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KAIST confers Honorary Doctorate of Science on NYU President Emeritus John Edward Sexton
< Photo 1. NYU President Emeritus John Edward Sexton posing with KAIST President Kwang Hyung Lee holding the Honorary Doctorate at the KAIST Commencement Ceremony >
KAIST (President Kwang Hyung Lee) announced that it conferred an honorary doctorate of science degree on NYU President Emeritus John Edward Sexton at the Commencement Ceremony held on the 17th.
An official from KAIST explained, "KAIST is conferring an honorary doctorate for President Sexton's longstanding leadership in higher education, and for his contributions to the process of establishing the groundwork for collaboration with NYU through which KAIST is to become a leading global value-creating university."
President Emeritus Sexton served as the president of NYU from 2002 to 2015, establishing two degree-granting campuses and several global academic sites of NYU around the world. Because of its steady rise in university rankings, such as its medical school earning the number two position in the United States, not only has NYU joined the ranks of first-class universities, but it has also achieved remarkable growth, with the number of students increasing dramatically from 29,000 to 60,000.
In addition, during his tenure as president at NYU, President Emeritus Sexton successfully expanded fundraising to support the University’s academic goals. During his 14-year tenure as president, he organized initiatives such as 'Raise $1 Million Every Day' and 'Call to Action' to raise $4.9 billion in donations, the largest in NYU history to date.
President Emeritus Sexton is famous for teaching full time even during his presidential tenure and for the anecdotes about his special care for students, addressing the school members as “family”. In particular, he is famous for giving hugs to all graduates at the commencement ceremony. Minister Park Jin of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Korea, who graduated from NYU School of Law in 1999 with a Master of Studies in Law, is one of the graduates who received President Sexton's hug.
President Emeritus Sexton, born in 1942, visited KAIST on the 17th to receive the honorary doctorate and to encourage the expedited development of the KAIST-NYU Joint Campus, for which he helped lay the foundation.
President Emeritus Sexton said, "I like the slogan, 'Onward and upward together,'" and added, "I look forward to having the two universities achieve their shared vision of becoming the world-class universities together through cooperation to establish the KAIST-NYU Joint Campus."
< Photo 2. NYU President Emeritus John Edward Sexton giving the acceptance speech at the KAIST Commencement Ceremony >
The US Ambassador to Korea, the Honorable Philip Goldberg, also attended the commencement ceremony at KAIST to congratulate President Emeritus Sexton on the conferment of the honorary doctorate. Ambassador Goldberg has been serving as the US Ambassador to Korea since July of last year.
President Kwang Hyung Lee said, “President Emeritus Sexton was a president best described as an innovator who promoted diversity in education and pursued academic excellence throughout his life.” He went on to say, “The KAIST-NYU Joint Campus, which will be completed on the foundation laid by President Emeritus Sexton, will serve as the focal point that will attract global talents flooding into New York by the driving force created from the synergy of the two universities as well as serving as a starting point for KAIST's outstanding talents to pursue their dreams toward the world.”
KAIST signed a cooperation agreement with NYU in June of 2022 to build a joint campus, and held a presentation of signage for the KAIST-NYU Joint Campus in September. Currently, about 60 faculty members are planning to begin joint research initiatives in seven fields, including robotics, AI, brain sciences, and climate change. In addition, cooperation in the field of education, including student exchange, minors, double majors, and joint degrees, is under discussion.
2023.02.17 View 8420 -
UAE Space Program Leaders named to be the 1st of the honorees of KAIST Alumni Association's special recognition for graduates of foreign nationality
The KAIST Alumni Association (Chairman, Chil-Hee Chung) announced on the 12th that the winners of the 2023 KAIST Distinguished Alumni Award and International Alumni Award has been selected.
The KAIST Distinguished Alumni Award, which produced the first recipient in 1992, is an award given to alumni who have contributed to the development of the nation and society, or who have glorified the honor of their alma mater with outstanding academic achievements and social and/or communal contributions.
On a special note, this year, there has been an addition to the honors, “the KAIST Distinguished International Alumni Award” to honor and encourage overseas alumni who are making their marks in the international community that will boost positive recognition of KAIST in the global setting and will later become a bridge that will expedite Korea's international efforts in the future.
As of 2022, the number of international students who succeeded in earning KAIST degrees has exceeded 1,700, and they are actively doing their part back in their home countries as leaders in various fields in which they belong, spanning from science and technology, to politics, industry and other corners of the society.
(From left) Omran Sharaf, the Assistant Minister of UAE Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for Advanced Science and Technology, Amer Al Sayegh the Director General of Space Project at MBRSC, and Mohammed Al Harmi the Director General of Administration at MBRSC (Photos provided by the courtesy of MBRSC)
To celebrate and honor their outstanding achievements, the KAIST Alumni Association selected a team of three alumni of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to receive the Distinguished International Alumni Award for the first time. The named honorees are Omran Sharaf, a master’s graduate from the Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy, and Amer Al Sayegh and Mohammed Al Harmi, master’s graduates of the Department of Aerospace Engineering - all three of the class of 2013 in leading positions in the UAE space program to lead the advancement of the science and technology of the country.
Currently, the three alums are in directorship of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) with Mr. Omran Sharaf, who has recently been appointed as the Assistant Minister in charge of Advanced Science and Technology at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, being the Project Director of the Emirates Mars Mission of MBRSC and Mr. Amer Al Sayegh in the Director General position in charge of Space Project and Mr. Mohammed Al Harmi, the Director General of Administration, at MBRSC.
They received technology transfer from “SatRec I”, Korea's first satellite system exporter and KAIST alumni company, for about 10 years from 2006, while carrying out their master’s studies at the same time.
Afterwards, they returned to UAE to lead the Emirates Mars Mission, which is already showing tangible progress including the successful launch of the Mars probe "Amal" (ال امل, meaning ‘Hope’ in Arabic), which was the first in the Arab world and the fifth in the world to successfully enter into orbit around Mars, and the UAE’s first independently developed Earth observation satellite "KhalifaSat".
An official from the KAIST Alumni Association said, "We selected the Distinguished International Alumni after evaluating their industrious leadership in promoting various space industry strategies, ranging from the development of Mars probes and Earth observation satellites, as well as lunar exploration, asteroid exploration, and Mars residence plans."
(From left) Joo-Sun Choi, President & CEO of Samsung Display Co. Ltd., Jung Goo Cho, the CEO of Green Power Co. Ltd., Jong Seung Park, the President of Agency for Defense Development (ADD), Kyunghyun Cho, Professor of New York University (NYU)
Also, four of the Korean graduates, Joo-Sun Choi, the CEO of Samsung Display, Jung Goo Cho, the CEO of Green Power Co. Ltd., Jong Seung Park, the President of Agency for Defense Development (ADD), and Kyunghyun Cho, a Professor of New York University (NYU), were selected as the winners of the “Distinguished Alumni Award”.
Mr. Joo-Sun Choi (Electrical and Electronic Engineering, M.S. in 1989, Ph.D. in 1995), the CEO of Samsung Display, led the successful development and mass-production of the world's first ultra-high-definition QD-OLED Displays, and preemptively transformed the structure of business of the industry and has been leading the way in technological innovation.
Mr. Jung Goo Cho (Electrical and Electronic Engineering, M.S. in 1988, Ph.D. in 1992), the CEO of Green Power Co. Ltd., developed wireless power technology for the first time in Korea in the early 2000s and applied it to semiconductor/display lines and led the wireless power charging technology in various fields, such as developing KAIST On-Line Electric Vehicles (OLEV) and commercializing the world's first wireless charger for 11kW electric vehicles.
Mr. Jong Seung Park (Mechanical Engineering, M.S. in 1988, Ph.D., in 1991), The President of ADD is an expert with abundant science and technology knowledge and organizational management capabilities. He is contributing greatly to national defense and security through science and technology.
Mr. Kyunghyun Cho (Computer Science, B.S., in 2009), the Professor of Computer Science and Data Science at NYU, is a world-renowned expert in Artificial Intelligence (AI), advancing the concept of 'Neural Machine Translation' in the field of natural language processing, to make great contributions to AI translation technology and related industries.
Chairman Chil-Hee Chung, the 26th Chair of KAIST Alumni Association “As each year goes by, I feel that the influence of KAIST alumni goes beyond science and technology to affect our society as a whole.” He went on to say, “This year, as it was more meaningful to extend the award to honor the international members of our Alums, we look forward to seeing more of our alumni continuing their social and academic endeavors to play an active role in the global stage in taking on the global challenges.”
The Ceremony for KAIST Distinguished Alumni and International Alumni Award Honorees will be conducted at the Annual New Year’s Event of KAIST Alumni Association for 2023 to be held on Friday, January 13th, at the Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas.
2023.01.12 View 13075 -
2022 Global Startup Internship Fair (GSIF)
From November 30 to December 1, 2022, the Center for Global Strategies and Planning at KAIST held the 2022 Global Startup Internship Fair (GSIF) on-line and off-line, as well.
Including the globally acknowledged unicorn companies such as PsiQuantum and Moloco, eleven startups — ImpriMed, Vessel AI, Genedit, Medic Life Sciences, Bringko, Brave Turtles, Neozips, Luckmon and CUPIX — joined the fair. Among the eleven invited companies, six were founded by KAIST Alumni representatives. The invited companies sought student interns in the field of AI, biotechnology, quantum, logistics, games, advertisement, real estate, and e-commerce. In response, about 100 KAIST students with various backgrounds have shown their interest in the event through pre-reservation.
Participating companies at this fair introduced their companies and conducted recruitment and career counseling with KAIST students. Sungwon Lim, the CEO of ImpriMed and a KAIST alumni, said, “It was very meaningful to introduce ImpriMed to junior students and share my experiences that I gained while pioneering and operating startups in the United States.” To share his journey as a global startup CEO, Lim has been invited as an off-line speaker during this event.
< ImpriMed CEO, Sungwon Lim >
In addition to the recruiting sessions, the fair held information sessions offering guidelines and useful tips on seeking opportunities overseas including information on obtaining a J1 visa, applying to U.S. internships, relocating to Silicon Valley, and writing CVs, cover letters, and business emails.
Professor Man-Sung Yim, the Associate Vice President of the International Office at KAIST, stressed, “A growing number of students at KAIST want to become a global entrepreneur, and hands-on experience gained from U.S. startups is absolutely necessary to achieve their goals.” He added, “the 2022 GSIF was one of those opportunities for KAIST students to further their dream of becoming global leaders.”
2022.12.01 View 6324 -
Anonymous Donor Makes a Gift of Property Valued at 30 Billion KRW
The KAIST Development Foundation announced on May 9 that an anonymous donor in his 50s made a gift of real estate valued at 30 billion KRW. This is the first donation from an anonymous benefactor on such a grand scale. The benefactor expressed his wishes to fund scholarships for students in need and R&D for medical and bio sciences.
According to the Development Foundation official, the benefactor is reported to have said that he felt burdened that he earned much more than he needed and was looking for the right way to share his assets. The benefactor refused to hold an official donation ceremony and meeting with high-level university administrators.
The donor believes that KAIST is filled with young and dynamic energy, saying, “I would like to help KAIST move forward and create breakthroughs that will benefit the nation as well as all humanity.”
Before making up his mind to give his asset to KAIST, he had planned to establish his own social foundation but he changed his mind. “I decided that an investment in education would be the best investment,” he said. He explained that he was inspired by his KAIST graduate friend who is running a company. He was deeply motivated to help KAIST after witnessing the KAIST graduate’s passion for conducting his business.
After receiving the gift, KAIST President Kwang Hyung Lee was thankful for the full support and trust of the benefactor. “We will spare no effort to foster next-generation talents and advance science and technology in the field of biomedicine.”
2022.05.11 View 5217 -
KAA Recognizes 4 Distinguished Alumni of the Year
The KAIST Alumni Association (KAA) recognized four distinguished alumni of the year during a ceremony on February 25 in Seoul. The four Distinguished Alumni Awardees are Distinguished Professor Sukbok Chang from the KAIST Department of Chemistry, Hyunshil Ahn, head of the AI Economy Institute and an editorial writer at The Korea Economic Daily, CEO Hwan-ho Sung of PSTech, and President Hark Kyu Park of Samsung Electronics.
Distinguished Professor Sukbok Chang who received his MS from the Department of Chemistry in 1985 has been a pioneer in the novel field of ‘carbon-hydrogen bond activation reactions’. He has significantly contributed to raising Korea’s international reputation in natural sciences and received the Kyungam Academic Award in 2013, the 14th Korea Science Award in 2015, the 1st Science and Technology Prize of Korea Toray in 2018, and the Best Scientist/Engineer Award Korea in 2019. Furthermore, he was named as a Highly Cited Researcher who ranked in the top 1% of citations by field and publication year in the Web of Science citation index for seven consecutive years from 2015 to 2021, demonstrating his leadership as a global scholar.
Hyunshil Ahn, a graduate of the School of Business and Technology Management with an MS in 1985 and a PhD in 1987, was appointed as the first head of the AI Economy Institute when The Korea Economic Daily was the first Korean media outlet to establish an AI economy lab. He has contributed to creating new roles for the press and media in the 4th industrial revolution, and added to the popularization of AI technology through regulation reform and consulting on industrial policies.
PSTech CEO Hwan-ho Sung is a graduate of the School of Electrical Engineering where he received an MS in 1988 and a PhD in EMBA in 2008. He has run the electronics company PSTech for over 20 years and successfully localized the production of power equipment, which previously depended on foreign technology. His development of the world’s first power equipment that can be applied to new industries including semiconductors and displays was recognized through this award.
Samsung Electronics President Hark Kyu Park graduated from the School of Business and Technology Management with an MS in 1986. He not only enhanced Korea’s national competitiveness by expanding the semiconductor industry, but also established contract-based semiconductor departments at Korean universities including KAIST, Sungkyunkwan University, Yonsei University, and Postech, and semiconductor track courses at KAIST, Sogang University, Seoul National University, and Postech to nurture professional talents. He also led the national semiconductor coexistence system by leading private sector-government-academia collaborations to strengthen competence in semiconductors, and continues to make unconditional investments in strong small businesses.
KAA President Chilhee Chung said, “Thanks to our alumni contributing at the highest levels of our society, the name of our alma mater shines brighter. As role models for our younger alumni, I hope greater honours will follow our awardees in the future.”
2022.03.03 View 7337 -
KPC4IR Publishes Global Standards Mapping Initiative 2.0
The report highlights South Korea as an early adopter of blockchain in policy and business
The KAIST Policy Center for the 4IR (KPC4IR), one of the nine working groups of the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC), published the Global Standards Mapping Initiative (GSMI) 2.0, highlighting Korea as an early adopter of blockchain. The report also offers an overview of how blockchain was adopted through an analysis of policy and business cases of South Korea.
In partnership with 131 institutions, GSMI 2.0 maps, catalogues, and analyzes data from 187 jurisdictions, 479 industry consortia, 38 technical standards, and 389 university courses and degree programs to provide a holistic view of the industry’s global activity.
Among the nine working groups, KAIST is the sole investigator for researching South Korea’s adoption of blockchain for policy and business. It says that in terms of policy and regulations for blockchain as a virtual asset, South Korea amended the Act on Reporting and Using Specific Financial Transaction Information to comply with the Financial Action Task Force’s recommendations.
The report also reviewed South Korea’s blockchain R&D. Seventeen ministries have funded 417 projects to cultivate blockchain inventions since 2015. Significantly, the Ministry of Science and ICT’s Blockchain Convergence Technology Development Program supported 50 projects between 2018 and 2021. Their R&D focused on virtual assets during the initial stage in 2015 and soon shifted its application to various domains, including identification and logistics.
The report noted that the Korea Customs Service was one of the first agencies in the world to introduce blockchain into customs clearance. Through collaborations with the private sector, the Korean government has also created the world’s first blockchain-based vaccination certification services and extended it to a globally integrated decentralized identity system.
Finally, the report states that these South Korean cases highlight three ambiguities in blockchain policies. First, blockchain involves both financial and industrial features. Thus, it needs a new regulatory framework that embraces the two features together.
Second, integrating services on a blockchain platform will bring forth seamless automation of industries across the manufacturing, financial, and public sectors. South Korea, which already has well-proven manufacturing capabilities, is in need of a comprehensive strategy to encompass multiple services on one platform.
Third, the two cases of the government’s adoption of blockchain suggest that innovations in blockchain can be facilitated through effective cooperation among government ministries and agencies regarding particular businesses in the private sector. Consequently, the government’s policy is not simply to invest in virtual assets but also to develop a virtual-physical world woven by blockchain. The new environment demands that South Korea transform its policy stances on blockchain, from specialization to comprehensiveness and cooperation.
Professor So Young Kim who heads the center said, “This report shows the main lessons from South Korea for other countries adopting blockchain. We will continue to work closely with our partners including the World Economic Forum to investigate many other global issues.”
2021.12.21 View 6293 -
A Judicial Scrivener in His 90s Donates to AI Research
Dong-Myoung Kim donated 2 billion KRW to fund the Kim Jae-Chul AI Graduate School
Dong-Myong Kim, a 90-year-old resident living in Seongnam City in Kyonggido made a gift of 300 million KRW in cash and property valued at 1.7 billion KRW to fund the Kim Jae-Chul AI Graduate School. KAIST President Kwang Hyung Lee and a senior leadership team warmly received Kim during the donation ceremony on December 6 and delivered a plaque of appreciation.
Kim, a certified judicial scrivener, sent a letter regarding his intention to donate to the KAIST Development Foundation Office in October. Development foundation officers contacted him for a meeting and presented the major achievements of KAIST and new vision for the future during the meeting. After meeting with KAIST officials, Kim completed all the legal procedures for donating such as handing over the title of his property.
A Development Foundation official said that Kim was well aware of what KAIST has achieved and is doing now. “He had already searched KAIST’s website and scrutinized what we are doing now. He was clear about his intentions,” said the official.
Kim said that media news reports on the recent series of huge donations to KAIST inspired him. “I thought there was something special behind the donors’ intention to make such a decision.”
Kim said the studies on futurism he started in the 1980s led him to become interested in new technologies. “I firmly believe that KAIST will make huge contributions to the nation and our society through advances in science and technology. It is said that the joy of giving is much larger than that of receiving. I am now experiencing such immense joy. I will be even happier if KAIST can lead the nation through its AI research.”
President Kwang Hyung Lee said Kim’s letter of intention touched him deeply. He thanked Kim, saying that the entire KAIST community will make every effort to respond to Kim’s donation wishes.
2021.12.08 View 5011 -
Metaverse Factory Center to Improve SME’s Competitiveness
The center is expected to enhance the manufacturing competitiveness of SMEs and root industry
KAIST opened the ‘Metaverse Factory Experience Center for Manufacturing AI’ on November 1 at the KAIST Bigdata Center for Manufacturing AI. The AI-powered manufacturing metaverse factory will provide real-life experiences for the analysis and application of manufacturing data. Funded by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the center is a collaboration with Digiforet, which donated the software system to KAIST.
The center allows users to experience the collection, analysis, and utilization process of manufacturing data equivalent to that of real manufacturing sites. Users can connect to the service from anywhere in the world using AR/VR/XR equipment and a metaverse solution, which allows small and middle-sized domestic manufacturing companies to overcome the challenges of entering and selling their production lines overseas in the post-COVID-19 era. The platform is an opportunity for such companies to introduce and export their excellent manufacturing techniques.
With the same manufacturing and AI processes of real production sites, the injection molding metaverse factory for plastic screw production runs simulations of the products they will make. Based on the data collection parameters (temperature, pressure, speed, location, time, etc.) built into the Korea AI Manufacturing Platform, an AI-powered SME manufacturing platform, the metaverse factory can detect causes of defects, provide analysis, and guide improvements in productivity and product quality.
Starting with the injection molding equipment metaverse factory, the platform aims to expand into plating, welding, molding, casting, forging, and annealing, and become a root industry to contribute greatly to enhancing the manufacturing competitiveness of Korea’s small and middle-sized root industries.
Il-Joong Kim, head of the KAIST Manufacturing AI Bigdata Center where the metaverse factory is located, said, “To successfully incorporate manufacturing AI into production sites, it is indispensable that various AI algorithms are tested to optimize decisions. The platform allows users to collect manufacturing data and to experience and test AI analysis simultaneously without interrupting the production process, making it highly effective.”
KAIST President Kwang Hyung Lee said, “We will support the close academic-industrial cooperation with Digiforet such as this collaborative for improving SMEs’ competitiveness.”
Digiforet CEO Sunghoon Park, who donated a whole HW/SW interface for the construction of the Metaverse Factory Experience Center for Manufacturing AI, said, “I will do my best to realize the best “Metaverse Factory for Manufacturing AI” in the world by combining the AI and bigdata accumulated at KAIST and Digiforet’s XR metaverse technology.”
2021.11.03 View 7078 -
3 KAIST PhD Candidates Selected as the 2021 Google PhD Fellows
PhD candidates Soo Ye Kim and Sanghyun Woo from the KAIST School of Electrical Engineering and Hae Beom Lee from the Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI were selected as the 2021 Google PhD Fellows. The Google PhD Fellowship is a scholarship program that supports graduate school students from around the world that have produced excellent achievements from promising computer science-related fields. The 75 selected fellows will receive ten thousand dollars of funding with the opportunity to discuss research and receive one-on-one feedback from experts in related fields at Google.
Kim and Woo were named fellows in the field of "Machine Perception, Speech Technology and Computer Vision" with research of deep learning based super-resolution and computer vision respectively. Lee was named a fellow in the field of "Machine Learning" for his research in meta-learning.
Kim's research includes the formulation of novel methods for super-resolution and HDR video restoration and deep joint frame interpolation and super-resolution methods. Many of her works have been presented in leading conferences in computer vision and AI such as CVPR, ICCV, and AAAI. In addition, she has been collaborating as a research intern with the Vision Group Team at Adobe Research to study depth map refinement techniques.
(Kim's research on deep learning based joint super-resolution and inverse tone-mapping framework for HDR videos)
Woo’s research includes an effective deep learning model design based on the attention mechanism and learning methods based on self-learning and simulators. His works have been also presented in leading conferences such as CVPR, ECCV, and NeurIPS. In particular, his work on the Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) which was presented at ECCV in 2018 has surpassed over 2700 citations on Google Scholar after being referenced in many computer vision applications. He was also a recipient of Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship in 2020.
(Woo's research on attention mechanism based deep learning models)
Lee’s research focuses effectively overcoming various limitations of the existing meta-learning framework. Specifically, he proposed to deal with a realistic task distribution with imbalances, improved the practicality of meta-knowledge, and made meta-learning possible even in large-scale task scenarios. These various studies have been accepted to numerous top-tier machine learning conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML, and ICLR. In particular, one of his papers has been selected as an oral presentation at ICLR 2020 and another as a spotlight presentation at NeurIPS 2020.
(Lee's research on learning to balance and continual trajectory shifting)
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the award ceremony was held virtually at the Google PhD Fellowship Summit from August 31st to September 1st. The list of fellowship recipients is displayed on the Google webpage.
2021.10.18 View 5780 -
KAIST Entrepreneurial Partnership to Accelerate Startups and Venture Ecosystem
KAIST will launch the KAIST Entrepreneurial Partnership (KEP) program, which connects faculty members who own technology with those who want to launch startup.
The program encourages open innovation startups using strategies tailored to market-client demand requirements. This is also one of efforts to help realize ‘one startup per lab,’ initiated by President Kwang Hyung Lee’s new innovation strategy. KEP also aims to introduce the best technologies developing at KAIST to startups and to raise the success rate of technology commercialization.
The program will match KAIST faculty and student entrepreneur candidates with parties enrolled in the new Entrepreneur in Residence and Entrepreneurial Partner programs. Each team will be given a six-month test period with funding support.
KAIST will invite entrepreneurial experts from both technology and management fields to support the program participants. Around 30 experts with experience in developing new businesses, startups, and investments in large corporations or venture companies will be recruited as entrepreneurial partners. They will offer support for research and business development (R&BD), technology marketing, attracting venture investment from corporations, mergers and acquisitions, and business openings.
A survey showed that KAIST members who are interested in starting a business are experiencing difficulties finding an entrepreneurial expert (72.2%), with the complicated startup approval procedures (33.3%), and their lack of knowledge on entrepreneurship and funding (27.8%). The KEP program hopes to encourage KAIST faculty members and students who have well-developed business ideas and the appropriate technology but lack the capabilities to realize and develop them into a business.
Associate Vice President of Startups Young-Tae Kim said, “We will develop KEP into KAIST’s distinct entrepreneurial support system and produce exemplary outcomes of faculty and student startups. We will spread the startup DNA and lead the building of a virtuous cycle between entrepreneurship and the venture ecosystem.”
2021.10.14 View 5950 -
Industrial Liaison Program to Provide Comprehensive Consultation Services
The ILP’s one-stop solutions target all industrial sectors including conglomerates, small and medium-sized enterprises, venture companies, venture capital (VC) firms, and government-affiliated organizations.
The Industrial Liaison Center at KAIST launched the Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) on September 28, an industry-academic cooperation project to provide comprehensive solutions to industry partners. The Industrial Liaison Center will recruit member companies for this service every year, targeting all industrial sectors including conglomerates, small and medium-sized enterprises, venture companies, venture capital (VC) firms, and government-affiliated organizations.
The program plans to build a one-stop support system that can systematically share and use excellent resource information from KAIST’s research teams, R&D achievements, and infrastructure to provide member companies with much-needed services.
More than 40 KAIST professors with abundant academic-industrial collaboration experience will participate in the program. Experts from various fields with different points of view and experiences will jointly provide solutions to ILP member companies. To actively participate in academic-industrial liaisons and joint consultations, KAIST assigned 10 professors from related fields as program directors.
The program directors will come from four different fields including AI/robots (Professor Alice Oh, School from the School of Computing, Professor Young Jae Jang from the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering, and Professor Yong-Hwa Park from Department of Mechanical Engineering), bio/medicine (Professor Daesoo Kim from Department of Biological Sciences and Professor YongKeun Park from Department of Physics), materials/electronics (Professor Sang Ouk Kim from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Professors Jun-Bo Yoon and Seonghwan Cho from the School of Electrical Engineering), and environment/energy (Professor Hee-Tak Kim from the Department of Biological Sciences and Professor Hoon Sohn from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering).
The transdisciplinary board of consulting professors that will lead technology innovation is composed of 30 professors including Professor Min-Soo Kim (School of Computing, AI), Professor Chan Hyuk Kim (Department of Biological Sciences, medicine), Professor Hae-Won Park (Department of Mechanical Engineering, robots), Professor Changho Suh (School of Electrical Engineering, electronics), Professor Haeshin Lee (Department of Chemistry, bio), Professor Il-Doo Kim (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, materials), Professor HyeJin Kim (School of Business Technology and Management), and Professor Byoung Pil Kim (School of Business Technology and Management, technology law)
The Head of the Industrial Liaison Center who is also in charge of the program, Professor Keon Jae Lee, said, “In a science and technology-oriented generation where technological supremacy determines national power, it is indispensable to build a new platform upon which innovative academic-industrial cooperation can be pushed forward in the fields of joint consultation, the development of academic-industrial projects, and the foundation of new industries.
He added, “KAIST professors carry out world-class research in many different fields and faculty members can come together through the ILP to communicate with representatives from industry to improve their corporations’ global competitiveness and further contribute to our nation’s interests by cultivating strong small enterprises
2021.09.30 View 6712 -
KPC4IR Helping to Create Global Standards for Virtual Transactions
KPC4IR will join the task force for the Global Implementation of Travel Rule Standards
The KAIST Policy Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (KPC4IR) will participate in a global initiative to create global standards for virtual asset transactions. As a member of the GI-TRUST (Global Implementation of Travel Rule Standards) task force, the KPC4IR will develop technical standards and relevant policies that support the global implementation of the travel rule for virtual assets in compliance with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF).
The FATF is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1989 by the G7 to develop policies to combat money laundering. In June 2019, the FATF extended its Recommendation 16, commonly known as the “travel rule,” to virtual asset services providers (VASPs), requiring both financial institutions and VASPs to aggregate information on the senders and recipients of wire transfers and exchange this information between parties to create a suitable audit trail.
According to the FATF’s recommendation and the G20’s support, jurisdictions, especially G20 member countries, have now applied the travel rule to their respective local laws. Korea also amended the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information in March 2020 to include virtual assets in their regulatory scope by March 2022.
The GI-TRUST task force will collaborate with global and local organizations developing travel rule technologies and offer a neutral assessment of proposed solutions. Their activities are aimed at standardizing related authentication protocols and security technologies that help VASPs comply with the travel rule.
The task force will also aid in the pilot testing of travel rule solutions for certain VASPs in Korea. Afterwards, the task force will report on the performance and reliability of the tested travel rule solutions for actual virtual asset transactions, in compliance with the FATF’s guidance.
Besides the KPC4IR, the GI-TRUST task force includes the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC), International Digital Asset Exchange Association (IDAXA), and Korea Blockchain Association (KBCA).
Director of the KPC4IR Professor So Young Kim will co-chair the task force. Professor Kim said their approach should be prudential in dealing with the regulations that rely on secure real-name data on top of the opposing governance style of pseudonymization, distribution, and recombination.
She explained, “KAIST has designed the co-evolution of technologies and institutions in conjunction with the global leaders’ groups such as the World Economic Forum and the EC Joint Research Center.”
She expects KAIST’s interdisciplinary, global cooperation to untie the entangled problem between regulations and technologies that obstruct future pathways.
2021.07.30 View 8414