AI
-
New Bio-Clock gene and its function found
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced that a Korean research team has found a new gene responsible for maintaining the bio-clock (twenty-four) and its mechanism.
Twnety-four was led by Professor Choi Joon Ho and Dr. Lee Jong Bin of KAIST (department of Biology) and was a joint operation with Professor Ravi Allada and Dr.Lim Jeong Hoon of Northwestern University (department of neurobiology) and the result was published in ‘Nature’ magazine.
The research team experimented with transformed small fruit flies for 4 years and found that there was an undiscovered gene that deals with the bio rhythm in the brain which they named ‘twenty-four’.
The understanding with genes prior to twenty-four was that these genes regulate biorhythm in the transcription phase (DNA to mRNA). Twenty-four operates in the step after transcription when the ribosome creates proteins. Especially twenty-four has a great effect on the ‘period protein’ which acts as a sub-atomic clock that regulates the rhythm and life of each cell.
The experiment was innovational in that it was able to scientifically prove the function of the protein produced by the gene.
The result is expected to help solve the problems associated with sleep disorders, jetlags, eating rhythms, bio rhythms, etc.
The name twenty-four was the fact that a day, a cycle, is 24 hours long and the gene’s serial numbers CG4857 adds up to twenty four.
2011.02.23 View 10907 -
Class of 2011 Undergraduate Freshmen Matriculation Ceremony Held
The 2011 Undergraduate Freshmen Matriculation Ceremony took place on the 10th of February with 950 freshmen and 1000 parents.
Freshmen representative Park Min Jae (19 years old, Korea Science High School for the Gifted), and Jeong Hyun Lee (18 years old, Gyoung Gi Science High School) gave the Freshmen oath followed by President Suh Nam Pyo’s address.
After the ceremony that KAIST choir club ‘CHORUS’ gave a welcoming performance and the Q and A session with the parents of the students involved Lee Kyu Min dean of school affairs, Yoo Hui Joon dean of administration, and Lee Seung Sup dean of student affairs.
KAIST has decreased winter vacation by a month and commences the new semester in February and increased summer vacation to three months from two months since 2009 to encourage students to experience society.
2011.02.21 View 8947
-
Graduation of class of 2011 held
The graduation ceremony for the class of 2011 was held in the Ryu Keun Chul Sports Complex on the 11th of February with the Vice minister of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Kim Chang Kyung, Oh Myoung Chairman of the board, graduates, and 2,500 parents of the graduates.
5 honorary doctors, 507 doctors, 1,111 masters’ graduates, 771 undergraduates (2,389 in total) received their degrees. KAIST has produced since being established in 1971, 8,578 doctors, 22,796 masters’ graduates, 11,341 undergraduates; a total of 42,715 highly skilled science and technology experts.
During the ceremony Ms. Oh Lee Won, who helped establish the Professor Lee Won Jo Program, Chairman Cho Cheon Shik, who helped establish the graduate school of Green Traffic technology, Chairman Jang Young Shin, President Kim Young Gil of HanDong University, and Shirley Ann Jackson, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, received honorary doctorate degrees.
The valedictorian of the undergraduates was Ryu Jae Yoon (22 years old, department of Chemistry), and received the ‘Minister of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Award’ and gave a speech on behalf of the graduating undergraduates.
Mr. Ryu commented “I am very happy and honored to be graduating as a valedictorian” and that “I had attended the 2010 Nobel Prize Award Ceremony as representative of the Korea Engineering Undergraduates and I hope to become a Nobel Prize recipient myself one day and will do my utmost to become one”. Mr. Ryu will progress onto the graduate school of Chemistry and will be studying catalytic reactions in organometallic compounds.
In addition the Chairman of the Board Award went to Kang Jong Ho (department of Mathematics), President Award went to Cho Hyun Jae (department of Electric and Electronic Engineering), Chairman of Alumni Award went to Lee Joo Young (department of Aerospace Engineering), School Support Award went to Kim Dong Han (department of Mechanical Engineering).
Also, the Graduate college of Cultural Technology produced, for the first time ever since being established in September of 2005, 3 doctors.
A Mongolian government official known as ‘Tumur’ (Tumurpureve Dulambazar) received a doctorate’s degree and his son Jagdori is currently enrolled in KAIST and will be receiving a masters’ degree this coming fall graduation.
Christopher Emmerich received a double degree from KAIST and Germany’s Karlsruche Institute of Technology.
The vice president of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said in his commemoratory speech, “Make sure to sacrifice and work hard for advancement of country and society with pride and belief that you are experts in your respective fields.” And that, “we expect you to compete with world’s leading experts in your respective fields thereby helping improve Korea’s status in the world”.
President Seo commented, “Graduates of KAIST are ready to make great contributions to not only Korea but the human race in general. Hopefully the education the graduates received at KAIST will be used to help society and the human race.”
2011.02.21 View 10460
-
The 40th Anniversary of the Establishment of KAIST Commemoration Held
KAIST, aspiring to become the best Science and Technology University, has turned 40.
KAIST held the commemoration ceremony for the 40th Anniversary of the Establishment of KAIST in the auditorium.
Five awards (Scholar, Creative Lecture, Excellence in Lecture, International Cooperation, Experiment) were given to Professors Kim Eun Jun and Walton Jones (department of Biology), Professor Abigail Shin (department of Humanities and Social Sciences), Professor Shin Seong Chul (department of Physics), and Professor Lee Sang Yeop (department of Biological Chemical Engineering). Each recipient received a prize of five million won.
Professor Song Joon Hwa (department of Computer Sciences) received the ‘New Knowledge Award’ in recognition of his development of the Orchestrator Mobile platform. The new platform is different from Android or the IOS platform in that it allows a fluid relationship to be formed between the smartphone and the user.
KAIST also showed off its new emblem.
The emblem consists of a star which represents the KAIST’s goals of becoming the world leader, of training leaders, the center point, and hope. The main keywords are: ‘Leadership’, ‘Premium’, ‘Scientific’, and ‘Humanity’.
KAIST plans on having various events from May 9th when there will be the Vision Declaration.
2011.02.21 View 12835
-
KAIST Mobile Homepage Open
KAIST opened a mobile homepage (http://m.kaist.ac.kr) in order to provide an improved level of service to the public and KAIST family members.
The mobile homepage is made up of: notifications, KAIST news, cultural program guide, introduction of KAIST, campus map, undergraduate information, admission information, KAIST public relations pages.
Especially going into the KAIST public relations page and following ‘With-KAIST’ on twitter allows access to live feed of KAIST news and will be a good means of communications with the school and KAIST family members. This service was initiated on June of last year and has 559 followers.
The mobile homepage can be accessed on any smart phones like iPhone, Galaxy, etc.
Cho Joon Hyung IT Development Manger who was in charge of the development of the mobile homepage commented, “the mobile homepage was developed to meet the demand from smart phone users. Users will be able to access school related information heightening information accessibility”.
2011.02.21 View 7778
-
KAIST establishes Indoor Location Recognition Industrial-Educational Research Center
KAIST has signed the memorandum of understanding on the 15th of February for the establishment of ‘KTNET-KAIST Industrial-Educational Research Center’ (Head of Center, Professor Han Dong Soo of department of Computer Sciences). Korea International Trade Association and KTNET will be working with KAIST to develop wi-fi based indoor location recognition service and applications of the developed technology.
The memorandum of understanding states that KTNET and Korea International Trade Association will be allowed access to the technology KAIST has in order to obtain competitive advantage in the field of location recognition.
In addition, KAIST will continue on making technological advances in the field of wi-fi based indoor location recognition for the next 5 years, develop new core technologies and applications, along with the export of related technologies abroad, under the support of the KITA and KTNET.
The KTNET-KAIST research center is special in that it has been derived off of the technology developed for the hosting of the G20 Global Summit. Last year, KAIST, KITA, and KTNET developed a wi-fi based Coex indoor navigation system and called it ‘myCoex’ and released it to the public in tandem with hosting G20 Summit.
‘myCoex’ application was the first of its kind in the world to provide wi-fi based indoor navigation system without problems. Despite ‘myCoex’ only useable within Coex, over 150,000 users have downloaded the application.
The research center plans on developing the necessary technology that will allow the application of such an app like ‘mCoex’ to large indoor spaces like Incheon International Airport, subway, shopping malls, and etc.
In addition the addition of a social commerce service to ‘myCoex’ is being looked into which will be the marriage of navigation services and social commerce services.
The KTNET KAIST research center will develop a wi-fi based indoor location recognition service platform that can be widely used and open it so that numerous other developers can develop personalized services.
Han Dong Soo Head od Center commented, “The wi-fi based indoor location recognition technology is still found wanting in its accuracy, response time, and energy consumption efficiency making further research imperative in this particular field. The establishment of KTNET-KAIST research center has created a research friendly environment and KAIST will do its utmost to become the leader in the field”.
2011.02.21 View 11129
-
College of Cultural Science selects 'Best English Paper' Recipients
KAIST’s College of Cultural Science (Dean Kim Dong Won) announced the winners of ‘2010 Fall Semester Best English Paper Award’: Excellence Award went to Kwak Ah Young (department of Biology), Seong Du Hyun (undeclared major), Ahn Da In (Biological Chemical Engineering), and nine other students received the Participation Award.
Ahn Da In discussed ‘Joyce and Chopin on use of epiphany’, Seong Du Hyun discussed ‘On Kant’s Groundwork for the metaphysics of Morals, its Achievements, and Implications’, and Kwak Ah Young discussed ‘Fact Pattern of Environmental Law’.
The ‘Best English Paper’ Award has been awarded to undergraduates since 2009 Fall semester in the Humanities and Social Science Department’s efforts to increase creativity and English writing skills of students attending KAIST.
For the 2010 fall semester, each professor in charge went through 1 to 2 papers (among 610 papers admitted across human science subjects) and recommended 29 papers to be discussed with great scrutiny. The evaluation took place throughout January and the 3 papers discussing English Literature, Scientific Philosophy, and Environmental Law were awarded the Excellence Award, and 9 other papers were awarded the Participation Award.
Dean of Cultural Science College Kim Dong Won commented, ‘I am very encouraged by the level of papers and is becoming a very large art of the College of Cultural Science’.
The chairman of the screening committee, Professor Kim Eun Kyung also commented, ‘the best paper award is helping students better their English levels’ and that ‘in order to form and encourage a sound and structured English paper writing environment, a anti-plagiarism program will be implemented amongst implementing other judging standards’.
2011.02.21 View 10223
-
Honorary Doctorate given to 5 Domestic and Foreign Figures
KAIST will be presenting doctor degrees to 5 domestic and foreign figures that have helped development of science and technology, society, and KAIST on the 11th of February.
The degrees will be awarded to Shirley Ann Jackson President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Mrs. Oh Lee Won, Chairman Cho Chun Shik, Jang Young Shin Chairman of Aekyung Group, and Kim Young Gil President of University of Han Dong.
President Jackson will be given the Honorary Science Technology Doctorate, Mrs. Oh Lee Won, Chairman Cho Chun Shik, Chairwoman Jang Young Shin, President Kim Young Gil will be given Honorary Management Doctorate degree.
President Shirley Ann Jackson is a brilliant physicists and has great managerial skills and leadership and has been the chairperson of Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Obama ministration’s Presidential Council of Advisers on Science and Technology along with the president of the university, making great contribution to the development of science and technology and society.
President Jackson is the leading female science-engineer and has received honorary doctor degrees from 45 universities and is a proven world renowned and respected leader and scholar. She has made great impact in America and on the world in research findings as a physicist, public policies, and in terms of education.
Mrs. Oh Lee Won donated 10billion Won to KAIST with wishes that it be used as scholarship for the development of future leaders of Korea.
Mrs. Oh’s donation allowed KAIST to newly establish ‘Lee Won Assistant Professor System’ that encourages promising assistant professors to educate students and focus on research and allows KAIST to invite promising scientists.
With the new system in place, KAIST now has the foundations necessary to develop excellent scientific talents and future world leaders, giving it competitive advantage in becoming the best university in the world.
Chairman Cho Chun Shik donated his entire fortune believing that supporting the science community will improve the economy.
With the donations KAIST established the ‘Cho Chun Shik Green Transportation Graduate School’ thereby laying the foundations that will allow KAIST to tap into the rapidly growing high tech green transportation market by developing related technologies and experts in this field. This will allow KAIST to become the best university centered on fusion and compound studies.
Chairwoman Jang Young Shin is the first Korean woman CEO. She graduated from Gyoung Gi girl’s High School and majored in Chemistry in the University of Chesternut Hill. She started management in 1972 and overcame social prejudice and discrimination towards women and has made the small soap company into the Aekyung group with 20 subsidiaries.
Chairwoman Jang is currently director at KAIST. She is giving advice and encouragement so that KAIST can become the world’s best using her experiences as the vice president of the Korean Businessperson Federation and Korea Trade Federation.
Chairman Kim Young Gil has worked in NASA until he answered government’s call for help in 1979 and was made professor in the department of materials and science and engineering. He became the first president at Handong University in 1995 and has been making great effort to realize a ‘education based university’ for the development of students both academically and ethically competent.
He has implemented various educational experiments, like no major, no undergraduate studies, no affiliation, mandatory double major, no proctor tests, Asia’s first American system Law School, etc. These educational innovations are seen as the new beginning of a knowledge based society’s education of science and technology.
2011.02.21 View 9339
-
Soyeon's Odyssey by Space Travel, Feb. 1, 2011
Soyeon Yi, an alumna of KAIST who joined the Soyuz TMA-12 mission to the International Space Station in 2008 and successfully returned to the Earth after completion of her mission. She is often cited as the first Korean astronaut who had spaceflight. She recently had an interview with an Australian based online newspaper that publishes space related news stories. For the interview, please go to the link.
http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Soyeon_Odyssey_999.html
2011.02.02 View 8876
-
New Korean Robot Responds to Non-Verbal Commands
An online newspaper covering the latest headline news based on MS Windows, Internet and technology trends, Infopackets, posted an article on the research result of KAIST researchers: a robot prototype developed, which is able to respond to human’s non verbal communication.
Robots now can read human gestures and react to their subtle commands by “designing the robot’s main system to mimic the actions of a human in the same manner in which human brains function.” For details of the article, please click the link:
http://www.infopackets.com/news/technology/science/2011/20110125_new_korean_robot_responds_to_non_verbal_commands.htm
2011.01.26 View 8444
-
Success in differentiating Functional Vascular Progenitor Cells (VPC)
KAIST’s Professor Han Yong Man successfully differentiated vascular progenitor cells from human embryonic stem cells and reversed differentiated stem cells.
The research went beyond the current method of synthesis of embryonic body or mice cell ball culture and used the careful alteration of signal transmission system of the human embryonic stem cells to differentiate the formation of vascular progenitor cells.
The team controlled the MEK/ERK and BMP signal transmission system that serves an important role in the self replication of human embryonic stem cells and successfully differentiated 20% of the cells experimented on to vascular progenitor cells.
The vascular progenitor cells produced with such a method successfully differentiated into cells forming the endodermis of the blood vessel, vascular smooth muscle cells and hematopoietic cells in an environment outside of the human body and also successfully differentiated into blood vessels in nude mice.
In addition, the vascular progenitor cell derived from human embryonic cells successfully formed blood vessels or secreted vascular growth factors and increased the blood flow and the necrosis of blood vessels when injected into an animal with limb ischemic illness.
The research was funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, 21st Century Frontier Research and Development Institution’s Cell Application Research Department and Professor Ko Kyu Young (KAIST), Professor Choi Chul Hee (KAIST), Professor Jeong Hyung Min (Cha Medical School) and Doctor Jo Lee Sook (Researcher in Korea Bio Engineering Institute) participated in it.
The results of the research was published as the cover paper of the September edition of “Blood (IF:10.55)”, the American Blood Journal and has been patented domestically and has finished registration of foreign PCT.
The results of the experiment opened the possibility of providing a patient specific cure using stem cells in the field of blood vessel illness.
2011.01.18 View 12350 -
KAIST developed a plastic film board less sensitive to heat.
The research result was made the cover of magazine, Advanced Materials and is accredited to paving the way to commercialize flexible display screens and solar power cells.
Transparent plastic and glass cloths, which have a limited thermal expansion needed for the production of flexible display screens and solar power cells, were developed by Korean researchers.
The research, led by KAIST’s Professor Byoung-Soo Bae, was funded by the Engineering Research Center under the initiative of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation. The research result was printed as the cover paper of ‘Advanced Materials’ which is the leading magazine in the field of materials science.
Professor Bae’s team developed a hybrid material with the same properties as fiber glass. With the material, they created a transparent, plastic film sheet resistant to heat. Transparent plastic film sheets were used by researchers all over the world to develop devices such as flexible displays or solar power cells that can be fit into various living spaces. However, plastic films are heat sensitive and tend to expand as temperature increases, thereby making it difficult to produce displays or solar power cells.
The new transparent, plastic film screen shows that heat expansion index (13ppm/oC) similar to that of glass fiber (9ppm/oC) due to the presence of glass fibers; its heat resistance allows to be used for displays and solar power cells over 250oC.
Professor Bae’s team succeeded in producing a flexible thin plastic film available for use in LCD or AMOLED screens and thin solar power cells.
Professor Bae commented, “Not only the newly developed plastic film has superior qualities, compared to the old models, but also it is cheap to produce, potentially bringing forward the day when flexible displays and solar panels become commonplace. With the cooperation of various industries, research institutes and universities, we will strive to improve the existing design and develop it further.”
2011.01.05 View 12915