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The 4th Meeting of Korea and Denmark Alliance for Green Growth
President Steve Kang attended the “Fourth Meeting of Korea and Denmark Alliance for Green Growth” which took place on March 6, 2014 at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul. President Kang was a keynote speaker at the meeting and gave a lecture on sustainable energy.
KAIST and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the “Cooperation for Innovation and Entrepreneurship” at the meeting.
In the MOU, KAIST and DTU agreed to post the information on their websites regarding the patents acquired through the implementation of joint research programs. In addition, KAIST students will attend conferences and idea competitions organized by DTU, e.g., the Green Challenges. DTU students will participate in KAIST’s conferences and competitions including “Startup KAIST Global Idea Competition.”
2014.03.07 View 7988 -
KAIST Holds Open Lecture For Daejeon Residents
Free of cost for any Korean citizen, the registration for the new course opens on the official website from 5th March KAIST’s Department of Humanities and Social Science is currently operating free humanities and liberal arts classes for Daejeon residents.
The theme of the course for this semester is “World and Politics,” which will begin on 13th March and run every Thursday for 6 weeks at KAIST’s International Seminar Room.
This course has been organized to introduce the general public to the current political situation with neighboring countries such as China, Japan and North Korea, as well as the characteristics of multinational companies.
Top experts in the related fields will give lectures. First, Professor Ha-Yong Jung from Kyunghee University will talk on “American liberalism and democracy”; Professor Gyeong-Mo An from Korea National Defense University on “Kim Jeong-Eun and the Future of North Korea--Is the Collapse of North Korea A Reality?” and Ja-Seon Koo, a visiting professor at Korea National Diplomatic Academy on “The Chinese Communist Party during the Xi Jinping Period.”
“With the era of globalization, the political situations in the neighboring countries have both direct and indirect effects on our lives,” said Professor Hyeon-Seok Park who has organized the courses. "These classes will be an opportunity for our citizens to understand and learn about the current affairs in the world.”
Anyone can attend the course, and registration is from March 5th to 9th at the official webpage of KAIST’s Humanities and Social Sciences Department (http://hss.kaist.ac.kr). All the courses are free of charge.
Contact: Department of Humanities and Social Science Research (Tel. 350-4687, E-mail: baobab@kaist.ac.kr)
2014.03.06 View 6404 -
Spillover Phenomenon Identified Using Model Catalyst System
Researchers at KAIST have identified spillover phenomenon, which has remained controversial since its discovery in the early 1960s.
KAIST Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering’s Professor Min-Gi Choi and his team has explained the "spillover phenomenon," using their own model catalyst system where platinum is selectively located within the amorphous aluminosilicate.
The research results were published on the 25th February online edition of Nature Communications.
Spillover refers to a phenomenon that occurs when hydrogen atoms that have been activated on the surface of metals, such as platinum, move to the surface of the catalyst. It was predicted that this phenomenon can be used to design a catalyst with high activity and stability, and thus has been actively studied over the last 50 years.
However, many cases of the known catalysts involved competing reactions on the exposed metal surface, which made it impossible to directly identify the presence and formation mechanism of spillover.
The catalysts developed by the researchers at KAIST used platinum nanoparticles covered with aluminosilicate. This only allowed the hydrogen molecules to pass through and has effectively blocked the competing reactions, enabling the research team to study the spillover phenomenon.
Through various catalyst structure and reactivity analysis, as well as computer modeling, the team has discovered that Brönsted acid sites present on the aluminosilicate plays a crucial role in spillover phenomenon.
In addition, the spillover-based hydrogenation catalyst proposed by the research team showed very high hydrogenation and dehydrogenation activity. The ability of the catalyst to significantly inhibit unwanted hydrogenolysis reaction during the petrochemical processes also suggested a large industrial potential.
Professor Min-Gi Choi said, “This particular catalyst, which can trigger the reaction only by spillover phenomenon, can be properly designed to exceed the capacity of the conventional metal catalysts. The future goal is to make a catalyst with much higher activity and selectivity.”
The research was conducted through funds subsidized by SK Innovation and Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.
The senior research fellow of SK Innovation Seung-Hun Oh said, “SK Innovation will continue to develop a new commercial catalyst based on the technology from this research.”
Juh-Wan Lim and Hye-Yeong Shin led the research as joint first authors under supervision of Professor Min-Gi Choi and computer modeling works were conducted by KAIST EEWS (environment, energy, water, and sustainability) graduate school’s Professor Hyeong-Jun Kim.
2014.03.03 View 9349 -
Festival Featuring Asia's Best Science Students to be Held
The first Electronic Olympics, which will host students from five top Asian research-centered universities, will be held in August at KAIST. Students will take part in competitive events and explore cultural diversity. Student representatives of HKUST, NTU, TITECH, Tsinghua University, and KAIST gathered on February 20 to begin planning the tentatively named “ASPIRE E-Olympics.”
The key words of this Olympics are "Harmony" and "Competition." The events will be composed of an AI programming contest, SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) picture contest, and the other technology-based contests. Cultural events, where each university’s students can interact, will also be prepared.
ASPIRE (Asian Science and Technology Pioneering Institutes of Research and Education) events have been held from 2009. Previously, the ASPIRE forum has been an exchange event for groups of vice presidents and graduate school students from the five schools to exchange achievements in education and research. This year, it has been extended to undergraduates.
Yoseop Kim, KAIST’s student body vice president, said that he wants to make a MOU with some of Asia’s best research-centered universities and develop it into something similar to the Davos Forum. His intention is to support the E-Olympics in the hope that ASPIRE will become a top university consortium.
From left, HKUST, KAIST, NTU, TITECH, Tsinghua University Logos
Student representative group photo of Top Asian Research-Centered Universities
Electronic Olympics for students from five top Asian science and engineering universities to be held in August
2014.02.27 View 7771 -
KAIST held its 2014 Commencement Ceremony
The KAIST Commencement Ceremony for 2014 was held on Friday, 21st February, at Sports Complex, KAIST.
On this day, a total of 2,619 students
received their degrees. This included 499 doctorates, 1,220 masters, and 900 students with bachelor’s degrees. Since its establishment in 1971,
KAIST has produced 9,881 Ph.D., 25,161 MA and 13,693 BA,
which amounts to 48,735 scientific and engineering personnel.
The former Minister for Science and Technology
of the Republic of Korea, Dr. KunMo Chung, received an honorary doctorate for his effort in establishing the Korea Advanced Institute of Science (KAIS) to foster talented scientists and engineers, thus contributing to the significant growth
of Korea that has led it to stand as a scientifically advanced nation today.
The student graduating with summa cum laude was Jang-Geun
Kim from the Department of Biological Sciences. Mr. Kim received the Minister of Science, ICT and
Future Planning Award.
Mr. Kim said, “I am honored to receive the
award from the minister. I hope a lot of talented students will go onto science and
engineering field, so that Korea can earn a place among the technologically
elite countries.” Jang-Geun Kim will continue his
study of genomic medicine at KAIST graduate school.
President Steve Kang spoke
to the graduates:
“The whole nation has given their wholehearted support to KAIST so that students can study in a good environment. Please have
great aspirations and hopes, and continue to
broaden your knowledge and solve the challenges that humanity is facing today,
so our country and the world can advance.”
2014.02.27 View 8498 -
Professor Yong-Tak Im of Mechanical Engineering Appointed as President of Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials
Yong-Tak Im, Professor of the Department of
Mechanical Engineering at KAIST, was sworn in on February 25, 2014 as
the 16th president of the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials
(KIMM), a leading government-funded research institution in Korea. KIMM was
established in 1976 to contribute to the development of
Korea through the invention of source technology and technology transfer in
mechanical engineering.
President Im graduated from Seoul National
University, obtaining degrees of Bachelor of Science and Master’s in mechanical
engineering. He later studied at the University of California in Berkeley and
received a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering.
After working as an assistant professor of
the Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Ohio State University,
President Im joined KAIST as a professor of mechanical engineering in 1989.
President Im took many important posts at
KAIST, including Dean of Planning Office, Dean of External Affairs and Public
Relations Office, and Associate Vice President of Special Projects and
Institutional Relations, making a great addition to the university’s endeavors for
globalization.
Among the awards President Im received was the
William Johnson Award in 2007 presented by the Advances in Materials and
Processing Technologies, the Research Achievement Award in 2010 by the Global
Congress on Manufacturing and Management, and the Presidential Award in 2012 by
the Republic of Korea. He was also elected as the vice president of the Korean
Society of Mechanical Engineers, the largest association of professionals in
the mechanical engineering field in Korea.
President Im is currently a professor at
POSCO, an internationally known Korean steel company, and a member of the
Korean Academy of Science and Technology and the National Academy of
Engineering of Korea, respectively.
President Im will serve KIMM for three
years until February 24, 2017.
2014.02.25 View 9374 -
Former Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. KunMo Chung, Awarded KAIST Honorary Doctorate
KAIST will confer an honorary doctorate on former minister of Science and Technology, Dr. KunMo Chung, at the 2014 KAIST graduation ceremony on Friday, February, 21.Dr. Chung presented the Survey Report for the Establishment of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science (KAIS) to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in 1969. This proposal for nurturing the advanced science technology elite and boost Korean industrial development became the foundation for KAIS, which is now known as KAIST.After passing the KAIS Foundation Law in 1970, Dr. Chung designed the faculty room, secured faculty members, and acquired a $6 million education loan from the USAID. Dr. Chung devoted himself to research and teaching. His first appointment was the position of assistant professor at the University of South Florida, followed by research professor positions at the Princeton Nuclear Fusion Research Center and MIT Nuclear Engineering, and an associate professor position in the Department of Electrophysics at the Polytechnic Institute of New York.When KAIS was founded on Feb. 16, 1971, 31-year-old Dr. KunMo Chung became the provost and a professor in the Electronic and Electrical Science Department where he made outstanding contributions to the development of science and technology in Korea.
2014.02.21 View 9391 -
Venture Startup by Middle School Students Makes Donation to KAIST
Korean middle school students who
participated in a venture program made donations to KAIST. “Mending”, a startup founded by Korean
middle school students, donated 10 million won and the education supplier “Edubox”
contributed 100 million won to the IP Education Center for Young Venture Candidates
at KAIST. The donations were made at the IP
Education Center’s 3rd graduation ceremony on February 14th
at KAIST. Mending was started by three students in
the IP Education Center in 2013. This startup
features volunteering through talent sharing and other educational endeavors. It
received voluntary donations from supporters of the programs. Hee-Yon Yon, the co-president of
Mending, said, “We have developed a new concept of business and showed profit
can be made through donations and sharing”. Edubox responded to the visions of
Mending and added to the donation for additional development of the IP
Education Center. The KAIST IP Education Center for
Young Venture Candidates was founded with the support of KIPO (Korean
Intellectual Property Office) and KIPA (Korea Invention Promotion Association)
in 2009. The curriculum consists of Intellectual Property, Entrepreneurship, Future
Technology and Humanities. Eighty students are selected for the program every
year and 200 students have successfully completed the program.
2014.02.18 View 6969 -
World's Largest Web Conference To Be Held in Korea
The 2014 International World Wide Web Conference (WWW 2014), the world’s most prestigious academic conference in the field of web, will be held for the first time in Korea. The conference is to be last for five days at Seoul COEX, from 7th to 11th April. International World Wide Web Conference covers a wide range of web-related areas, including technologies, research papers, services and more. Since the first conference in 1994 in Switzerland, it has been held in various parts of North America, Europe, South America and Asia, attracting more than 1000 experts in the field. The 23rd International World Wide Web Conference is managed by the International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee (IW3C2) and co-hosted by KAIST and National Agency for Technology and Standards, as well as sponsored by Korea Information Science Society and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Keynote speakers for this year’s conference include inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, senior vice president of Microsoft, Dr. Qi Lu, and Carnegie Mellon University’s Prof. Christos Faloutsos, as well as Samsung Electronic’s vice president Jong-Deok Choi. In addition to WWW 2014, BigData Innovators Gathering (BIG 2014) and Web for Access (W4A 2014) is also to be held in joint. KAIST Computer Sciences Department’s Prof. Jinwan Jeong, in charge of directing this year’s conference, said “From one-sided 1st generation web to two-way 2nd generation web, such as blogs, and then recently to the 3rd generation web, which include social networks and semantic webs, the web technologies has grown vastly over the past 25 years. WWW 2014 will be the opportunity for Korea to discuss with the world about the informatization and future of the web.” Pre-registration for WWW 2014 can be applied at the official webpage for WWW 2014 (http://www2014.kr) before 17th February.
2014.02.14 View 9382 -
ICISTS-KAIST Talk Concert 2014
The International Conference for the Integration of Science, Technology and Society at KAIST (ICISTS-KAIST) will hold a talk entitled “Scientific Technology and Culture” at Youngdungpo Art Hall in Seoul on Tuesday, February 11, 2014.The three main presenters will be: Jin-Hwa Kim, Director of Korbit, Dong-Hyeon Jo, Chief of New Business at Nexon, and media artist Yi-Nam Lee. They will address the meeting of culture and scientific technology in the fields of art, games, and other genres.Jin-Hwa Kim is the director of Korbit, the first Korean bitcoin exchange, and wrote The Next Money: Bitcoin, the world’s first bitcoin textbook. He will elaborate on how science and technology are constantly changing and have affected popular culture, and how public demand gave birth to bitcoin.Dong-Hyeon Jo from Nexon will explain how the appearance of new media and platforms such as smartphones has changed our lives.Media artist Yi-Nam Lee has been described as “the second Nam-June Paik,” an internationally-acclaimed video artist, for his integration of oriental and western masterpieces with modern media. During the event, samples of his artwork will be displayed.ICISTS-KAIST is a student organization which has held a conference every year since 2005 with hundreds of students attending from many parts of the world, Asia in particular.
2014.02.07 View 10048 -
2014 Davos Forum: KAIST-EPFL Connection
The Korean-American Science and Technology News (KASTN), a biweekly global electronic newsletter carrying news and analyses in science and technology, as well as social, economic, and cultural issues related to the general interest of the Korean-American professional community, published an article on the partnership agreement made by KAIST and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale Lausanne (EPFL) during the 2014 World Economic Forum held at Davos, Switzerland, from January 22nd to 25th.
For the article, please click the link below: KASTN Issue 14-05, February 26, 2014
http://www.phy.duke.edu/~myhan/b_14-05.pdf
2014.02.04 View 7990 -
KAIST-Saudi Nuclear Workforce Training
Nuclear Engineering Intensive Course Program Held in Saudi Arabia from January 5th to 23rd
KUSTAR (The Khalifa University of Science and Technology Studies)-KAIST Institute of Education began its Nuclear Engineering Intensive Course Program on 5th January with researchers from K.A.CARE (King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy) of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
This program, which was lasted until 23rd January, provided education to students on the basic technologies in the field of nuclear power.
The course involves a wide range of lectures, such as basic nuclear physics, applications using radiation, nuclear reactor design and safety, as well as nuclear power engineering.
In order to utilize the nuclear power and renewable energy, K.A.CARE was established in April 2010. The institution is also involved in the construction of nuclear infrastructure, including the site investigations, the establishment of regulatory bodies and state-owned nuclear companies, along with the newly launched workforce-training program.
The Director of the KUSTAR-KAIST Education Research Institute, Professor Soong-Heung Jang said, “This program is the beginning of long-term cooperation with Saudi Arabia. Our experience can be the basis for the construction of an extensive training program that involves many areas of nuclear engineering field.”
KAIST has been working in close cooperation with various institutions around the world, which also includes the establishment of KUSTAR-KAIST Institute of Education and Research in July 2010. KAIST is also actively cooperating with UAE Khalifa University in Middle East, sharing faculty, holding joint research programs and exchanging students.
2014.02.03 View 9809