Engineering
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Professor Dong-Yol Yang received an award for scholar of the year 2013 from the Korean mechanical engineering community
Professor Dong-Yol Yang from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at KAIST was selected as “the scholar of the year 2013” at an annual event held by the Korean Federation of Mechanical Engineering Societies, the Korea Association of Machinery Industry, and other mechanical engineering research institutes in Korea. The event, the Day of the Machines, is the nation’s biggest gathering for engineers, scholars, and researchers in mechanical engineering, at which winners of the awards for the person of the year in academia, business, and engineering are announced.
Professor Yang was chosen for his lifetime achievement as a scholar in the field of three-dimensional shape precision processing by developing an innovative processing technology that contributes to the advancement of mechanical engineering and industry. He also introduced the three-dimensional fast processing to Korea from 1990 and developed world-class subminiature fast processing, the first of its kind in Korea.In 2013, Professor Yang identified geometric deformation elements in mechanical engineering for the first time in the world, an essential component for nano mobile system and received the best conference paper award at the 3M-Nano International Conference.
2014.01.05 View 9395 -
Rechargeable Lithium Sulfur Battery for Greater Battery Capacity
Professor Do Kyung Kim from the Department of Material Science and Engineering and Professor Jang Wook Choi from the Graduate School of EEWS have been featured in the lead story of the renowned nanoscience journal Advanced Materials for their research on the lithium sulfur battery. This new type of battery developed by Professor Kim is expected to have a longer life battery life and [higher] energy density than currently commercial batteries.
With ample energy density up to 2100Wh/kg—almost 5.4 times that of lithium ion batteries—lithium sulfur batteries can withstand the sharp decrease in energy capacity resulting from charging and discharging—which has been considered the inherent limitation of the conventional batteries.
Professor Kim and his research team used one-dimensional, vertical alignment of 75nm tick, 15μm long sulfur nanowires to maximize electric conductivity. Then, to prevent loss of battery life, they carbon-coated each nanowire and prohibited direct contact between the sulfur and electrolyte.
The result was one of the most powerful batteries in terms of both energy performance and density. Compared to conventional batteries which suffer from continuous decrease in energy capacity after being discharged, the lithium sulfur battery maintained 99.2% of its initial capacity after being charged and discharged 300 times and up to 70% even after 1000 times.
Professor Kim claims that his new battery is an important step forward towards a high-performance rechargeable battery which is a vital technology for unmanned vehicles, electric automobiles and energy storage. He hopes that his research can solve the problems of battery-capacity loss and contribute to South Korea’s leading position in battery technology. Professor Kim’s research team has filed applications for one domestic and international patent for their research.
2013.12.11 View 12498 -
Technology Developed for Flexible, Foldable & Rechargeable Battery
Flexible, Foldable & Rechargeable Battery
The research group of professors Jang-Wook Choi & Jung-Yong Lee from the Graduate School of EEWS and Taek-Soo Kim from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at KAIST has developed technology for flexible and foldable batteries which are rechargeable using solar energy. The research result was published in the online issue of Nano Letters on November 5.
Trial versions of flexible and wearable electronics are being developed and introduced in the market such as Galaxy Gear, Apple’s i-Watch, and Google Glass. Research is being conducted to make the batteries softer and more wearable and to compete in the fast-growing market for flexible electronics.
This new technology is expected to be applied to the development of wearable computers as well as winter outdoor clothing since it is flexible and light. The research group expects that the new technology can be applied to current battery production lines without additional investment.
Professor Choi said, “It can be used as a core-source technology in the rechargeable battery industry in the future. Various wearable mobile electronic products can be developed through cooperation and collaboration within the industry.”
2013.11.21 View 11704 -
The World Economic Forum Invites KAIST to 2014 Davos Forum
President Steve Kang and Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee have been invited by the World Economic Forum (WEF) to attend its annual meeting slated for January 22-25, 2014 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.
The president will also join the Global University Leaders Forum (GULF) to be held during the annual meeting. The GULF consists of leading research universities throughout the world, at which President Kang will address agenda related to higher education and research.
From September 11th to 13th, KAIST was invited to the WEF’s 2013 Summer Davos Forum held in Dalian, China. The Summer Davos Forum is recognized as a barometer of the world economy, and KAIST hosted three sessions there.
In a session titled “Smart Regulations,” Professor Sang Yup Lee hosted presentations and discussions under the topic of “How regulation models can strengthen technical innovation and expansion.” President Steve Kang, Peter Sands, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank Group, Mark Weinberger, CEO of Ernest & Young, and Peter Terium, CEO of RWE, participated in the discussions.
The KAIST delegates also presented and participated in a session titled “From Trade Center to Innovative Hub” to discuss how to lead innovations in Asia, as well as “Marine Resources: Finding New Frontier” to address issues of how to develop and manage oceanic resources for potential growth.
President Kang said, “The World Economic Forum allows us to introduce the results of our innovative and creative research to global leaders and to demonstrate that our global position continues to grow.”
The WEF has been hosting Summer Davos Forum in China since 2007. About 1,500 participants from over 90 countries joined in this year’s summer forum under the theme of “Innovation: Inevitable Mainstream.” New strategies for innovations and solutions for global threats were suggested through presentations and discussions in 125 sessions.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an independent, international, and non-profit organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. It is committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and government leaders to shape global, regional and industry agenda.
Among the meetings and forums organized by the WEF, its annual meeting held each January in Davos, a.k.a. the Davos Forum, has been the best known gathering. The Davos Forum brings together some 2,500 top business leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals and journalists to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world including health and environment.
2013.11.07 View 11206 -
Metabolically engineered E. coli producing phenol
Many chemicals we use in everyday life are derived from fossil resources. Due to the increasing concerns on the use of fossil resources, there has been much interest in producing chemicals from renewable resources through biotechnology.
Phenol is an important commodity chemical, and is a starting material for the production of numerous industrial chemicals and polymers, including bisphenol A and phenolic resins, and others. At present, the production of phenol entirely depends on the chemical synthesis from benzene, and its annual production exceeds 8 million tons worldwide. Microbial production of phenol seems to be a non-viable process considering the high toxicity of phenol to the cell.
In the paper published online in Biotechnology Journal, a Korean research team led by Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) reported the successful development of an engineered Escherichia coli (E. coli) strain which can produce phenol from glucose. E. coli has been a workhorse for biological production of various value-added compounds such as succinic acid and 1,4-butanediol in industrial scale. However, due to its low tolerance to phenol, E. coli was not considered a viable host strain for the biological production of phenol.
Professor Lee"s team, a leading research group in metabolic engineering, noted the genetic and physiological differences of various E. coli strains and investigated 18 different E. coli strains with respect to phenol tolerance and engineered all of the 18 strains simultaneously. If the traditional genetic engineering methods were used, this work would have taken years to do. To overcome this challenge, the research team used synthetic small RNA (sRNA) technology they recently developed (Nature Biotechnology, vol 31, pp 170-174, 2013). The sRNA technology allowed the team to screen 18 E. coli strains with respect to the phenol tolerance, and the activities of the metabolic pathway and enzyme involved in the production of phenol. The research team also metabolically engineered the E. coli strains to increase carbon flux toward phenol and finally generated an engineered E. coli strain which can produce phenol from glucose.
Furthermore, the team developed a biphasic extractive fermentation process to minimize the toxicity of phenol to E. coli cells. Glycerol tributyrate was found to have low toxicity to E. coli and allowed efficient extraction of phenol from the culture broth. Through the biphasic fed-batch fermentation using glycerol tributyrate as an in situ extractant, the final engineered E. coli strain produced phenol to the highest titer and productivity reported (3.8 g/L and 0.18 g/L/h, respectively). The strategy used for the strain development and the fermentation process will serve as a framework for metabolic engineering of microorganisms for the production of toxic chemicals from renewable resources.
This work was supported by the Intelligent Synthetic Biology Center through the Global Frontier Project (2011-0031963) of the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning through the National Research Foundation of Korea.
Process of Phenol Production
2013.11.05 View 10314 -
A beginner's book for engineering co-published by KAIST professors
A group of KAIST professors published a book (Korean) to draw public attention to engineering.
The book, titled ‘What is Engineering?’, was co-published by 19 KAIST engineering professors for future engineering students and readers interested in exploring what engineering is about.
The co-authors wish to show talented students how important, fun, and helpful engineering is in improving our everyday life even though it is still not a very popular major in Korea.The book contains general knowledge in a wide array of engieering fields such as mechanics, civil, electrical & electronics, materials, chemistry, aerospace, marine systems, nuclear, industrial design, knowledge service, and bio and brain.One of the co-authors who planned for the publication of this book, Pung-Hyun Sung, a professor of nuclear and quantum engineering, said, “Various information, including the history, roles and future prospects of engineering, is contained in this book. It will be a precious guide for future engineers and members of the general public who are interested in understanding why engineering is so important.”
2013.11.04 View 5770 -
Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee appointed as an advisor for Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China
In recognition of his outstanding accomplishments in the area of bioengineering, specializing in metabolic engineering, Sang Yup Lee, a distinguished professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST, was assigned as an advisory professor for the bioengineering department at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China for five years from August 2013 to July 2018.
Together with Peking University and Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University is one of the top three universities in China.
The advisory professors carry out collaborated research programs in special areas and provide advice on education and research issues.
Professor Lee, a specialist in metabolic engineering, has initiated systems metabolic engineering which integrates metabolic engineering, systems biology, and synthetic biology and has applied it to various chemical production systems to develop bio fuel and many eco-friendly chemical production processes. Recently, he received the Marvin J. Johnson Award from the American Chemistry Society, the Charles Thom Award from the American Society for Industrial Microbiology, as well as the Amgen Biochemical Engineering Award. As a global leader in the area of bioengineering, Professor Lee is a member of the Korean Academy of Science & Technology, the National Academy of Engineering of Korea, the US National Academy of Engineering, and is the chairman of the Global Agenda Council on Biotechnology at the World Economic Forum.
2013.10.31 View 9007 -
Ultra-High Strength Metamaterial Developed Using Graphene
New metamaterial has been developed, exhibiting hundreds of times greater strength than pure metals.
Professor Seung Min, Han and Yoo Sung, Jeong (Graduate School of Energy, Environment, Water, and Sustainability (EEWS)) and Professor Seok Woo, Jeon (Department of Material Science and Engineering) have developed a composite nanomaterial. The nanomaterial consists of graphene inserted in copper and nickel and exhibits strengths 500 times and 180 times, respectively, greater than that of pure metals. The result of the research was published on the July 2nd online edition in Nature Communications journal.
Graphene displays strengths 200 times greater than that of steel, is stretchable, and is flexible. The U.S. Army Armaments Research, Development and Engineering Center developed a graphene-metal nanomaterial but failed to drastically improve the strength of the material.
To maximize the strength increased by the addition of graphene, the KAIST research team created a layered structure of metal and graphene. Using CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition), the team grew a single layer of graphene on a metal deposited substrate and then deposited another metal layer. They repeated this process to produce a metal-graphene multilayer composite material, utilizing a single layer of graphene. Micro-compression tests within Transmission Electronic Microscope and Molecular Dynamics simulations effectively showed the strength enhancing effect and the dislocation movement in grain boundaries of graphene on an atomic level.
The mechanical characteristics of the graphene layer within the metal-graphene composite material successfully blocked the dislocations and cracks from external damage from traveling inwards. Therefore the composite material displayed strength beyond conventional metal-metal multilayer materials. The copper-graphene multilayer material with an interplanar distance of 70nm exhibited 500 times greater (1.5GPa) strength than pure copper. Nickel-graphene multilayer material with an interplanar distance of 100nm showed 180 times greater (4.0GPa) strength than pure nickel.
It was found that there is a clear relationship between the interplanar distance and the strength of the multilayer material. A smaller interplanar distance made the dislocation movement more difficult and therefore increased the strength of the material. Professor Han, who led the research, commented, “the result is astounding as 0.00004% in weight of graphene increased the strength of the materials by hundreds of times” and “improvements based on this success, especially mass production with roll-to-roll process or metal sintering process in the production of ultra-high strength, lightweight parts for automobile and spacecraft, may become possible.” In addition, Professor Han mentioned that “the new material can be applied to coating materials for nuclear reactor construction or other structural materials requiring high reliability.”
The research project received support from National Research Foundation, Global Frontier Program, KAIST EEWS-KINC Program and KISTI Supercomputer and was a collaborative effort with KISTI (Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information), KBSI (Korea Basic Science Institute), Stanford University, and Columbia University.
A schematic diagram shows the structure of metal-graphene multi-layers. The metal-graphene multi-layered composite materials, containing a single-layered graphene, block the dislocation movement of graphene layers, resulting in a greater strength in the materials.
2013.08.23 View 16032 -
Professor Jay H. Lee to receive the 2013 AIChE CAST Computing in Chemical Engineering Award
Professor Jay H. Lee of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at KAIST has won the 2013 Computing in Chemical Engineering Award of AIChE"s CAST Division (AIChE, American Institute of Chemical Engineers and CAST, Computing & Systems Technology Division).
The CAST Computing in Chemical Engineering Award, sponsored by The Dow Chemical Company, is annually given to an individual who has made outstanding contributions in the application of computing and systems technology to chemical engineering.Professor Lee has been recognized for his pioneering research contributions for “novel paradigms for much improved and robust model predictive control in industrial processes.” He is currently the Head of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department and Director of Brain Korea (BK) 21 Program at the department. BK21 is the Korean government’s initiative to support the growth of research universities in the nation and foster highly trained master’s and doctoral students as well as researchers.
The CAST Computing in Chemical Engineering Award will be presented to Professor Jay H. Lee at the CAST Division dinner to be held at the AIChE Annual Meeting this November in San Francisco, where he will also deliver the after dinner lecture associated with this award.
2013.06.12 View 10445 -
Distinguished Professor Sang-Yup Lee received 2013 Amgen Biochemical Engineering Award
- Previous award winners are world-renowned scholars of biochemical engineering including James Bailey, Michael Shuler and Daniel Wang
KAIST Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department’s Professor Sang-Yup Lee has been selected to receive the 2013 Amgen Biochemical Engineering Award. The award ceremony will take place this June at the International Biochemical and Molecular Engineering conference in Beijing, China.
The Amgen Biochemical Engineering Award was established by Amgen, a world renowned American pharmaceutical company, in 1993. Amgen awards leading biochemical engineers every two years. The first Amgen award recipient was James Bailey of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1993. Since then leading engineers that are sometimes called “founding fathers of biochemical engineering” have received the award including MIT Professor Daniel Wang and Michael Shuler of Cornell University.
The first nine award winners were Americans and in 2011 Jens Nielson of Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, received the Amgen award as a non-American. Professor Sang-Yup Lee is the first Asian to receive the award.
The Amgen award panel said, “Professor Lee made an incredible contribution to the fields of synthetic biology and industrial bioengineering by finding chemical material, fuel, protein and drug production and system bioengineering through metabolic engineering of microorganisms.”
Professor Lee is an expert in metabolic engineering of microorganisms and contributed to the development of system metabolic engineering and system bioengineering. Furthermore, he developed various medical and chemical products and processes which were then applied to synthesise strains of succinate, plastics, butanol and nylon.
Professor Lee is a fellow of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology and National Academy Engineering of Korea; an international member of National Academy of Engineering (US); a former fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Industrial Microbiology Society and American Academy of Microbiology. He is currently Head of Global Agenda Council on Biotechnology and is world renowned for his work in biotechnology field.
2013.04.30 View 8968 -
Professor Sang-Ouk Kim Interviewed with Arirang TV on April 15, 2013
Professor Sang-Ouk Kim from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering made an appearance on April 15, 2013 at a morning show called “Korea Today” on Arirang TV, an English-language network based in Seoul, South Korea.
Professor Kim introduced his research on the development of flexible semiconductor technology. If commercialized, Professor Kim added, the technology would expedite the common use of wearable computers including mobile devices as well as the development of bio-medical implanted and wireless telemetry bio-devices. To play the video, please click the link below (00:25:00): http://www.arirang.co.kr/Player/TV_Vod.asp?HL=X&code=VOD&vSeq=68872
2013.04.30 View 9159 -
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 11635