included lectures, individual mentoring, group projects, career exploration meetings, and invited speaker presentations.
Since its foundation in 2010, the YLKamp has been held every year at KAIST.
2014.08.14 View 5981 -
Regulatory T Cells Influence Liver Damage of Hepatitis A Patients
Liver damage becomes more severe with the decrease of regulatory T cells
“This research will aid the development of hepatitis A targeted drug,” said a KAIST researcher.
The KAIST Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering’s Professor Eui-Cheol Shin and his research team have identified the mechanism, explaining how the regulatory T cells are responsible for the body’s immune system and how they have induced liver damage of hepatitis A patients.
The research results were published online in the July 9th edition of ‘Gut,’ the world’s most prominent journal in the field of gastroenterology.
Hepatitis A is an acute form of hepatitis caused by hepatitis A virus. The virus spreads through oral contact and enters the body via digestive organs.
Regulatory T cells play an important role in maintaining the homeostasis of the body’s immune system by inhibiting the activation of other immune cells. In the case of chronic viral infections, regulatory T cells are known to contribute to the duration of the infection, weakening the immune response to virus infections. However, there has been no information on what roles the regulatory T cells perform in the case of acute viral infections.
The research team used the fluorescence flow cytometry technique to determine the number and characteristics of a variety of immune cells, including regulatory T cells, in the blood of hepatitis A patients.
Consequently, the researchers confirmed that the decrease in the regulatory T cells immune inhibitory ability was consistent with a significant reduction in the number of regulatory T cells in the blood of hepatitis A patients. Furthermore, it was identified that the more noticeable decrease of regulatory T cells led to the occurrence of a more severe liver injury.
The analysis of hepatitis A patient’s blood proved that the cause of the decrease in the number and function of regulatory T cells was the increased expression of cell surface protein ‘Fas,’ which induces cell death.
Professor Shin said, “This study is the first case which proposes the mechanism for clinical aspects in not only hepatitis A, but also acute virus infection.” He added on the future prospect of the research that: “In the future, we can prevent tissue damage by inhibiting cell death of regulatory T cells for severe acute viral infections that do not have an effective treatment for the virus itself.”
[Picture]
The picture shows the process of fluorescence flow cytometry technique to study regulatory T cell in the blood of hepatitis A patients.
2014.08.11 View 9595 -
ASPIRE League 2014: E-Olympics among Five Asian Universities
About 150 undergraduate students from five leading science and technology (S&T) universities in Asia met at the KAIST campus to attend the E-Olympics on August 7-9, 2014.
The E-Olympics began as a student exchange conference held under the Asian Science and Technology Pioneering Institutes of Research and Education (ASPIRE) League, which offers a variety of events, such as workshops, sports matches, lab visits, special lectures, and art performances, to promote academic and research collaborations and cultural sharing between the students of the league member universities.
Founded in 2009, the ASPIRE League is a university consortium consisted of five top S&T universities in Asia: KAIST in Korea, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and Tsinghua University in China, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, and Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) in Japan. The ASPIRE League aims to provide a knowledge and technology hub for innovation in Asia through the advancement of science and technology and the development of human resources.
Since its start, the ASPIRE League has been holding an annual conference with programs for research collaboration, student exchange, educational cooperation, and satellite laboratories among professors, senior managers, and students of the member universities. This year, however, the consortium decided to dedicate the conference to students by holding the E-Olympics.
Each university sent 30 students to KAIST for the participation of the E-Olympics. For three days, participating students engaged in discussions and presentations at academic workshops; held athletic games including a relay race, basketball, and a rowing race; and toured a few KAIST laboratories, among them: the E-mobility Research Center, the Bio-imaging and Cell Signaling Research Center, the Mechatronics Systems and Control Center, and the Center of Field Robotics for Innovation, Exploration and Defense.
The students also attended a music concert performed by a KAIST student club and a lecture entitled “Entrepreneurship through Global Networking” that emphasized the importance of personnel networking in transferring technological innovation into business opportunities.
Chang-Dong Yoo, the Dean of the International Office at KAIST, said, “The E-Olympics will offer students from top science and technology universities in Asia opportunities to interact with each other on a more personal level. I hope that through many of the E-Olympics programs, the students will learn about each other’s culture and academic strength and develop a sense of community to create a “New Asia” by working together.”
2014.08.11 View 11709 -
2014 NEREC Conference on Nuclear Nonproliferation: July 31-August 1, 2014, Seoul
The Nonproliferation Education and Research Center (NEREC) at KAIST hosted an international conference on nuclear nonproliferation on July 31-August 1, 2014 in Seoul. The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, the Korean Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, and the Korea Nuclear Policy Society (KNPS) sponsored the event.
Over one hundred experts and "thought leaders" in nuclear security and nonproliferation attended the conference and discussed issues related to the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, the role of scientific community in mitigating nuclear threat and promoting the peaceful use of nuclear power, and nuclear disarmament policy.
Keynote speakers were: Steven E. Miller, Director of International Security Program at Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University; Scott D. Sagan, Senior Fellow of the Center for International Security and Cooperation, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University; Mark Fitzpatrick, Director of the Nonproliferation and Disarmament Programme, International Institute for Strategic Studies; Sang-Hyun Lee, Director of Security Strategy, Sejong Institute; and Man-Sung Yim, Professor of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, KAIST.
At the conference, Professor Yim, Director of KAIST NEREC said, “Korea has grown to become a key player in the development of commercial nuclear energy over the past decades. We hope that our conference encourages Korea to be more involved in the efforts of the international community to enhance the global nonproliferation regime.”
2014.08.05 View 12397