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IdeasLab Presents Biotechnology Solutions for Aging Populations at 2016 Davos Forum
KAIST researchers will discuss how biological sciences and health technologies can address challenges and opportunities posed by aging populations in an era of increasing longevity.
Many countries around the world today are experiencing the rapid growth of aging populations, with a decline in fertility rate and longer life expectancy.
At this year's Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (a.k.a. Davos Forum) on January 20-23, 2016 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, four researchers in the field of biological sciences and biotechnology at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) will discuss the implications of an aging population and explore possible solutions to provide better health care services to the elderly.
KAIST will host an IdeasLab twice on the theme "Biotechnology Solutions for Ageing Populations" on January 21st and 23rd, respectively.
Professor Byung-Kwan Cho of the Biological Sciences Department will give a presentation on "Rejuvenation via the Microbiome," explaining how microorganisms in the human gut play an important role in preventing aging, or even rejuvenating it.
Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department will talk about "Traditional Medicine Reimagined through Modern Systems Biology." Professor Lee will introduce his research results published in Nature Biotechnology (March 6, 2015) and some more new results. He discovered the mechanisms of traditional oriental medicine's (TOM) efficacy by applying systems biology to study structural similarities between natural and nontoxic multi-compounds in the medicine and human metabolites. He will discuss TOM's multi-target approach, which is based on the synergistic combinations of multi-compounds to treat symptoms of a disease, can contribute to the development of new drugs, cosmetics, and nutrients.
Professor Youn-Kyung Lim of the Industrial Design Department will speak about a mobile and the Internet of Things-based health care service called "Dr. M" in her presentation on "Advanced Mobile Healthcare Systems."
Professor Daesoo Kim of the Biological Sciences Department will share his research on human's happiness and greed in the context of nueroscience and behavioral and biological sciences in a talk entitled "A Neural Switch for Being Happy with Less on a Crowded Planet."
KAIST has hosted IdeasLabs several times at the Summer Davos Forum in China, but this is the first time it will participate in the Davos Forum in January.
Professor Lee said, "Just like climate change, the issue of how to address aging populations has become a major global issue. We will share some exciting research results and hope to have in depth discussion on this issue with the leaders attending the Davos Forum. KAIST will engage actively in finding solutions that benefit not only Korea but also the international community."
2016.01.19 View 13332 -
Symposium on Creative Education
KAIST and the Korea Society for Creativity and Application (KSCA) co-hosted a symposium on creative education on January 21, 2016 at the KAIST Business and Management College in Seoul. Along with the symposium, the two organizations also held the Korea "Theory of Inventive Problem Solving" (TRIZ) Festival 2016.
Around 200 experts from academia, industry, and research including Dong-Suk Kim, Dean of the KAIST College of Business and Management and Gui-Chan Park, Director of POSCO Group Academy, attended the symposium.
The event was organized to celebrate the foundation of KSCA and to increase social awareness of creative education and design-related thinking with a "TRIZ approach."
"TRIZ" stands for the “Theory of Inventive Problem Solving” in Russian. It is a problem-solving method based on logic and data, not intuition, which accelerates the project team’s ability to work out issues creatively. The "TRIZ approach" has been widely used among Korean companies including Samsung, LG, and POSCO as a means of boosting employees’ creativity.
The academic symposium was divided into a keynote speech, paper presentations from each field, and a poster fair.
Professor Dae-Sik Kim from KAIST delivered a keynote speech on “Neuroscience and Creativity,” offering a glimpse of the world from a neuroscience perspective. Jae-min Lee, a researcher at Samsung Electronics, provided an industrial case study, “Application of TRIZ for the Improvement of Refrigerator.” Professor Jung-Seok Hyun from Jeju University and Dr. Jung-Ho Shin from E-Triz System presented their application of TRIZ on “Limitless Imagination and Invention Class for the Elementary School Students.” Altogether, 36 other research papers and case studies were presented at the symposium.
Dr. Dong-ryul Yang, President of KSCA, said, “This academic symposium allows us to discuss a range of innovative case studies that utilize TRIZ in industrial and educational fields, from which we can learn good lessons and practices.”
2016.01.19 View 8045 -
Professors Jeon and Choi Receive the Young Scientist Award
Professors Seokwoo Jeon of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Jang Wook Choi of the Graduate School of Energy, Environment, Water and Sustainability (EEWS) at KAIST received the Young Scientist Award.
The award ceremony took place at the Korea Press Center in Seoul. Presented by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning of Korea and the National Academy of Engineering of Korea, the Young Scientist Award is given to outstanding scientists under the age of 40 who have demonstrated excellence in their research in the field of natural science.
Each year the award is given to three scientists in different areas.
Professor Jeon was recognized for his achievement in creating a new property of materials. He studied synthesis and development of low-dimensional nanomaterials and developed a large area nanostructure.
Professor Choi’s research area was to discover optimal materials for rechargeable batteries. By applying his research, he developed rechargeable batteries with high efficiency, making the wearable system more feasible.
2016.01.11 View 14958 -
Professor Joonho Choe Appointed as the President of the KSMCB
Professor Joonho Choe of the Biological Sciences Department at KAIST has been elected the 25th president of Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology (KSMCB).
His presidency will last one year, beginning on January 1, 2016.
Established in 1989, the Society has served as the largest academic gathering in the field of life sciences, holding an international conference every fall. It has more than 12,400 fellows.
Professor Choe served as the vice president of KSMC as well as the editor of its journal, Molecules and Cells.
He said, “The 2016 International Conference of the KSMCB will take place on October 12-14, 2016 at the COEX Convention and Exhibition Hall in Seoul. This year, we are preparing 20 symposiums and will invite four international renowned keynote speakers in the field including a Nobel Laureate. We hope many people, students and young researchers in particular, from academia and industry will join the conference.”
Professor Choe received his doctoral degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) after graduating from Seoul National University with his bachelor and master’s degrees.
2016.01.05 View 10827 -
Prof. Jae-Kyu Lee Campaigns on "Bright Internet" Worldwide
Professor Jae-Kyu Lee (pictured on the right) from the College of Business at KAIST is one step closer to fulfilling his dream of achieving the “Bright Internet,” a campaign that he first proposed as he became the president of the Association for Information Systems (AIS) in June 2015.
On December 12, 2015, Professor Lee signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at a convention center in Fort Worth, Texas, between the AIS and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)—a specialized agency of the United Nations that is responsible for issues related to information and communication technologies—on a collaborative research and development program to make the Internet safer for everyone.
The MOU pursues building a trusted international information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure by proposing telecommunication policies, developing international standards, and organizing interdisciplinary conferences.
The Bright Internet is an initiative to protect online users from cyber terrors, privacy breaches, and cyber-crimes. Further, it involves putting accountability to those who initiate or deliver cyber threats, thereby eliminating the possible source of Internet related crimes.
Following the MOU agreement, Prof. Lee delivered a speech on his campaign at the 2015 International Conference on Information Systems and received positive responses from the audience.
The Bright Internet campaign has been selected as visions of various ICT organizations worldwide including the Korea Society of Management Information System and the International Federation of Information Processing. KAIST and Tsinghua University in China adopted it as an academic topic for research and teaching.
Prof. Lee claimed that the Internet should be used in a manner based on the values of trust, ethics, and decorum. He further noted that it is important to build Internet environments that not only protect individuals from cyber threats or attacks, but also hold those who commit online crimes accountable for their actions.
2015.12.28 View 11840 -
Public Forum on the Development of High-Performance Supercomputing System
KAIST hosted a public forum on the development of high-performance supercomputing systems at the K Hotel in Seoul on December 17, 2015.
About 100 participants attended the forum, including Steve Kang, the President of KAIST; Jae-Moon Park, the Director General of Science, ICT and Future Planning of the Republic of Korea; Sun-Hwa Hahn, the President of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information; Sang-Gyu Park, the Director of the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute; Soon-Chill Lee, the Dean of KAIST’s Natural Sciences College; Jangwoo Kim, the Professor of Computer Science and Engineering of Pohang University of Science and Technology; and Kyung-Hak Suh, the Director of Convergence Technology Division at the National Research Foundation of Korea.
Also attending the forum were representatives from the private sector, including Sung-Soon Park, the President of Gluesys; Myung-Chul Lee, the Director of IMB Korea; Jin-Hyun Choi, the President of Cray Korea; and Chung-Gun Yoo, the Director of HP Korea.
KAIST created the High-performance Computing Development Forum in July this year. Since then, the forum has held four conferences and workshops to discuss issues related to the growth of supercomputing power in Korea.
This public forum consisted of a keynote speech on the “Policy Proposal for the Development of Supercomputers” by Professor Hyuk-Jae Lee of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Seoul National University and panel discussions presided over by President Kang on the topic of “Development and Implementation Strategies to Build Korean Supercomputers.”
President Kang said, “I hope this public forum can serve as a place for designing the future of Korean supercomputers, and what we have discussed at the forum will be duly delivered to the government to help them develop policies necessary to build the computers.”
2015.12.16 View 9208 -
KAIST and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Partner for Research and Education Collaboration
President Steve Kang of KAIST and President Eric W. Kaler of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (United States) signed a memorandum of understanding to create exchange programs for students and faculty and to conduct joint research in the field of health and food. The following is an excerpt from President Kaler’s blog (https://storify.com/UMNstory/globalumn-hksk#edaadf) on his visit of KAIST on November 18, 2015:
A visit to the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
About 90 miles from Seoul—and more than that two-and-a-half-hours of a bus ride through the rugged early-morning traffic of South Korea’s capital city—sits Daejeon, Korea’s sixth largest city and home to KAIST, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. Today, President Kaler and the small University of Minnesota delegation accompanying him visited what’s considered Korea’s MIT, a place focused on research and known to push the limits toward the future.
Fingernail heart monitors? Wireless anesthetic-monitoring devices?
KAIST is working on them.
The overlap of interests—from biomedical engineering to nanotechnology to robotics—between KAIST (pronounced “Kyst”) and the U are remarkable. Smartphone apps to monitor human health and GPS-driven robots to serve military interests or deliver packages were among the developing inventions that KAIST scientists showed to Kaler.
And even the personal relationships seem to illustrate the cliché of a small world and the natural affinity of Minnesota and KAIST.
KAIST’s President Sang Mo Kang was once the head of the University of Illinois’ department of electrical and computer engineering, and he and Kaler—a renowned chemical engineer before becoming the U’s president—hit it off … despite disagreeing about the potential outcome of Saturday’s Illinois-Gophers football game.
Accompanying Kaler on the day’s journey, meetings, and signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two schools to advance collaborations was U Associate Professor Sang Hyun Oh. Oh happens to be a physics graduate of this very KAIST and is now a rising star in Minnesota’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
The two sides agreed to focus on matching scholars on their respective campuses to discuss the sorts of research the two institutions can partner on. The idea of “Grand Challenges,” at the core of the U’s Twin Cities campus Strategic Plan, has fascinated Korean higher education leaders during Kaler’s weeklong visit, and KAIST’s leadership was interested in the health and food research, two U strengths.
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2015.12.04 View 10419 -
KAIST and Charles University Agree to Cooperate
KAIST and Charles University in Prague, the Czech Republic, agreed to cooperate in research and education.
President Steve Kang of KAIST (pictured on the left) and Rector Tomáš Zima of Charles University signed the agreement on December 2, 2015, at the Hilton Hotel in Prague.
Minster Yang-Hee Choi of Science, ICT and Future Planning of the Republic of Korea and Minister Kateřina Valachová of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic also joined the signing ceremony.
Under the agreement, the two institutions will exchange students and researchers, as well as implement joint research programs.
President Kang said, “We are pleased to work with one of the most prestigious universities in the Czech Republic and hope to build a good partnership in the years ahead.”
Founded in 1348, Charles University in Prague is the oldest and largest university in the Czech Republic. The university received two Nobel prizes in physiology or medicine and in chemistry in 1947 and 1959, respectively.
2015.12.03 View 9650 -
KAIST Holds Its Fourth Public Art Exhibition
KAIST hosted an opening ceremony for the annual art exhibition on December 3, 2015 at the KAIST Institute building. The KAIST Art and Design Committee first organized the event in 2012 to promote the integration of art and technology.
This year’s event entitled “Understanding the Purpose of an Object” will display 20 art pieces under six themes. Artist Keumhong Lee, Haeyool Roh, Joon Kim, Kyung Lee, and Juhae Yang participated in the exhibition. The names of some of the art pieces include “Feedback Field” by Joon Kim, “Self Action” by Haeyool Roh, and “Net of Time” by Juhae Yang.
Juhae Yang believes that, in the digital age, an identity of an object is defined by the traces of light which we read in the information hidden in the barcodes. Based on this interpretation, she transforms the black bars and white spaces into a harmony of colors and sounds. The continuum of colors and sounds in her work arouses time-space synesthesia.
Professor Sangmin Bae of the Industrial Design Department, the Director of the KAIST Art and Design Committee, hopes that the exhibition will inspire novel scientific ideas and artistic spirits.
The exhibition will remain open to the public until December 20, 2015.
2015.12.03 View 11027 -
Dr. Ryu of KAIST Receives the S-Oil Outstanding Paper Award
Dr. Je-Kyung Ryu of KAIST’s Department of Physics has been awarded the S-Oil Outstanding Paper Award for his doctoral dissertation’s originality and applicability.
Professor Tae-Young Yoon of Physics is his doctoral advisor.
The award ceremony took place on November 25, 2015 at the Press Center in Seoul.
This S-Oil Outstanding Paper Award, jointly sponsored by the Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST) and the Scholastic University Presidential Association, was established to foster young talented scientists in basic science and to advance the field.
The award is given every other year for each of the fields of physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, and earth sciences.
With the award, Dr. Ryu received a research grant of USD 8,600.
He discovered, for the first time in the world, how NSF (N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor), a protein involved in a vesicular transport in cellular activities, disassembles a SNARE (soluble NSF attachment protein receptor) complex, using a unimolecular biophysics method.
Unlike the existing studies, he proposed a model in which NSF disassembles SNARE complexes at one step, and as a result, provided evidence of how the SNARE complex influenced the fusion of biological membranes.
His research was published in the scientific journal Science issued on March 27, 2015. The title of the paper is “Spring-loaded Unraveling of a Single SNARE Complex by NSF in One Round of ATP Turnover.”
2015.11.27 View 12111 -
More Donations Arrive to Establish the New Medicine Research and Development Center on Campus
A raft of businesses continues to make donations to establish a new medicine research and development center on campus. The Department of Biological Sciences at KAIST is leading the fundraising campaign.
On November 9, 2015, Nikon Instruments Korea Co., Ltd. contributed USD 8,500 to the fundraising, followed by Carl Zeiss AG and Three-Shine Inc., which donated USD 12,800 and 8,500, respectively.
Bruno Lin, an Executive Director at Carl Zeiss AG in Korea, said, “I’m very glad to participate in this fundraising initiative for the Biological Sciences Department at KAIST, one rapidly reaching out to the world.”
From the left in the picture are Vice President Tae-Hoon Kim, Director Gyu-Hyeok Lee, and Executive Director Bruno Lin of Carl Zeiss AG, Byung-Ha Oh, Dean of the Biological Sciences Department, and Professor Eunjoon Kim.
From the left in the picture are Byung-Ha Oh, Dean of the Biological Sciences Department, President Chun-Gui Park of Three-Shine Inc., and Professor Daesoo Kim.
President Chun of Three-Shine Inc., said, “We hope that the Department of Biological Sciences at KAIST, aided by the construction of new research center, will produce practical research achievements and stand on the frontier of new medicine development research in Korea.”
The New Medicine Research and Development Center will be equipped with state-of-the-art, purpose-built research facilities to support convergent, interdisciplinary research in biomedicine.
2015.11.27 View 9347 -
KAIST and Four Science and Technology Universities Host a Start-up Competition
KAIST and four other science and technology universities, such as Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), and Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), hosted a startup competition on November 27, 2015 at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul.
Approximately 150 participants including students from the five universities, "angel" investors, and entrepreneurs attended the competition.
The competition was held to promote startups that are based on research achievements in science and technology and to foster entrepreneurs with great potential.
Two hundred and sixty applicants from 81 teams competed this year. Only ten teams made it to the finals.
KAIST students presented two business plans: an experience-centered education platform and mobile taxi-pooling service. Students from other universities presented a brain-stimulating simulation software (GIST), handy smart health trainer (GIST), real-time reporting system for luggage (DGIST), a flower delivery system (UNIST), surveillance and alarm system for stock-related events via machinery studies (UNIST), augmented emotion toys using augmented reality (POSTECH), and a nasal spray for fine dust prevention (POSTECH).
KAIST also displayed an exhibition of “wearable haptic device for multimedia contents” and “next generation recommendation service platform based on one-on-one matching system with high expandability and improved user experience system.”
The winning team received an award from the Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning of Korea, as well as an opportunity to participate in overseas startup programs over the course of ten days.
Joongmyeon Bae, Director of the KAIST Industry and University Cooperation, who organized the contest, said, “The alumni of Stanford University (USA) has annually created over 5.4 million jobs through startup activities. Likewise, we hope that our event will contribute to job creation by fostering innovative entrepreneurs.”
2015.11.26 View 13840