Bio+and+Brain+Engineering
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Int'l Conference for Integration of Science & Technology into Society Opens
The 2008 International Conference for the Integration of Science and Technology into Society (ICISTS-KAIST) opened a four-day meeting on Tuesday (July 15) at Daejeon KAIST campus. The conference is an annual event organized by a group of KAIST undergraduate students.
The fifth-year gathering is designed to provide participants with an opportunity to broaden their scientific perspectives by sharing ideas and experiences in related topics, as well as building an international human network. This year"s event has drawn about 200 students from 40 countries.
The centerpiece of the conference is three workshops on the following themes; Human-Robot Symbiotic Society, Neo-brain Science and Trafficmatics. Myung-Ja Kim, former Korean Environment Minister, will appear as a keynote speaker.
In the workshop sessions, two speakers will discuss specific issues and arrive at a tentative conclusion. Participants will have the opportunity to participate in the debate through Q&A for each session.
The first theme "Human-Robot Symbiotic Society" delves into the current trend that robot is being transformed into a perceivable and touchable concept from an abstract one. Guests for the workship include June-Ho Oh, professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, KAIST; James Dater, professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Hawaii at Manoa, and Director of the Hawaii Research Center for Future; Michael Pollitt, CEO of Shadow Robot Company; and Steven Dubowsky, professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT.
The second theme "Neo-Brain Science" focuses on attempts to shed light on brain from diverse perspectives including psychology, economics and art. Among invited speakers are Prof. Jai-Seung Jung at the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, KAIST; Prof. Un-Jung Kang at the University of Chicago Medical Center; and Peter Geyer, a consultant for the Association for Psychological Type.
The third workshop on "Traffimatics" will deal with "intelligent transport systems (ITS)" which will discusst new paradigm in transportation policy and traffic engineering. On the list of speakers are Assaf Biderman, assistant director, SENSEable City Laboratory, MIT; Prof. Richard Tay, at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calgary; Prof. Shoshi Mizokami at Kumamoto University; and Ho-Jong Baik, research associate professor of Virginia Tech.
2008.07.16 View 17324 -
World Micromachine Summit to Open in Daejeon
The 2008 World Micromachine Summit will be held at Hotel Riviera in Daejeon for a four-day run from April 30, drawing worldwide industrial and academic leaders in the micro-nano-technology (MNT).
Organizers say that 76 delegates and 56 observers from 19 countries and regions will take part in this year"s Micromachine Summit. Prof. Cho Young-ho of the Department of Bio & Brain Engineering of KAIST will play host to the annual event.
Participants will discuss the progress of micro-nano-technology in each country and region development of national policies in this area. The Summit was first organized in 1995 by the Micromachine Center of Japan with representatives from 10 countries participating. They were Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Korea was first invited to the conference in 1999. Since then, Korea has played an active role in promoting technological exchanges among nations and has conducted presentations and discussions on major technological breakthroughs.
During the four-day run, each delegation will outline their country"s policies and strategies and present local features on focused areas including this year"s main theme, "Micromachine towards Technology Convergence Era."
The gathering will offer a valuable opportunity for the participants to exchange and collect information on the current state of the MNT, as well as providing a forum for worldwide networking of leaders in the area.
2008.04.29 View 12172 -
2008 Commencement Ceremony Held
The 2008 KAIST Commencement Ceremony was held on Feb. 29 at the KAIST Amphitheater in the presence of KAIST President Nam Pyo Suh, U.S. Ambassador to Korea Alexander Vershbow, alumni representatives and parents.
Other dignitaries on hand included National Assemblymen Sang-Kee Suh, Chang-Sun Hong and Sang-Min Lee; and Daejoen City Major Sung-Hyo Park.
President Suh and Vice President Soon-Heung Chang presented degrees to each of the 1,321 graduates (200 doctors, 725 masters and 396 bachelors) instead of just to representatives. Since its inception in 1971, KAIST has produced 7,067 Ph.D. graduates, 18,636 master"s degree holders and 8,998 bachelor"s degree holders. This year, 40 percent of the Ph.D. graduates, 79, were in their twenties upon graduation.
President Suh called on the graduates to return the favor they received from society by making their share of contributions to humanity. "You were chosen to be students of this unique university because the Korean people -- not only KAIST professors and staff, but also ordinary taxpayers -- believe that outstanding young people like you can change the world in which we live for the better. Now it is time for you to pay back their support," he said.
Notable graduates of this year include So-Yeon Yi, 29, the first Korean female astronaut candidate, who earned her doctorate degree in bio and brain engineering. She was granted a special award in recognition of her role in advancing space science in Korea but she could not attend the graduation ceremony due to her training schedule in Russia which will continue until April.
Eun-Gyu Oh, 26, was the youngest doctorate recipient in the ceremony and Won Hye-jeong, 21, recorded the top undergraduate GPA with a score of 4.20 over 4.3. Civil and environmental engineering major Seung-Hee Park, 28, published a total of eight papers in major international journals while attending KAIST and two more papers are currently under review.
So-Yeon Yi said: ``I frequently stayed up all night to research and write the paper. It was tough experience for me. Thanks to ceaseless support from professors and colleagues, however, I was able to complete the task,"" she said. ``I have done my best in studying, exercising and so on. I"m sure that my active, participatory attitude brought about this honorable moment.""
She is now training at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center near Moscow as a replacement astronaut in case Koh San, 31, who is to be the first Korean astronaut, is unable to go into orbit.
Koh and Yi were selected from more than 36,000 applicants last year. Koh was finally picked as the primary candidate last September. The two are serving as space ambassadors appointed by the Ministry of Science & Technology.
2008.03.09 View 14303 -
Dual Degree Programs with TU Berlin
Dual Degree Programs with TU Berlin- Five students to be exchanged each year from this year, receive degrees from both schools- Final stage of negotiation with GIT, UCSB- On-going DDP negotiations with Delft University of Technology in Netherlands, Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, Technical University of Denmark, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Tsinghua University in China, Tokyo Institute of Technology- DDPs with Ecole Polytechnique, INSA Lyon of France, and University of Karlsruhe of Germany underway at department levels
KAIST (President Nam-Pyo Suh) will begin Dual Degree Programs (DDP) with Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin).
The both recently reached an accord on the implementation of DDP and will exchange maximum five students each year, starting this year. The DDP allows each school involved to exchange students who meet the counterpart’s requirements one-by-one with prior consensus of departments to accept the students and to confer its own diplomas on students who complete the prescribed graduation requirements.
TU Berlin, established in 1770, currently holds 28,344 enrolled students, among which 5,829 students are from abroad (over 20%) and provides lectures for more than 50 subjects in the fields of Humanities, Social Sciences, Economics and so on with its emphases on Natural Science and Engineering. TU Berlin has fostered a multitude of distinguished scientists, including 1986 Nobel Prize Recipient in Physics Ernst Ruska who developed an electronic microscope for the first time in the world.
KAIST has now been eagerly promoting the DDPs with many distinguished foreign universities. It is on the final stage of the DDP negotiation with Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT) and University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), and has already agreed with Tsinghua University in China to implement the DDPs in several advanced fields. Also, an agreement with Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT) is soon to be made.
With Ecole Polytechnique and INSA Lyon of France, and University of Karlsruhe of Germany, the negotiation is underway at department levels, and the DDPs are also being promoted with Milan Technical University of Italy, Delft University of Technology of Netherlands, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) of Sweden, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NUNT).
“As global interests in East Asia arise, interests in KAIST by many foreign universities also increase. We are planning to expand the scope of this program to provide KAIST students with more opportunities of studying abroad and to attract more outstanding foreign students,” KAIST Dean of Academic Affairs Kwang-Hyung Lee explained.
- Dual Degree Program (DDP)In DDP, schools involved can maintain their own curriculums and confer their own degrees on students who complete the graduation requirements. Therefore, students can receive degrees from both schools involved. Meanwhile, DDP is not the same concept with Joint Degree Program (JDP), in which schools involved establish a joint curriculum and confer a single joint degree on students.
2007.03.19 View 17967