Engineering
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KAIST Team Identifies Nano-scale Origin of Toughness in Rare Earth-added Silicon Carbide
A research team led by Prof. Do-Kyung Kim of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering of KAIST has identified the nano-scale origin of the toughness in rare-earth doped silicon carbide (RE-SiC), university sources said on Monday (Oct. 6).
The research was conducted jointly with a U.S. team headed by Prof. R. O. Ritchie of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley.
The findings were carried in the online edition of Nano Letters published by the American Chemical Association.
Silicon carbide, a ceramic material known to be one of the hardest substances, are potential candidate materials for many ultrahigh-temperature structural applications. For example, if SiC, instead of metallic alloys, is used in gas-turbine engines for power generation and aerospace applications, operating temperatures of many hundred degrees higher can be obtained with a consequent dramatic increase in thermodynamic efficiency and reduced fuel consumption. However, the use of such ceramic materials has so far been severely limited since the origin of the toughness in RE-SiC remained unknown thus far.
In order to investigate the origin of the toughness in RE-SiC, the researchers attempted to examine the mechanistic nature of the cracking events, which they found to occur precisely along the interface between SiC grains and the nano-scale grain-boundary phase, by using ultrahigh-resolution transmission electron microscopy and atomic-scale spectroscopy. The research found that for optimal toughness, the relative elastic modulus across the grain-boundary phase and the interfacial fracture toughness are the most critical material parameters; both can be altered with appropriate choice of rare-earth elements.
In addition to identifying the nano-scale origin of the toughness in RE-SiC, the findings also contributed to precisely predicting how the use of various rare-earth elements lead to difference in toughness.
University sources said that the findings will significantly advance the date when RE-SiC will replace metallic alloys in gas-turbine engines for power generation and aerospace applications.
2008.10.08 View 13881 -
Prof. Sang-Yup Lee Receives Merck Award for Metabolic Engineering
Prof. Sang-Yup Lee of KAIST"s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering has been chosen as the winner of the 2008 Merck Award for Metabol;ic Engineering established by the world"s leading pharmaceutical and chemical company Merck, KAIST officials said Tuesday, Sept. 16.
The Distinguished Professor of KAIST and LG Chem Chair Professor will receive the award on Sept. 18 during the 7th Metabolic Engineering convention now underway at Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Prof. Lee will give a commemorative lecture, titled "Systems Metabolic Engineering for Chemicals," at the biannual academic conference. Prof. Lee is the fourth to win the coveted award which is given to the world"s top expert in metabolic engineering with outstanding achievements in the field.
Prof. Lee, 44, who graduated from Seoul National University and earned his master"s and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering from Northwestern University of the United States, is now the dean of the College of Life Science and Bioengineering, KAIST. Since 1994, he has served as the head of the Metabolic and Biomolecular Engineering National Research Laboratory, director of the BioProcess Engineering Center, Director of the Bioinformatics Research Center and Co-Director of the Institute for the BioCentury in KAIST.
Prof. Lee said he was receiving the Merck award "as a representative of KAIST graduates, students and researchers" who have worked with him at the Metabolic Engineering Lab. He added he was happy to see the outcome of bioengineering development projects supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology over the past years was now being recognized by the world"s leading scientific society with the Merck Award.
Metabolic engineering, the art of optimizing genetic and regulatory processes within cells to increase the cell"s production of a certain substance, develops technologies that hold the key to the resolution of the world"s energy, food and environmental problems. The indispensible technology in bioengineering can be applied to the production of biomass to obtain alternative fuel.
Prof. Lee has actively participated in publishing such academic periodicals as Biotechnology Journal (as chief editor), Biotechnology and Bioengineering (deputy editor) and Metabolic Engineering (a member of the editorial committee).
2008.09.17 View 14437 -
KAIST, KARI to Conduct Joint Research, Exchange Tech Manpower
KAIST and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) have agreed to conduct joint researches and exchange technical personnel in order to spur research activities on artificial satellite and other aerospace technology, KAIST announced Wednesday, Sept. 17.
An MOU was signed in a ceremony at the KARI Tuesday, attended by senior officials of the two institutions which both are located in the Daedeok Technopolis in Daejeon City.
Researchers from KARI will participate in KAIST"s interdisciplinary project of "Space Exploratory Engineering" and the two organizations will also jointly take part in the International Lunar Network (ILN), an international moon exploration program, to accelerate development of space technology in Korea.
As a result of the tieup, Dr. Lee So-yeon, Korea"s first astronaut who lived in space for a week aboard a Russian spacecraft this year, will be able to teach and conduct research at KAIST as an adjunct professor. Lee earned her doctorate from KAIST.
2008.09.17 View 13319 -
KAIST Professors Article Featured as Cover Thesis of Biotechnology Journal
An article authored by a research team of Prof. Sang-yup Lee at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Dr. Jin-Hwan Park at the KAIST Institute for the BioCentury has been featured as the cover thesis of the August 2008 issue of Trends in Biotechnology.
The paper, titled "General strategy for strain improvement by means of systems metabolic engineering," focuses on the application of systems biology for the development of strains and illustrates future prospects. Trends in Biotechnology, published by Cell Press, is one of the most prestigious review journals in the field.
Jin-Hwan Park, the primary author of the research thesis, said that the KAIST team"s research work was expected to provide substantial help to researchers involved in biotechnology industry.
The strategy has been established on the basis of the experiences gained in the actual microbial production process using the systems biology methods which his research team has recently worked on, Prof. Park said.
2008.07.24 View 13815 -
KAIST Professor Named International Research Grant Reviewer
Prof. Kwang-Hyun Cho of the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, KAIST, was appointed as a research grant review committee member of the international Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) for 2008-2009, university authorities reported.
The HFSP is a funding agency that supports international collaboration in interdisciplinary, basic research in the life sciences. It was initiated in 1989 by G7 countries as the sole funding program for international researches in neuroscience and molecular biology. The HFSP now has a membership of 35 countries and Korea joined the program in 2004. Prof. Cho will be responsible for reviewing grant applications in the field of systems biology.
Prof. Cho received B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from KAIST in 1993, 1995, and 1998, respectively. He has been working as a director of the KAIST Institute for the BioCentury and KAIST"s Laboratory for Systems Biology and Bio-Inspired Engineering. He has been serving on editorial advisory boards of various international science journals, including Systems and Synthetic Biology (Springer, Netherlands, from 2006), BMC Systems Biology (BMC, London, U.K., from 2007) and Gene Regulation and Systems Biology (Libertas Academica, New Zealand, from 2007).
He is a senior member of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) affiliated with the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE). His research interests cover the areas of systems science with bio-medical applications, especially systems biology and bio-inspired engineering based on molecular systems biology.
2008.07.18 View 17109 -
Women Leaders Awarded Honorary Degrees
Korea"s two women leaders, Park Geun-hye, former President of the Grand National Party, and Lee Gil-ya, chairperson of the Gachon Gil Foundation, a major medical services organization, were awarded honorary doctorate degrees by KAIST, Korea"s state-run science and technology research university, on Feb. 29.
It is the first time in the school"s 37-year history that women have been awarded honorary doctorate degrees. Park and Lee were conferred with the honor during the university"s 2008 graduation ceremony in recognition of their achievements in social services.
KAIST President Suh Nam-pyo said that the university decided to confer honorary doctorate degrees to Park and Lee, who both have educational backgrounds in the fields of engineering and science, in order to present role models to female students in science and engineering who still make up a relatively small percentage of the total enrollment at KAIST and throughout Korean universities.
"Our graduates and future students will strive to make meaningful contributions to the nation and the world, just as the two women leaders have done so well, for so many years," said Suh in his commencement address.
Female students constitute 23 percent of the total enrollment of 7,800, including graduate and doctorate students.
The honorary doctorate citation said Park Geun-hye, a graduate of the Department of Electronic Engineering, Sogang University in Seoul, has exerted strenuous efforts for the advancement of science and technology education and women"s social role. Among other things, Park called for the launching of a "second-stage science and technology revolution" during her 2007 presidential campaign. She declared science and technology as "the most crucial area of national development and survival" and instituted seven-point strategies to innovate the nation"s science and technology. Those strategies are specifically aimed at increasing investment in science and technology, fostering a world-class science and technology university and creating science-friendly curriculum at schools.
Lee Gil-ya, a widely-revered medical doctor, has demonstrated outstanding leadership in education, culture, journalism and business management, according to her citation. Throughout her brilliant professional career, she has vigorously pursued her lifelong goal of philanthropy, social service and patriotism. In particular, her dedication to nurturing young talents is widely recognized in Korea.
2008.03.05 View 12782
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KAIST Retains Top Spot in Systems and Software Engineering
For two consecutive years, KAIST, Korea"s top science and technology university, topped the list of the world"s most published institutions in the field of systems and software engineering, according to a survey conducted by the Journal of Systems and Software.
The survey assessed systems and software engineering scholars and institutions by the number of papers they published in six major journals of the field from 2001 to 2005.
Geographically, seven of the top 15 institutions are from the Asia-Pacific region, six from the United States and two from Europe. In previous assessments, institutions from the Americas took the lion"s share.
KAIST topped the list of 15 in 2006 and again in 2007. The runner-up for 2007 is China"s National Chiao Tung University. Norway"s Simula Research Laboratory and Korea"s Seoul National University were ranked third and fourth, respectively. Rounding up the top ten list are Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Iowa State University, and University of Texas at Dallas, all from the United States; and City University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Two KAIST professors, Chung Chin-Wan and Kim Myoung-Ho, were among the top ten most published scholars. Chung"s papers were mostly about his researches in database, web, and multimedia, while Kim"s researches concerned database systems and distributed information processing.
The Journal of Systems and Software, a computer science journal specializing in the software systems, is published by Elsevier, the Dutch-based world"s largest publisher of medical and scientific literature.
2008.02.28 View 12416
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KAIST Holds Symposium on Metabolic Engineering
The KAIST Institute for Bio-Century held a symposium on metabolic engineering at the auditorium of the KAIST"s Applied Engineering Bldg. on Thursday, Feb. 14, in cooperation with the BK21 Chemical Engineering Research Team.
The symposium focused on researches on bio-refinery program and bio-energy production in connection with steep hikes in oil prices and worsening environmental problems, including global warming.
Seven Korean experts presented their views on metabolic engineering strategies to effectively produce bio-energy and biofuel and the latest research trends.
Among the speakers, Prof. Lee Sang-yup, co-head of the KAIST Institute for Bio-Century, spoke on the theme of "Metabolic Engineering for Bio-refinery and Bio-energy.
The symposium provided an opportunity to take a glimpse into the latest research trends of metabolic engineering technology. Metabolic engineering technology is crucial to producing chemicals, energy and other substances from renewable biomass materials in a departure from heavy reliance on crude oil.
2008.02.14 View 12607
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Prof. Lee Listed on Marquis Who's Who
Professor Lee Ji-hyun of the Graduate School of Culture Technology at KAIST was registered to Marquis Who"s Who, known as one of the world"s three leading biographical dictionaries.
Prof. Lee"s biography was published in the 25th anniversary edition of "Marquis Who"s Who in the World 2008."
Lee"s research interests are the color and culture, computer-supported collaborative design, creative design, evolutionary systems in design, formal models of design process, representation and reasoning in design and visualization for design information.
Lee has published about 30 papers in science journals and for scholastic conferences. She is also a participating professor at KAIST Institute for Entertainment Engineering. Before joining KAIST in 2007, she was an assistant professor at the Department of Digital Media Design and Graduate School of Computational Design, the National Yunlin University of Science & Technology (NYUST) in Taiwan starting from 2002.
She received her Ph.D. from the School of Architecture (Computational Design) at Carnegie Mellon University in 2002. She graduated from the Department of Housing & Interior Design at Yonsei University in Seoul in 1991 and received her M.S. from the same university in 1993.
2008.02.14 View 14565 -
Emeritus Professor Lee Dies
Jeong-Oh Lee, Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering, died of his chronic disease on June 15, 2007 at his age of 76.
The late Lee began his lecturing career at Mechanical Engineering Department in 1973 and had made considerable devotions to the education and development of mechanical engineering for 24 years. As the former Minister of Science and Technology, former President of Korea Institute of Science and Technology, and former President of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, he also has made significant contributions to the development of Korean science and technology.
Particularly, he played key roles in vitalizing Daeduk Research Complex (DRC) by planning and executing the movement of government-funded institutes despite the inactive research atmosphere in the early 1980s. He also set up the Extended Council for Technology Promotion, consisting of many distinguished persons from diverse fields under the supervision of the President, to make significant contributions to the promotion and spread of technology innovation among governmental and civil enterprises. He received Cheongjo Geunjeong Medal in 1985 and never stopped his devotion to the education of young students even after his retirement in 1997.
<Funeral Notice>- Date: Sunday, June 17, 2007 at 7 am.- Place: Eulji University Hospital, Daejeon- Graveyard: Cheonan graveyard- Bereaved family Wife Ok-Hyang Kang Son Jong-Sun Lee, Professor of Handong University Han-Sun Lee, LG Chemicals Daughter Myung-Ae Lee Son-in-law Young-Soo Lee, Korea Institute of Industrial Technology- Contact Point: C.P. 019.480.2451 (Han-Sun Lee)
2007.06.18 View 14427 -
Professor Yang Named Recipient of Dupont Science & Technology Award
Professor Yang Named Recipient of Dupont Science & Technology Award
- Named as the recipient of Dupont Science & Technology Award of 2007- In recognition of his development of optical?bio-functional photonic crystal structures through Self-assembly of nanoparticles
Seung-Man Yang, a professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering of KAIST (President Nam Pyo Suh) and the president of the National Creative Research Initiatives Center for Photon and Fluid Integrated Circuit by the Ministry of Science and Technology, has been named as the recipient of Dupont Science & Technology Award.
Dupont Korea, associate of Dupont, a world-class science firm, has established and conferred ‘Dupont Science & Technology Award’ since 2002 to promote basic sciences and industrial development of Korea. Dupont Science & Technology Awards are awarded to scientists of universities or state-run institutes who have made outstanding R&D achievements in the fields of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Material Science and Material Engineering within five years. Dupont Korea announced on May 2, 2007 that Professor Yang is the recipient of the award this year, following the strict examination by the Koran Academy of Science and Technology (KAST).
The reason for the award is Professor Yang’s development of prototype optical?bio-functional photonic crystal structures that can process a huge amount of data, resulting from a study that has discovered the principle of Self-assembly where multifunctional nanoparticles are manufactured and assembled for themselves.
Professor Yang’s recent research result about photon structures and nano patterns was published by Nature (February 2, 2006 edition); posted on Heart-Cut, the portal site of the American Chemistry Society (ACS), as highlight paper two times (November 4, 2002 and May 1, 2006); and introduced at Research/Researcher of MRS Bulletin by the U.S. Material Research Society (MRS) as main paper in December 2003. Professor Yang is very famous in Korea and abroad for the excellences of his research achievements and has made request seminars at Harvard University, University of Wisconsin, Caltech, University of California, etc. He is also invited speaker and session organizer of the MRS and the SPIE.
2007.05.08 View 17045 -
KAIST to build large-scale civil engineering experiment center
- Geo-Centrifuge experiment center of an area of about 1,712 square meters and an estimated construction cost of total 8.4 billion won
- Simulation laboratory in the field of geotechnical engineering with state-of-the-art experiment equipment- Ground-breaking ceremony held on April 3 at 4 pm
KAIST will construct ‘distributed shared-type Geo-Centrifuge experiment center’, a large-scale civil engineering laboratory that will study natural disasters such as earthquake, embankment collapse, etc. with ground structure miniatures.
A two-story building with a basement occupying an area of about 1,712 square meters will become a landmark laboratory in the field of geotechnical engineering that can be used for the education, research, and social infrastructure design by universities, institutes, and corporations via high-speed information and communication network. The estimated construction cost is 8.4 billion won.
The center will be composed of experiment building including geo-centrifuge laboratory, model-making room, workshop, geotechnical engineering laboratory, and specimen storehouse; and research building including control room, video conference room, electronic library, and research rooms. A variety of convenience facilities for researchers and video conference and remote monitoring system, with which researcher at remote distances can directly participate in experiments, will be provided in the research building, and world’s top-class experiment equipment such as geo-centrifuge with a turning radius of 5 meters, a maximum acceleration of 130 G (130 times faster than the acceleration of gravity), a preload of 2,400 kg and bidirectional shaking-table that can reproduce earthquakes-like wave during experiments, and robots that can reproduce construction procedures by a remote control will be installed.
Geo-Centrifuge experiment refers to an experiment that reproduces natural disaster-like motions by making miniatures of large-scale ground structures such as dams, slopes, etc. and using centrifugal forces generated from high-speed rotation. This experiment can easily and rapidly reproduce actual motions of ground structures at a low cost, thereby being widely used for various geotechnical engineering researches such as evaluation of seismic safety, movement of soft ground, slope stability analysis, etc. The causes of the embankment collapse in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 were also revealed by simulation tests by this experiment.
“The center will make possible a variety of experiments and researches that have never been available in Korea due to the lack of experiment infrastructure, therefore activate researches over the design and construction of large-scale social infrastructures. Making possible civil engineering researches demanding the use of large-scale equipment like Centrifuge, severely dependent on overseas technologies so far, will enhance the global competitiveness of Korean construction industry,” said Dong-soo Kim, President of the center.
The center will be constructed as part of the Ministry of Construction & Transportation (MOCT)’s project for the establishment of distributed shared-style construction research infrastructure, which is designed to establish construction research infrastructures in a national level. The ground breaking ceremony was held at KAIST on April 3 at 4 pm.
2007.04.12 View 14093