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KAIST and Seoul National University Students Hold 100-Hour Robot Hackathon to Nurture Physical AI Talent
KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced on August 4 that RoboticUS, a joint student organization formed by students from KAIST and Seoul National University, is holding the inaugural Robot Hackathon at KAIST from August 3 to 8.
"In the era of Physical AI, we need convergence talent who can go beyond building good AI to design and implement robots and systems that move the real world based on AI," said Choongsik Bae, President of KAIST. "This hackathon, planned and run entirely by students, is a good example of KAIST's culture of challenge and collaboration, and we expect it to become a new educational model for turning future technologies into reality," he added.
The hackathon puts this educational philosophy directly into students' hands. It is Korea's first student-led Physical AI robot hackathon, planned and run by students from KAIST and Seoul National University across institutional boundaries. Participants experience the entire process of designing and building working robots, developing hands-on capabilities that integrate AI and hardware.
The event is hosted by RoboticUS, a nonprofit student organization formed jointly by MR, a robotics club in KAIST's Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Seoul National University's robotics clubs SHAPE and SIGMA. Students who share a passion for robotics from the two universities joined forces across institutional lines, handling every stage themselves — from recruiting participants to designing the mission, running the event, and setting up the presentation and judging format. KAIST's Department of Mechanical Engineering supports the event with facilities and operational assistance so that the students' initiative can translate into genuine educational value.
Ten teams — 30 students total — selected from the two universities will take part. After receiving training in power circuits and robot joint control on August 3 and 4, participants will begin building their robots when the mission is unveiled on the morning of August 5 and continue working until 4 p.m. on August 8. Starting from an idea, they will go through design, assembly, programming, and repeated testing to complete a working robot — experiencing the full roughly 100-hour cycle themselves.
Each team will be provided with Angel Robotics' "phact" actuator, which serves as the robot's joints and muscles, and NVIDIA's Jetson AGX, which functions as the robot's brain. Taejin Technology Co., Ltd will provide training on circuits and electronic components for supplying stable power to the robots, and Angel Robotics will support hands-on training in using the actuators and controlling the robots.
Participants will not simply assemble a finished kit — they will design the robot's shape and movement from the ground up and build it themselves.
For fairness, the mission will be revealed only at the start of the hackathon on August 5. There is no single correct answer or predetermined robot form. Each team will interpret the same mission differently, combining mechanical structure, circuitry, AI, and control software into a single robot. One of the highlights will be seeing the different solutions the ten teams develop in response to the same mission.
The final day, August 8, will be an open Physical AI festival that welcomes the general public. A public conference at the KI Building (E4) Fusion Hall will introduce the current state of Physical AI in an accessible and engaging way — from robotic skin that lets robots feel touch like humans, to humanoid robots that can see and hear people, to a quadrupedal robot that has completed a marathon.
Professors Jung Kim, Yong-Hwa Park, and Jemin Hwangbo of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, along with Joon-Ha Kim, CEO of Diden Robotics, will each give a talk on robotic skin and haptics, multimodal perception in humanoid robots, the quadrupedal robot Raibo, and the journey of developing Physical AI for industrial use, respectively.
After the conference, an open demo day for the ten participating teams will run from 4 to 5 p.m. at KAIST's Culture Complex (E9), 3rd floor. Members of the public will be able to visit each team's booth, watch the robots the students built over 100 hours in action, and submit their own evaluations via QR code.
Judging criteria include mission achievement, technical execution, creativity, and presentation and demonstration. The final score will weight faculty advisor evaluation at 30%, peer evaluation among hackathon participants at 30%, sponsor judging panel evaluation at 30%, and pre-registered public attendee evaluation at 10%.
Angel Robotics and Taejin Technology are taking part as core technology partners, providing equipment and training. Faculty members and industry experts are providing education and technical guidance so that students can safely handle equipment used in real research and industrial settings.
"Physical AI's competitiveness comes not just from software but from hardware and control technology," said Kyoungchul Kong, Professor from Mechanical Engineering at KAIST and Head of the Future Technology Institute at Angel Robotics. "This hackathon will show that with high-performance robot components and the right development environment in place, even undergraduates can turn their imagination into a working robot in 100 hours," he added.
"This hackathon is about learning and building together, rather than competing between schools," said Yeonsu An, President of RoboticUS (and President of MR, KAIST's robotics club). "We hope the general public will get to experience the robots students have built firsthand and take part in the judging, coming away with the sense that Physical AI is a technology anyone can understand and enjoy — not just something for experts," she added.
“Although we do not yet know what the challenge will be, I am most looking forward to gathering in one place and developing robots together,” said Hyeontae Jeon, a participating student from Seoul National University. “It will be even more meaningful to work through challenges across university boundaries and present the robots we built ourselves to the public.”
The public conference is open to anyone through pre-registration. Pre-registered attendees can watch the lectures, view the open demo day, and take part in on-site judging. Registration is available on the RoboticUS official website or on Event-us, under "First Robot Hackathon – Robot & AI Public Conference (KAIST × SNU)." Registration closes August 6.
2026.08.04 View 364 -
KAIST Develops Marine Carbon Removal Technology That Turns Carbon Dioxide in Seawater into “Stone” for Permanent Storage
A new pathway has opened to enhance the ocean’s natural ability to clean the planet. KAIST researchers have developed a technology that converts carbon dioxide dissolved in seawater into “stone,” or minerals, preventing it from returning to the atmosphere and enabling permanent storage. The achievement is expected to help the ocean absorb more carbon dioxide and accelerate the commercialization of next-generation marine carbon removal technologies.
KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced that a research team led by Professor Dong-Yeun Koh from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, in collaboration with Professor T. Alan Hatton’s group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has developed an electrochemical dissolved ocean carbon removal (e-DOC) technology that converts carbon dioxide dissolved in seawater into calcium carbonate (CaCO₃), a stable mineral form, enabling virtually permanent carbon storage.
The ocean is the planet’s largest carbon reservoir, absorbing about 30% of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity. Just as water naturally refills a large container when some is removed, removing carbon dioxide from seawater enables the ocean to absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The research team developed a technology that converts dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), the carbon species dissolved in seawater, into a mineral form that does not return to the atmosphere. Once stored in this form, the carbon is effectively prevented from returning to the air, allowing the ocean to continue absorbing new carbon dioxide. Such technologies are gaining attention as key carbon dioxide removal (CDR) solutions for responding to climate change.
However, conventional technologies have faced a major challenge: mineral scaling. Much like limescale building up inside a kettle, minerals such as calcium carbonate adhere to electrode surfaces and clog the system. As operation continues, performance declines, requiring frequent cleaning or replacement of components and increasing both energy consumption and maintenance costs.
To overcome this issue, the research team developed a hollow fiber electrode assembly (HFEA), a device composed of bundled hollow, thread-like electrodes. In this structure, minerals form outside the electrode surface rather than directly on it, while hydrogen bubbles naturally generated during the reaction act like a brush, continuously cleaning the electrode surface and preventing mineral buildup.
In experiments using Jeju lava seawater, the team successfully operated the device continuously and stably for more than 120 hours. The system removed 80–90% of dissolved inorganic carbon from seawater and reduced electricity consumption by up to 54% compared with existing technologies. In addition, the process simultaneously produced high-purity hydrogen (H₂) and magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)₂), a material used in eco-friendly products and industrial applications, further improving its economic potential.
The newly developed device can be produced in a compact, modular form, making it suitable for installation on ships, offshore plants, and other marine industrial facilities. The research team expects the technology to be scaled up into large-scale marine carbon removal systems that can contribute to achieving carbon neutrality and responding to climate change.
Professor Dong-Yeun Koh said, “This technology converts carbon dioxide dissolved in seawater into a mineral form that does not return to the atmosphere, enabling permanent storage and helping the ocean continuously absorb new carbon dioxide,” adding, “We expect this work to accelerate the commercialization of marine carbon removal technologies and contribute to the realization of a carbon-neutral society.”
This study was co-led by KAIST Ph.D. candidate Inhwan Park of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Dr. Young Hun Lee of MIT, who received his Ph.D. from KAIST in 2023 and is currently affiliated with the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT, as co-first authors. The paper was published online on June 19, 2026, in the international journal Advanced Energy Materials.
Paper title: A Compact Hollow Fiber Electrode Assembly Architecture for Continuous Electrochemical Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.71205
This research was supported by Hyundai Motor Company and Kia, as well as the Global C.L.E.A.N. Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT.
2026.08.04 View 423 -
KAIST and NVIDIA Launch Human Physical AI NVAITC
A new era of Physical AI is taking shape, enabling wearable robots and humanoids to understand and predict human movement and achieve more precise control. KAIST, which possesses world-class research capabilities in wearable robotics, and NVIDIA will collaborate to develop a Human Motion Foundation Model that enables AI to learn human movement and physical intelligence.
KAIST, led by President Choongsik Bae, announced on July 25 that it will establish a NVIDIA AI Technology Center (NVAITC) with NVIDIA to advance collaborative research in Physical AI.
As the Korean government advances Physical AI as a key national initiative for the country’s future, the collaboration aims to secure core technologies for next-generation Physical AI by combining KAIST’s human-centered robotics technologies and real-world human motion data with NVIDIA AI technologies and global research network.
The collaboration will be carried out through the establishment of the Human Physical AI NVAITC by the KAIST Department of Mechanical Engineering and NVIDIA. The Human Physical AI Research Center at the KAIST Department of Mechanical Engineering will serve as the core research hub for the NVAITC . Building on this foundation, the two organizations plan to progressively expand the scope of their collaboration across the full spectrum of Physical AI, including wearable robots, humanoids, digital twins, and manufacturing.
“Competitiveness in the era of Physical AI will depend not simply on AI itself, but on domain-specific technologies and data grounded in a deep understanding of humans and robots,” said KAIST President Choongsik Bae. “By combining KAIST’s accumulated expertise in human-centered research with NVIDIA’s world-leading AI infrastructure and physical AI technologies, we will realize Physical AI that better understands and supports people and develop KAIST into a global hub leading Physical AI research and industry beyond Korea.”
The Human Physical AI Research Center was established around the laboratories of Professor Kyoungchul Kong, a leading researcher in wearable robotics, and Professor Jung Kim, a leading researcher in biorobotics. Professors Kim and Kong serve as co-directors of the Center.
The Center conducts research to understand how humans move, exert force, and maintain balance in real-world environments and to reproduce these capabilities through AI and robotics. In particular, the large-scale human motion data and gait and movement control technologies accumulated through wearable robotics research are regarded as a critical foundation for developing human-centered Physical AI.
Co-director Professor Kyoungchul Kong is a world-renowned researcher in wearable robotics who has developed robotic technologies for gait assistance and rehabilitation. Through Angel Robotics, a company he founded, he has also led the commercialization of wearable robotics by translating research outcomes into real-world products and services. Through the NVAITC , Professor Kong will lead the development of the Human Motion Foundation Model based on the human motion data and robotic control technologies accumulated by his research team.
On NVIDIA’s side, Charles Cheung, Senior Manager at the NVIDIA AI Technology Center (NVAITC), will participate by providing expert technical consultation and developer support. The NVAITC will also operate research and educational programs using NVIDIA Omniverse and digital twin platforms.
“The KAIST Human Physical AI Research Center has world-class human motion data and research capabilities in wearable robotics,” said Charles Cheung. “This research, which seeks to reproduce human movement through AI, is expected to open new possibilities for Physical AI.”
To ensure the systematic operation of the collaborative research, the two organizations will establish a Steering Committee and review research goals and progress every six months. They also plan to hold an annual international symposium that will bring together researchers from Korea and abroad to share the latest research outcomes and industry trends in Physical AI.
A Student Ambassador Program will also be offered to KAIST students. Through the program, NVIDIA experts will provide lectures and regular office hours and carry out projects with participating students.
The first cohort is expected to consist of five to 10 students. Participants will receive training focused on NVIDIA Omniverse and digital twin technologies and will be awarded certificates upon completion of the program.
The primary objective of the first phase of the collaborative research is to develop a Human Motion Foundation Model.
The Human Motion Foundation Model is a generative AI-based model trained on large-scale human motion data to understand, predict, and generate a wide range of human movements. It is expected to serve as a core enabling technology that will allow wearable robots and humanoids to more accurately identify users’ intentions and movements and respond more naturally.
The technologies developed through the NVAITC are expected to be applied not only to wearable robots that support the rehabilitation and daily lives of people with gait impairments, but also to humanoids that work alongside humans, human movement assessment, and digital healthcare.
Ultimately, the researchers aim to explain from an AI perspective how humans plan movement and control their muscles and joints. Based on this understanding, they seek to create next-generation robotic systems that help people overcome gait impairments and expand human physical capabilities.
The collaboration is also significant because its impact is expected to extend beyond an individual research project and contribute to the broader Physical AI industrial ecosystem in Korea.
Co-directors Professors Jung Kim and Kyoungchul Kong are currently leading in a Deep Tech Scale-up Valley project in the field of Physical AI. By combining Angel Robotics’ experience in technology commercialization, KAIST’s capabilities in robotics, mechanical engineering, and AI, and NVIDIA’s AI technologies and global professional network, the collaboration is expected to support a broad range of activities spanning research and development, talent cultivation, startup support, and technology commercialization.
“This collaboration will provide an important opportunity to take AI research in the Department of Mechanical Engineering to the next level,” said Professor Hyung-Soon Park, Head of the KAIST Department of Mechanical Engineering. “Centered around the Human Physical AI Research Center, we will expand Physical AI research into nationally strategic industries, including robotics and manufacturing.”
2026.07.26 View 1809 -
KAIST Opens a New Era of Webtoons: From “Viewing” to “Experiencing”
Webtoons are coming to life in the physical world, ushering in a new era in which comics are not merely viewed, but experienced.
A KAIST research team has developed the world’s first next-generation extended reality (XR) comics platform that enables a wide range of readers to enjoy immersive, three-dimensional comics in physical space. By expanding webtoons beyond the screen and into the real world, the team has opened up new possibilities for the future of comics.
KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced on the 21st of July that a research team led by Professor Ian Oakley from the School of Electrical Engineering has proposed core design principles and future directions for next-generation extended reality (XR) comics through a systematic user study involving 15 participants, including human-computer interaction (HCI) experts, professional webtoon creators, and readers.
The research team developed ComiXR, a new platform that enables users to both read and create comics in XR environments. Participants used the platform to transform a conventional print comic into an XR comic and explored how different visual, auditory, haptic, and interactive features could be combined.
Comics, which originated in printed books and newspapers, have evolved dramatically with the rise of smartphones. The vertical-scrolling format of webtoons has become particularly successful by adapting comics to the interaction methods of mobile devices.
The research team viewed XR devices as a potential next stage in this evolution. To explore how spatial depth, three-dimensional rendering, spatial audio, eye tracking, and facial expression tracking could be incorporated into comics, the team built ComiXR using a Meta Quest Pro headset.
While wearing the headset, participants freely positioned 3D characters, speech bubbles, sound effects, and other comic elements throughout a physical room. They were able to construct comic environments that they found comfortable, engaging, and immersive.
The results showed that readers strongly preferred designs that actively used the depth of physical space over simply displaying flat comic pages in a virtual environment. Immersion increased significantly when characters were positioned at a different depth from the background and speech bubbles were separated into distinct layers. In particular, an eye-tracking feature that revealed the next line of dialogue only when the reader looked at a specific character proved effective in preventing spoilers.
The platform also demonstrated new sensory experiences that are not possible in conventional comics. Special effects could be triggered in response to readers’ facial expressions, while haptic feedback could convey sensations such as a character’s heartbeat or the impact represented by an onomatopoeic effect.
Based on the study, the research team also proposed four key design concepts for XR comics. The first, “The Panel Gallery,” transforms the walls of a room into a gallery for displaying comic panels. The second, “The Pop-Up,” presents comics like pop-up books on desks or walls. The third, “Around Comic,” places 3D characters and other comic elements in outdoor spaces. The fourth, “Inclusive ComiX,” improves accessibility for a wide range of readers.
The research team expects XR comics to complement, rather than replace, existing smartphone-based webtoons. They could be used for special exhibitions and educational content that allow audiences to experience fictional worlds more vividly, as well as platforms that improve access to cultural content for a wider range of users.
Ammar Al-Taie, a postdoctoral researcher at the KAIST Information and Electronics Research Institute, participated as the first author, while Hyunyoung Han, a doctoral student in the School of Electrical Engineering, participated as a co-author.
The research was presented at the ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2026, or ACM DIS 2026, one of the leading international conferences in human-computer interaction and design. The ComiXR platform has also been released as open-source software for public use.
Paper title: ComiXR: Exploring Comic Layouts in eXtended Reality
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3800645.3812857
Related Video: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1D9Efp3T0biDbUm1K5Gu6HLSSy89Uaq8R?usp=sharing
Open-source platform: https://github.com/ammarjamal/ComiXR
The research was supported by the KAIST Jang Young Sil Fel¬lowship Program (Excellence Track). The authors acknowledge support from the IITP (Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation)-ITRC (Information Technology Research Center) grant funded by the Korean government (Ministry of Science and ICT) (IITP-2026-RS-2024-00436398).
2026.07.21 View 1262 -
KAIST Study Finds Politically Salient Immigration Issues Can Lead to Higher Industrial Pollution
When immigration or refugee issues become heated political topics, nearby factories may end up releasing more toxic substances. Although the two phenomena may appear unrelated, a KAIST-led international research team has found that they are in fact connected through the government’s limited administrative and fiscal resources.
KAIST (President Choongsik Bae) announced on the 10th of July that a joint research team led by Professor Narae Lee from The School of Business and Technology Management at KAIST, in collaboration with Professor Heli Wang from Singapore Management University (SMU), analyzed immigration-related legislation and environmental data across the United States and found that when immigration becomes a central political agenda, government environmental oversight weakens and firms’ toxic chemical releases increase. The research team describes this phenomenon as “institutional crowding.”
Government administrative capacity and budgets are not unlimited. When a new political issue emerges, government attention and resources become concentrated in that area. In the process, enforcement in relatively less visible policy areas, such as environmental oversight, may weaken. Although the research team analyzed immigration as a case study, they explain that this phenomenon is not limited to a specific issue. Rather, it represents a general mechanism that can arise when political agendas compete for limited government resources.
The research team combined data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) with immigration-related legislative data from U.S. states. By analyzing a total of 82,377 observations collected from 14,390 manufacturing facilities across the United States between 2010 and 2018, the team found that each additional immigration-related bill was associated with an average increase of about 1% in toxic chemical releases per manufacturing facility. This is equivalent to approximately 25 kilograms, or 56 pounds, of additional toxic emissions per facility.
The researchers found that this increase was not caused by a relaxation of environmental regulatory standards. Rather, it occurred because firms reduced costly efforts to cut pollution and treat toxic waste as government environmental oversight became relatively less effective.
This pattern was especially pronounced in states facing fiscal constraints. In states with high debt or heavy fiscal burdens, environmental oversight weakened further when political attention shifted to new issues.This suggests that when government budgets are tight, resources are more likely to be allocated first to politically urgent issues, while environmental monitoring may be pushed down the priority list.
Professor Narae Lee said, “This study does not argue that immigration causes environmental pollution. Rather, it shows that shifts in the political agenda item can weaken environmental oversight and thereby increase corporate pollution,” adding, “Even when limited government resources are concentrated on a particular issue, environmental oversight needs to be institutionally protected so that it remains stable.”
The study is significant in that it empirically identifies how competition among political agendas can affect firms’ environmental pollution management. It also offers new implications for public policy and for advancing environmental justice, so that the burden of environmental pollution does not fall disproportionately on socially vulnerable groups.
The research was published online on May 29 in the Journal of Management, a leading international journal in the field of management, with Professor Narae Lee as the first author.
An earlier version of the paper received the POSCO Corporate Citizenship Research Award, the Robert J. Litschert Award from the Academy of Management, and the Best Paper with Practical Implications Award from the Strategic Management Society, recognizing the excellence and practical significance of the research.
※ Paper title: There’s More Than Meets the Eye: Assessing the Impact of Immigrants on Firm Environmental Performance, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/01492063261442451
2026.07.10 View 866 -
How Does Superconductivity Begin? Unveiling the Hidden Flow of Electrons
Superconductivity, a phenomenon where electricity flows without resistance, is considered the core of quantum computers and next-generation power technologies. However, the exact states electrons undergo before superconductivity emerges have not yet been fully elucidated. KAIST researchers have provided experimental clues revealing the hidden order electrons form prior to superconductivity in a kagome metal, a material closely related to superconducting phenomena. The team confirmed that a loop-like circulating order of electrons (loop-current order) emerges earlier than the periodic clustering of electrons (charge density wave).
KAIST (President Kwang Hyung Lee) announced on the 30th that a joint research team led by Professors Yeongkwan Kim, Myung Joon Han, and SungBin Lee from the Department of Physics discovered through circular dichroism angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (CD-ARPES) experiments and theoretical calculations that time-reversal symmetry breaking occurs at a higher temperature than the charge density wave formation in the kagome metal CsV3Sb5. Time-reversal symmetry is a property where physical phenomena appear identical even when time is reversed. The breaking of this symmetry implies that electrons within the material may have created a hidden flow with a specific directionality.
A kagome metal is a material with a repeating triangular atomic arrangement, resembling the traditional Japanese basket weaving pattern 'kagome'. In this structure, electrons interact strongly with each other, giving rise to various quantum phenomena rarely seen in normal metals, such as charge density waves, superconductivity, and topological electronic states. In particular, CsV3Sb5 exhibits both charge density waves and superconductivity at low temperatures, drawing attention as a crucial platform for next-generation quantum materials research.
However, there has been an ongoing debate over whether another hidden electronic order exists between the charge density wave and superconductivity in this material. Although several experiments have reported signals suggesting broken time-reversal symmetry, it was unclear whether this phenomenon was a consequence of the charge density wave formation or an independent electronic order that emerges prior to it.
To resolve this debate, the research team alternately irradiated high-quality CsV3Sb5 single crystals with left- and right-circularly polarized light and precisely measured the difference in the intensity of the emitted electrons. They then eliminated spurious signals potentially caused by the experimental setup's geometry, isolating only the intrinsic signals originating from the symmetry breaking of the material itself.
As a result, they confirmed that the signal of time-reversal symmetry breaking already appears around 140~145 K, which is significantly higher than the charge density wave formation temperature of about 94 K. This supports the interpretation that electrons form a loop-current order—a microscopic loop-like circulation—before creating the charge density wave pattern. The loop-current order is an electronic order where electrons behave as if flowing along small loops within the atomic lattice; it was theoretically proposed long ago but has been difficult to verify experimentally.
The team also tracked how the electronic structure changed as the temperature was lowered. At high temperatures, a normal metallic state appeared; at lower intermediate temperatures, the loop-current order formed first. As the temperature decreased further, a complex state evolved where the charge density wave intertwined with the loop-current order, eventually leading to the superconducting state. This research proposes a hierarchical structure of phase transitions in CsV3Sb5, progressing from 'loop-current order → charge density wave → superconductivity'.
This achievement provides a crucial clue for understanding the fundamental principles of superconductivity. It is not yet fully understood what kind of order electrons form before superconductivity occurs, or which electronic orders compete or cooperate with superconductivity. By demonstrating the existence of an electronic state with broken time-reversal symmetry prior to the superconducting state, this study offers an important lead in understanding unconventional superconductivity, which operates differently from standard mechanisms.
Furthermore, this research is expected to help understand hidden electronic orders in other superconducting materials beyond kagome metals. In particular, it could serve as a reference for explaining the peculiar electronic state (pseudogap) prior to superconductivity, which has long been discussed in cuprate high-temperature superconductors.
Professor Yeongkwan Kim stated, "This research is the result of directly tracking the time-reversal symmetry breaking of a kagome metal within its electronic structure, which had previously only been discussed through indirect signals. By showing the sequence in which electrons form order before reaching superconductivity, we have presented a new reference point for research on unconventional superconductivity and strongly correlated quantum materials.“
Professor Myung Joon Han added, "The key point is that the circular dichroism signal observed in the experiment aligns perfectly with the electrons' orbital motion pattern (orbital angular momentum pattern) expected from the loop-current order. This is a case where we uncovered the microscopic origin of the hidden electronic order by combining experiment and theory.“
KAIST Department of Physics researchers Jaehun Cha, Hyunggeun Lee, and Sangjun Sim participated as co-first authors in this study. The research findings were published online in the international physics journal Nature Physics on June 15, 2026.
Paper Title: Evidence of time-reversal symmetry breaking above the charge density wave order in a kagome metal
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-026-03331-2
This research was supported by the Mid-Career Researcher Program and the Accelerator Manpower Training Program (Ministry of Science and ICT, National Research Foundation of Korea), the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), and the US Department of Energy's Basic Energy Sciences (DOE BES).
2026.07.01 View 1777 -
KAIST Teams Win Both International Challenges at ICRA 2026 and CVPR 2026
Two research teams from KAIST have claimed first place in international challenge competitions held at the world’s premier robotics and computer vision conferences.
KAIST (President Kwang-Hyung Lee) announced that the ACDC-K Team and the Curaytor Team, both from the laboratory of Prof. Hyun Myung in the School of Electrical Engineering, won first place in international challenge competitions held in conjunction with the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2026) and the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR 2026), respectively.
The achievement highlights the global competitiveness of KAIST’s robotic perception and spatial intelligence technologies, with two teams from the same laboratory securing victories in leading international competitions across distinct research fields.
The ACDC-K Team won first place among more than 60 participating teams in the SLAM (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping) category of the Hilti×Trimble SLAM Challenge 2026, held during the Open Challenges in Robotics for Asset Inspection (OCRAIM) Workshop at ICRA 2026 in Vienna, Austria, from June 1 to 5.
Jointly organized by Hilti, Trimble, and the University of Oxford, the challenge evaluates robotic localization and mapping performance using sensor data collected from real construction sites. Participants were required to address practical challenges frequently encountered in construction environments, including non-overlapping front and rear fisheye camera configurations, low-texture indoor scenes, and rapid camera motion.
To tackle these challenges, the ACDC-K Team developed a robust visual-inertial SLAM system that fuses front and rear fisheye camera data with inertial measurements. By integrating feature-point and feature-line observations with adaptive constraints and correction mechanisms, the team achieved highly reliable localization and mapping performance in complex construction environments.
Meanwhile, the Curaytor Team won first place among eight participating teams in the Nothing Stands Still (NSS) Challenge 2026, held during the Computer Vision for the Built World (CV4AEC) Workshop at CVPR 2026 in Denver, Colorado, from June 3 to 7.
Jointly organized by Stanford University, ETH Zurich, and Oregon State University, the NSS Challenge evaluates 3D point cloud registration technologies for construction and industrial environments that evolve over time.
The Curaytor Team developed a novel multi-registration framework capable of aligning multiple LiDAR scans collected across different times and locations. The framework integrates feature extraction, correspondence estimation, robust global registration, registration confidence assessment, and change-aware refinement techniques. As a result, the team achieved highly accurate registration performance even in environments containing structural changes and dynamic objects.
“This achievement demonstrates the robustness of our visual-inertial SLAM and 3D LiDAR registration technologies in complex and constantly changing real-world environments,” said Prof. Hyun Myung. “It is particularly meaningful that our students secured first-place finishes in highly competitive international challenges hosted at two of the world’s most prestigious conferences in robotics and computer vision.”
Prof. Hyun Myung’s laboratory has consistently demonstrated excellence in spatial intelligence research. The laboratory previously won first place in the LiDAR track and ranked first among academic teams in the vision track of the Hilti SLAM Challenge in 2023. In addition, the Curaytor Team successfully defended its title in the NSS Challenge, securing back-to-back championships in 2025 and 2026.
2026.06.19 View 2811 -
KAIST Develops Next-Generation Self-Powered Wearable Sensor Resilient to 668% Elongation
Wearable medical devices that monitor heart rate, respiration, and joint movements for long periods without battery concerns, electronic skins that sense external stimuli like human skin, and soft robots made of flexible materials that move freely have all come one step closer to reality. KAIST researchers have developed a self-powered sensor (a sensor that generates electricity on its own without a battery) that can stretch up to 668% while producing stable electrical signals.
KAIST announced on June 18th that a research team led by Professor Miso Kim from the Department of Mechanical Engineering has overcome the durability limitations of conventional piezoelectric fiber sensors (fiber-type sensors that convert pressure or movement into electrical signals) and successfully developed a highly stretchable piezoelectric fiber sensor that operates stably even under repeated deformation.
The core material of the sensor, piezoelectric polymer, is a polymeric material that generates electricity when subjected to mechanical force. Although its lightweight and flexible nature makes it suitable for skin-attachable wearable sensors, conventional piezoelectric fiber sensors suffered from signal degradation during repeated stretching or bending, as the electrode layer collecting electrical signals and the piezoelectric layer generating electricity would become damaged. Furthermore, while coiling the fibers can increase stretchability to allow greater elongation, maintaining electrical stability remained a significant challenge.
To resolve these issues, the research team developed a "Hierarchical Resilient Design" strategy, engineering the sensor to withstand deformation across multiple levels—from its constituent materials and electrodes to its overall structure. Simply put, just as a rubber band returns to its original shape after repeated stretching, the sensor is designed to self-maintain its performance after cyclical deformation.
First, the research team embedded elastic polymer microparticles inside the piezoelectric nanofibers to create a closely interlocking structure. This creates a supportive effect similar to Velcro, helping the sensor recover its original shape even after being repeatedly stretched.
Additionally, they designed the interface so that the electricity-collecting electrode and the electricity-generating piezoelectric layer connect seamlessly. By strongly bonding different materials together, they ensured they would not easily delaminate under impact or deformation, allowing the sensor to maintain a stable electrical signal even when significantly stretched or bent.
Applying this design to a coil structure, the research team successfully stretched the sensor up to 668%—approximately 6.7 times its original length—while maintaining a stable output. The developed sensor generated consistent electrical signals under various movements, including stretching, bending, and pressing.
Furthermore, the research team fabricated the sensor not only in coil forms but also in knot configurations, confirming its stable operation under repeated forces or sudden impacts. By leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze the sensor signals, they were also able to accurately distinguish between different movements, such as pressing, bending, and stretching.
This study holds great significance as it presents a self-powered sensor platform that simultaneously achieves high stretchability and long-term stability without requiring a battery. In particular, because it enables stable signal measurement in environments undergoing repeated deformation, it is expected to be utilized in developing next-generation wearable medical devices for long-term monitoring of various biosignals, including heart rate, respiration, joint movement, and muscle activity. It is also projected to expand its range of applications to digital healthcare devices, electronic skins, and sensory sensors for soft robots by making devices lighter and more convenient to use.
"The core achievement of this research is that it simultaneously secured mechanical resilience and electrical reliability by combining fiber structure design with electrode interface engineering (a technology that controls the boundary where different materials meet)," said Professor Miso Kim. She added, "In the future, we expect it to be applied to wearable medical devices requiring long-term wear, electronic skins, and sensory sensors for soft robots, enabling more accurate and continuous biosignal monitoring."
The research findings, with researcher Yong Jun Choi as the first author, were published on March 10, 2026, in ACS Nano (Impact Factor 16.1), a world-renowned academic journal in the fields of nanotechnology and materials science.
Paper Title: Mechanically and Functionally Resilient Piezoelectric Fiber Coils and Knots for Reliable Self-Powered Sensing DOI: doi/10.1021/acsnano.5c19628 Author Information: Yong Jun Choi 1 (KAIST, First Author), JungHun Park 1 (KAIST, Co-author), Jisoo Nam 1 (KAIST, Co-author), Gi-Dong Sim 1 (KAIST, Co-author), Myung-Gil Kim 2 (Sungkyunkwan University, Co-author), Miso Kim (KAIST, Corresponding Author)
This research was conducted with support from the BRIDGE Convergence Research and Development Program (RS-2023-00254689), the Nano·Material Technology Development Program (RS-2024-00468995), and the Next-Generation Semiconductor-Compatible Micro-Substrate Technology Development Program (RS-2024-00433654) funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea under the Ministry of Science and ICT.
2026.06.18 View 2996 -
Seeking Innovative Financial Solutions to Help Deep Tech Startups Overcome the Valley of Death
KAIST announced on June 16 that it will co-host 'STARTUP NATION KOREA 2026' (2026 Innovation Entrepreneurship Nation Korea International Forum) with Seoul National University and The JoongAng from June 17 to 18 at the Haedong Advanced Engineering Building on Seoul National University's Gwanak Campus.
Celebrating its 5th anniversary this year, the forum serves as a platform to overcome the so-called 'R&D Paradox'—where outstanding research and development achievements fail to fully connect with entrepreneurship and industry—and to seek solutions for realizing a science and technology-based innovation entrepreneurship nation. Universities, government agencies, research institutions, investment firms, conglomerates, startups, and media will participate to discuss cooperative methods for connecting technological potential to market and industrial value.
In particular, this year's forum focuses on the role of patient capital and innovative finance, which are critical challenges for the growth of deep tech startups, under the theme “Deep Tech: Beyond the Valley of Death.”
Deep tech startups require long-term investment and large-scale funding throughout the entire process from research and development to technology verification, demonstration, and market entry. However, the domestic venture investment market is relatively focused on short-term returns, often causing these startups to face severe difficulties during the commercialization phase. Therefore, this forum will intensively discuss strategies to establish an innovative financial ecosystem where 'patient capital'—which invests based on the long-term growth potential of technology—is organically linked with investments, guarantees, and policy finance required for the entire life cycle of technology commercialization.
Kwang Hyung Lee, President of KAIST, said, “Although Korea possesses world-class R&D capabilities, major barriers still exist in the process of translating research achievements into startups and new industries. I hope this forum serves as a collective effort to seek solutions through patient capital, innovative finance, and a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem so that deep tech startups can overcome the valley of death and grow into the global market.”
Hyun Min Bae, Director of the KAIST Startup Institute, stated, “The success of deep tech entrepreneurship cannot be achieved through technology alone. Through this forum, we look forward to discussing the growth ladders and collaborative measures that connect laboratory technologies to markets, investments, and global expansion, thereby discovering a new direction for Korea's deep tech startup ecosystem.”
On the first day of the forum, Professor Jeong Dong Lee of the College of Engineering at Seoul National University, author of The Way of Accumulation and The First Question, will deliver a keynote speech emphasizing the role of finance in accelerating technological innovation and the importance of patient capital. This will be followed by a roundtable featuring domestic and international experts to discuss long-term investment case studies and policy directions for innovative finance.
In addition, the presentation ceremony for the '2026 Korea Innovation Entrepreneurship Awards' will be held simultaneously. This year, a total of 13 awards will be presented across three categories: the Innovation Entrepreneurship Award, the Innovation Entrepreneurship Challenge Award, and the Innovation Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Contribution Award.
The recipients of the Innovation Entrepreneurship Award include Sovagen, EndoRobotics, WIRobotics, Exo Systems, Marine Drone Tech, Daughter, MUSTBIO, IMNEWRUN, and Narnia Labs. These companies are promising deep tech enterprises recognized for their technological innovation and growth potential in national strategic sectors such as AI, robotics, bio/healthcare, drones, and mobility.
The Innovation Entrepreneurship Challenge Award will be presented to Scionic AI, RX, and TDS Innovation, while the Innovation Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Contribution Award will be awarded to the Commercialization Promotion Agency for R&D Outcomes (COMPA).
Kyeong Hwan Kim, Chair of the Evaluation Committee (Dean of the Graduate School of Global Entrepreneurship at Sungkyunkwan University), remarked, “Promising deep tech companies that will lead future industries in fields like AI, robotics, semiconductors, and bio have stood out remarkably. This contest was a meaningful opportunity to confirm the robust growth potential of Korea's innovation entrepreneurship ecosystem.”
An exhibition featuring innovative startups and various programs linked with government ministries will also run throughout the event. Participating companies will showcase their breakthrough technologies in sectors including AI, robotics, bio/healthcare, advanced materials, energy, and mobility, while exploring collaboration opportunities with investment institutions and industry leaders. Notably, WIRobotics plans to exhibit its humanoid robot 'ALLEX', which was previously unveiled at CES 2026.
The forum is co-hosted by KAIST, Seoul National University, and The JoongAng, and sponsored by major agencies including the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. The event will be broadcast live via the official YouTube channel and website of STARTUP NATION KOREA 2026.
2026.06.16 View 2712 -
KAIST Professor S. Josephine Suh Receives the 2026 Frontiers of Science Award
<Professor S. Josephine Suh>
Professor S. Josephine Suh wins the Frontiers of Science Award for the second consecutive year following last year - Honored for her paper published in November 2017, targeting research papers that have achieved significant results within the last 10 years - Recognized internationally for leading research achievements in the fields of quantum gravity and quantum field theory
KAIST announced on June 12th that a co-authored research paper by Professor S. Josephine Suh of the Department of Physics was selected as a winning paper for the '2026 Frontiers of Science Award' presented by the International Congress of Basic Science (ICBS). Professor Suh has won this award for two consecutive years, following her win in 2025.
The Frontiers of Science Award is presented to papers published within the last 10 years in the fields of mathematics, physics, and information science that have achieved outstanding academic originality and impact. The award ceremony will take place during the ICBS event to be held in Beijing, China, in August 2026.
The award-winning paper is "The soft mode in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model and its gravity dual," a joint research project between Professor Alexei Kitaev of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Professor S. Josephine Suh.
※ Paper Title: The soft mode in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model and its gravity dual, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2018)183)
The SYK (Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev) model is a quantum physics model in which a large number of Majorana fermions (special quantum particles whose particles and antiparticles have identical properties) interact randomly and strongly. Despite being a highly complex quantum many-body system (a system where many particles entangle and interact simultaneously), it allows for mathematically exact analysis. Furthermore, because its characteristics of quantum chaos (chaotic phenomena occurring in quantum systems) are remarkably similar to those of black holes, it has drawn attention as a core theory for understanding the microscopic structure (the fine quantum states that make up a black hole) of black holes.
The award-winning paper demonstrated that the physical properties displayed by the SYK model in a low-energy state precisely connect with two-dimensional gravity theory (a gravity model simplified by leaving only one dimension each for space and time). This research has since become a core theoretical foundation for black hole and quantum gravity research, establishing itself as one of the most widely cited representative papers in the relevant field.
In addition, the SYK model is utilized as a representative theoretical model to explain how information is stored and disappears inside a black hole, drawing attention as a key research topic for solving conundrums in modern physics.
The 'Frontiers of Science Award' is an international academic award that the International Congress of Basic Science (ICBS) has been presenting since 2023. The Global Committee makes the final selection of winning works through recommendations and evaluations from experts worldwide.
In its official notification of selection, the ICBS stated, "Professor Suh's research has made an outstanding contribution to the field of Formal Quantum Field Theory*," adding, "The researcher's dedication to expanding the boundaries of human knowledge provides great inspiration to the scientific community."
*Formal Quantum Field Theory: A field of theoretical physics that explores the mathematical principles and structures of quantum field theory, which explains the fundamental particles and forces of the universe.
Professor S. Josephine Suh said, "The research in this paper was a work showing how a specific quantum many-body system and gravity theory correspond at a microscopic level," and added, "The research currently underway seeks to obtain a physical understanding of how spacetime is generated from a quantum many-body system based on this correspondence."
The total prize money for this award is $25,000 (approximately 33 million KRW), which is shared jointly among the authors of the winning paper.
Reference: Official website of the Frontiers of Science Award: https://www.icbs.cn
2026.06.15 View 2125 -
"What if there is no one to farm? KAIST reveals a hidden risk to future food security
<(From Left) Professor Nicklas Forsell, Professor Hyungjun Kim, Ph.D candidate Hongtak Lee, Professor Haewon Chon>
The cause of future food shortages may not be a lack of farmland, but a shortage of agricultural workforce." Amid the reality of low birth rates and rural extinction, a joint international research team from KAIST has developed a new data-driven model that reflects the decline in the agricultural workforce into the analysis of future food security (the ability to stably produce and supply food required by the public). The research findings show that in the future, a shortage of agricultural workforce could act as a key constraint on farmland utilization in most regions of the world.
KAIST announced on June 12th that a research team led by Professor Hyungjun Kim from the Department of AI Future (adjunct at the Moon Soul Graduate School of Future Strategy), in joint research with Professor Haewon Chon from the KI Institute for Climate, Environment, and Energy (Graduate School of Green Growth and Sustainability), Professor Nicklas Forsell, and Professor Taikan Oki from the University of Tokyo in Japan, analyzed the impact of the agricultural workforce decline on future food production.
< Regional Farmland Supply, Demand, and Shortage Outlook for 2030 and 2100 >
Until now, food security and climate change research have mainly focused on "how much farmland can be secured." The approach was to predict the future by calculating whether the climate and soil are suitable for farming and how much food demand will increase in the future.
However, the research team asked a different question: "What if there is farmland, but no one to farm it?" In fact, as low birth rates and urban concentration manifest in many countries, the rural population is declining. As economies develop, there is also a stronger tendency for people to move from agriculture to the manufacturing or service sectors. The research team determined that these changes could have a significant impact on future food production.
The research team performed the analysis using five future scenarios that combine SSP (Shared Socioeconomic Pathways) and RCP (Representative Concentration Pathways), which are representative international scenario frameworks that predict how future society and climate change will unfold. SSP is a scenario that assumes the direction of societal changes such as population growth, economic growth, and technological development, while RCP is a scenario that shows how the future climate will change depending on greenhouse gas emissions.
The research team newly reflected the agricultural workforce variable into these future outlooks. While previous predictions were mainly based on the land available for farming and food demand, this study simultaneously considered the actual number of people who will farm. In other words, the reality that food production can be limited if the agricultural workforce is insufficient, even if farmland and climate conditions are adequate, was reflected in the model.
The results of the analysis were even clearer than expected. In the future, it was shown that the farmland area that can actually be utilized will decrease due to the shortage of agricultural workforce in most regions of the world. In some regions, the lack of agricultural workforce was analyzed to act as a greater limiting factor than climate or soil.
The research team explained that the agricultural workforce problem may not be easily resolved even in a future where technological development occurs rapidly. Technological development increases the cultivable area per person. However, as industries grow, more people move to the manufacturing and service sectors, which conversely accelerates the decline of the rural population, leading to a reduced workforce and a phenomenon where farmland utilization becomes more restricted. These results suggest the importance of a sustainable development model.
In addition, it was confirmed that if international migration is restricted, developed countries will experience a shortage of agricultural workforce, while conversely, the agricultural population in some low-income countries may increase excessively. This shows that migration policies are also closely linked to food security. Professor Hyungjun Kim explained, "This study analyzed future food issues by considering not only climate and land, but also changes in people. It is a study showing that realistic social problems such as low birth rates and the avoidance of rural areas can have a significant impact on future food security and climate change responses."
This study, in which Ph.D. student Hongtak Lee from the Moon Soul Graduate School of Future Strategy participated as the first author and Professor Hyungjun Kim from the Department of AI Future conducted as the corresponding author, was published on June 1 in the international academic journal 'Nature Sustainability'. Furthermore, in recognition of its academic importance, the study was prominently highlighted in a separate commentary titled "Farming needs more hands" (News & Views; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-026-01841-8) in the same journal. The commentary evaluated this research as "a first step that shifted the conventional question of 'how much land is there' to whether there are enough people and productivity per worker to cultivate that land." ※ Title of Paper: Agricultural Workforce as a Potential Bottleneck of Future Cropland Availability, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-026-01824-9 ※ Main Authors: Hongtak Lee (KAIST, First Author), Nicklas Forsell (KAIST), Taikan Oki (University of Tokyo), Haewon Chon (KAIST), Hyungjun Kim (KAIST, Corresponding Author)
<Research Image(AI-generated)>
This research was conducted with the support of the AI-based Future Climate Technology Development Framework Program, the Brain Pool Program, and the Plus Project (Ministry of Science and ICT) through the National Research Foundation of Korea.
2026.06.15 View 1257 -
Graduate School of Global Digital Innovation (GDI) Hosts 'AI⁺ Global Prosperity Forum 2026'
The Graduate School of Global Digital Innovation (GDI) of KAIST will host the "AI⁺ Global Prosperity Forum 2026" on June 24 at the Chung Kunmo Conference Hall (5F), KAIST Academic Cultural Complex (E9).
KAIST Graduate School of Global Digital Innovation (GDI) is carrying out the "ICT Global Specialized Convergence Talent Cultivation Program" supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP). Since the launch of the Global IT Technology Program (ITTP) in 2006, GDI has grown into South Korea's representative global digital talent fostering platform over the past 20 years, nurturing approximately 260 government officials, public institution experts, and industry leaders from over 80 countries. GDI serves as a vehicle for global cooperation, sharing Korea's digital innovation experience and policy know-how with the international community, and promoting various collaborative projects such as international joint research, policy cooperation, and digital transformation projects based on its global network.
This forum, organized by GDI as part of the ICT Global Specialized Convergence Talent Cultivation Program under the theme 'Advancing Global AI Leadership Through Partnership and Innovation,' is designed to discuss global cooperation strategies for international partnership, digital transformation, and sustainable development in the AI era.
The event is expected to bring together approximately 60 government officials, international organization experts, researchers, and industry leaders from around 30 countries across Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Europe. Notably, representatives from the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Ministry of Communications and Digital Affairs of Indonesia, and various foreign governments, public institutions, and international organizations will participate to share AI governance, digital transformation, innovation policies, and international cooperation cases.
The forum will feature two main sessions:
Session 1: Global AI Partnership and Collaboration
Session 2: AI Policy, Governance, AI Innovation, and Applications
Participants will discuss global cooperation models in the AI era, digital transformation in the public sector, and methods for establishing AI policy and governance frameworks.
In addition, an 'AI⁺ Industry Showcase' featuring Korean AI and digital innovation enterprises alongside corporate exhibition booths will be operated simultaneously. Participating companies will introduce their innovative AI-based technologies and services, and seek opportunities for Proof of Concept (PoC), joint research, digital transformation projects, and overseas market expansion through business matching sessions with foreign government and public institution officials.
This forum is highly anticipated to serve as a global platform connecting AI technology, policy, industry, and international cooperation, while sharing Korea's AI capabilities and digital innovation experiences with the world and creating practical cooperative outcomes such as international joint research and digital transformation projects.
Seunghun Han, Head of the Graduate School of Global Digital Innovation, stated, "AI has moved beyond mere technology to become a core agenda for national development and international cooperation." He added, "We expect this forum to serve as a venue where policymakers, experts, and companies from around the world gather to explore future AI cooperation strategies and build new global partnerships."
The forum is open to any researchers, students, and the general public interested in AI and global cooperation through pre-registration (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1QmYMqaD4uoT11NxUZb4ZSQBVgDxex5DJ3_4-eCoqgVI/edit).
※ Inquiries: KAIST Graduate School of Global Digital Innovation (gdi.adm@kaist.ac.kr / 042-350-6845)
2026.06.11 View 2109