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Professor Jie-Oh Lee awarded 'Scientist of the Year'
Professor Jie-Oh Lee of the Department of Chemistry was awarded the ‘Scientist of the Year’ prize for identifying the three-dimensional structure of protein that causes sepsis, and it was announced by the Korean Science Reporters Association (KOSRA) on November 26th.“Humans have about 30,000 different kinds of proteins, and they all have different structures, just like our faces,” said Professor Lee. “It is extremely helpful to know the three-dimensional shape of proteins when you are trying to understand what their functions in an organism are and trying to develop medicine for them.”
When looking for the three-dimensional structure, protein must first be crystallized and radiated with x-ray, so that reflected x-ray can be interpreted. The three-dimensional structure of sepsis immunity proteins TLR1-TLR2 and TLR4-MD2 could not be found until now because they would not even crystallize.
“I began to doubt if it was even possible to crystallize them because we went through so many failures,” reflected Professor Lee.
In August of last year, after about three years of research, the team finally came up with a new idea. The team decided to ‘stick’ the sepsis immunity protein to protein that easily crystallizes. If the combined structure of sepsis immunity protein and the known protein could be identified, the structure of sepsis immunity protein would be a combined structure subtracted by the known structure.
The three-dimensional structure was obtained with x-ray radiation from combined protein crystal. The combined protein was derived from an insect cell with altered DNA.
“This method seems very simple but no one ever tried it or no one ever succeeded in it,” said Professor Lee.
The result was a horseshoe shaped protein structure. The research team also expects the new protein-combining technology to contribute to the development of a new immune system treatment medicine.
The prize-awarding ceremony was held on November 26th in an event hosted by the Korean Hospital Association.
Also, Professor Ryong Ryoo of the Department of Chemistry was selected as the National Scientist last month.By KAIST Herald on November, 2007
2007.12.21 View 14595 -
Three Professors Selected as IEEE Fellows
Three Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)’s professors, Ju-Jang Lee, Yong-Hee Lee, and Hoi-Jun Yoo, were selected as a part of the 2008 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc (IEEE)’s “Fellows.” A Fellow is the highest level of membership given only to those “with an extraordinary record of accomplishments” in their field of study. Although some IEEE memberships can be gained freely by all, the Fellow status is bestowed only by the IEEE Board of Directors.
Professor Ju-Jang Lee was awarded the Fellow status “for contributions to intelligent robust control and robotics.” Robust control is a system’s stable maintenance under many inputs in a dynamic environment. A part of KAIST’s Electrical Engineering Department, Professor Ju-Jang Lee has conducted successful research in these fields, and has published 538 papers. He also holds many patents in and outside of the country, and is the General Chair for two upcoming IEEE conferences in 2008 and 2009.
Professor Yong-Hee Lee of KAIST’s Physics Department was recognized for his “contributions to photonic devices based upon vertical cavity surface emitting lasers and photonic crystals.” Photonic devices are those that allow the practical use of photons, and photon crystals are structures that affect the motion of photons. Professor Yong-Hee Lee is an expert in the field of Photonics and his works have been cited over 2500 times. He is also an outstanding speaker, giving over 30 lectures in front of international audiences in the past 5 years, and receiving The Distinguished Lecturer’s Award from IEEE.
Professor Hoi-Jun Yoo was granted the prestigious Fellow status for his “contributions to low-power and high-speed VLSI design.” VLSI stands for ‘very large scale integration’ and refers to the skill for packing a huge number of semiconductors on an integrated circuit. Professor Lee’s Fellow status is noteworthy in that he studied, worked, and researched solely in Korea. He is also the youngest of the three KAIST professors to be granted membership in the class of 2008 Fellowship. IEEE also recognized Professor Yoo as the most frequent publisher during the past 8 years.
IEEE, originally concentrating on Electric Engineering, has now branched into many related fields. It is a nonprofit organization, and its aim is to be the world"s leading professional association for the advancement of technology. For its Fellow Class of 2008, 295 members were chosen; which is less that 0.1% of their total members.By KAIST Herald on December, 2007
2007.12.21 View 20413 -
Intelligent SoC Robot War 2007 Has Finale
Kyung Hee University’s “Sandi2007” and “Triple K” of Korea University of Technology and Education and Chungbuk National University were victorious in the Tank Robot category and the Taekwon Robot categories of the 6th Robot War Contest hosted by Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).
Boldly entitled “07 Intelligent SoC Robot War”, KAIST hosted its 6th Robot War Contest. In this contest, battles between mechanical robots utilizing System on Chip (SoC) technology are fought. The first Robot War contest was held in 2002. Before the actual contest from October 18th to 21st, preliminary assessments and the final selection was administered in August.
The Intelligent SoC Robot War Contest has two sections called Tank Robot and Taekwon Robot. The Tank Robot contest has robots in the form of tanks duel with laser beams through visual recognition, wireless communication, and audio recognition. On the other hand, the Taekwon Robot contest is a hand-to-hand fight. The robots had to be capable of defending, recognizing the opponent, and attacking without external control.
The 15 teams of the Tank Robot section and the 10 teams of the Taekwon Robot section that passed through the preliminary selections participated in the final battles for 3 days starting on October 18th. The Tank Robot category winner “Sandi2007” showed great ability in visual sensing and the Taekwon Robot category winner “Triple K” had effective arm and leg combinations that eventually led the team to victory.
Kyung Hee University’s “Sandi2007” received 2 million Korean Won as the grand prize along with a special recognition from the Prime Minister, while “Triple K” received 1 million Korean Won with a special recognition from the Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE).
The Intelligent SoC Robot War contest was part of the 2007 International Robot Contest (IRC 2007) which was organized by the Center for Robot Industry Promotion (CRIP) and held at Convention & Exhibition Center (COEX) Indian Hall. The individual contests included 8 competitions: Grand Challenge, Robotpiad, Humanoid Robot Contest, Robofest, Intelligent SoC Robot War, FIRA Challenge Cup, Robot Festival, and URC Robot Contest.By KAIST Herald on November, 2007
2007.12.21 View 15561
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Prof. Chung To Make a Keynote Address at Overseas Seminar
Prof. Chung To Make a Keynote Address at Overseas Seminar
“Instilling Korea’s design promotion policies into Chile”Prof. Kyung-Won Chung will make a keynote address at a design policy seminar in Chile
Prof. Kyung-Won Chung, Department of Industrial Design, will make a keynote address at a seminar named ‘public policies for design industries’, which will be held at Santiago, Chile, July 24 -25.
In the lecture entitled ‘The development model of public policies for design promotion ? Korea’s experiences’, Prof. Chung will present the relationship between national economic development policy and design industry promotion strategy with some real case studies.
The seminar co-hosted by the Technology Cooperation Agency (SERCOTEC) and the Economy Development Agency (CDRFO) of Chile is intended to enable Chilean government to set up appropriate policies to effectively foster design industries for the enhancement of small and medium businesses’ competitiveness.
Prof. Chung has served as the president of Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP) from Feb 2000 thru May 2003.
2007.07.24 View 14408 -
Cooperation Agreement with Ajou Motor College
Cooperation Agreement with Ajou Motor College
KAIST Graduate School of Automobile Technology to sign a cooperation agreement with Ajou Motor College
KAIST Graduate School of Automobile Technology (GSAT) signed a cooperation agreement with Ajou Motor College (AMC) on July 18th.
Under the agreement, the both schools will share education and research facilities and promote mutual cooperation for joint education and researches.
Lawmaker Geun-Chan Ryu, KAIST Vice President of Budget & Planning Ji-Won Yang, GSAT Dean Suck-Joo Na, AMC Dean Soo-Hoon Lee, etc. attended the ceremony.
2007.07.24 View 16046 -
Ki-Won Lee Receives Best Student Paper Award
Ki-Won Lee Receives Best Student Paper Award
Ki-Won Lee, a doctoral student of Materials Science & Engineering, has received the Best Student Paper Award ‘Motorola Fellowship Award’ at 2007 Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC).
Lee’s paper is about a new bonding process of anisotropic conductive film using ultrasonic wave, which applies ultrasonic wave, instead of thermal compression, at the room temperature to reduce the process time from ten to three seconds.
The recipients of Motorola Fellowship Award are selected by IEEE Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology Society, and Motorola awards special scholarship to recipients. The ECTC is the world’s largest yearly conference concerning electronic packaging technologies with more than 1,000 attendees and more than 300 presented papers.
2007.07.02 View 18661 -
Emeritus Professor Lee Dies
Jeong-Oh Lee, Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering, died of his chronic disease on June 15, 2007 at his age of 76.
The late Lee began his lecturing career at Mechanical Engineering Department in 1973 and had made considerable devotions to the education and development of mechanical engineering for 24 years. As the former Minister of Science and Technology, former President of Korea Institute of Science and Technology, and former President of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, he also has made significant contributions to the development of Korean science and technology.
Particularly, he played key roles in vitalizing Daeduk Research Complex (DRC) by planning and executing the movement of government-funded institutes despite the inactive research atmosphere in the early 1980s. He also set up the Extended Council for Technology Promotion, consisting of many distinguished persons from diverse fields under the supervision of the President, to make significant contributions to the promotion and spread of technology innovation among governmental and civil enterprises. He received Cheongjo Geunjeong Medal in 1985 and never stopped his devotion to the education of young students even after his retirement in 1997.
<Funeral Notice>- Date: Sunday, June 17, 2007 at 7 am.- Place: Eulji University Hospital, Daejeon- Graveyard: Cheonan graveyard- Bereaved family Wife Ok-Hyang Kang Son Jong-Sun Lee, Professor of Handong University Han-Sun Lee, LG Chemicals Daughter Myung-Ae Lee Son-in-law Young-Soo Lee, Korea Institute of Industrial Technology- Contact Point: C.P. 019.480.2451 (Han-Sun Lee)
2007.06.18 View 17061 -
Research Outputs over Carbon Nanotube by Prof. Choi Selected as Research Highlight by ACS
Research Outputs over Carbon Nanotube by Prof. Choi Selected as Research Highlight by ACS
Research Outputs over Carbon Nanotube by Prof. Choi Selected as Research Highlight by ACS
A research team headed by Seong-Min Choi, a professor of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, KAIST, has developed technologies to stably disperse carbon nanotube particles in aqueous solutions and organic solvents, essential for industrial applications of carbon nanotube, and discovered the dispersion characteristics of carbon nanotube. The research outputs have been published by ‘Advanced materials’ (19, 929, 2007), the most distinguished journal in Material Science field, and introduced as Research Highlight at the May 7th edition of ‘Heart Cut’ by the American Chemical Society (ACS).
A number of processes for industrial applications of carbon nanotube require the dispersion of carbon nanotube in aqueous solutions or organic solvents, and thus far, surfactant particles or DNAs have been used to disperse carbon nanotube particles. However, they have shortcomings of easy destruction of dispersion. In order to overcome such shortcomings, Prof. Choi’s team produced carbon nanotube particle-dispersed aqueous solutions by using surfactant particles and then polymerized surfactant particles absorbed to the surfaces of carbon nanotube in situ to develop carbon nanotube with hydrophile and safe surfaces. The functional carbon nanotube so obtained shows features of easy dispersion in aqueous solutions and organic solvents even after being processed, such as freeze drying, therefore, is expected to significantly contribute to the development of application technologies of carbon nanotubes. Tae-Hwan Kim and Chang-Woo Doh, both doctoral students, played key roles in the researches carried out under the auspices of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) as a nuclear power R&D project, and the relevant technologies were filed for patent applications.
Figures: Carbon nanotube before polymerization (left), carbon nanotube polymerized with surfactant particles (right)
2007.05.14 View 14706 -
Professor Yang Named Recipient of Dupont Science & Technology Award
Professor Yang Named Recipient of Dupont Science & Technology Award
- Named as the recipient of Dupont Science & Technology Award of 2007- In recognition of his development of optical?bio-functional photonic crystal structures through Self-assembly of nanoparticles
Seung-Man Yang, a professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering of KAIST (President Nam Pyo Suh) and the president of the National Creative Research Initiatives Center for Photon and Fluid Integrated Circuit by the Ministry of Science and Technology, has been named as the recipient of Dupont Science & Technology Award.
Dupont Korea, associate of Dupont, a world-class science firm, has established and conferred ‘Dupont Science & Technology Award’ since 2002 to promote basic sciences and industrial development of Korea. Dupont Science & Technology Awards are awarded to scientists of universities or state-run institutes who have made outstanding R&D achievements in the fields of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Material Science and Material Engineering within five years. Dupont Korea announced on May 2, 2007 that Professor Yang is the recipient of the award this year, following the strict examination by the Koran Academy of Science and Technology (KAST).
The reason for the award is Professor Yang’s development of prototype optical?bio-functional photonic crystal structures that can process a huge amount of data, resulting from a study that has discovered the principle of Self-assembly where multifunctional nanoparticles are manufactured and assembled for themselves.
Professor Yang’s recent research result about photon structures and nano patterns was published by Nature (February 2, 2006 edition); posted on Heart-Cut, the portal site of the American Chemistry Society (ACS), as highlight paper two times (November 4, 2002 and May 1, 2006); and introduced at Research/Researcher of MRS Bulletin by the U.S. Material Research Society (MRS) as main paper in December 2003. Professor Yang is very famous in Korea and abroad for the excellences of his research achievements and has made request seminars at Harvard University, University of Wisconsin, Caltech, University of California, etc. He is also invited speaker and session organizer of the MRS and the SPIE.
2007.05.08 View 20189 -
KAIST To Hold Robot Competition
KAIST To Hold Robot Competition
KAIST (President Nam-Pyo Suh) will be holding ‘the 6th Intelligent SoC Robotwar 2007’ and is now receiving online applications at the official web site of the competition, www.socrobotwar.org. Application deadline is May 31, Thursday.
‘Intelligent SoC Robotwar’ is a competition of intelligent robots employing System on Chip (SoC) that commenced in 2002.
In the competition, participants will embody their ideas in the same intelligent robot platforms and robot bodies, and how well the ideas are embodied will decide winners.
In the part of tank robot competition (left photo), tank-like robots attack enemy robots by using laser, which demands technologies of scene analysis, radio communication and speech recognition. Hence, a variety of recognition algorithms and motion algorithms significantly affect match results.
Taekwon robot competition is a fight competition of two-leg robots. In the competition, robots equipped with scene analysis technologies perceive the location, distance and motion of enemy robots and do motions of attack and defense with no control by operators.
Teams must be made up of two or more persons including undergraduate or graduate students and all teams are entitled to participate in theoretical and practical education on platform boards for robots and intelligent robots. Final winner will be decided through qualifying test, preliminary matches and main matches.
“The most distinct characteristic of this competition is robot’s intelligence takes top priority. It’s not remote control-operated robots but autonomously operating intelligent robots that will make Korean robot-related industries further profitable. Considering that last year, total 138 teams participated in the competition and an award from the Prime Minister was given to the winner, the competition undoubtedly hold the top position among robot-related competitions,” said Hee-Joon You, President of the competition committee and a professor of Electrical Engineering.
Details on the competition are as follows:1. Purpose● To foster highly specialized technicians in the field of SoC through the embodiment of intellectual robots adopting SoC● To pave foundations for the enhancement of national competitiveness through the vitalization of IT-SoC and intellectual robot fields, next-generation growth momenta
2. Introduction(1) Sponsor: Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy(2) Organizer: KAIST(3) Competition parts: SoC tank robot competition, SoC taekwon robot competition(4) Rules of matches① SoC Tank Robot competition- 4M X 4M square field, 2 to 2 survival format- Three three-minute rounds per game (Winning two out of three rounds is required to win a game)- 5-minute long intermission
② SoC Taekwon Robot competition- Octagonal field with a radius of 2 M, 1 to 1 match format- Three three-minute rounds per game (Winning two out of three rounds is required to win a game)- Four downs per round make a loss, In the case of less-than-four-time downs within three minutes, attack points decide winner.- 5-minute long intermission (5) ScheduleApril 1 thru May 31, 2007 ApplicationJuly, 2007 OrientationAugust, 2007 Qualifying test August, 2007 Preliminary matchesOctober18 - 21, 2007 Main matches
(6) ContactWeb site: http://www.socrobotwar.orgPerson in charge: Min-Hee Shin, 042-869-8937, maiwind@kaist.ac.kr
2007.04.26 View 18030
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KAIST to build large-scale civil engineering experiment center
- Geo-Centrifuge experiment center of an area of about 1,712 square meters and an estimated construction cost of total 8.4 billion won
- Simulation laboratory in the field of geotechnical engineering with state-of-the-art experiment equipment- Ground-breaking ceremony held on April 3 at 4 pm
KAIST will construct ‘distributed shared-type Geo-Centrifuge experiment center’, a large-scale civil engineering laboratory that will study natural disasters such as earthquake, embankment collapse, etc. with ground structure miniatures.
A two-story building with a basement occupying an area of about 1,712 square meters will become a landmark laboratory in the field of geotechnical engineering that can be used for the education, research, and social infrastructure design by universities, institutes, and corporations via high-speed information and communication network. The estimated construction cost is 8.4 billion won.
The center will be composed of experiment building including geo-centrifuge laboratory, model-making room, workshop, geotechnical engineering laboratory, and specimen storehouse; and research building including control room, video conference room, electronic library, and research rooms. A variety of convenience facilities for researchers and video conference and remote monitoring system, with which researcher at remote distances can directly participate in experiments, will be provided in the research building, and world’s top-class experiment equipment such as geo-centrifuge with a turning radius of 5 meters, a maximum acceleration of 130 G (130 times faster than the acceleration of gravity), a preload of 2,400 kg and bidirectional shaking-table that can reproduce earthquakes-like wave during experiments, and robots that can reproduce construction procedures by a remote control will be installed.
Geo-Centrifuge experiment refers to an experiment that reproduces natural disaster-like motions by making miniatures of large-scale ground structures such as dams, slopes, etc. and using centrifugal forces generated from high-speed rotation. This experiment can easily and rapidly reproduce actual motions of ground structures at a low cost, thereby being widely used for various geotechnical engineering researches such as evaluation of seismic safety, movement of soft ground, slope stability analysis, etc. The causes of the embankment collapse in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 were also revealed by simulation tests by this experiment.
“The center will make possible a variety of experiments and researches that have never been available in Korea due to the lack of experiment infrastructure, therefore activate researches over the design and construction of large-scale social infrastructures. Making possible civil engineering researches demanding the use of large-scale equipment like Centrifuge, severely dependent on overseas technologies so far, will enhance the global competitiveness of Korean construction industry,” said Dong-soo Kim, President of the center.
The center will be constructed as part of the Ministry of Construction & Transportation (MOCT)’s project for the establishment of distributed shared-style construction research infrastructure, which is designed to establish construction research infrastructures in a national level. The ground breaking ceremony was held at KAIST on April 3 at 4 pm.
2007.04.12 View 16543 -
Dual Degree Programs with TU Berlin
Dual Degree Programs with TU Berlin- Five students to be exchanged each year from this year, receive degrees from both schools- Final stage of negotiation with GIT, UCSB- On-going DDP negotiations with Delft University of Technology in Netherlands, Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, Technical University of Denmark, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Tsinghua University in China, Tokyo Institute of Technology- DDPs with Ecole Polytechnique, INSA Lyon of France, and University of Karlsruhe of Germany underway at department levels
KAIST (President Nam-Pyo Suh) will begin Dual Degree Programs (DDP) with Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin).
The both recently reached an accord on the implementation of DDP and will exchange maximum five students each year, starting this year. The DDP allows each school involved to exchange students who meet the counterpart’s requirements one-by-one with prior consensus of departments to accept the students and to confer its own diplomas on students who complete the prescribed graduation requirements.
TU Berlin, established in 1770, currently holds 28,344 enrolled students, among which 5,829 students are from abroad (over 20%) and provides lectures for more than 50 subjects in the fields of Humanities, Social Sciences, Economics and so on with its emphases on Natural Science and Engineering. TU Berlin has fostered a multitude of distinguished scientists, including 1986 Nobel Prize Recipient in Physics Ernst Ruska who developed an electronic microscope for the first time in the world.
KAIST has now been eagerly promoting the DDPs with many distinguished foreign universities. It is on the final stage of the DDP negotiation with Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT) and University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), and has already agreed with Tsinghua University in China to implement the DDPs in several advanced fields. Also, an agreement with Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT) is soon to be made.
With Ecole Polytechnique and INSA Lyon of France, and University of Karlsruhe of Germany, the negotiation is underway at department levels, and the DDPs are also being promoted with Milan Technical University of Italy, Delft University of Technology of Netherlands, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) of Sweden, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NUNT).
“As global interests in East Asia arise, interests in KAIST by many foreign universities also increase. We are planning to expand the scope of this program to provide KAIST students with more opportunities of studying abroad and to attract more outstanding foreign students,” KAIST Dean of Academic Affairs Kwang-Hyung Lee explained.
- Dual Degree Program (DDP)In DDP, schools involved can maintain their own curriculums and confer their own degrees on students who complete the graduation requirements. Therefore, students can receive degrees from both schools involved. Meanwhile, DDP is not the same concept with Joint Degree Program (JDP), in which schools involved establish a joint curriculum and confer a single joint degree on students.
2007.03.19 View 21053