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Qualcomm Innovation Award Recognizes 20 KAIST Students
The
award provides research fellowships, worth of USD 100,000, to 20 KAIST graduate
students
With an audience of 100 people present,
KAIST held a ceremony for the Qualcomm Innovation Award 2015 at the Information
Technology Convergence building on campus on March 12, 2015.
The Qualcomm Innovation Award, established
in 2010, is a fellowship that supports innovative science and engineering master’s
and doctoral students at KAIST. Qualcomm donated USD 100,000 to KAIST, stipulating that it be used to foster a creative research environment for graduate
students.
To select the recipients, KAIST formed an award committee chaired
by Professor Soo-Young Lee of the Department of Electrical Engineering and accepted research proposals until late January.
The award committee first selected 37
proposals from 75 papers submitted and then chose the final 20 research
proposals on March 12, 2015 after presentation evaluations. The presentations had to show promise of innovation and creativity; prospective influence on wireless communications
and mobile industry; and the prospect of being implemented.
Each recipient received a USD 4,500 research
fellowship along with an opportunity to present their research findings at a
workshop where Qualcomm engineers and other distinguished individuals of the industry
will attend.
Previously, Qualcomm has donated
research fellowships to KAIST graduate students in 2011 and 2013.
2015.03.19 View 9093 -
Emeritus Professors' Social Service for Embracing Multicultural Families
Korea has become a melting pot over recent years, with many families embracing diverse nationalities, cultures, and ethnicities. A group of KAIST emeritus professors volunteered to help these multicultural families, which are often formed through international marriages, better cope with life in Korea by creating a continuing education program called “Multicultural Mother School.”
The school admitted a total of ten non-Korean mothers for its first class and held an entrance ceremony for the students on March 14, 2015, at the IFC Hope Church in Daejeon. Classes began since March 16, 2015, offering the first lecture to students remotely via the Internet.
Professor Emeritus Byung-Kyu Choi, who organized the volunteering program and is the director of the Multicultural Mother School, said, “About 5% of newborns in Korea currently come from multicultural families. It is important that we should support them to assimilate well into the Korean society. Since 60% of multicultural children have yet to enter the public school system, particularly at the elementary schools level, offering their mothers opportunities to learn more about Korea will serve a greater good.”
2015.03.14 View 5774 -
KAIST Introduces New UI for K-Glass 2
A newly developed user interface, the “i-Mouse,” in the K-Glass 2 tracks the user’s gaze and connects the device to the Internet through blinking eyes such as winks. This low-power interface provides smart glasses with an excellent user experience, with a long-lasting battery and augmented reality.
Smart glasses are wearable computers that will likely lead to the growth of the Internet of Things. Currently available smart glasses, however, reveal a set of problems for commercialization, such as short battery life and low energy efficiency. In addition, glasses that use voice commands have raised the issue of privacy concerns.
A research team led by Professor Hoi-Jun Yoo of the Electrical Engineering Department at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has recently developed an upgraded model of the K-Glass (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-02/tkai-kdl021714.php) called “K-Glass 2.”
K-Glass 2 detects users’ eye movements to point the cursor to recognize computer icons or objects in the Internet, and uses winks for commands. The researchers call this interface the “i-Mouse,” which removes the need to use hands or voice to control a mouse or touchpad. Like its predecessor, K-Glass 2 also employs augmented reality, displaying in real time the relevant, complementary information in the form of text, 3D graphics, images, and audio over the target objects selected by users.
The research results were presented, and K-Glass 2’s successful operation was demonstrated on-site to the 2015 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) held on February 23-25, 2015 in San Francisco. The title of the paper was “A 2.71nJ/Pixel 3D-Stacked Gaze-Activated Object Recognition System for Low-power Mobile HMD Applications” (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/home.jsp).
The i-Mouse is a new user interface for smart glasses in which the gaze-image sensor (GIS) and object recognition processor (ORP) are stacked vertically to form a small chip. When three infrared LEDs (light-emitting diodes) built into the K-Glass 2 are projected into the user’s eyes, GIS recognizes their focal point and estimates the possible locations of the gaze as the user glances over the display screen. Then the electro-oculography sensor embedded on the nose pads reads the user’s eyelid movements, for example, winks, to click the selection. It is worth noting that the ORP is wired to perform only within the selected region of interest (ROI) by users. This results in a significant saving of battery life. Compared to the previous ORP chips, this chip uses 3.4 times less power, consuming on average 75 milliwatts (mW), thereby helping K-Glass 2 to run for almost 24 hours on a single charge.
Professor Yoo said, “The smart glass industry will surely grow as we see the Internet of Things becomes commonplace in the future. In order to expedite the commercial use of smart glasses, improving the user interface (UI) and the user experience (UX) are just as important as the development of compact-size, low-power wearable platforms with high energy efficiency. We have demonstrated such advancement through our K-Glass 2. Using the i-Mouse, K-Glass 2 can provide complicated augmented reality with low power through eye clicking.”
Professor Yoo and his doctoral student, Injoon Hong, conducted this research under the sponsorship of the Brain-mimicking Artificial Intelligence Many-core Processor project by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning in the Republic of Korea.
Youtube Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watchv=JaYtYK9E7p0&list=PLXmuftxI6pTW2jdIf69teY7QDXdI3Ougr
Picture 1: K-Glass 2
K-Glass 2 can detect eye movements and click computer icons via users’ winking.
Picture 2: Object Recognition Processor Chip
This picture shows a gaze-activated object-recognition system.
Picture 3: Augmented Reality Integrated into K-Glass 2
Users receive additional visual information overlaid on the objects they select.
2015.03.13 View 15481 -
System Approach Using Metabolite Structural Similarity Toward TOM Suggested
A Korean research team at KAIST suggests that a system approach using metabolite structural similarity helps to elucidate the mechanisms of action of traditional oriental medicine.
Traditional oriental medicine (TOM) has been practiced in Asian countries for centuries, and is gaining increasing popularity around the world. Despite its efficacy in various symptoms, TOM has been practiced without precise knowledge of its mechanisms of action. Use of TOM largely comes from empirical knowledge practiced over a long period of time. The fact that some of the compounds found in TOM have led to successful modern drugs such as artemisinin for malaria and taxol (Paclitaxel) for cancer has spurred modernization of TOM.
A research team led by Sang-Yup Lee at KAIST has focused on structural similarities between compounds in TOM and human metabolites to help explain TOM’s mechanisms of action. This systems approach using structural similarities assumes that compounds which are structurally similar to metabolites could affect relevant metabolic pathways and reactions by biosynthesizing structurally similar metabolites.
Structural similarity analysis has helped to identify mechanisms of action of TOM. This is described in a recent study entitled “A systems approach to traditional oriental medicine,” published online in Nature Biotechnology on March 6, 2015. In this study, the research team conducted structural comparisons of all the structurally known compounds in TOM and human metabolites on a large-scale. As a control, structures of all available approved drugs were also compared against human metabolites. This structural analysis provides two important results. First, the identification of metabolites structurally similar to TOM compounds helped to narrow down the candidate target pathways and reactions for the effects from TOM compounds. Second, it suggested that a greater fraction of all the structurally known TOM compounds appeared to be more similar to human metabolites than the approved drugs. This second finding indicates that TOM has a great potential to interact with diverse metabolic pathways with strong efficacy. This finding, in fact, shows that TOM compounds might be advantageous for the multitargeting required to cure complex diseases. “Once we have narrowed down candidate target pathways and reactions using this structural similarity approach, additional in silico tools will be necessary to characterize the mechanisms of action of many TOM compounds at a molecular level,” said Hyun Uk Kim, a research professor at KAIST.
TOM’s multicomponent, multitarget approach wherein multiple components show synergistic effects to treat symptoms is highly distinctive. The researchers investigated previously observed effects recorded since 2000 of a set of TOM compounds with known mechanisms of action. TOM compounds’ synergistic combinations largely consist of a major compound providing the intended efficacy to the target site and supporting compounds which maximize the efficacy of the major compound. In fact, such combination designs appear to mirror the Kun-Shin-Choa-Sa design principle of TOM.
That principle, Kun-Shin-Choa-Sa (君臣佐使 or Jun-Chen-Zuo-Shi in Chinese) literally means “king-minister-assistant-ambassador.” In ancient East Asian medicine, treating human diseases and taking good care of the human body are analogous to the politics of governing a nation. Just as good governance requires that a king be supported by ministers, assistants and/or ambassadors, treating diseases or good care of the body required the combined use of herbal medicines designed based on the concept of Kun-Shin-Choa-Sa. Here, the Kun (king or the major component) indicates the major medicine (or herb) conveying the major drug efficacy, and is supported by three different types of medicines: the Shin (minister or the complementary component) for enhancing and/or complementing the efficacy of the Kun, Choa (assistant or the neutralizing component) for reducing any side effects caused by the Kun and reducing the minor symptoms accompanying major symptom, and Sa (ambassador or the delivery/retaining component) which facilitated the delivery of the Kun to the target site, and retaining the Kun for prolonged availability in the cells.
The synergistic combinations of TOM compounds reported in the literature showed four different types of synergisms: complementary action (similar to Kun-Shin), neutralizing action (similar to Kun-Choa), facilitating action or pharmacokinetic potentiation (both similar to Kun-Choa or Kun-Sa). Additional structural analyses for these compounds with synergism show that they appeared to affect metabolism of amino acids, co-factors and vitamins as major targets.
Professor Sang Yup Lee remarks, “This study lays a foundation for the integration of traditional oriental medicine with modern drug discovery and development. The systems approach taken in this analysis will be used to elucidate mechanisms of action of unknown TOM compounds which will then be subjected to rigorous validation through clinical and in silico experiments.”
Sources: Kim, H.U. et al. “A systems approach to traditional oriental medicine.” Nature Biotechnology. 33: 264-268 (2015).
This work was supported by the Bio-Synergy Research Project (2012M3A9C4048759) of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning through the National Research Foundation. This work was also supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
The picture below presents the structural similarity analysis of comparing compounds in traditional oriental medicine and those in all available approved drugs against the structures of human metabolites.
2015.03.09 View 9471 -
Ethiopian Minister of Education Visits KAIST
An Ethiopian delegation headed by the Minister of Education visited the KAIST campus on February 26, 2015. The delegation consisted of Mr. Demitu Hambisa, Minister of Education, Mr. Dibaba Abdetta, Ethiopian Ambassador to Korea, Dr. Jang-Kyu Lee, President of Adama Science and Technology University (ASTU), and Mr. Nurelegne Tefera, President of Addis Ababa Science and Technology University (AASTU).
Minister Hambisa explained the purpose of his visit, “We would like to learn about what KAIST has achieved over the years for Korea and its people and increase exchanges and cooperation between our universities and KAIST.”
KAIST and the two Ethiopian universities, ASTU and AASTU, signed memoranda of understanding for cooperative programs in science and engineering education.
Established in 1993, ASTU appointed Dr. Jang-Kyu Lee, a former professor from Seoul National University, Korea, to become its president since 2011. President Lee is the first Korean ever to have served the institution.
2015.02.26 View 7467 -
KAIST Team Wins International Hacking Competition, "SECCON CTF 2014"
KAIST’s white hacker team, “TOFEL Beginner,” secured the first place in an international hacking competition, SECCON CTF 2014. SECCON is an international hacking competition which has operated for more than 20 years. It uses the Capture the Flag (CTF) method. Last year’s competition was held in Tokyo on December 7, 2014.
The TOFEL Beginner team consisted of two KAIST graduate students and two researchers from a private security company based in Korea: In-Soo Yoon of Computer Science, Eun-Soo Kim of the Graduate School of Information Security (GSIS), and Jong-Ho Lee and Jung-Hoon Lee of Raon Secure.
Of 4,186 competitors, 24 teams made it to the finals. The TOFEL Beginner took the lead with 4,506 points compared with HITCON (3,112 points) of Taiwan and PPP (2,858 points) of the USA.
With this victory, the KAIST team qualified to participate in the most renowned international hacking competition, the DEF CON Hacking Conference in 2015.
Professor Yongdae Kim of the Electrical Engineering Department at KAIST, who advised the TOEFL Beginner team, said, “Our members have achieved an outstanding result. By taking advantage of this opportunity, KAIST will continue to offer the best programs in information security in Korea and hopefully beyond.”
2015.02.24 View 9211 -
KAIST's Thermoelectric Generator on Glass Fabric Receives the Grand Prize at the Netexplo Forum 2015
The forum announced top ten IT innovations expected to change the world and selected the grand prize on February 4, 2014.
Established in 2007 by Martine Bidegain and Thierry Happe in partnership with the French Senate and the French Ministry for the Digital Economy, the Netexplo Observatory is an independent global organization that studies the impact of digital technology and innovation on society and business.
Every year, the Netexplo Observatory hosts an international conference, the Netexplo Forum, in Paris, France, which surveys digital innovation worldwide. The 8th forum was held in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on February 4-5, 2015, at the UNESCO House in Paris.
Prior to the conference, the Netexplo Forum 2015 named the top ten most promising digital technologies that will greatly impact the world.
Among them was Professor Byung Jin Cho’s research on a wearable thermoelectric generator (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-04/tkai-tgo041014.php). The generator was selected as the most innovative technology this year.
Professor Cho of KAIST’s Electrical Engineering Department developed a glass fabric-based thermoelectric generator that is extremely light and flexible and that produces electricity from the heat of the human body. This technology can be applied widely to wearable computers and mobile devices.
The full list of innovations follows below:
Wearable Thermo-Element, South Korea: The human body becomes a source of energy for mobile devices.
W.Afate 3D-printer, Togo: An environmentally friendly fablab that makes a low-cost 3D-printer from recycling electronic components.
Slack, USA: By combining email, Skype, and file-sharing and social networks, internal communication becomes much easier and simpler.
PhotoMath, Croatia: A free app that enables smartphone users to solve mathematical problems simply by scanning the mathematical texts.
Kappo, Chile: Connected cyclists produce and transmit useful data for urban planning to make the city more bike-friendly.
Branching Minds, USA: An improved learning process for students in difficulty through a personalized approach.
Baidu Kuai Sou, China: Smart chopsticks that can check food hazards.
SCio, Israel: A pocket molecular sensor with various applications and data
Rainforest Connection, USA: Fighting deforestation with recycled smartphones
Sense Ebola Followup, Nigeria: A mobile tool to help contain Ebola
For more details on the wearable thermos-element which received the 2015 Netexplo Award, please go to https://www.netexplo.org/en/intelligence/innovation/wearable-thermo-element.
Pictures 1 and 2: A high-performance wearable thermoelectric generator that is extremely flexible and light.
Picture 3: Senator Catherine Morin-Desailly (left) of the French Parliament presents the 2015 Netexplo Award to Professor Byung Jin Cho (right) on February 4, 2015 at the UNESCO House in Paris.
Credit of Loran Dhérines
Picture 4: Professor Byung Jin Cho (left) poses with Dr. Joël de Rosnay (right).
Credit of Loran Dhérines
2015.02.06 View 12856 -
Press Release on Piezoelectric Nanogenerators of ZnO with Aluminium Nitride Stacked Layers by the American Institute of Physics
The
American Institute of Physics (AIP) released a news article entitled “Zinc
Oxide Materials Tapped for Tiny Energy Harvesting Devices” on January 13, 2015.
The
article described the research led by Professor Giwan Yoon of the
Electrical Engineering Department at KAIST. It was published in the January
12, 2015 issue of Applied Physics Letters.
AIP publishes the journal. For the news release, please visit the
link below:
The American
Institute of Physics, January 13, 2015
“Zinc
Oxide Materials Tapped for Tiny Energy Harvesting Devices”
New research helps
pave the way toward highly energy-efficient zinc oxide-based micro energy
harvesting devices with applications in portable communications, healthcare and
environmental monitoring, and more
http://www.aip.org/publishing/journal-highlights/zinc-oxide-materials-tapped-tiny-energy-harvesting-devices
2015.02.04 View 31625 -
Danish Minister for Higher Education and Science Visits KAIST
Sofie Carsten Nielsen, the Minister for Higher Education and Science of Denmark, accompanied by her delegation, visited KAIST on January 21, 2015 to study outstanding cases of creative economy and to discuss methods of cooperation.
Her delegation included other distinguished members including Thomas Lehmann, the Danish ambassador to Korea, Peter Olesen, Chairman of Innovation Foundation Denmark Governing Board, and Martin Bendsøe, Senior Vice President and Dean of Technical University of Denmark.
After attending the "Electronic Communication Double Degree Agreement" signing ceremony between KAIST’s Department of Electrical Engineering and the Technical University of Denmark, Minister Nielsen visited KAIST’s Institute of Entrepreneurship to observe bilateral industry-university collaborations between KAIST and Denmark and discussed future development plans.
Also, the Grundfos Student Innovation Camp, sponsored by Grundfos, the world's largest pump manufacturer based in Denmark, took place at KAIST from October 26-31, 2014 where Grundfos professionals as well as students from Seoul National University, KAIST, and Technical University of Denmark (DTU) exchanged ideas and opinions on energy efficiency.
KAIST is currently conducting 19 collaborative projects including seven joint researches and seven joint degrees with DTU.
Minister Sofie Carsten Nielsen stands fifth from the left in the front row in the first picture below.
2015.01.27 View 8489 -
President Kang to Present at the World Economic Forum
President Sung-Mo Kang of KAIST will attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) as a member of the Global University Leaders Forum (GULF) to represent KAIST. GULF is attended by the world leaders of education and research. Its members represent 26 universities drawn from around the world including Harvard University. KAIST is the only Korean university to be invited.
WEF will be held in Davos, Switzerland, for four days, starting on 21 January 2015. He will discuss the future of higher education, the issues and solutions of science and society at GULF.
By attending GULF, KAIST expects to strengthen its network with top universities around the world and raise KAIST’s profile on an international basis. President Kang said, “The invitation for KAIST to attend the GULF is an evidence of its raised global status.” He continued, “I will show the innovative and challenging achievements KAIST has made to the leaders of the world.”
The theme of the 2015 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2015 is “The New Global Context” to discuss the integration of economic growth and society, employment and work force, environment and resource scarcity, the future of the Internet, and international crime and anti-corruption.
The World Economic Forum was established in 1971 by Klaus Schwab who is also its Executive Chairman. More than 2,500 people including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Google President Eric Schmidt, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will attend this year's forum.
2015.01.22 View 8065 -
KAIST Announces the Recipients of Distinguished Alumni Awards
The KAIST Alumni Association (KAA) announced four “Proud KAIST Alumni” awards recipients for the year 2014: Sung-Wook Park, the Chief Executive Officer and President of SK Hynix; Seung Ho Shin, the President of Kangwon National University; Kew-Ho Lee, the President of the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology; and Mun-Kee Choi, the former Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning of the Republic of Korea. The award ceremony took place during the 2015 KAA’s New Year's ceremony on January 17, 2015 at the Palace Hotel in Seoul.
Sung-Wook Park (M.S. ’82 and Ph.D. ’88, Department of Materials Science and Engineering), the Chief Executive Officer and President of SK Hynix, has worked as an expert in the field of memory semi-conductors for the past 30 years. He developed innovative technology and improved production efficiency, enabling the Korean semi-conductor industry to become a global leader.
Seung Ho Shin (M.S. ’79 and Ph.D. ’87, Department of Physics), the President of Kangwon National University (KNU), worked in the field of optical information processing, producing excellent research achievements and teaching the next generation of scientists. As the president of KNU, he has set an exemplary leadership in higher education.
Kew-Ho Lee (M.S. ’75, Department of Chemistry), the President of the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, pioneered the field of separation film production which contributed greatly to Korean technological developments. He led several domestic and international societies to facilitate dynamic exchanges between industry and academia and with the international community.
Mun-Kee Choi (M.S. ’76, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering), the former Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning, the Republic of Korea, is a great contributor to the information and communications technology in Korea, working as a leader in the field of broadband integrated service digital network. He is also an educator for gifted students in science and technology, and a manager of the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute.
The Alumni Association established the “Proud KAIST Alumni Awards” in 1992 to recognize its alumni’s outstanding contributions to Korea and KAIST.
Pictured from left to right, Sung-Wook Park (the Chief Executive Officer and President of SK Hynix), Seung Ho Shin (the President of Kangwon National University), Kew-Ho Lee (the President of the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology), and Mun-Kee Choi (the former Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning)
2015.01.19 View 12720 -
Professor Sunyoung Park Receives an Award from the Minister of Strategy and Finance of Korea
Professor Sunyoung Park, the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at KAIST, received an award from the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Strategy and Finance of the Republic of Korea on December 31, 2014 in recognition of her contribution to the Korean economy. Known as an expert in macroeconomics and finance in Korea, Professor Park has conducted research in macroeconomic policies and capital flows.
Recently, Professor Park attended the 18th ASEAN+3 (Korea, Japan, and China) Finance and Central Bank Deputies’ Meeting held in Tokyo, Japan, on December 3-5, 2014 and presented a paper on the economic policies of Asian and G20 nations, receiving positive responses from the participants.
At the award ceremony, she said, “With continuous support from the government and collaborations with regional partners, I hope that my research will help Korea and the Asian economies grow further.”
2015.01.06 View 7369