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"2011 Korean Language and Culture Festival" held in commemoration of KAIST 40th Anniversary
“2011 Korean Language and Culture Festival” was hosted by KAIST from the 5th of October to the 8th of October for 4 days at various locations within campus and BaekJae Cultural Complex in Daejeon City. The festival was aimed at increasing foreigners’ understanding about Korean culture and language and at the same time, introduced about KAIST, the home of the best minds in Korea’s science and technology.
The festival was part of the KAIST 40th anniversary celebratory events, which included 1) Korean Speaking Competition, 2) Korean Traditional Music Performance by Daejeon City Orchestra, 3) Foreigners Talent Show, 4) Tour of BaekJae Cultural Complex, and others such as lecture given by Chairman Lee Cham of Korea Tourism Organization.
In the Korean Speaking Competition, 10 foreigners who passed the preliminaries competed by giving speeches with the theme on “Korea that I’ve experienced.” The speakers were given 5 minutes for speech, and their presentations were graded based on uniqueness, fluency, appropriateness, and fluidity in spoken Korean. 200,000 Korean Won was given to a winner as prize.
In addition, the chance for foreigners to visit the BaekJae Cultural Complex allowed them to experience firsthand “traditional Korean culture,” through which they had a good opportunity to develop a better understanding on Korea as a whole.
Director of KAIST Language Center Michael Park commented, “The festival was a meaningful and important occasion for foreigners to appreciate Korean culture and language, and it would be a great step towards foreigners’ gaining a solid understanding of Korean culture and language to the extent that they become to know better about DaeJeon, the city they live in.”
2011.10.10 View 8215 -
Professor Son Hoon received "Structural Health Monitoring Person of the Year Award."
Professor Son Hoon (42) of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering received the “Structural Health Monitoring Person of the Year Award” at an international workshop on structural health monitoring held in Stanford University.
The award is given by the editor and advisors of prestigious international magazine, “Journal of Structural Health Monitoring,” to a researcher with the best research record in a year. Professor Son has published 42 SCI level dissertations, registered 17 patents both domestically and internationally, and presented over 100 papers in international journals, for which he was recognized with the award. Professor Son is the first Korean who receives this award.
One of the most significant achievements by Professor Son was “reference-free damage diagnosis” that he had developed in 2007. The diagnosis allows for the detection of wear and tear of a structure without having to use the foundation signal from the initial stages of the structure. The diagnosis contributed greatly in increasing the reliability of the signal information received from smart sensors attached to the structure by eliminating the environmental impact like temperature.
Professor Son is currently working on green energy structural health monitoring system development related projects. His current work deals with airplanes, bridges, nuclear facilities, high speed railways, wind turbines, and etc. in cooperation with Boeing, United States Air Force Research Institute, Korea Research Foundation, Ministry of Defense Research Institute, Korea Expressway Corporation, POSCO, and etc.
In addition, Professor Son successfully adopted a local monitoring method using smart piezoelectric sensors on a bridge in New Jersey as part of the Long Term Bridge Performance Program initiated by the National Highway Bureau. The success was even introduced in New Jersey’s public TV and newspaper agencies.
Professor Son was given tenure at a record age of 39 in 2008 and received numerous awards given out by the Ministry of Education and Science and international organizations like the ‘Edward M Curtis’ Professor Award from Purdue University.
2011.10.10 View 9982 -
KAIST's efforts begin to become the first Korean university establishing a "strategic technology management system."
KAIST completed the signing of business agreement with the Korea Strategic Trade Institute to establish a strategic technology management system on the 22nd of September.
The agreement between KAIST and Korea Strategic Trade Institute (under the Ministry of Knowledge Economy) encompasses 1) the establishment of processes for strategic technology management on campus, 2) development and accommodation of management system on par with major countries, and 3) protection and management through continued education and promotion.
Strategic technology management is necessary to prevent the illegal distribution of technologies developed in Korea to those countries and organizations of concern. The need for the management system arose due to the fact that technology transfer has become venerable to illegal export of strategic technologies.
The agreement between the two parties offer protection to KAIST when exporting strategic technologies as it necessitates the permission of the government prior to the technology transfer.
2011.09.27 View 7729 -
A frugal couple donates life savings of '35billion Korean Won' to KAIST.
Chairman Kim Byoung Ho and Mrs. Kim Sang Yeol have been the center of attention with various news articles and columns detailing their generous donation of real estate to KAIST, which amounted to 35billion Korean Won in value in total. Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) broadcasted a story on Chairman Byoung Ho and Mrs. Kim Sang Yeol on the 22nd of September. The broadcast link: http://news.kbs.co.kr/society/2011/09/22/2360159.html
Yahoo News also posted their donation on September 21, 2011. News link: http://ph.news.yahoo.com/frugal-woman-donates-4-3m-science-041003479.html
2011.09.27 View 8766 -
In Demand: Ideas that can change the world in 10 years.
The hot topic of the day was from KOLON group (Chairman Lee Oung Yeol) and its decision to hold a contest exhibition specifically aimed at KAIST students, professors and staff on ideas that could potentially change the everyday lifestyle in the near future. It is the first time a Korean company in the top 30 to hold such a contest aimed at a specific university.
The total prize money involved amounts to 50million Korean Won which will be handed out to ten teams. The 1st prize will be given to one team along with 20million Korean Won, the 2nd prize will be given to two teams each receiving 10million Korean Won, and the rest of the teams will be given 1million Korean Won worth in gift certificates.
The idea contest is planned by KOLON-KAIST Lifestyle Innovation Center (from here on referred to as KOLON LSI Center). Anyone who is part of the KAIST community can participate by preparing a two A4 page report and sending it to kolon.kaist.dreamer@gmail.com until October 31st five o’clock in the afternoon. The results and the awards ceremony will be held on the 23rd of November on ‘KOLON Day’.
The Executive Director of KOLON Kim Kyung Yong commented, “The dreams of yesteryears like shrinking a room sized computer to fit in the palm of my hand and being able to communicate to anyone in the world have become reality. The KAIST community is composed of Korea’s finest in the field of Science, and it seemed fitting to search the KAIST community to find ideas that could potentially change the world in ten years’ time.”
2011.09.26 View 8584 -
Professor Kim Seung Woo and Professor Ko Kyu Young Receive the 7th Gyeong Am Scholar Awards.
Professors Kim Seung Woo and Ko Kyu Young of KAIST were named the winners for the 7th Gyeong Am Scholar Awards.
The award winners are: Professor Ko Kyu Young of KAIST in the Biological Sciences category, Professor Kim Seung Woo of KAIST in the Engineering category, Professor Kim Young Shik of Seoul National University and Professor Kil Hui Seoung of Sogang University in the Humanities category, and Professor Hong Byoung Hee of Seoul National University in the Natural Sciences category.
In the Liberal Arts category leader of Universal Ballet Company Moon Hoon Sook was chosen, and the Special Achievement Award was given to Historian Dr. Park Myoung Sun. Professor Ko discovered that it is Angionpoietin-1 that induces the growth of new blood vessels and thus made a significant contribution to the field of blood vessel formation, immune mechanism, and causes of cancer spread.
Professor Kim developed a mini extreme ultra violet laser light source using the resonance principles of plasmon and made a great contribution in the acquiring of core technologies and its industrial commercialization in the field of super precise optical instruments.
Gyeong Am Education and Culture Foundation was founded by the Chairman of Tae Yang Group, Song Geum Jo who had donated his entire fortune amounting to 100billion Korean Won to society by creating a public foundation aimed at encouraging advancements in learning, training of experts, and cultural developments for the betterment of Korea.
The Gyeong Am Scholar Awards was established in 2005 and recognizes those scholars and artists who are making significant contributions in the frontlines of society.
The awards ceremony is to be held at Busan on the 4th of November, three thirty in the afternoon and the winner of each category is to receive 100mil Korean Won in prize money with a commemorative plaque.
2011.09.26 View 10323 -
10th Annual POSTECH-KAIST Competition: 'Revenge of the Blue Dragon'
KAIST is out for revenge after losing last year in the POSTECH-KAIST Annual Competition, a college rivalry between the two science and technology schools. The competition was held over two days, 23rd and 24th of September and involved 2,000 students from the two universities.
The POSTECH-KAIST Competition, also known as ‘Science War,’ is an annual event which started in 2002 to encourage active interaction between the two universities and increase public interest in science and technology education. The 2011 Competition marked the 10th competition as the 2009 competition was cancelled due to “swine influenza.”
The Competition is held every mid-September, and the title of the competition depends on the venue; the name of the host university is marked last by convention, hence the 2011 Science War was known as ‘POSTECH-KAIST Competition’ since the competition was held in KAIST.
The competition is composed of Hacking Competition, Science Trivia, Artificial Intelligence Programming Contest, StarCraft, Soccer, Baseball, and Basketball.
800 points are up for grabs, and the university with the most points wins. Both universities have won four times and lost four times and therefore promises to be a mouthwatering encounter this year.
Apart from the various competitions, interaction between clubs, cheerleading performances, and congratulatory concert (Dynamic Duo) were prepared. In addition, a beer party was hosted from 11pm of the first day of the competition to 2am the following day which brought students from the two universities closer together.
President Seo Nam Pyo of KAIST commented, “I am very happy that the two universities at the forefront of Korean Science and Technology can come together to interact and compete wholeheartedly through the 10th POSTECH-KAIST Competition” and that, “I hope that the students can exhibit the skills and ability that they have practiced hard on and uphold the proud history and tradition of KAIST.”
All games can be viewed at http://voki.kaist.ac.kr after the end of the Competition.
2011.09.26 View 8117 -
Bicycle Sharing System "Ta-Shu" Arrives at KAIST.
KAIST has begun providing a bike rental service, called “Ta-Shu,” to its students. This bicycle sharing system, implemented in tandem with the local city government, has been in service since the 7th of September and will allow KAIST students to rent bicycles for travel within campus and even to other parts of the city, Daejeon.
The ‘University Pubic-Bicycle Rental System’ is a program in which numbers of bicycles are made available for shared use by students. Initiated by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, the university expects that more students will use bicycles as part of their daily mobility means through this system.
2011.09.22 View 7898 -
Cancer detection from an implantable, flexible LED
Professor Keon Jae Lee
A KAIST research team has developed a new type of biocompatible and bendable GaN LED biosensor.
Daejeon, the Republic of Korea, August 8, 2011—Can a flexible LED conformably placed on the human heart, situated on the corrugated surface of the human brain, or rolled upon the blood vessels, diagnose or even treat various diseases? These things might be a reality in the near future.
The team of Professor Keon Jae Lee (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, KAIST) has developed a new concept: a biocompatible, flexible Gallium Nitride (GaN) LED that can detect prostate cancer.
GaN LED, a highly efficient light emitting device, has been commercialized in LED TVs and in the lighting industry. Until now, it has been difficult to use this semiconductor material to fabricate flexible electronic systems due to its brittleness. The research team, however, has succeeded in developing a highly efficient, flexible GaN LED and in detecting cancer using a flexible LED biosensor.
Prof. Lee was involved in the first co-invention of "High Performance Flexible Single Crystal GaN" during his PhD course at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). This flexible GaN LED biosensor utilized a similar protocol to transfer thin GaN LED films onto flexible substrates, followed by a biocompatible packaging process; the system’s overall potential for use in implantable biomedical applications was demonstrated.
Professor John Roger (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, UIUC) said,
“Bio-integrated LEDs represent an exciting, new technology with strong potential to address important challenges in human health. This present work represents a very nice contribution to this emerging field.”
This paper was published in the online issue of Nano Energy Elsevier Journal (Editor, Prof. Zhong Lin Wang) dated September 16, 2011.
Flexible GaN LED produces blue light.
2011.09.20 View 10570 -
Mrs. Kim Sam Yeol donates to KAIST 5 billion Korean Won in real estate following her husband Chairman Kim Byoung Ho's act of generosity.
“Everything is hard the first time around, but it becomes easier from the second time around. The same goes for donation. I wish my small donation can go a long way in the development of KAIST.”
Chairman Kim Byoung Ho donated to KAIST 30 billion Korean Won in real estate in 2009 and on the 19th of September of 2011, his wife Mrs. Kim Sam Yeol visited President Seo Nam Pyo at KAIST Seoul campus to donate 5 billion Korean Won in real estate.
It is the first time in KAIST history that the donator of a substantial donation or his/her family member donates once more, an equally substantial donation. Mrs. Kim relayed that, “Seeing the Kim Byoung Ho & Kim Same Yeol IT Fusion Center start construction in May of this year as a result of my husband’s donation made me think how great a contribution we have made in the development of this country” and that “It has been some time since I decided to make additional donation upon the completion of the IT Fusion Center in December.”
She explained that the earlier than planned donation reflects her wish that KAIST begin using and investing her donation as quickly as possible.
Mrs. Kim stated that, “We planned to build a mansion to live in in commemoration of our 30th wedding anniversary on the real estate property we donated, but it seemed much better and meaningful to take part in the joy of giving and donate to KAIST with the belief that the property will be used in a more meaningful way.”
She went on to say that, “It was harder to make the decision to donate the second time around. We felt sorry for our son and his spouse, but our decision was made final when we thought of the professors, students, staff, including President Seo Nam Pyo who spend day and night working to develop science and technology in Korea.”
Her husband Chairman Kim Byoung Ho agreed to donate the real estate property to KAIST.
President Seo commented, “Mrs. Kim Sam Yeol’s donation will contribute greatly to the spread of the ‘donation virus’ and will be marked as the start of a new chapter. In order to commemorate her goodwill for KAIST, it will be seen to it that the donation will be used in manner that is meaningful and beneficial to the development of KAIST.”
The couple, Kim Byoung Ho and Kim Sam Yeol, has donated a sum of 20 million Korean Won since their 2009 donation for the development of KAIST.
2011.09.20 View 8193 -
Professor Lee Sang Yeop Nominated the Chairman of Emerging Technologies Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum
Professor Lee Sang Yeop, Dean of College Life Science & Bioengineering, was appointed as the chairman of the Emerging Technologies Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum.
He will be in office till the 31st of August 2012, exactly 1 year from the date of his appointment.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a ‘think tank’ consisting of world leaders in various fields like economics, politics, and policies and has created the ‘Global Agenda Council’ to solve the problems mankind faces in achieving environmentally sustainable growth and suggest a collective vision and strategy.
The committee to be chaired by Professor Lee (Emerging Technologies Global Agenda Council) will discuss the direction in which the fields of biological engineering, nanotechnology, and IT (information technology) should develop and discuss the possible impact these fields will have on the society.
Professor Lee commented that, “I am extremely happy to be appointed as the chair of the Emerging Technologies Global Agenda Council at the World Economic Forum which is a gathering of world class leaders” and that “it is a great opportunity to spread Korea’s success and lessons in the advancement of science and technology.”
Professor Lee is the creator of the field of system metabolism engineering and is making great strides in manipulating the microorganism’s metabolic pathways on a systems scale to make changing chemicals derived from oil into eco-friendly and bio-based products.
2011.09.20 View 8997 -
KAIST Began to Operate 20 Specialized Patent Offices
KAIST’s Industry-University Collaboration Team started the operation of 20 specialized patent offices in order to improve the efficiency and specialty of patenting and commercialization of research results of KAIST. With the start of the operation of the patent offices, KAIST now has laid the groundwork for creating patent rights and improved patent use through improving services for technology developers and inventors.
The patent offices will offer various types of support related to patent rights and technology transfer by providing services such as interviews with inventors, preliminary reviews of technologies, and evaluations to find the invented technology patents worthwhile.
KAIST overwhelmingly outpaced other universities in the nation and ranked the “number one research university” in patent ownerships. According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office that investigated the number of patents domestic universities had acquired over the period of 5 years from 2006 to 2010, KAIST had 4,403 patents and was named the first in the fields of information and communication, electric materials and semiconductors, electronic circuit, automobile, and inorganic chemistry.
2011.09.20 View 7051