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KAIST Participates in the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2015 in China
KAIST’s president and its professors actively engage in discussions of major issues on higher education, technology innovation, and industry-university collaboration with global leaders from across all sectors.
President Steve Kang of KAIST participated in the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2015 (a.k.a., Summer Davos Forum) hosted by the World Economic Forum (WEF). With the theme of “Charting a New Course for Growth,” the Summer Davos Forum took place on September 9-11, 2015 in, Dalian, China.
Currently, KAIST is a member of the Global University Leaders Forum (GULF) of WEF, a gathering of the presidents of the top 25 universities in the world, including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Tokyo, University of Oxford, Peking University, and National University of Singapore. GULF allows university leaders an opportunity to have high-level dialogues on higher education and research and explore prospects for cooperative ventures.
President Kang led the discussion of the GULF session at the Summer Davos Forum, which was held on September 10, 2015, with 25 university leaders as well as two business leaders from Chinese companies: Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., and Sanofi China. The participants shared candid perspectives on industry-university collaboration, particularly the need for such partnerships in Asia.
In addition, KAIST hosted the fourth IdeasLab session, entitled “Bio versus Nano Materials, on September 9, 2015. At the session, four KAIST professors held an in-depth debate and discussion with the audience on whether the next industrial revolution would be driven by advances in biomaterials or nanomaterials.
The topics under discussion were:
- New materials that mimic biology by Professor Hea Shin Lee
- Bio-based materials that replace petroleum-based materials by Professor Sang Yup Lee
- New materials designed at sub-nano scale by Professor Hee Tae Jung
- A hydrogen economy with nanomaterials by Professor Eun Ae Cho
Since its establishment in 2007, the Summer Davos Forum has become the biggest business and political gathering in Asia, held annually either in Dalian or Tianjin, China. The Forum has attracted more than 1,500 participants primarily from emerging nations such as China, India, Russia, Mexico, and Brazil, and has offered an open platform to address issues important to the region and the global community.
2015.09.14 View 8767 -
Professor Jeong Ho Lee Receives the 2015 Pediatric Epilepsies Research Award
The award identifies leading scientists worldwide and funds their cutting-edge research in epilepsy.
The Citizen United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE) announced on September 7, 2015, that Jeong Ho Lee, a professor of the Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering at KAIST, will be awarded the 2015 Pediatric Epilepsies Research Award.
The Pediatric Epilepsies Research Award is given annually to a researcher who has conducted novel, innovative research projects that address severe, intractable pediatric epilepsies as well as collaborative, interdisciplinary projects that explore new approaches to find a treatment for pediatric epilepsies.
Lee was recognized for his leading study in the field of intractable epilepsy. He is the first Korean who has ever received this award, securing a research grant of USD 250,000 for two years.
Lee has conducted research on brain somatic mutations as the novel cause of childhood intractable epilepsy. Pediatric epilepsies account for approximately 70% of all cases of epilepsy.
Established in 1998, CURE is a non-profit American organization based in Chicago, Illinois, which is committed to funding research and various initiatives that will lead to breakthroughs to cure epilepsy.
Since its inception, CURE has been at the forefront of epilepsy research, raising more than USD 32 million to support researchers and scientists worldwide. It has also awarded more than 180 cutting-edge projects in 13 countries.
2015.09.09 View 11328 -
Professor Poong-Hyun Seong Appointed as the New President of the Korean Nuclear Society
Professor Poong-Hyun Seong of the Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering has been appointed as the 28th President of the Korean Nuclear Society (KNS). His presidency began on September 1, 2015 and will last one year.
Professor Seong graduated from the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Seoul National University, Korea, and received his master’s and doctoral degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States.
He has filled various positions in the field of nuclear engineering, including a commissioner of the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission of Korea, manager of the Korean branch of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), and head of the Human Factors and Instrumentation and Controls Division of ANS.
At KNS, he served as the vice president as well as the Editor-in-Chief of its academic journal Nuclear Engineering and Technology.
The Korean Nuclear Society was established in 1969 to promote academic and technical research in nuclear engineering and develop safe and sustainable nuclear power. It is composed of more than 4,200 active members from ten research fields and has published the journal Nuclear Engineering and Technology since 2007.
2015.09.01 View 6269 -
KAIST's Research Team Receives the Best Paper Award from the IEEE Transaction on Power Electronics
A research team led by Professor Chun T. Rim of the Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has received the First Prize Papers Award from the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Transactions on Power Electronics (TPEL), a peer-reviewed journal that covers fundamental technologies used in the control and conversion of electric power.
A total of three research papers received this award in 2015.
Each year, TPEL’s editors select three best papers among those published in the journal during the preceding calendar year. In 2014, the TPEL published 579 papers. Professor Rim’s paper was picked out as one of the three papers published last year for the First Prize Papers Award.
Entitled “Generalized Active EMF (electromagnetic field) Cancel Methods for Wireless Electric Vehicles (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=6684288&tag=1),” the paper proposed, for the first time in the world, three generalized design methods for cancelling the total EMF generated from wireless electric vehicles. This technology, researchers said, can be applied to any wireless power transfer systems.
The award ceremony will be held at the upcoming conference of the 2015 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo in September in Montreal, Canada.
2015.08.27 View 10832 -
Nature Biotechnology Nominates Sang Yup Lee of KAIST for Top 20 Translational Researchers of 2014
Nature Biotechnology, recognized as the most prestigious journal in the field of biotechnology, has released today its list of the Top 20 Translational Researchers of 2014. Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) ranked seventh in the list. He is the only Asian researcher listed.
The journal, in partnership with IP Checkups, a patent analytics firm, presents an annual ranking of researchers based on their paper and patent output. The list includes, among others, each researcher’s most-cited patent in the past five years and their H index, a measurement to evaluate the impact of a researcher’s published work utilizing citation analysis. (More details can be found at http://www.nature.com/bioent/2015/150801/full/bioe.2015.9.html.)
American institutions made up the majority of the list, with 18 universities and research institutes, and the remainder was filled by KAIST in Korea and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia.
Globally known as a leading researcher in systems metabolic engineering, Professor Lee has published more than 500 journal papers and 580 patents. He has received many awards, including the Citation Classic Award, Elmer Gaden Award, Merck Metabolic Engineering Award, ACS Marvin Johnson Award, SIMB Charles Thom Award, POSCO TJ Park Prize, Amgen Biochemical Engineering Award, and the Ho Am Prize in Engineering.
2015.08.27 View 10709 -
KAIST holds the 2015 KAIST-MIT-Technion International Symposium on Nano Science
The 2015 KAIST-MIT-Technion International Symposium on Nano Science was held on August 11, 2015 at the KAIST campus. The event took place under three subtopics: Materials for Production and Storage of Renewable Energy, Functional Materials, and Multiferroic Materials.
The joint symposium invited more than 300 experts in material science and engineering including ten speakers and panelists. From MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Professors Harry L. Tuller and Geoffrey S. Beach in the Department of Material Engineering, as well as Professor Gregory Rutledge in the Department of Chemical Engineering joined the symposium. Professor Avner Rothschild in the Department of Material Engineering and Professor Yair Ein-Eli in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Technion Institute of Technology in Israel also participated.
From KAIST, Professors Il-Doo Kim, Byong-Guk Park, and Yeon-Sik Jung in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Professor Chan-Ho Yang in the Department of Physics, and Professor Doh-Chang Lee in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering spoke at the event. The list of topics included “Next Generation Lithium-Air Battery,” “Nano Materials for High Performance Energy Storage System,” and “Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Photoelectrode for the Conversion and Storage of Solar Energy.”
In its efforts to promote cooperation among the three universities, KAIST plans to send six students to MIT and one student to Technion for joint research.
Professor Il-Doo Kim, who organized the symposium said, “We believe this kind of international gathering will serve as an opportunity for scholars from leading universities to share their expertise in material science and help them better understand on the recent trends in nanoscience and its related technology.”
2015.08.12 View 8677 -
'Engineered Bacterium Produces 1,3-Diaminopropane'
A research team led by Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST reported, for the first time, the production of 1,3-diaminopropane via fermentation of an engineered bacterium.
1,3-Diaminopropane is a three carbon diamine, which has a wide range of industrial applications including epoxy resin and cross-linking agents, as well as precursors for pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and organic chemicals. It can also be polymerized with dicarboxylic acids to make polyamides (nylons) for use as engineering plastics, medical materials, and adhesives.
Traditionally, 1,3-diaminopropane is derived from petroleum-based processes. In effort to address critical problems such as the depletion of petroleum and environmental issues inherent to the petroleum-based processes, the research team has developed an Escherichia coli (E. coli) strain capable of producing 1,3-diaminopropane. Using this technology, 1,3-diaminopropane can now be produced from renewable biomass instead of petroleum.
E. coli as found in nature is unable to produce 1,3-diaminopropane. Metabolic engineering, a technology to transform microorganisms into highly efficient microbial cell factories capable of producing chemical compounds of interest, was utilized to engineer the E. coli strain. First, naturally existing metabolic pathways for the biosynthesis of 1,3-diaminopropane were introduced into a virtual cell in silico to determine the most efficient metabolic pathway for the 1,3-diaminopropane production. The metabolic pathway selected was then introduced into an E. coli strain and successfully produced 1,3-diaminopropane for the first time in the world.
The research team applied metabolic engineering additionally, and the production titer of 1,3-diaminopropane increased about 21 fold. The Fed-batch fermentation of the engineered E. coli strain produced 13 grams per liter of 1,3-diaminoproapne. With this technology, 1,3-diaminopropane can be produced using renewable biomass, and it will be the starting point for replacing the current petroleum-based processes with bio-based processes.
Professor Lee said, “Our study suggested a possibility to produce 1,3-diaminopropane based on biorefinery. Further study will be done to increase the titer and productivity of 1,3-diaminopropane.”
This work was published online in Scientific Reports on August 11, 2015.
Reference: Chae, T.U. et al. "Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for the production of 1,3-diaminopropane, a three carbon diamine," Scientific Reports:
http://www.nature.com/articles/srep13040
This research was supported by the Technology Development Program to Solve Climate Changes on Systems Metabolic Engineering for Biorefineries from Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) through the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea.
Figure 1: Metabolic engineering strategies for 1,3-diaminopropane production using C4 pathway
Figure 2: Fed-batch fermentation profiles of two final engineered E. coli strains
2015.08.12 View 11243 -
Professor Sang-Min Bae Receives the 2015 Red Dot Design Award
Professor Sang-Min Bae and his research team from the Industrial Design Department of KAIST have received three awards from the 2015 Red Dot Design Award: the Best of the Best Award and two Design Concept Awards.
Being one of the most prestigious international design awards, the Red Dot Design Award serves to identify good design concept and innovation that will be the precursors of tomorrow’s great product. Its annual award ceremony will take place on September 25, 2015, at the Red Dot Design Museum in Singapore.
This year, the Award received 4,680 entries from 61 countries, and only the top 5.7% of them was able to garner the awards. In addition to two Red Dot Design Concept Awards, Professor Bae’s team won the Best of the Best Award, coming through a four hundred to one competition.
Awarded the Best of the Best Award, Boxchool is a modular classroom built on shipping containers whose aim is to give underprivileged children equal opportunities for learning. Jointly designed with an IT corporation in Korea, SK Telecom, the container is also a smart classroom.
Boxchool received the Best of the Best Award in recognition of its contribution to giving an equal learning opportunity to needy children, as well as its environmental characteristics.
The research team strengthened the mobility of the container and creatively addressed problems associated with using containers as classrooms such as insulation and inadequate space in environments which hamper teaching. The modular classroom can function in any setting since it can generate electricity from installed solar panels. The rainwater utilization system allows autonomous operation of the classroom.
The team earned the Red Dot Design Concept Award for a self-generating interactive tent, which was jointly designed with Kolon Sport, a Korean outdoor products company, as an industry-university cooperation project. The interactive tent differs from conventional tents by adding features that allow users to engage with the environment. For example, the installed organic solar cells allowed users to have prolonged outdoor activities by supplying electricity generated therefrom. Users can also enjoy greater ventilation. This permits the tent to be utilized as a temporary residence in the third world.
Another recipient of the Red Dot Design Concept Award, Snow Energy is a portable self-generating lamp and charger, which contains a thermo-element, generating electricity from temperature difference. Electricity is generated by pouring hot water inside a tank and cold water into a neighboring space. Snow Energy, which is sustainable and eco-friendly, will be especially helpful during outdoor activities when there is no electricity available.
Professor Bae's research team, ID+IM, has endeavored to address inequality and philanthropy through two projects, the Nanum (a Korean word to mean “sharing”) and the Seed Projects. Since 2005, they have received internationally recognized awards more than 40 times.
Picture 1: Recipient of the Best of the Best Award of the 2015 Red Dot Design Award, Boxchool is a modular classroom built on shipping containers
Picture 2: Recipient of the 2015 Red Dot Design Concept Award, the self-generating interactive tent
Picture 3: Recipient of the 2015 Red Dot Design Concept Award, Snow Energy is a portable self-generating lamp and charger which generates electricity from the temperature difference
2015.08.05 View 11463 -
Dr. Se-Jung Kim Receives the Grand Prize at the International Photo and Image Contest on Light
Dr. Se-Jung Kim of the Physics Department at KAIST received the Grand Prize at the 2015 Photo and Image Contest of the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies.
The United Nations has designated the year 2015 as the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies.
The Optical Society of Korea celebrated the UN’s designation by hosting an international photo and image contest on the theme of light and optics related technology.
Dr. Kim presented a photo of images taken from a liquid crystal, which was entitled “A Micro Pinwheel.” She took pictures of liquid crystal images with a polarizing microscope and then colored the pictures. The liquid crystal has self-assembled circle domain structures, and each domain can form vortex optics. Her adviser for the project is Professor Yong-Hoon Cho of the Physics Department.
Her work was exhibited during the annual conference of the Optical Society of Korea, which was held on July 13-15, 2015 at Gyeong-Ju Hwabaek International Convention Center. It will also be exhibited at the National Science Museum in Gwacheon and the Kim Dae-Jung Convention Center in Gwangju.
Picture: A Micro Pinwheel
2015.07.31 View 10357 -
A Technology Holding Company Establishes Two Companies Based on Technologies Developed at KAIST
Mirae Holdings is a technology holding company created by four science and technology universities, KAIST, DIGIST (Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology), GIST (Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology), and UNIST (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology) in 2014 to commercialize the universities’ research achievements. The company identifies promising technologies for commercialization, makes business plans, establishes venture capitals, and invests in startup companies.
Over the past year, Mirae Holdings has established two venture companies based on the technologies developed at KAIST. In September 2014, it founded Cresem Inc., a company used the anisotropic conductive film (ACF) bonding technology, which was developed by Professor Kyung-Wook Paik of the Material Science and Engineering Department at KAIST. Cresem provides a technology to bond electronic parts ultrasonically. The company is expected to have 860,000 USD worth of sales within the first year of its launching.
Last June, Mirae Holdings created another company, Doctor Kitchen, with the technology developed by Professor Gwan-Su Yi of the Bio and Brain Engineering Department at KAIST. Doctor Kitchen supplies precooked food, which helps diabetic patients regulate their diet. The company offers a personalized diet plan to customers so that they can effectively manage their disease and monitor their blood sugar level efficiently.
The Chief Executive Officer of Mirae Holdings, Young-Ho Kim, said, “We can assist KAIST researchers who aspire to create a company based on their research outcomes through various stages of startup services such as making business plans, securing venture capitals, and networking with existing businesses.”
Young-Ho Kim (left in the picture), the Chief Executive Officer of Mirae Holdings, holds a certificate of company registration with Sang-Min Oh (right in the picture), the Chief Executive Officer of Cresem.
Young-Ho Kim (left in the picture), the Chief Executive Officer of Mirae Holdings, holds a certificate of company registration with Jae-Yeun Park (right in the picture), the Chief Executive Officer of Dr. Kitchen.
2015.07.29 View 12935 -
Professor Suk-Joong Kang Receives the Richard Brook and Helmholtz Awards
Professor Suk-Joong Kang of KAIST’s Department of Materials Sciences and Engineering received the Richard Brook Award from the European Ceramic Society at its 14th conference held on June 21, 2015, in Toledo, Spain. The award is presented to the most distinguished academic or engineer in ceramics from a non-European country. Professor Kang gave the commemorative lecture after the award ceremony.
Professor Kang is an expert in the field of sintering and microstructural evolution in ceramics and metals. He suggested a new model for grain growth and identified the principles of microstructural evolution.
He also received the 2015 Helmholtz Fellow Award in June. The Helmholtz Association, the largest scientific organization in Germany, confers the award on outstanding senior scientists based outside Germany who have made great academic and research achievements in their fields.
Professor Kang said of the Brook Award, “It is such an honor to receive an award from an eminent global institution. I take this opportunity to thank my students and colleagues for their support, and I will work harder for my research.”
2015.07.20 View 6712 -
KAIST Undergraduates Organize the Largest Interdisciplinary Conference in Asia
The largest interdisciplinary conference in Asia hosted by KAIST undergraduates for students around the world will be held in KAIST. The organizing committee of International Conference for the Integration of Science, Technology and Society (ICISTS) will hold the ICISTS-KAIST 2015 in KAIST and Hotel ICC from August 3-7, 2015, with around 300 Korean and international participants.
ICISTS-KAIST was established in 2005 to provide an annual platform for students to discuss the integration and the convergence of science, technology and society, regardless of their academic background.
This year’s theme is "Shaping the Future" and the topics for the conference are robotics, medicine, and science communication.
The keynote speakers are Vitalic Buterin, the winner of the World Technology Award in 2014 for the co-creation and invention of Ethereum and Alan Irwin, a well-known scholar of science, technology and society as well as the Dean of Research at the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark.
Other notable speakers include Adam Marcus, a professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Emory University School of Medicine; Stefan Lorenz Sorgner, the Director and co-founder of Beyond Humanism Network; Hideto Nakajima, a professor in the Department of History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science and Technology at Tokyo Institute of Technology; Wendell Wallach, a lecturer at the Yale University Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics; Jinil Lee, a professor in the Division of Biological Science and Technology at Yonsei University; and Sangwook Kim, an editor of APCTP web journal Crossroads and a professor in the Department of Physics Education, Pusan National University.
Last year, more than 300 students from 50 different countries attended the ICISTS-KAIST 2014 as delegates to exchange their thoughts and ideas on science, technology, and society.
To register for the event, please visit www.icists.org.
2015.07.14 View 8426