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Firefly inspired high efficiency LED technology developed
A firefly inspired, high efficiency self-illuminating LED has been developed.
Professor Jeong Gi Hoon (Department of Bio and Brain Engineering) mimicked the nanostructure of the external layer of the illumination organ of a firefly and succeeded in fabricating high illumination efficiency LED lenses.
Conventional lenses required expensive anti-reflection coating. The developed lenses utilize the bio-inspired nanostructure on the surface of the lenses themselves to reduce the reflectivity of the lenses thereby decreasing production costs.
The developed antireflection nanostructure is expected to be applied to various digital devices and lighting fixtures.
Antireflective structures have been applied in various fields in order to enhance light efficiency However these structures have been limited to flat surfaces and therefore was difficult to implement to curved surfaces like LED lenses.
Professor Jeong’s team solved this problem by using three dimensional micro molding processes.
The team fabricated the nanostructure by forming a single nanoparticle layer on the silicon oxide and performing dry etching. On this nanostructure PDMS was poured and manipulated to fabricate a lens structure similar to that of a firefly.
The fabricated lens showed similar efficiency as conventional antireflection coating.
2012.11.29 View 7885 -
KAIST and JAIT Sign MOU
KAIST and JAIT (Jeonbuk Institute of Automotive Technology) signed a MOU for the training and development of future automobile technology.
JAIT is the domestic front runner in automobile research and the MOU will allow KAIST to participate with JAIT on research and development of automobile technology.
Research on future vehicle technology, transportation system using electric transport system, cooperation in education, research and development, and international business, and knowledge transfer are all part of the MOU.
2012.11.29 View 6811
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International Forum on Electric Vehicles 2012
KAIST hosted the International Forum on Electric Vehicles 2012 was held on the 7th of November.
IFEV provided the opportunity for domestic and international front runners of future transportation technology research to come together and discuss the direction and possibility of commercialization of electric vehicles.
The keynote speaker of the forum was Hong Soon Man Director of Korea Railroad Research Institute. Lectures were given by distinguished speakers including Kim Gyung Chul Director of Korea Transportation Research Institute, Takashi Ohira Professor at Toyohashi University of Technology, Tomoyuki Shinkai Professor at Keio University, Christian Kobel Director of Development at Germany’s Bombardier, and Peter Burggraef Professor at Rheinisch University of Technology.
Four topics will be debated on: Future road vehicles and wireless power technology, future high speed railway system, future maritime transportation system, and strategy and policy for green transportation technology.
The IFEV is expected to yield a positive result by allowing government, academia, and industry to come together and discuss the direction of future transportation technology and its social implications.
Detailed information can be found at http://gt.kaist.ac.kr/ifev2012/
2012.11.29 View 7367
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KAIST shocks the world with its creativity
Researchers at KAIST yielded great results at the world’s leading international Human Computer Interaction Society.
Professor Lee Gi Hyuk’s (Department of Computer Sciences) and Professor Bae Seok Hyung’ (Department of Industrial Design) respective teams received awards in two criteria in student innovation contest and was the only domestic university that presented their thesis at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software.
The ACM UIST holds a student innovation contest prior to its opening. This year’s topic was the pressure sensing multi touch pad of Synaptics and involved 27 prestigious universities including MIT and CMU.
The KAIST team (Ki Son Joon Ph.D. candidate, Son Jeong Min M.A. candidate of Department of Computer Sciences and Woo Soo Jin M.A. candidate of Department of Industrial Design) designed a system that allows modulated control by attaching a simple structure to the pressure sensing multi touch pad.
The second KAIST team (Huh Seong Guk Ph.D. candidate, Han Jae Hyun Ph.D. candidate, Koo Ji Sung Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Computer Sciences, and Choi Ha Yan M.A. candidate at Department of Industrial Design) designed a system that utilizes a highly elastic fiber to allow the sensing of lateral forces. They also created a slingshot game application which was the second most popular system.
In the thesis session Professor Bae’s team (Lee DaWhee Ph.D. candidate, Son Kyung Hee Ph.D. candidate, Lee Joon Hyup M.A. candidate at Department of Industrial Design) presented a thesis that dealt with the technology that innovated the table pen for displays.
The new ‘phantom pen’ solved the issue arising from the hiding effect of the pen’s contact point and the display error due to the thickness of the display. In addition the ‘phantom pen’ has the ability to show the same effects as crayons or markers in a digital environment.
2012.11.29 View 9726
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The control of light at the nano-level
Professor Min Bumki
Professor Min Bumki’s research team from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at KAIST have successfully gained control of the transmittance of light in optical devices using graphene* and artificial 2-dimensional metamaterials**.
* Graphene : a thin membrane composed of pure carbon, with atoms arranged in a regular hexagonal pattern
** Metamaterials : artificial materials engineered to have properties that may not be found in nature
The research results were published in the recent online edition (September 30th) of Nature Materials, a sister journal of the world renowned Nature journal, under the title ‘Terahertz waves with gate-controlled active graphene metamaterials’
Since the discovery of graphene in 2004 by Professors Novoselov and Geim from the University of Manchester (2010 Nobel Prize winners in Physics), it has been dubbed “the dream material” because of its outstanding physical properties.
Graphene has been especially praised for its ability to absorb approximately 2.3% of near infrared and visible rays due to its characteristic electron structure. This property allows graphene to be used as a transparent electrode, which is a vital electrical component used in touch screens and solar batteries. However, graphene’s optical transmittance was largely ignored by researchers due to its limited control using electrical methods and its small optical modulation in data transfer.
Professor Min’s team combined 0.34 nanometer-thick graphene with metamaterials to allow a more effective control of light transmittance and greater optical modulation. This graphene metamaterial can be integrated in to a thin and flexible macromolecule substrate which allows the control of transmittance using electric signals.
This research experimentally showed that graphene metamaterials can not only effective control optical transmittance, but can also be used in graphene optical memory devices using electrical hysteresis.
Professor Min said that “this research allows the effective control of light at the nanometer level” and that “this research will help in the development of microscopic optical modulators or memory disks”.
figure 1. The working drawing of graphene metamaterials
figure 2. Conceptual diagram (Left) and microscopic photo (right) of graphene metamaterials
2012.11.23 View 9912 -
2012 Intellectual Property Rights Award Ceremony Held
The 2012 Intellectual Property Rights Award Ceremony was held at Seoul KAIST Campus.
Recipients of the award included former congressmen Kim Young Sun and Lee Jeong Hyuk, and Kim Boo Kyung researcher at Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute also representing Vooz Ltd. that created the character POOCA.
The Intellectual Property Rights Award is given to an individual or a group that succeeded in utilizing, protecting, creating, and establishment of its foundation including patent, copyright, and brand. Intellectual Property Rights is viewed as of importance for future national competitiveness.
The Award is organized by the Korea Patent Attorneys Association, the Korea Association of Intellectual Property Services, and KAIST and are respectively core institutions in the training of Intellectual Property Rights Experts and the creation, utilization, and the protection of intellectual property.
In addition the Award is also co-organized by the KAIST Graduate School of Intellectual Property Rights (established in cooperation with KAIST and the Korean Intellectual Property Office) and the total 20 million Won of prize money is funded by Korea Institute of Intellectual Strategy and Kim Ok Lan Foundation.
The Award Ceremony was held with a special lecture by the recipients.
It was stressed that the evaluation process was carried out with that the decision is a silent message to the society and is also a type of market signal.
Director Ko Gi Seok (Presidential Council on Intellectual Property) revealed that the candidates’ impact on the strength of national intellectual property rights was thoroughly scrutinized.
In the criteria of Creation of Intellectual Property, ETRI received the award in recognition of the institution’s successful patenting and commercializing of products of Korean R&D.
ETRI created a total of 251 International Patents in cooperation with ITU, ISO, IEE, etc. and also participated in a total of 9 International Standard Patent Pool, showing its active Intellectual Property management.
Such efforts ranked ETRI 1st in the United States Patent Evaluation performed by the US Patent Board in 2011 out of 237 institutions.
In addition Recipient of the Intellectual Property Utilization criteria, VOOZ ltd.’s Kim Boo Kyung promised the free use of their character POOCA in ETRI’s automated Korean-English translator. Researcher Kim Boo Kyung was rewarded with the award in recognition of his contribution to the domestic economy and realization of the commercialization of a copy right through licensing.
Former congressman Kim Young Son received an Award in the Foundation criteria in recognition of his efforts in the establishment of the Presidential Council on Intellectual Property and the Basic Blueprints for the Intellectual Property Law.
Former congressman Lee Jeong Hyuk received the same award in recognition of standardization and streamlining Intellectual Property Rights Policies. His realization and pursuit of the establishment of a balanced growth based on law for the competitiveness of businesses was the driving force behind his accomplishments.
2012.10.16 View 10228
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Professor Soon-Heung Chang meets with Bill Gates and discusses possible collaboration
Professor Soon-Heung Chang from the Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, KAIST, who is also the president of Korea Nuclear Society (KNS), met Bill Gates, the co-founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Microsoft, on August 16, 2012 and discussed ways to cooperate for the development of a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), a next generation nuclear power reactor.
According to Professor Chang, Bill Gates was amazed at Korea’s successful bids for nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates, even though Korea was a latecomer in the field of nuclear power. Bill Gates also showed a keen interest in Korea’s low electricity rates.
Gates focuses on solving fundamental problems in order to help improve the quality of life for humanity, rather than short-term temporary solutions, through infrastructure development such as energy. Particularly, he considers nuclear power as one of the most effective ways to supply clean energy which can provide electricity at a low cost while keeping carbon dioxide emission levels much lower than fossil fuels.
Bill Gates is a primary investor for an energy company called “TerraPower” based in Bellevue, Washington. TerraPower develops and commercializes nuclear power technology for a traveling wave reactor (TWR) that is designed to use spent fuels, i.e., depleted uranium, and runs technically “forever” because once fueled, the reactor does not need to be refueled for over 50 years. TerraPower’s TWR is to use metallic fuel, and Korea is the only country that currently develops SFR (KALIMER 600) using metallic fuel.
“Korea has an outstanding supply chain for the entire lifecycle of a nuclear power station from equipment manufacturing to operation,” said Professor Chang, while emphasizing the synergistic effects of forming partnership between Korea and TerraPower.
Professor Chang emphasized that Korea should create an opportunity based on lessons learned from the Fukushima crisis and actively move forward to achieve its leading position in the field of next generation nuclear reactors. He said that cooperation with Bill Gates will be a significant step towards the development of next generation nuclear reactors.
About Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR)
Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) is a next-generation nuclear power reactor that will use spent fuels from conventional reactors. Arrangement of a fuel recycling system in
conjunction with currently-developing pyroprocessing technology would enable U-238, which makes up over 99% of natural uranium, to be used as a nuclear fuel. This would greatly reduce the toxicity and volume of spent fuels by up to 1,000 times and 100 times respectively when compared to existing reactors. This is truly a breakthrough innovation in spent fuel disposal and recycling.
2012.09.20 View 10015 -
Professor Song Joon Hwa develops new Location Tracking Application
Professor Song Joon Hwa developed a location tracking application that alerts the teacher when students on field trips stray too far from the group via a smartphone and a headset.
Conventional Location Tracking Applications utilize GPS systems and as a consequence does not function indoors where the satellite signal is nonexistent. However Professor Song’s method is unique in the fact that it utilizes radio waves which allows signal transfer both indoors and outdoors.
In addition different alerts are given off in difference locations and therefore the technology can be applied in finding the effectiveness of the field trip and the social behaviors of students.
2012.09.11 View 7587
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Jellyfish removal robot developed
Professor Myung Hyun’s research team from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at KAIST has developed a jellyfish removal robot named ‘JEROS’ (JEROS: Jellyfish Elimination RObotic Swarm).
With jellyfish attacks around the south-west coast of Korea becoming a serious problem, causing deaths and operational losses (around 3 billion won a year), Professor Myung’s team started the development of this unmanned automatic jellyfish removal system 3 years ago.
JEROS floats on the surface of the water using two long cylindrical bodies. Motors are attached to the bodies such that the robot can move back and forth as well as rotate on water. A camera and GPS system allows the JEROS to detect jellyfish swarm as well as plan and calculate its work path relative to its position.
The jellyfish are removed by a submerged net that sucks them up using the velocity created by the unmanned sailing. Once caught, the jellyfish are pulverized using a special propeller.
JEROS is estimated to be 3 times more economical than manual removal. Upon experimentation, it showed a removal rate of 400kg per hour at 6 knots. To reach similar effectiveness as manual net removal, which removes up to 1 ton per hour, the research team designed the robot such that 3 or more individual robots could be grouped together and controlled as one.
The research team has finished conducting removal tests in Gunsan and Masan and plan to commercialize the robot next April after improving the removal technology. JEROS technology can also be used for a wide range of purposes such as patrolling and guarding, preventing oil spills or removing floating waste. This research was funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology since 2010.
2012.08.29 View 11195
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First Annual CanSat Idea Exhibition held
The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology held the ‘CanSat’ Exhibition in order to increase interest and understanding of satellites in primary, secondary, and high school level students.
The exhibition, hosted by KAIST Satellite Research Center and funded by Korea Aerospace Institute, was held in SaeJeong City.
90 primary, secondary school teams, 57 high school teams, and 14 university teams submitted their applications for participation. Of these teams 20 primary, secondary school teams, 5 high school teams, and 5 university teams were selected after thorough document valuation and presentation assessment.
The 20 primary, secondary school teams participated in the science camp to gain firsthand experience in the construction and launch of a simple satellite system.
The high school and university teams were evaluated by the level of completion of the task given and the level of creativity involved.
The CanSat Exhibition has been held in aerospace powerhouses and this was the first time such an exhibition was held in Korea.
2012.08.21 View 8272
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Ultra Elastic Electrode Material Developed
KAIST research team succeeded in developing the next generation flexible and elastic electrode material crucial in the development of flexible displays, wearable computers, and etc.
Professor Jeon Seok Woo’s team of the department of Materials Science and Engineering succeeded in the development of a super elastic material.
The result of the experiment was introduced as the research highlight in Nature Communications and is especially significant as the main driving force behind the achievement were domestic researchers.
Professor Jeons team developed a structured three dimensional nano-porous structure over a 1inch by 1inch area that is 10micrometers in thickness. The structure is fabricated using world’s largest area three dimensional nano patterning technique.
The nano-porous structure was injected with elastomeric material and was subsequently removed to yield an inverse three dimensional elastic nano material. The pores were infiltrated with liquid conductive material which yielded a super elastic flexible electrode.
The fabricated electrode showed amazing elasticity levels and was able to light LED lamps in a 200% stretched state without decrease in electrical conductivity.
Conventional methods included folding and expanding a material like an accordion or creating a mesh-like structure by making holes in the material. However these methods yielded materials with limited elasticity and even 100% stretching resulted in the drastic decrease in electrical conductivity.
Professor Jeon expects the domestically developed technology to obtain the upper hand in the market and make great contributions in both science and society.
2012.07.26 View 8957
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Commercialization of Carbon Capture and Storage Technology Speeds up
KAIST research team successfully developed the ideal method for carbon dioxide transportation, which is crucial in the capturing and underground storage of carbon dioxide technology.
Professor Jang Dae Joon of the department of Ocean Systems Engineering developed a carbon dioxide transportation that minimizes evaporative gases.
The new technology is the final piece of the three part carbon capture storage which involves capture, transportation, and storage of carbon dioxide. The completion of the three part technology will allow for commercialization in the near future.
Carbon Capture and Storage technology is regarded as the technology that will reduce carbon dioxide levels. It captures the carbon dioxide emitted from power plants and factories and storing them permanently in empty oil fields underground.
If the post Kyoto Protocol was to be implemented from 2013, Korea will not be able to shirk from the need to reduce carbon emissions. Therefore the Korean government set out to reduce 32 million tons of carbon dioxide (10% of predicted carbon reduction) until 2030. In response to the government’s efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, Korean research teams like KAIST have responded.
Professor Jang’s team succeeded in developing the core technology for underground storage in the 2009 ‘Carbon dioxide Transport and Injection Terminal Project’. And as the final piece of the puzzle the team developed an optimization solution that addressed the evaporating gases emitted from carbon dioxide during transportation.
Professor Jang’s team focused on the required low temperature and high pressure conditions in liquid carbon dioxide transport.
The problem lies in the temperature gradient which can cause the transport canister to explode.
The solution developed by the team is to evaporate carbon dioxide in a pressurized contained which is then re-liquidated.
External variables like price of oil, carbon taxation, etc. have been considered and the process was optimized accordingly.
The result of Professor Jang’s team’s solution to Carbon Capture and Storage was stored in the online edition of International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control.
2012.07.26 View 8914