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Three Professors Named KAST Fellows
(Professor Dan Keun Sung at the center)
(Professor Y.H. Cho at the center)
(Professor K.H. Cho at the center)
The Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST) inducted three KAIST professors as fellows at the New Year’s ceremony held at KAST on January 12. They were among the 24 newly elected fellows of the most distinguished academy in Korea. The new fellows are Professor Dan Keun Sung of the School of Electrical Engineering, Professor Kwang-Hyun Cho of the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, and Professor Yong-Hoon Cho of the Department of Physics.
Professor Sung was recognized for his lifetime academic achievements in fields related with network protocols and energy ICT. He also played a crucial role in launching the Korean satellites KITSAT-1,2,3 and the establishment of the Satellite Technology Research Center at KAIST.
Professor Y.H.Cho has been a pioneer in the field of low-dimensional semiconductor-powered quantum photonics that enables quantum optical research in solid state. He has been recognized as a renowned scholar in this field internationally.
Professor K.H.Cho has conducted original research that combines IT and BT in systems biology and has applied novel technologies of electronic modeling and computer simulation analysis for investigating complex life sciences. Professor Cho, who is in his 40s, is the youngest fellow among the newly inducted fellows.
2018.01.16 View 15619 -
Aerial Vehicle Flying Freely with Independently Controlled Main Wings
Professor Dongsoo Har and his team in Cho Chun Shik Graduate School of Green Transportation in KAIST lately developed an aerial vehicle that is able to control the main wings separately and independently.
Aerial vehicles in a typical category have main wings fixed to the body (fuselage) in an integrated form. Shape of main wings, namely airfoil, produces lift force, thanks to aerodynamic interaction with air, and achieves commensurate energy efficiency. Yet, it is difficult for them to make agile movements due to the large turn radius. Banking the aerial vehicle that accounts for eventual turn comes from the adjustment of small ailerons mounted on the trailing edge of the wings.
Aerial vehicles in another typical category gain thrust power by rotating multiple propellers. They can make agile movements by changing speed of motors rotating the propellers. For instance, pitch(movement up and down along vertical axis) down for moving forward with quadcopters is executed by increased speed of two rear rotors and unchanged or decreased speed of two front rotors. Rotor represents revolving part of motor. However, they are even less energy-efficient, owing to the absence of lift force created by wings.
Taking these technical issues of existing types of aerial vehicles into account, his team designed the main wings of the aerial vehicle to be controlled separately and independently. Their aerial vehicle (named Nsphere drone) executing all the thinkable flight modes, pitch/yaw(twisting or rotating around a vertical axis)/roll(turning over on a horizontal axis), is sketched in Figure 1 and actual flight of the aerial vehicle carrying out all possible types of flight modes is shown in Figure 2. Nsphere drone facilitates controlling the tilting angles of main wings and thus the direction of thrust power created by motors on the leading edge of main wings. Additional motor at the tail of Nsphere drone provides extra lifting force when trying vertical take-off and offers extra thrust power, by tilting the motor upward, while flying forward. Nsphere drone can change flight mode in the air from vertical to horizontal and vice versa. Due to the ability in rotating wings as well as changing the direction of thrust power come by the tail motor, the Nsphere drone with independently controlled wings can take off and land vertically without runway and auxiliary equipment.
Someone might say that it is similar to aerial vehicles that have tilt rotors attached to fixed wings for vertical take-off and landing. However, advantage of Nsphere drone is the ability in tilting each main wing entirely, thereby changing angle of attack of each wing. Angle of attack indicates the angle between the oncoming air or relative wind and a reference line on the aerial vehicle or wing. In general, lift force is affected by the angle of attack. Therefore, Nsphere drone can freely control the amount of lift force gained by each wing. This allows agile movements of Nsphere drone in the horizontal flight mode. Nsphere drone can fly like a copter type aerial vehicle in the vertical flight mode, and like a fixed-wing type aerial vehicle in the horizontal flight mode.
The trial to separate main wings entirely from the fuselage is very challenging. The separation of the main wings is realized by using supports that hold the main wings. One support penetrates both wings and two separate supports grab wings individually. It is also possible to apply this technology to large size aerial vehicle by including the fuselage as a part of the support for tilting wings. Part of the fuselage can be redesigned and integrated with main wings, taking plug-in structure to be coupled to the main fuselage and to stand thrust and air pressure.
Figure 1. Flight modes with independently controlled wings
Figure 2. Aerial vehicle with independently controlled wings demonstrates the capability in executing vertical and horizontal flight modes, as well as vertical take-off and landing.
Nsphere drone controls each wing independently according to target flight mode. The output of the control is sensed by sensors installed in Nsphere drone and undergoes an adjustment process until desired flight operation is achieved. Through this operational process, the Nsphere drone can make agile movements in ways that might not be attained by other aerial vehicles.
The team expects that the Nsphere drone, which is able to acquire energy efficiency, swiftness and speed, can be adopted for short and mid-distance air traffic delivery. Particularly, it can be distributed like the flying taxi announced by Uber and NASA in November 2017 and it can be effectively used for logistics delivery services such http:// as Amazon’s Prime Air.
Professor Har said, “Nsphere drone can be used for various fields, including airway transportation, military aerial vehicles, surveillance, general safety management, and logistics delivery services. Separate and independent control of the main wings gives us the chance to employ diverse and effective flying methods. Imagine a jet fighter that is able to evade a missile by the separate control of main wings http://. Just a bit of control could be enough for evading. Our flight mechanism is valid across the range of flight speed”.
At the beginning of the design process in 2016, his team filed patents to countries including Korea, U.S., and China, on various implementation methods, including plug-in structure coupled to the main fuselage, for separate and independent control of main wings.
Click the image to watch the clip of Nsphere Drone
2018.01.12 View 6804 -
Fiber OLEDs, Thinner Than a Hair
(Seonil Kwon, PhD Candidate)
Professor Kyung Cheol Choi from the School of Electrical Engineering and his team succeeded in fabricating highly efficient Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) on an ultra-thin fiber.
The team expects the technology, which produces high-efficiency, long-lasting OLEDs, can be widely utilized in wearable displays.
Existing fiber-based wearable displays’ OLEDs show much lower performance compared to those fabricated on planar substrates. This low performance caused a limitation for applying it to actual wearable displays.
In order to solve this problem, the team designed a structure of OLEDs compatible to fiber and used a dip-coating method in a three-dimensional structure of fibers. Through this method, the team successfully developed efficient OLEDs that are designed to last a lifetime and are still equivalent to those on planar substrates.
The team identified that solution process planar OLEDs can be applied to fibers without any reduction in performance through the technology. This fiber OLEDs exhibited luminance and current efficiency values of over 10,000 cd/m^2(candela/square meter) and 11 cd/A (candela/ampere).
The team also verified that the fiber OLEDs withstood tensile strains of up to 4.3% while retaining more than 90% of their current efficiency. In addition, they could be woven into textiles and knitted clothes without causing any problems.
Moreover, the technology allows for fabricating OLEDs on fibers with diameters ranging from 300㎛ down to 90㎛, thinner than a human hair, which attests to the scalability of the proposed fabrication scheme.
Noting that every process is carried out at a low temperature (~105℃), fibers vulnerable to high temperatures can also employ this fabrication scheme.
Professor Choi said, “Existing fiber-based wearable displays had limitations for applicability due to their low performance. However, this technology can fabricate OLEDs with high performance on fibers. This simple, low-cost process opens a way to commercialize fiber-based wearable displays.”
This research led by a PhD candidate Seonil Kwon was published online in the international journal for nanoscience, Nano Letters, on December 6.
(Fiber-based OLEDs woven into knitted clothes)
This work was funded by the Engineering Research Center of Excellence Program (Grant No. NRF-2017R1A5A1014708) and Nano-Material Technology Development Program (Grant No. NRF-2016M3A7B4910635) by the National Research Foundation of Korea, the Ministry of Science and ICT of Korea.
2018.01.09 View 14375 -
Controlling Superconductivity Using Spin Currents
(Professor Jhinhwan Lee and Dr. Seokhwan Choi)
A KAIST research team led by Professor Jhinhwan Lee of the Department of Physics has discovered a method to flip between superconducting and non-superconducting states within an iron-based superconductor using a type of electron microscopy. The team applied spin-polarized and non-polarized currents to locally change the magnetic order in the sample.
The team identified a basic physical principle required to develop transistors that control superconductivity and to implement novel magnetic memory at the atomic level. This study is the first report of a direct real-space observation of this type of control. In addition, this is the first direct atomic-scale demonstration of the correlation between magnetism and superconductivity.
The team controlled and observed the magnetic and electronic properties with a spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscope (SPSTM), a device that passes an atomically-sharp metal tip over the surface of a sample. The team introduced new ways to perform SPSTM using an antiferromagnetic chromium tip. An antiferromagnet is a material in which the magnetic fields of its atoms are ordered in an alternating up-down pattern such that it has a minimal stray magnetic field that can inadvertently kill the local superconductivity of the sample when used as an SPSTM tip.
To study the connection between the C4 magnetic order and the suppression of superconductivity, the team performed high-resolution SPSTM scans of the C4 state with chromium tips and compared them with simulations. The results led them to suggest that the low-energy spin fluctuations in the C4 state cannot mediate pairing between electrons in the typical FeAs band structure. This is critical because this paring of electrons, defying their natural urge to repel each other, leads to superconductivity.
Professor Lee said, “Our findings may be extended to future studies where magnetism and superconductivity are manipulated using spin-polarized and unpolarized currents, leading to novel antiferromagnetic memory devices and transistors controlling superconductivity.”
This study was published in Physical Review Letters (PRL) on November 27 as the Editor’s Suggestion. It was also featured in Viewpoint in Physics, in which the top 3% of PRL papers are presented with a commentary. It was also featured on Phys.org, which is a science news website led by the US national research institutes. Furthermore, the equipment designed and manufactured by Professor Lee’s team and used for the research was selected for the cover of Review of Scientific Instruments (RSI) in the October 2017 issue.
Professor Lee said, “When designing the experiment, we attempted to implement some decisive features. For instance, we included a spin control function using an antiferromagnetic probe, wide range variable temperature functions that were thought to be impossible in high-magnetic field structures, and multiple sample storage functions at low temperatures for systematic spin control experiments, rather than using simpler scanning probe microscopes with well-known principles or commercial microscopes. As a result, we were able to conduct systematic experiments on controlling magnetism and superconductivity, which competing groups would take years to replicate.”
He continued, “There were some minor difficulties in the basic science research environment such as the lack of a shared helium liquefier on campus and insufficient university-scale appreciation for large scale physics that inevitably takes time. We will do our best to lead the advancement of cutting-edge science through research projects expanding on this achievement in physical knowledge to practical devices and various technological innovations in measurements.” This research was funded by National Research Foundation of Korea.
Figure 1. Research concept illustration
The spin-polarized chromium (Cr) tip being scanned over the pristine superconducting area of the C2 magnetic order, represented in the background with electron pairs shown as coupled red spheres. The spin current through the tip induces the C4 magnetic order (yellow and blue plaquettes) with suppressed superconductivity in the sample because its spin fluctuations cannot mediate electron pairing, represented as decoupled red spheres in the plaquette area.
2018.01.05 View 6328 -
Meet the KAISTian of 2017, Professor YongKeun Park
Professor YongKeun Park from the Department of Physics is one of the star professors in KAIST. Rising to the academic stardom, Professor Park’s daily schedule is filled with series of business meetings in addition to lab meetings and lectures.
The year 2017 must have been special for him. During the year, he published numerous papers in international journals, such as Nature Photonics, Nature Communications and Science Advances. These high performances drew international attention from renowned media, including Newsweek and Forbes. Moreover, recognizing his research performance, he was elected as a fellow member of the Optical Society (OSA) in his mid-30s. Noting that the members’ age ranges from late 50s to early 60s, Professor Park’s case considered to be quite exceptional.
Adding to his academic achievement, he has launched two startups powered of his own technologies. One is called Tomocube, a company specialized in 3-D imaging microscope using holotomography technology. His company is currently exporting the products to multiple countries, including the United States and Japan. The other one is The.Wave.Talk which has technologies for examining pre-existing bacteria anywhere and anytime.
His research career and entrepreneurship are well deserved recipient of many honors. At the 2018 kick-off ceremony, Professor Park was awarded the KAISTian of 2017 in recognition of his developing holographic measure and control technology as well as founding a new field for technology application.
KAISTian of the Year, first presented in 2001, is an award to recognize the achievements and exemplary contribution of KAIST member who has put significant effort nationally and internationally, enhancing the value of KAIST.
While receiving the award, he thanked his colleagues and his students who have achieved this far together. He said, “I would like to thank KAIST for providing environment for young professors like me so that we can engage themselves in research. Also, I would like to mention that I am an idea seeder and my students do the most of the research. So, I appreciate my students for their hard works, and it is very pleasure to have them. Lastly, I thank the professors for teaching these outstanding students. I feel great responsibility over this title. I will dedicate myself to make further progress in commercializing technology in KAIST.”
Expecting his successful startup cases as a model and great inspiration to students as well as professors, KAIST interviewed Professor Park.
Q What made you decide to found your startups?
A I believed that my research areas could be further used. As a professor, I believe that it is a university’s role to create added value through commercializing technology and creating startups.
Q You have co-founded two startups. What is your role in each company?
A So, basically I have two full-time jobs, professor in KAIST and CTO in Tomocube. After transferring the technology, I hold the position of advisor in The.Wave.Talk.
(Holographic images captured by the product Professor Park developed)
Q Do your students also participate in your companies or can they?
A No, the school and companies are separate spaces; in other words, they are not participating in my companies. They have trained my employees when transferring the technologies, but they are not directly working for the companies.
However, they can participate if they want to. If there’s a need to develop a certain technology, an industry-academia contract can be made. According to the agreement, students can work for the companies.
Q Were there any hardships when preparing the startups?
A At the initial stage, I did not have a financial problem, thanks to support from Startup KAIST. Yet, inviting capital is the beginning, and I think every step I made to operate, generate revenue, and so on is not easy.
Q Do you believe KAIST is startup-friendly?
A Yes, there’s no school like KAIST in Korea and any other country. Besides various programs to support startup activities, Startup KAIST has many professors equipped with a great deal of experience. Therefore, I believe that KAIST provides an excellent environment for both students and professors to create startups.
Q Do you have any suggestion to KAIST institutionally?
A Well, I would like to make a comment to students and professors in KAIST. I strongly recommend them to challenge themselves by launching startups if they have good ideas. Many students wish to begin their jobs in government-funded research institutes or major corporates, but I believe that engaging in a startup company will also give them valuable and very productive experience.
Unlike before, startup institutions are well established, so attracting good capital is not so hard. There are various activities offered by Startup KAIST, so it’s worthwhile giving it a try.
Q What is your goal for 2018 as a professor and entrepreneur?
A I don’t have a grand plan, but I will work harder to produce good students with new topics in KAIST while adding power to my companies to grow bigger.
By Se Yi Kim from the PR Office
2018.01.03 View 12844 -
Ultra-Low Power Flexible Memory Using 2D Materials
(Professor Choi and Ph.D. candidate Jang)
KAIST research team led by Professor Sung-Yool Choi at School of Electrical Engineering and Professor Sung Gap Im at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering developed high-density, ultra-low power, non-volatile, flexible memory technology using 2D materials. The team used ultrathin molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) with atomic-scale thickness as the channel material and high-performance polymeric insulator film as the tunneling dielectric material. This research was published on the cover of Advanced Functional Materials on November 17. KAIST graduate Myung Hun Woo, a researcher at Samsung Electronics and Ph.D. candidate Byung Chul Jang are first authors.
The surge of new technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and cloud server led to the paradigm shift from processor-centric computing to memory-centric computing in the industry, as well as the increase in demand of wearable devices. This led to an increased need for high-density, ultra-low power, non-volatile flexible memory. In particular, ultrathin MoS2 as semiconductor material has been recently regarded as post-silicon material. This is due to its ultrathin thickness of atomic-scale which suppresses short channel effect observed in conventional silicon material, leading to advantages in high- density and low-power consumption. Further, this thickness allows the material to be flexible, and thus the material is applicable to wearable devices.
However, due to the dangling-bond free surface of MoS2 semiconductor material, it is difficult to deposit the thin insulator film to be uniform and stable over a large area via the conventional atomic layer deposition process. Further, the currently used solution process makes it difficult to deposit uniformly low dielectric constant (k) polymeric insulator film with sub-10 nm thickness on a large area, thus indicating that the memory device utilizing the conventional solution-processed polymer insulator film cannot be operated at low-operating voltage and is not compatible with photolithography.
The research team tried to overcome the hurdles and develop high-density, ultra-low power, non-volatile flexible memory by employing a low-temperature, solvent-free, and all-dry vapor phase technique named initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) process. Using iCVD process, tunneling polymeric insulator film with 10 nm thickness was deposited uniformly on MoS2 semiconductor material without being restricted by the dangling bond-free surface of MoS2. The team observed that the newly developed MoS2-based non-volatile memory can be operated at low-voltage (around 10V), in contrast to the conventional MoS2-based non-volatile memory that requires over 20V.
Professor Choi said, “As the basis for the Fourth Industrial revolution technologies including AI and IoT, semiconductor device technology needs to have characteristics of low-power and flexibility, in clear contrast to conventional memory devices.” He continued, “This new technology is significant in developing source technology in terms of materials, processes, and devices to contribute to achieve these characteristics.”
This research was supported by the Global Frontier Center for Advanced Soft Electronics and the Creative Materials Discovery Program by funded the National Research Foundation of Korea of Ministry of Science and ICT.
( Figure 1. Cover of Advanced Functional Materials)
(Figure 2. Concept map for the developed non-volatile memory material and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy image for material cross-section )
2018.01.02 View 9995 -
Non-Adiabatic Reaction Mechanism Identified at Conical Intersection
(Professor Kim(center) and Ph.D. candidates Kyung Chul Woo (left) and Kang Do Hyung)
Research team led by Professor Sang Kyu Kim at KAIST Department of Chemistry observed two distinct reaction pathways that occur at conical intersection where two different adiabatic potential energy surfaces cross at the same nuclear configuration.
Professor Kim previously identified the existence and molecular structure of conical intersection in 2010. In this following study, the team accurately measured reaction rates of two totally different reaction pathways activated only at conical intersection where the seminal Born-Oppenheimer approximation breaks down.
This study led by Kyung Chul Woo (1st author) and Do Hyung Kang, both Ph.D. candidates at KAIST, was published in Journal of the American Chemical Society in November 7th, 2017.
Chemical reaction induced by light occurs in excited electronic states where the reaction outcome is often destined by coupling among different electronic states mediated by nuclear motions during chemical reaction. Such a coupling is most critical and important at the conical intersection as nonadiabtic surface-hopping is most probable at situation where the Born-Oppenheimer approximation fails.
Professor Kim used spectroscopic methods in 2010 to experimentally observe conical intersection of polyatomic molecule. And yet, it was not possible to disentangle complex dynamic processes with frequency-domain study only.
The research team used pico-second time-resolution kinetic energy resolved mass spectrometry to identify two possible distinct reaction pathways in both energy and time domains.,.
The research team demonstrated that the reactive flux prepared at the conical intersection is bifurcated into adiabatic or non-adiabatic reaction pathways. These two pathways are quite distinct in terms of reaction rates, energy releases, and product branching ratios.
This is the first study to capture the moment of bifurcation dynamics at the conical intersection for complex polyatomic molecular system. The study could contribute to conceptual improvement in understanding complicated nonadiabatic dynamics in general.
Professor Kim said, “Basic science research is essential in understanding and wisely using the nature. New technological advances cannot be made without the advancement in basic science.” He continued, “I hope this study could lead to growth in many young academic talents in basic sciences.”
(Figure 1. Reaction graph starting from reaction intersection that divides into adiabatic reaction pathway (red) and non-adiabatic pathway (blue))
2017.12.19 View 6708 -
Technology to Find Optimum Drug Target for Cancer Developed
(Professor Kwang-Hyun Cho (right) and lead author Dr. Minsoo Choi)
A KAIST research team led by Professor Kwang-Hyun Cho of the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering developed technology to find the optimum drug target according to the type of cancer cell. The team used systems biology to analyze molecular network dynamics that reflect genetic mutations in cancer cells and to predict drug response. The technology could contribute greatly to future anti-cancer drug development.
There are many types of genetic variations found in cancer cells, including gene mutations and copy number variations. These variations differ in cancer cells even within the same type of cancer, and thus the drug response varies cell by cell. Cancer researchers worked towards identifying frequently occurring genetic variations in cancer patients and, in particular, the mutations that can be used as an index for specific drugs. Previous studies focused on identifying a single genetic mutation or creating an analysis of the structural characteristics of a gene network. However, this approach was limited in its inability to explain the biological properties of cancer which are induced by various gene and protein interactions in cancer cells, which result in differences in drug response.
Gene mutations in cancer cells not only affect the function of the affected gene, but also other genes that interact with the mutated gene and proteins. As a consequence, one mutation could lead to changes in the dynamical properties of the molecular network. Therefore, the responses to anti-cancer drugs by cancer cells differ. The current treatment approach that ignores molecular network dynamics and targets a few cancer-related genes is only effective on a fraction of patients, while many other patients exhibit resistance to the drug.
Professor Cho’s team integrated a large-scale computer simulation using super-computing and cellular experiments to analyze changes in molecular network dynamics in cancer cells.
This led to development of technology to find the optimum drug target according to the type of cancer cells by predicting drug response. This technology was applied to the molecular network of known tumor suppressor p53. The team used large-scale cancer cell genomic data available from The Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) to construct different molecular networks specific to the characteristics of genetic variations.
Perturbation analysis on drug response in each molecular network was used to quantify changes in cancer cells from drug response and similar networks were clustered. Then, computer simulations were used to analyze the synergetic effects in terms of efficacy and combination to predict the level of drug response. Based on the simulation results from various cancer cell lines including lung, breast, bone, skin, kidney, and ovary cancers were used in drug response experiments for compare analysis.
This technique can be applied in any molecular network to identify the optimum drug target for personalized medicine.
The research team suggests that the technology can analyze varying drug response due to the heterogeneity of cancer cells by considering the overall modulatory interactions rather than focusing only on a specific gene or protein. Further, the technology aids the prediction of causes of drug resistance and thus the identification of the optimum drug target to inhibit the resistance. This could be core source technology that can be used in drug repositioning, a process of applying existing drugs to new disease targets.
Professor Cho said, “Genetic variations in cancer cells are the cause of diverse drug response, but a complete analysis had not yet been made.” He continued, “Systems biology allowed the simulation of drug responses by cancer cell molecular networks to identify fundamental principles of drug response and optimum drug targets using a new conceptual approach.”
This research was published in Nature Communications on December 5 and was funded by Ministry of Science and ICT and National Research Foundation of Korea.
(Figure 1. Drug response prediction for each cancer cell type from computer simulation and cellular experiment verification for comparison)
(Figure 2. Drug response prediction based on cancer cell molecular network dynamics and clustering of cancer cells by their molecular networks)
(Figure 3. Identification of drug target for each cancer cell type by cellular molecular network analysis and establishment for personalized medicine strategy for each cancer patient)
2017.12.15 View 7446 -
Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee Named NAI Fellow
(Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee)
Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering was named to the National Academy of Inventors in the US. He is the first Korean scholar ever elected as a NAI fellow.
The NAI is a non-profit member organization with over 4,000 individual inventors and fellows spanning more than 250 institutions worldwide. It is comprised of universities as well as governmental and non-profit research institutes. The academy was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents from the US Patent and Trademark Office. So far, 575 fellows from 229 institutions have been elected.
The academy said Professor Lee has been recognized for fellowship induction as he has demonstrated a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society.
Distinguished Professor Lee, a pioneering researcher and scholar in the field of systems metabolic engineering, was ranked in the top 1% of highly cited researchers (HCR) this year. Over the past 11 years, he published more than 130,000 articles in prestigious journals around the world. He has been cited more than 34,000 times since he started working at KAIST in 1994.
He is also the first Korean ever elected to both the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in the US, becoming the one of 13 foreign scholars in the world holding two prestigious institutions’ fellowships.
Dr. Lee is currently the dean of KAIST Institutes, the world-leading institute for multi and interdisciplinary research. He is also serving as co-chair of the Global Council on Biotechnology and is a member of the Global Future Council on the Fourth Industrial Revolution at the World Economic Forum.
2017.12.13 View 9680 -
Hubo Completes New Mission at the Winter Olympic Torch Relay
KAIST-born humanoid robot, Hubo, completed its special new mission: carrying the Olympic torch. The Winter Olympics will be held in PyeongChang for two weeks beginning February 9.
On December 11, the final leg of the torch relay in Daejeon for the PyeongChang Olympics 2018 took place inside KAIST. A city known for science and technology hosted special torch relay runners over three days.
Hubo arrived at the campus with Dr. Dennis Hong, a professor from the University of California at Los Angeles, in an autonomous vehicle. Then, Hubo received the flame from Professor Hong. Hubo, a robot developed by Professor Jun Ho Oh from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at KAIST, is best known for being the winner of the DARPA Robotics Challenge in 2015.
Hubo successfully completed its Olympic mission. That is, it had to drill through a wall to deliver the torch to the next runner. After completing the mission successfully, the torch was passed to Professor Oh. He ran a few steps and handed it over to the last runner of the Daejeon leg.
The last runner was Jung Jae Lee, who is a winning team member of the Samsung Junior Software Cup. Lee also had the honor of riding and controlling FX-2 which is another robot developed by Professor Oh for this peace torch relay. FX-2 took a few steps to finalize the relay.
Lee said, “I would like to become an expert in security. As I was riding the robot, I felt every step I took was one step closer to achieving of making major developments in the field of security.
Professor Oh said, “It is meaningful to see humans and robots cooperating with each other to carry out the torch relay.”
The torch relay, participated in by both humans and robots in Daejeon, was successfully completed and the torch headed off to Boryeong, Chungcheongnam-do.
2017.12.12 View 11351 -
A New Spin Current Generating Material Developed
(Professor Park(left) and Ph.D. candidate Kim)
Magnetic random-access memory (MRAM) is a non-volatile device made of thin magnetic film that can maintain information without an external power supply, in contrast to conventional silicon-based semiconductor memory. It also has the potential for high-density integration and high-speed operation.
The operation of MRAM involves the control of the magnetization direction by exerting spin current-induced torque on a magnetic material. Spin current is generated using electricity in conventional MRAM, but this study developed materials technology that generates spin current using heat.
A KAIST research team led by Professor Byong-Guk Park of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering developed a material that generates spin current from heat, which can be utilized for a new operation principle for MRAM.
There have been theoretical reports on the spin Nernst effect, the phenomenon of the thermal generation of spin current, but is yet to have been experimentally proven due to technological limitations. However, the research team introduced a spin Nernst magnetoresistance measurement method using tungsten (W) and platinum (Pt) with high spin orbit coupling which allows for the experimental identification of the spin Nernst effect. They also demonstrated that the efficiency of spin current generation from heat is similar to that of spin current generated from electricity.
Professor Park said, “This research has great significance in experimentally proving spin current generation from heat, a new physical phenomenon. We aim to develop the technology as a new operational method for MRAM through further research. This can lower power consumption, and is expected to contribute to the advancement of electronics requiring low power requirement such as wearable, mobile, and IOT devices”.
This research was conducted as a joint research project with Professor Kyung-Jin Lee at Korea University and Professor Jong-Ryul Jeong at Chungnam National University. It was published in Nature Communications online on November 9 titled “Observation of transverse spin Nernst magnetoresistance induced by thermal spin current in ferromagnet/non-magnet bilayers.” Ph.D. candidate Dong-Jun Kim at KAIST is the first author. This research was funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT.
(Schematic diagram of spin Nernst magnetoresistance)
(Research result of new spin current generating materials)
2017.12.08 View 8883 -
Technology Detecting RNase Activity
(Ph.D. candidate Chang Yeol Lee)
A KAIST research team of Professor Hyun Gyu Park at Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering developed a new technology to detect the activity of RNase H, a RNA degrading enzyme. The team used highly efficient signal amplification reaction termed catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA) to effectively analyze the RNase H activity. Considering that RNase H is required in the proliferation of retroviruses such as HIV, this research finding could contribute to AIDS treatments in the future, researchers say.
This study led by Ph.D. candidates Chang Yeol Lee and Hyowon Jang was chosen as the cover for Nanoscale (Issue 42, 2017) published in 14 November.
The existing techniques to detect RNase H require expensive fluorophore and quencher, and involve complex implementation. Further, there is no way to amplify the signal, leading to low detection efficiency overall. The team utilized CHA technology to overcome these limitations. CHA amplifies detection signal to allow more sensitive RNase H activity assay.
The team designed the reaction system so that the product of CHA reaction has G-quadruplex structures, which is suitable to generate fluorescence. By using fluorescent molecules that bind to G-quadruplexes to generate strong fluorescence, the team could develop high performance RNase H detection method that overcomes the limitations of existing techniques. Further, this technology could screen inhibitors of RNase H activity.
The team expects that the research finding could contribute to AIDS treatment. AIDS is disease caused by HIV, a retrovirus that utilizes reverse transcription, during which RNA is converted to DNA. RNase H is essential for reverse transcription in HIV, and thus inhibition of RNase H could in turn inhibit transcription of HIV DNA.
Professor Park said, “This technology is applicable to detect various enzyme activities, as well as RNase H activity.” He continued, “I hope this technology could be widely used in research on enzyme related diseases.”
This study was funded by Global Frontier project and Mid-career Researcher Support project of the Ministry of Science and ICT.
2017.11.28 View 7242