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Future of Petrochemical Industry: The Age of Bio-Refineries
The concept of bio-refinery is based on using biomass from seaweeds and non-edible plant sources to produce various materials.
Bio-refineries has been looked into with increasing interest in modern times due to the advent of global warming (and the subsequent changes in the atmosphere) and the exhaustion of natural resources.
However past 20 years of research in metabolic engineering had a crucial limitation; the need to improve the efficiency of the microorganisms that actually go about converting biomass into biochemical materials.
In order to compensate for the inefficiency, Professor Lee Sang Yeop combined systems biology, composite biology, evolutionary engineering to form ‘systems metabolic engineering’.
This allows combining various data to explain the organism’s state in a multi-dimensional scope and respond accordingly by controlling the metabolism.
The result of the experiment is set as the cover dissertation of ‘Trends in Biotechnology’ magazine’s August edition.
2011.07.28 View 12160 -
KAIST Successfully Demonstrates Mobile Harbor in the Open Sea
Busan, South Korea—Large container ships are no longer required to come into ports to transport cargo, as KAIST has developed an innovative technology that will transform the paradigm of today’s cargo handling operations. A Mobile Harbor is a vessel that carries a large stabilized crane with a smart spreader and multistage trolley system, enabling the loading and unloading of ship cargo on the wavy open sea. Following a successful docking of two vessels at sea in April of this year, KAIST conducted a full scope of Mobile Harbor operations in the inner sea of Busan, South Korea, on June 29, 2011.
Initiated in 2009, the Mobile Harbor (MH) is one of the university’s flagship research projects, which aims to provide a new growth engine that will lead the Korean economy to the next level of advancement, and to develop green technology through multidisciplinary and convergence research. The idea of MH came to light when thinking outside the box (why can’t a harbor go out to meet a ship on voyage and retrieve goods instead of ships coming into the harbor?) to improve problems relating to the current maritime transport system, such as port congestion, environmental issues caused by heavy sea transport, increased demand for supersized container ships, and the need for port construction and expansion.
The essential technology to establish a Mobile Harbor is a docking system and crane system that can overcome the obstacles imposed by the sea, i.e., waves and wind. Connecting two operating vessels of different sizes in the unpredictable and ever-changing environment of the sea was regarded as “impossible” and had never been tried before, but, on April 26, 2011, KAIST successfully demonstrated the technology to moor vessels safely and securely.
The Mobile Harbor has a unique way of mooring vessels that are anchored at sea: its flexibly designed robot arms with a square-shape vacuum suction pad at the tip reach out and attach to the hull of a container ship for docking. Each robot arm is connected to a cable and winch that further add stability to the Mobile Harbor. Foam-filled fenders are placed between the Mobile Harbor and the container ship, thereby maintaining a safe distance to prevent collisions.
The crane system consists of a multistage trolley, smart spreader, and tension controller, all of which provide the crane with functionality and stability to move around cargo containers in the sea. The crane system also has various sensors like cameras and laser scanners, and therefore, it can gauge the movement of the spreader and ships as well as trace a target container in real time. As a result, the spreader, a container grabbing device, is free from the swing motions when lifting and putting down cargo and grabs a target container safely in the wavy open sea.
During today’s at-sea demonstration in Busan, a research team from the KAIST Mobile Harbor Center docked a Mobile Harbor (a barge ship) right next to a container vessel (the other barge ship) and repeated freight transport operations between the two ships, presenting the great potential to commercialize the Mobile Harbor technology.
The project has been implemented in collaboration with industries, research institutes, and universities in such fields as mechanical engineering, robotics, automation engineering, and ocean systems engineering. The demonstration proceeded with a wide range of participants including researchers, engineers, government officials, and entrepreneurs from Korea and around the world.
Byung-Man Kwak, Director of the KAIST Mobile Harbor Center, explained his feelings on the successful demonstration:
“It’s been a remarkable journey to develop a Mobile Harbor from scratch, and I’m genuinely thrilled to showcase what we have accomplished so far. Today’s demonstration of Mobile Harbor’s core technologies will really change the face of our maritime transportation system. We will be able to deliver more goods to global markets and consumers via sea route, not necessarily building more ports or expanding the existing harbors. KAIST’s Mobile Harbor will also significantly cut down the high cost related to overland transportation of cargo and in return, contribute to the reduction of carbon emission.”
The Center has received much interest in possible market migration and broader application of the Mobile Harbor from businesses and organizations, e.g., US Office of Naval Research, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Aramco, POSCO, and the Korean Navy.
2011.07.06 View 17287 -
KAIST Tops Patent List Among Domestic Universities, Chosun Ilbo, July 5, 2011
According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office, KAIST took the first place among the universities in Korea registering patents from 2006 to 2010. For the article from Chosun Ilbo, please go to the below link:
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/07/05/2011070500743.html
2011.07.05 View 10592
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University Alums go out directly in search of Creative Future Talents
KAIST decided to involve 140 alums in the interview process for the class enrolled in 2012.
The alums participating in the interview process will be focusing on the finding of creative science and technology talent and the characteristics of becoming a leader in the math and science fields. Those alums participating in the interview process are from all walks of life including representatives of industries, universities professors, researchers, and public servants.
The reason for the inclusion of the alums in the admissions process is to stress the togetherness of KAIST family and take another step to becoming a world class university.
2011.06.24 View 8969
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Yonhap News, Scientists Develop Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Supercapacitor, June 6, 2011
Yonhap News Agency, South Korea’s wire news agency, reported that KAIST’s research team developed “a new type of power storage technology using nitrogen and graphene.”
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=591725
2011.06.08 View 9814
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The Atlantic, 10 Essential Books for Thought-Provoking Summer Reading, May 31, 2011
The Atlantic, a reputable monthly magazine published in the US, has released a list of summer reading that includes a cross-disciplinary selection of the 10 most interesting, though-provoking books to read. For the list and a brief introduction about each book, please visit the website below:
http://www.theatlantic.com/life/print/2011/05/10-essential-books-for-thought-provoking-summer-reading/239657/
2011.06.01 View 8434
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Professor Choi Han Lim receives Automatica Applications Paper Price
Professor Choi Han Lim of the Department of Aerospace received ‘Automatica Applications Paper Prize’ for the first time ever for a Korean.
Professor Choi published a paper in the Automatica magazine with the topic of ‘Continuous Trajectory Planning of Mobile Sensors for Informative Forecasting’.
Professor Choi dealt with most efficient measuring methods for mobile sensor platforms thereby improving the performance of anticipating environmental changes and proposed key theories for problem solving and also an efficient algorithm.
The research was conducted in cooperation with MIT Department of Aerospace Professor Jonathan How with the support of the National Science Foundation.
Automatica
Journal published by the International Federation of Automatic Control and has been awarding the Automatica Paper Prize every three years.
2011.05.31 View 8882
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Displaybank, KAIST Develops Flexible Display Metal Wiring Technology, May 27, 2011
On May 26, Korea Advanced Institute of Science (KAIST) announced that team of Prof. Yang from the Department of Mechanical Engineering developed flexible display metal wiring manufacturing-technology. For the article, please follow the link,
http://www.displaybank.com/eng/info/sread.php?id=5877
2011.05.31 View 9312
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President Seo Nam Pyo receives DTU Gold Medal
President Seo Nam Pyo receives DTU Gold Medal on the 6th of May in the DTU Annual Commemoration Day Ceremony.
The DTU has recognized the achievements, innovative ideas, and great effort made by President Seo in heightening the world level of engineering education and his success in improving the status of science and technology of Korea.
The Technical University of Denmark was established in 1829 and is known as the best engineering university in Scandinavia and awards a gold medal annually to a person that is recognized for their accomplishment in the field of science and technology.
2011.05.31 View 8691
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Professor Hwang Kyu Young Receives Outstanding Contributions Award from DASFAA
Professor Hwang Kyu Young received the 2011 Outstanding Contributions Award from the International Conference on Database Systems for Advanced Applications (DASFAA).
Professor Hwang was the Chairman, Vice Chairman, Executive, etc. of the DASFAA Steering Committee for the past 12 years and has been leading the development in the field of database in the Asia/Pacific Region. He was also the editor in chief of The VLDB Journal which is the leading magazine in the field of database and the member of ACM SIGMOD Jim Gray Dissertation Award Committee, VLDB 10-year Best Paper Award Committee, and IEEE ICDE Influential Paper Awards Committee. He receives the Outstanding Contributions Award for ensuring high standards in world database research.
2011.05.31 View 9886
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Research Conducted on the Development Policy of Medical Researchers in United States
The topic dealt in the paper was “The Vietnam War and Medical Research: Untold Legacy of the U.S. Doctor Draft and the NIH ‘Yellow Berets’” and basically deals how a Doctor Draft made a positive impact on improving the basic research of clinical medicine.
Professor Park received his Doctorate at Johns Hopkins University and came to KAIST in 2007.
Summary of Dissertation
From the start of the Korean War in 1950 to the end of the Vietnam War in 1973 a large number of medical school graduates were drafted to the army. Of those drafted, 100 personnel were chosen annually to focus on researching in the National Institute of Health who developed into leaders of the field.
For example, those who worked as a researcher at the National Institute instead of their armed services were 1.5 times more likely to become a tenured professor, 2 times more likely to be promoted to Dean of the department, and 3 times more likely to be the Dean. In addition, 9 out of 50 Nobel Prize winners in fields of natural sciences between 1985 and 2007 were from the same pool of researchers, and 10 out of 76 recipients of National Medal of Science were also from the same pool of researchers.
They were named the ‘Yellow Berets’ like the special forces ‘Green Berets’ and made great contribution to the field in implementing and executing the bench to beside culture that involves development in laboratories to clinical testing.
Professor Park maintains that there has to be improvements made in current policies to encourage research work in medical graduate schools.
2011.05.31 View 11478
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South Korean scientists use laser to inject drugs into brain by Bernama.com, May 26, 2011
Bernama.com, the Malaysian national news agency, reported on the recent development by a KAIST research team of a safe and cheap treatment method for various neurological diseases. For details, please follow the link:
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=589195
2011.05.31 View 10438