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KAIST held an opening ceremony for the completion of KAIST Institute Building.
A Korean American businessman and his wife, Byiung Jun Park and Chunghi Hong, donated 10 million USD for the construction of the building.
KAIST hosted an opening ceremony on May 11, 2010 for the new addition to its campus, called the Chunghi & Byiung Jun (BJ) Park KAIST Institute Building. The KI Building will serve as a hub for creative multidisciplinary researches.
A Korean American businessman and his wife made a considerable contribution for the construction of the building, worth 10 million USD. KAIST called the building Byiung Jun (BJ) Park and Chunghi Hong in recognition of their contribution. Chairman Park was the founder of the Merchandise Testing Laboratory, a leading textile quality control multinational.
It took 19 months to finish the construction of the KI Building with a total cost of 36 billion Korean won. The building consists of one basement and five ground floors. At the basement, there are clean room and equipment storage room; on the 2nd and 3rd floors, conference and exhibition halls; and on the rest of the floors, research labs and administration offices are to be located.
KAIST’s eight integral research institutes will be placed inside the building: the BioCentury; Information Technology Convergence; Design of Complex Systems; Entertainment Engineering; the NanoCentury; Eco-Energy; Urban Space and Systems; and Optical Science and Technology. Approximately 230 professors from 25 departments of various academic fields will make the KI Building home for study and research. The KI Building will play a great role in producing world-class convergence research works by KAIST researchers and professors, thereby making a contribution to the improvement of national competitiveness.
Vice President of KI Building, Sang-Soo Kim, said, “There has been no such place for us to concentrate research manpower and equipment scattered around the campus. By having all the necessary resources at one place will allow us to conduct convergence researches more efficiently and effectively. I’d like to express my appreciation for the Ministry of Education and Science and Technology as well as Chairman Byiung Jun (BJ) Park, who gave us tremendous supports in the process of constructing the KI Building.”
“The building’s inside has a unique office structure, getting rid of walls or partitions between institutes or departments, to stimulate an environment conducive to convergence researches. We hope to present a new model for creative multidisciplinary researches through a selective and focused approach to be facilitated by institutes at the KI Building,” added by the vice president.
2010.05.20 View 11772 -
KAIST listed 27 research subjects for EEWS.
The Office of EEWS Initiative at KAIST announced 27 research projects to be implemented in 2010. The EEWS stands for energy, environment, water, and suitability.
KAIST established the EEWS Office in 2008 in efforts to solve problems facing mankind today such as depletion of natural resources, environment pollution, climate changes, water shortages, and sustainable growth. On the nationwide, the Korean government has taken initiatives to support “green growth” and “green technology” projects.
In 2009, the EEWS Office supported 24 research projects and received 28 patent rights, 6 patent registrations, and 57 Science Citation Index (SCI) papers. This year, the office chose 27 research subjects including 7 flagship projects: flexible lithium polymer batteries, spent nuclear fuel recycling, highly efficient bio-butanol, liquid electrolyte battery solid oxide fuel cell, LED lighting, artificial photosynthesis, and nano organic solar cells. New research topics begun this year include energy-saving desalination system and ultra-thin film of silicon solar cells.
Jae-Kyu Lee, Dean of EEWS Initiative Office said, “Having multiple volume of small-scaled, topic-focused research projects will encourage us to come up with large-scale convergence research projects. In so doing, we can explore new frontiers of science and technology and serve as the new growth engine for the development of green technology and industry in Korea.”
All the research projects selected will be subject to evaluations. For example, the EEWS Initiative Office will host an international workshop in September 2010 where it plans to introduce and evaluate the ongoing research projects.
2010.05.19 View 9791 -
The 6th president of KAIST passed away on May 7, 2010.
Dr. Sang-Soo Lee was the first president of Korea Advanced Institute of Science (KAIS) and the 6th president of KAIST, who died of a chronic disease at the age of 85. The KAIS was the matrix of KAIST today. Graduated from the physics department of Seoul National University in 1949, he later received a doctoral degree in optics from Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London.
Dr. Lee has greatly contributed to the development of science and technology in Korea in the capacity of a policy administrator, educator, scientist, researcher, and engineer. He held numerous prestigious offices including President of Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute in 1967, of KAIS in 172, and of KAIST in 1989. Dr. Lee also worked as a professor at the physics department of KAIST for 20 years from 1972-1992.
The Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), an international society for optics and photonics, was founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. Dr. Sang-Soo Lee was a member of the SPIE that issued a news release expressing its sincere condolences to his death. The following is the full text of the news release: http://spie.org/x40527.xml
In memoriam: Sang Soo Lee
10 May 2010
Sang Soo Lee, known as the "Father of Optics" in Korea passed away on May 7, 2010, in Korea. He was 84.
Lee received a B.S. in Physics from Seoul National University in Korea and a Ph.D. from Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, UK. Receiving the first Ph.D. in Optics in Korea, Dr. Lee devoted his life to lay the foundation for optical science and engineering for more than four decades as an educator, researcher, and administrator in science policy.
"He was one of the architects of the extraordinary and rapid emergence of Korea as a world leader in science and technology, or perhaps with the rich history of contributions centuries ago, re-emergence would be more appropriate." said Eugene G. Arthurs, SPIE Executive Director.
During his teaching career, Dr. Lee mentored 50 doctoral and more than 100 masters" degree candidates. in the areas of laser physics, wave optics, and quantum optics. Many of his former students have become leaders in academia, government-funded research institutes, and industry both in Korea and abroad. He published more than 250 technical papers and authored five textbooks, including "Wave Optics", "Geometrical Optics", "Quantum Optics", and "Laser Speckles and Holography".
Lee was the first president of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and the first president to establish a new government funded graduate school. He played a pivotal role in founding the Optical Society of Korea (OSK) in 1989 and served as its first president.
Lee was an active member of the international scientific community. In addition to his pioneering scholastic achievements at KAIST, he served as the Vice President of the International Commission for Optics (ICO), a Council Member of the Third World Academy of Sciences, and a Council Member of UN University, serving as an ambassador for the optics community, which showed a significant example of how a developing country like Korea can serve international optics community.
Dr. Lee was a Fellow of the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), the Optical Society of America (OSA), and the Korean Physical Society (KPS). He was the recipient of many awards and honors, including the National Order of Civil Merit that is the Presidential Medal of Honor from the Republic of Korea (2000), the Songgok Academic Achievement Prize, the Presidential Award for Science, and the Medal of Honor for Distinguished Scientific Achievement in Korea. In 2006, he was awarded OSA"s Esther Hoffman Beller Medal.
2010.05.19 View 12785 -
Professor Eun-Seong Kim and his research staff observed the phenomena of hysteresis and relaxation dynamics from supersolid Helium
Professor Eun-Seong Kim and his research staff observed the phenomena of hysteresis and relaxation dynamics from supersolid Helium.
Their research paper was published in Nature Physics for the issue of April 2010.
If we take Helium 4 and cool it down at temperatures below 2.176 Kelivin, liquid helium 4 undergoes a phase transition and becomes superfluid with a zero viscosity. The superfluidity was observed in solid helium through an experiment performed by researchers of Pennsylvania State University in 2004. One of the researchers then was Professor Eun-Seong Kim in the Department of Physics, KAIST.
Professor Kim and his research staff, Hyung-Soon Choi, Ph.D., recently published their research results in Nature Physics (April 2010), a highly esteemed journal in the field, on the phenomena of hysteresis and relaxation dynamics observed in supersolid Helium.
For the paper, please download the attached .pdf file.
Nature Physics link: http://www.nature.com
2010.04.13 View 11974 -
News Article: Naro space rocket getting ready for second launch, April 12, 2010
News Article on KIAST published on April 12, 2010
The Korea Herald, 2010-04-12 17:07
Naro space rocket getting ready for second launch
By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldm.com)
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology is checking on the second launch of Naro, Korea’s first space rocket, as all the necessary parts were transferred to the launch center last week.
The Science Technology Satellite No. 2 was transferred last Thursday from the KAIST Satellite Technology Research Center in Daejeon to the Naro Space Center in South Jeolla Province, said ministry officials.
The solid-fuel second-stage rocket reached the center last Monday and the liquid-fuel first-stage rocket did so on March 23. The latter was manufactured in Russia’s Khrunichev State Space Science and Production Center.
The satellite, a small one weighing 100 kilograms, was co-developed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, KAIST SaTReC and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology.
It is to revolve around the Earth for two years collecting data on climate change by gauging the hydrogen content in the atmosphere, said officials.
“With all the crucial parts ready here in the center, we have officially kicked off our final investigation before setting the details of the second Naro launch,” said a ministry official.
Second Vice Minister Kim Joong-hyun last week visited the Naro center to attend the overall inspection on all facilities related to the rocket launch.
The date has not yet been set for the second launch but will be fixed within this month, said officials.
With the general inspection completed on the facilities, the first-stage rocket and the satellite will be assembled and the combination will be joined by the second-stage rocket in May.
The first launching attempt ended in failure in August due to faulty electrical wiring or a mechanical problem in the fairing separation mechanism, according to panels.
The two fairings -- used to cover and protect the satellite placed on top of the Naro -- failed to separate timely and thus stopped the satellite from gaining sufficient velocity to reach its planned orbit.
Korea has so far spent 502.4 billion won ($428.1 million) on the Naro project since it began in August 2002.
2010.04.13 View 12720 -
"The 2010 Artificial Intelligence Robot War Competition" begins to receive applications
[Event Notice]
“The 2010 Artificial Intelligence Robot War Competition” begins to receive applications
A good opportunity to gauge the intelligence of your robots
“The 2010 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Robot War Competition” will be held in October 2010, and the Competition has been receiving applications from contestants since April 1st. The deadline for the application will be May 31st, 2010.
Qualified contestants must be a minimum of two, but less than six, team members, and they will compete in one of the two fields: System on Chip (SoC) Taekwon Robot and Humanoid Robot (HURO). Winners will be decided based on the intelligence capabilities presented by a robot’s platform that mimics key functions of the human brain.
SoC Taekwon Robot will compete against one another by using a camera installed on its head to recognize visual images, locations, distances, and gestures of the other competing robot.
HURO competition is a new entry begun this year, and winners will be determined in accordance with the robot’s ability to perform given missions and fights. Missions are to go through a track installed with obstacles, recognize colors and shapes of barriers, and knock down barriers to earn scores. Fighting will be performed in the form of a Korean martial art, Tae-kwon-do.
The Korean government has nominated Robotics as one of the key growth engines to develop IT industry and Korean economy. Robotics converge many of different engineering fields, such as machinery, materials, components, and embedded software. In particular, the SoC is an essential technology for Korea to continuously take lead in the semi-conductor industry in the world, which is an important element for robotics.
SoC stands for System on Chip, an integrated chip that assembles various chips and components to be fabricated together on a single chip, instead of building them on a circuit board. The SoC technology has advantages of higher performance, smaller space requirements, lower memory requirements, higher system reliability, and lower consumer costs.
An artificial intelligence SoC robot is autonomous because it can adapt itself to changes in various environments and reach a given goal without constantly receiving external orders.
For details of the event, please refer to the website of www.socrobotwar.org.
2010.04.06 View 11984
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Interesting research results were published on the use of Twitter.
The number of “followers” on your Twitter account does not necessarily mean that “Your opinions matter much” to other people.
A KAIST graduate researcher, Mi-Young Cha, joined an interesting project that studies the influence of a popular social media, Twitter. Most of Twitter users today consider the number of followers as a measurement of their influence on the social sphere. According to the research paper, however, this connection does not seem to standing together. For details, please click the link below for an article published by the New York Times.
Dr. Cha received all of her post secondary education degrees in Computer Science, including her Ph.D. in 2008, from KAIST. Since 2008 till now, she has been a post doctoral researcher at Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS) based in Germany.
[New York Times Article, March 19, 2010]
http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2010/03/19/19readwriteweb-the-million-follower-fallacy-audience-size-d-3203.html
2010.04.05 View 12226
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New drug targeting method for microbial pathogens developed using in silico cell
A ripple effect is expected on the new antibacterial discovery using “in silico” cells
Featured as a journal cover paper of Molecular BioSystems
A research team of Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee at KAIST recently constructed an in silico cell of a microbial pathogen that is resistant to antibiotics and developed a new drug targeting method that could effectively disrupt the pathogen"s growth using the in silico cell.
Hyun Uk Kim, a graduate research assistant at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, KAIST, conducted this study as a part of his thesis research, and the study was featured as a journal cover paper in the February issue of Molecular BioSystems this year, published by The Royal Society of Chemistry based in Europe.
It was relatively easy to treat infectious microbes using antibiotics in the past. However, the overdose of antibiotics has caused pathogens to increase their resistance to various antibiotics, and it has become more difficult to cure infectious diseases these days.
A representative microbial pathogen is Acinetobacter baumannaii. Originally isolated from soils and water, this microorganism did not have resistance to antibiotics, and hence it was easy to eradicate them if infected. However, within a decade, this miroorganism has transformed into a dreadful super-bacterium resistant to antibiotics and caused many casualties among the U.S. and French soldiers who were injured from the recent Iraqi war and infected with Acinetobacter baumannaii.
Professor Lee’s group constructed an in silico cell of this A. baumannii by computationally collecting, integrating, and analyzing the biological information of the bacterium, scattered over various databases and literatures, in order to study this organism"s genomic features and system-wide metabolic characteristics. Furthermore, they employed this in silico cell for integrative approaches, including several network analysis and analysis of essential reactions and metabolites, to predict drug targets that effectively disrupt the pathogen"s growth. Final drug targets are the ones that selectively kill pathogens without harming human body.
Here, essential reactions refer to enzymatic reactions required for normal metabolic functioning in organisms, while essential metabolites indicate chemical compounds required in the metabolism for proper functioning, and their removal brings about the effect of simultaneously disrupting their associated enzymes that interact with them.
This study attempted to predict highly reliable drug targets by systematically scanning biological components, including metabolic genes, enzymatic reactions, that constitute an in silico cell in a short period of time.
This research achievement is highly regarded as it, for the first time, systematically scanned essential metabolites for the effective drug targets using the concept of systems biology, and paved the way for a new antibacterial discovery. This study is also expected to contribute to elucidating the infectious mechanism caused by pathogens.
"Although tons of genomic information is poured in at this moment, application research that efficiently converts this preliminary information into actually useful information is still lagged behind. In this regard, this study is meaningful in that medically useful information is generated from the genomic information of Acinetobacter baumannii," says Professor Lee. "In particular, development of this organism"s in silico cell allows generation of new knowledge regarding essential genes and enzymatic reactions under specific conditions," he added.
This study was supported by the Korean Systems Biology Project of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, and the patent for the development of in silico cells of microbial pathogens and drug targeting methods has been filed.
[Picture 1 Cells in silico]
[Picture 2 A process of generating drug targets without harming human body while effectively disrupting the growth of a pathogen, after predicting metabolites from in silico cells]
2010.04.05 View 14651
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Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen of the Kingdom of Denmark visited KAIST on March 11, 2010.
Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen of the Kingdom of Denmark visited KAIST on March 11, 2010. HUBO, a humanoid robotdeveloped by KAIST, gave a warm welcome to the prime minister and his delegation.
Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen of Denmark visited Moon-Ji Campus of KAIST on March 11, 2010 and had a chance to meet a humanoid robot, HUBO. Since the first appearance in 2005, HUBO has been continuously developed by KAIST for further refinements.
HUBO welcomed the prime minister and offered him a flower bouquet. They also shook hands and exchanged small talks in Danish, which made the delegation pleasantly surprised.
The Danish delegation had a ride on Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV) and showed a great interest in the technology applied therein.
The prime minister said, “Denmark has a keen interest in green technology, and I was very impressed by OLEV. It is just amazing to see how fast KAIST has developed as an outstanding research university in the world during a short period of time.”
President Lee Myung-bak invited the Danish prime minister to discuss current international developments, including issues involving the Korean Peninsula, and ways to enhance bilateral cooperation in such areas as trade, investment, renewable energy and green growth.
2010.03.17 View 12164
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Photonic crystals allow the fabrication of miniaturized spectrometers
By Courtesy of Nanowerk
Photonic crystals allow the fabrication of miniaturized spectrometers
(Nanowerk Spotlight) Spectrometers are used in materials analysis by measuring the absorption of light by a surface or chemical substance. These instruments measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. In conventional spectrometers, a diffraction grating splits the light source into several beams with different propagation directions according to the wavelength of the light. Thus, to achieve sufficient spatial separation for intensity measurements at a small slit, a long light path – i.e., a large instrument – is required.
However, for lab-on-a-chip or microTAS (total analysis system) applications, the spectrometer must be integrated into a sub-centimeter scale device to produce a stand-alone platform. To achieve this, researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) propose a new paradigm in which the spectrometer is based on an array of photonic crystals with different bandgaps.
"Because photonic crystals refelct light of different wavelengths selectively depending on their bandgaps, we can generate reflected light spanning the entire wavelength range for analysis at different spatial positions using patterned photonic crystals," Seung-Man Yang, Director of the National Creative Research Initiative Center for Intergrated Optofluidic Systems and Professor of the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST, tells Nanowerk. "Therefore, when the light source impinges on the patterned photonic crytals, we can construct the spectrum using the reflection intensity profile from the constituent photonic crystals."
Photonic crystals – also known as photonic band gap material – are similar to semiconductors, only that the electrons are replaced by photons (i.e. light). By creating periodic structures out of materials with contrast in their dielectric constants, it becomes possible to guide the flow of light through the photonic crystals in a way similar to how electrons are directed through doped regions of semiconductors. The photonic band gap (that forbids propagation of a certain frequency range of light) gives rise to distinct optical phenomena and enables one to control light with amazing facility and produce effects that are impossible with conventional optics.
To demonstrate this new concept based on patterned photonic crystals, Yang and his group used non-close-packed colloidal crystals of silica particles dispersed in photocurable resin. Due to the repulsive interparticle potential, monodisperse silica particles spontaneously crystallize into non-close-packed face-centered cubic (fcc) structures at volume fractions above 0.1. Therefore, the particle volume fraction determines both the lattice constant and the bandgap position.
a) Optical image of an ETPTA film containing porous photonic crystal stripe patterns with 20 different bandgaps. b) Reflectance spectra from the 20 strips. c) Optical microscope image of the middle region with the parallel stripe pattern (denoted as white-dotted box in a). d) Cross-sectional SEM images of first, sixth, eleventh and seventeenth strips. The scale bars in a, c and d are 1 cm, 2mm and 2 µm, respectively. (reprinted with permission from Wiley-VCH Verlag)
Reporting their findings in a recent issue of Advanced Materials ("Integration of Colloidal Photonic Crystals toward Miniaturized Spectrometers"), the KAIST team has demonstrated the integration of colloidal photonic crystals with 20 different bandgaps into freestanding films (prepared by soft lithography), and their application as a spectrometer.
Yang explains that the team was able to precisely control the photonic bandgap by varying the particle size and volume fration.
"The prepared colloidal composite structures showed high physical rigidity and chemical resistivity" he says. "The composite structure is suitable for spectroscopic use due to the small full widths at half maximum (FWHMs) of the reflectance spectra, which mean that there is little overlap of the reflectance spectra of neighboring photonic crystal strips."
"On the other hand" says Yang, "porous photonic crystals showed large FWHMs and high reflectivities, which should prove useful in many practical photonic applications that require high optical performance and physical rigidity as well as simple and inexpensive preparation."
In addition to fabricating miniaturized spectrometers, which can for instance be integrated into small lab-on-a-chip devices, these integrated photonic crystals can be potentially used for tunable band reflection mirrors, optical switches, and tunable lasing cavities. Moreover, patterned photonic crystals with RGB colors are well-suited for use in reflection-mode microdisplay devices.
Yang points out that, although the spectrometric resolution can be reduced by employing the smaller bandgap interval and photonic bandwidth, there is a limitation. "Now, we are studying photonic crystals with continuous modulation of bandgap position. We expect that the photonic crystals can reduce the resolution to 0.01 nm."
By Michael Berger. Copyright 2010 Nanowerk
2010.03.17 View 13067
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President Suh Hosted Press Conference with Seoul-based Correspondents, on March 9, 2010
President Suh Hosted Press Conference with Seoul-based Correspondents, on March 9, 2010
President Nam-Pyo Shu had a press conference with foreign correspondents based in Seoul, South Korea, on March 9, 2010 at Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club (SFCC).
Prior to the conference, the president and correspondents attended a ceremony for the completion of Online Electric Vehicles (OLEV) that carries passengers to look around the amusement park, Seoul Grand Park, in Gewacheon City. OLEV was developed and built by KAIST. Following President Suh’s opening speech, a questions and answers (Q&A) session between the president and reporters proceeded.
In his opening speech, President Suh said electric vehicles are an alternative to conventional automobiles with combustion engines, and in order to manufacture affordably priced electric vehicles on a large scale, their charging should be streamlined. In response, KAIST has come up with the online electric vehicle concept.
He added, without installing separate charging stations, OLEV receives electric power from the cables buried underground while driving, idling, or parking. Its connection to a power source is non-contact.
President Suh expressed his excitement for demonstrating OLEV at Seoul Grand Park that its system works as KAIST has designed and predicted. He showed his confidence that KAIST is indeed at the stage to implement OLEV in Seoul City soon and hoped to demonstrate it at the upcoming G-20 Summit to be held in November 2010 in Seoul City.
During the Q&A session, reporters cited the construction of OLEV at the amusement park and mainly asked about a possibility of its commercialization. Other topics, they also questioned about, were hurdles related to the development and commercialization of OLEV; level of cooperation received from industries and central/local governments; technological breakthroughs and accomplishments; future development plans for the commercialization; and reactions from the public and government.
Media outlets participated in the conference were Reuters, AFP, the International Herald Tribune, ABC News, Bloomberg News, Businessweek, Voice of America, Sankei Shimbun, and etc.
2010.03.16 View 9791
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KAIST introduced environmentally friendly public transportation to Seoul Grand Park.
KAIST introduced environmentally friendly public transportation to Seoul Grand Park.
First step toward the commercialization of Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV)
An online electric vehicle (OLEV) developed by KAIST replaced a trackless combustion-engine train running inside Seoul Grand Park in Gwacheon City, South Korea. On March 9, 2010, Seoul City and KAIST celebrated the completion of OLEV that picks up electricity from power cables buried underground through a non-contact magnetic charging method, called electromagnetic induction. Electromagnetic induction is the process of inducing electric current in a coil with the help of a magnet.
The pickup unit installed underneath OLEV collects electricity from a roadway and distributes the power either to operate the vehicle or for battery storage. Whether running or stopped, OLEV constantly receives electric power through the underground cables. As a result, OLEV mitigates the burden of equipping electric automobiles with heavy, bulky batteries—OLEV’s battery size is one-fifth that of the batteries installed in electric vehicles currently on the market.
There is no need to establish massive charging stations or to set aside much time for recharging. If the underground power lines installed on road curbs, bus stops, parking lots, and intersections, the power system could support a substantial portion of public transportation: For example, KAIST estimates that by establishing 20% of the road infrastructure for a bus route in Seoul City, the city could offer its citizens the online electric buses.
The non-contact charging of vehicles while running, idling, or parking is an important and practical technology necessary for the development of commercialized electric vehicles. This technology solves many of the issues related to the current batteries of electric vehicles, including size, expense, and repair/maintenance. In addition, non-contact charging is safer because it prevents potential electrical hazards, such as electric shock, that result from direct contact with power sources. Furthermore, it is more convenient to drive vehicles without overhead wires directly connected to power lines, as is necessary for streetcars and trams.
The recharging strips are divided into several meters of segments in length, and vehicles receive the power each time they pass over one. In other words, a sensor is affixed within each segment. When a car with the pickup equipment drives over the segment, the sensor is turned on for the car to receive electricity. This means that when a car without the pickup equipment passes over the segment, it will not collect any electricity.
The power supply via on/off switch (sensors) relieves safety concerns about electromagnetic field (EMF). Pedestrians or cars without the pickup unit will not be exposed to EMF because the sensor embedded in the segments will not work, thus no electricity generated. In addition, even under the circumstance of EMF yield, the test results for OLEV are well below the 1998 the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guideline, 62.5mG at 20khz. OLEV’s EMF test results range from 20mG (inside OLEV while running) to 50mG (around OLEV while parking).
When talking about a wireless energy transfer such as electromagnetic induction, the most critical issue is how to reserve an air gap of 12cm (in accordance with Korean law) between the surface of roads and the bottom of vehicles while having 60% power transmission efficiency or above. There was a similar research done in the US at University of Berkley—their research was considered unsuccessful because they obtained an air gap of 5-7cm with 60% maximum level of efficiency. Besides, their electromagnetic field (EMF) was quite high (2000A), and they were unable to bring down the high cost of installing power supply system. By contrast, for the first time in the world, KAIST has succeeded to obtain 12cm (and up to 17cm) of air gap with more than 70% efficiency level of power transmission. The EMF is also well below the international standard of 62.5mG. In a nutshell, KAIST has achieved a core technology in terms of capacity, efficiency, and EMF to develop electric vehicles for commercial use.
The city government of Seoul and KAIST signed a Memorandum of Understating (MOU) on the development of an online electric vehicle in August 2009. Against the backdrop of the public’s increased awareness of environmental pollution and the depletion of fossil fuels, the two organizations agreed to introduce eco-friendly vehicles to the city’s public transportation, beginning with the introduction of a trial version of OLEV to places like an amusement park, bus terminal, airport, shopping mall, and the like.
KAIST’s OLEV research team is made up of experts from a variety of fields, including electrical and electronics engineering, computer sciences, civil engineering, information technology, and mechanical engineering. OLEV’s success at Seoul Grand Park is a result of KAIST’s innovative initiatives on convergence research, and KAIST has submitted more than 120 applications for patents right in connection with the development of OLEV.
Online Electric Vehicle at Seoul Grand Park
In terms of power transmission efficiency, KAIST’s research team achieved a maximum pick-up capacity of 62kw/h, 74% with an air gap height of 13cm from a road to the bottom of a vehicle. Composed of one engine and three passenger cars, OLEV travels along a total length of 2.2km beltway. There are four sections of power supply infrastructure established on the route (Sections 1, 2, and 3: 122.5 meters long each, and Section 4: 5 meters long). The power supply cables were laid underground for a total of 372.5 meters, 16% of the total distance of the 2,200 meter route.
2010.03.12 View 12532