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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 12654 -
Professor YongKeun Park Elected as a Fellow of the Optical Society
Professor YongKeun Park, from the Department of Physics at KAIST, was elected as a fellow member of the Optical Society (OSA) in Washington, D.C. on September 12. Fellow membership is given to members who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of optics and photonics.
Professor Park was recognized for his research on digital holography and wavefront control technology.
Professor Park has been producing outstanding research outcomes in the field of holographic technology and light scattering control since joining KAIST in 2010. In particular, he developed and commercialized technology for a holographic telescope. He applied it to various medical and biological research projects, leading the field worldwide.
In the past, cells needed to be dyed with fluorescent materials to capture a 3-D image. However, Professor Park’s holotomography (HT) technology can capture 3-D images of living cells and tissues in real time without color dyeing. This technology allows diversified research in the biological and medical field.
Professor Park established a company, Tomocube, Inc. in 2015 to commercialize the technology. In 2016, he received funding from SoftBank Ventures and Hanmi Pharmaceutical. Currently, major institutes, including MIT, the University of Pittsburgh, the German Cancer Research Center, and Seoul National University Hospital are using his equipment.
Recently, Professor Park and his team developed technology based on light scattering measurements. With this technology, they established a company called The Wave Talk and received funding from various organizations, such as NAVER. Its first product is about to be released.
Professor Park said, “I am glad to become a fellow member based on the research outcomes I produced since I was appointed as a professor at KAIST. I would like to thank the excellent researchers as well as the school for its support. I will devote myself to continuously producing novel outcomes in both basic and applied fields.”
Professor Park has published nearly 100 papers in renowned journals including Nature Photonics, Nature Communications, Science Advances, and Physical Review Letters.
2017.10.18 View 13092 -
Professor Jinah Park Received the Prime Minister's Award
Professor Jinah Park of the School of Computing received the Prime Minister’s Citation Ribbon on April 21 at a ceremony celebrating the Day of Science and ICT. The awardee was selected by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and Korea Communications Commission.
Professor Park was recognized for her convergence R&D of a VR simulator for dental treatment with haptic feedback, in addition to her research on understanding 3D interaction behavior in VR environments. Her major academic contributions are in the field of medical imaging, where she developed a computational technique to analyze cardiac motion from tagging data.
Professor Park said she was very pleased to see her twenty-plus years of research on ways to converge computing into medical areas finally bear fruit. She also thanked her colleagues and students in her Computer Graphics and CGV Research Lab for working together to make this achievement possible.
2017.04.26 View 10628 -
Technology to Allow Non-Magnetic Materials to Have Magnetic Properties by Professor Chan-Ho Yang
Professor Chan-Ho Yang and his research team from the Department of Physics at KAIST have developed a technology that allows non-magnetic materials to have magnetic properties or, in reverse, to remove magnetic properties from a magnet using an electric field.
Based on this research, it is expected that if magnetic-material-based data storage is developed, applications for high-speed massive data transfer will be possible.
The results of this research, with Ph.D. candidate Byung-Kwon Jang as the first author, were published online in Nature Physics on October 3.
Very small magnets exist inside of any materials. If the direction of the minuscule magnets is dis-aligned, pointing multiple directions, it is non-magnetic. If the direction is aligned in a certain direction, the material holds magnetic property just like any magnet we normally see.
Data storage capacity technology has rapidly advanced to the point where we can easily get a portable hard disk drive (HDD) with terabyte-level storage; however, the increase in storage is inevitably followed by slower data access speed for a storage device. Although HDDs are currently the most widely used data storage devices, their technical applications are limited due to their slow data access speed.
Other methods such as solid-state drives (SSDs), floating gates, and resistive switching have been developed as alternatives. Yet, they leave tracks every time data is written, and this can cause fatigue cumulative damage.
There have been many attempts to compose cells—the smallest data storage space on a storage device—with magnetic materials as that would enable faster data access speeds and remove fatigue cumulative damage. Generally, the techniques tried by researchers were to use induced magnetic fields through current flow. However, magnetic fields are very difficult to shield and can affect a large area. As a result, they alternate the magnetic property of adjacent cells. Because each cell cannot be adjusted one by one, it cannot also be arranged in a certain direction, and therefore, it is hard to change the magnetic state.
Professor Yang and his team adjusted the magnetic state by using magnetoelectric interaction to deal with this issue. Instead of using magnetic fields, magnetoelectric interaction is a method that uses an electric field to adjust the magnetic state. It has the advantage of smaller energy consumption as well.
Professor Yang's team demonstrated that cells facing random directions can be arranged in a certain direction by only inducing an electric field. In addition, the reverse was also proved to be feasible.
Until this research, most cases of previous findings were only feasible at extremely low temperatures or high temperatures, but the technology developed by the research team is practicable at room temperature by manipulating chemical pressure. It allows for a reversible magnetic state, and moreover, is non-volatile. Therefore, the results of this research are expected to provide the basis for developing next-generation information storage device.
Professor Yang said, “The changes in the electric magnetic state will be accompanied by entropy changes” and added, “Our research is expected to open new potential for future applications not only for magnetoelectric devices, but also for thermoelectric effect.”
This research has been worked on jointly with Dr. Si-Yong Choi from the Korea Institute of Materials Science, Prof. Yoon-Hee Jeong from the Pohang University of Science and Technology, Dr. Tae-Yeong Koo from the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory, Dr. Kyung-Tae Ko from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dr. Jun-Sik Lee and Dr. Hendrik Ohldag from the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory of the United States, and Prof. Jan Seidel from the University of New South Wales of Australia.
The research was supported by the Mid-Career Researcher Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea, Global Research Network Support Project, Leading Research Center Support Project (Condensed Quantum Coherence Research Center), Global Frontier Project (Hybrid Interface Materials Research Group), and others.
Picture: The concept graphic for the electric-field-induced magnetic phase switching the magnetic direction
2016.11.04 View 8358 -
Next-Generation Holographic Microscope for 3D Live Cell Imaging
KAIST researchers have developed a revolutionary bio-medical imaging tool, the HT-1, to view and analyze cells, which is commercially available.
Professor YongKeun Park of the Physics Department at KAIST and his research team have developed a powerful method for 3D imaging of live cells without staining. The researchers announced the launch of their new microscopic tool, the holotomography (HT)-1, to the global marketplace through a Korean start-up that Professor Park co-founded, TomoCube (www.tomocube.com).
Professor Park is a leading researcher in the field of biophotonics and has dedicated much of his research career to working on digital holographic microscopy technology. He collaborated with TomoCube’s R&D team to develop a state-of-the-art, 2D/3D/4D holographic microscope that would allow a real-time label-free visualization of biological cells and tissues.
The HT is an optical analogy of X-ray computed tomography (CT). Both X-ray CT and HT share the same physical principle—the inverse of wave scattering. The difference is that HT uses laser illumination whereas X-ray CT uses X-ray beams. From the measurement of multiple 2D holograms of a cell, coupled with various angles of laser illuminations, the 3D refractive index (RI) distribution of the cell can be reconstructed. The reconstructed 3D RI map provides structural and chemical information of the cell including mass, morphology, protein concentration, and dynamics of the cellular membrane.
The HT enables users to quantitatively and non-invasively investigate the intrinsic properties of biological cells, for example, dry mass and protein concentration. Some of the research team’s breakthroughs that have leveraged HT’s unique and special capabilities can be found in several recent publications, including a lead article on the simultaneous 3D visualization and position tracking of optically trapped particles which was published in Optica on April 20, 2015.
Current fluorescence confocal microscopy techniques require the use of exogenous labeling agents to render high-contrast molecular information. Therefore, drawbacks include possible photo-bleaching, photo-toxicity, and interference with normal molecular activities. Immune or stem cells that need to be reinjected into the body are considered particularly difficult to employ with fluorescence microscopy.
“As one of the two currently available, high-resolution tomographic microscopes in the world, I believe that the HT-1 is the best in class regarding specifications and functionality. Users can see 3D/4D live images of cells, without fixing, coating or staining cells. Sample preparation times are reduced from a few days or hours to just a few minutes,” said Professor Park.
Two Korean hospitals, Seoul National University Hospital in Bundang and Boramae Hospital in Seoul, are using this microscope currently. The research team has also introduced the HT-1 at the Photonics West Exhibition 2016 that took place on February 16-18 in San Francisco, USA.
Professor Park added, “Our technology has set a new paradigm for cell observation under a microscope. I expect that this tomographic microscopy will be more widely used in future in various areas of pharmaceuticals, neuroscience, immunology, hematology, and cell biology.”
Figure 1: HT-1 and Its Specifications
Figure 2: 3D Images of Representative Biological Cells Taken with the HT-1
2016.03.29 View 13531 -
Ph.D. Candidate Seo Wins the Human Tech Paper Award
Hyun-Suk Seo, a doctoral student of KAIST’s Department of Electrical Engineering, received the grand prize of the “22nd Human Tech Paper Award” on February 3, 2016 from Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Seo was the first to receive this prize ever since the Human Tech Paper Award was established 22 years ago. Until last year, the highest prize awarded for KAIST was a gold one.
The “Human Tech Paper Award” was established in 1994 by Samsung Electronics to discover and support outstanding scientists in the field of electrical engineering.
Entitled “Self-Gated Cardiac Cine MRI Using Phase Information,” Seo’s paper presented a technology that would reduce discomforts and inconveniences experienced by patients who take a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
This technology uses the speed changes of aorta and the abdominal movements of body to obtain the phase changes of magnetic resonance signals so that MRIs may be taken despite the organs’ movements.
Seo commented on his research, “I wanted to develop a technique that can make MRI a more comfortable experience. I will continue my research on this subject and hope to serve the needs of the society.”
In addition, the “Special Award,” which is given to schools, was awarded to KAIST. KAIST’s Department of Electrical Engineering has also been named the department that has received the second most awards (15 awards) this year.
Oh-Hyun Kwon, Vice President of Samsung Electronics, Steve Kang, President of KAIST, and Nak-In Seo, President of Seoul National University, participated in the event.
Picture: Hyun-Suk Seo (left), the recipient of the grand prize of the 2016 Human Tech Paper Award, and Oh-Hyun Kwon (right), Vice President of Samsung Electronics
2016.02.06 View 10102 -
Dr. Se-Jung Kim Receives the Grand Prize at the International Photo and Image Contest on Light
Dr. Se-Jung Kim of the Physics Department at KAIST received the Grand Prize at the 2015 Photo and Image Contest of the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies.
The United Nations has designated the year 2015 as the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies.
The Optical Society of Korea celebrated the UN’s designation by hosting an international photo and image contest on the theme of light and optics related technology.
Dr. Kim presented a photo of images taken from a liquid crystal, which was entitled “A Micro Pinwheel.” She took pictures of liquid crystal images with a polarizing microscope and then colored the pictures. The liquid crystal has self-assembled circle domain structures, and each domain can form vortex optics. Her adviser for the project is Professor Yong-Hoon Cho of the Physics Department.
Her work was exhibited during the annual conference of the Optical Society of Korea, which was held on July 13-15, 2015 at Gyeong-Ju Hwabaek International Convention Center. It will also be exhibited at the National Science Museum in Gwacheon and the Kim Dae-Jung Convention Center in Gwangju.
Picture: A Micro Pinwheel
2015.07.31 View 11263 -
Professor Sung Yong Kim Presents a Keynote Speech at the International Ocean Color Science Meeting (IOCS) 2015
Professor Sung Yong Kim of the Mechanical Engineering Department at KAIST delivered a keynote speech at the International Ocean Color Science Meeting (IOCS) 2015 held in San Francisco on June 15-18, 2015. His speech was entitled “Research and Applications Using Sub-mesoscale GOCI (Geostationary Ocean Color Imager) Data.”
The IOCS, organized by the International Ocean Color Coordinating Group (IOCCG), is a community consultation meeting providing communication and collaboration between space agencies and the ocean color community, building strong ties among international representatives of the ocean color communities, and providing a forum for discussion and the evolution of community thinking on a range of issues.
Professor Kim was recognized for his contribution towards the development of remote exploration of sub-mesoscale processes including eddies, fronts, and environmental fluid dynamics.
He also attended the 26th General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) in Prague, the Czech Republic, on June 22, 2015 and gave a presentation on the sub-mesoscale eddies circulation research.
2015.06.12 View 10277 -
World Renowned Wireless Technology Experts Gathered in KAIST
KAIST hosted the 2015 IEEE WoW from June 5 to 6, 2015
Wireless power transfer technologies, such as wireless electric vehicles, trains and batteries, are increasingly in use. A conference, The 2015 IEEE WoW (Workshop on Wireless Power), was held in KI Building for two days starting June 5, 2015 to exchange ideas on the new trends and issues of the world wireless power technology.
The wireless power conference hosted by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), IEEE WoW, was sponsored by its societies, PELS, IAS, IES, VTS, MAG, and PES.
This year’s conference took place in Korea for the first time and was titled “IEEE PELS Workshop on Emerging Technologies: Wireless Power.” The event was attended by around 200 experts in wireless power from 15 countries to discuss the international standards and current trends.
Keynote speakers were President Don Tan of IEEE; Professor Grant Covic of the University of Auckland; Andrew Daga, the CEO at Momentum Dynamics Corporation; Professor Ron Hui of the City University of Hong Kong; and Jung Goo Cho, the CEO of Green Power Technologies.
The forum included plenary speaking sessions on “The Futures of EV and Power Electronics,” “Development of IPT at the University of Auckland,” “Interoperable Solution for Wireless EV Charging,” “Development of IPT for Factory Automation,” “Commercialization of High Power WPT,” and “WPT: From Directional Power to Omni-directional Power.”
Notably, KAIST Professor Dong-Ho Cho, responsible for KAIST’s On-Line Electric Vehicle (OLEV) development, spoke on “The Development of Shaped Magnetic Field Systems for EVs and Trains” to introduce the KAIST OLEV bus and OLEV trains developed in cooperation with Korea Railroad Research Institute.
The Dialog Sessions on “The Futures of Wireless Electric Vehicles” were led by John M. Miller of JNJ Miller and “Road Charged EV and WPT Regulation and Standard for EV in Japan” by Yoichi Hori of University of Tokyo.
The General Chair of this year’s IEEE WoW, KAIST Professor Chun T. Rim said, “This forum serves a great assistance to the industry using wireless power technology in areas such as smartphones, home appliances, Internet of Things, and wearable devices.”
2015.05.29 View 10273 -
Wall Climbing Quadcopter by KAIST Urban Robotics Lab
Popular Science, an American monthly magazine devoted to general readers of science and technology, published “Watch This Creepy Drone Climb A Wall” online describing a drone that can fly and climb walls on March 19, 2015. The drone is the product of research conducted by Professor Hyun Myung of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at KAIST. The flying quadcopters can turn into wall-crawling robots, or vice versa, when carrying out such assignments as cleaning windows or inspecting a building’s infrastructure. Professor Myung leads the KAIST Urban Robotics Lab (http://urobot.kaist.ac.kr/). For a link to the article, see http://www.popsci.com/watch-drone-climb-wall-video.
Another Popular Science article (posted on April 3, 2015), entitled “South Korea Gets Ready for Drone-on-Drone Warfare with North Korea,” describes a combat system of drones against hostile drones. Professor Hyunchul Shim of the Aerospace Engineering Department at KAIST developed the anti-drone system. He currently heads the Unmanned System Research Group, FDCL, http://unmanned.kaist.ac.kr/) and the Center of Field Robotics for Innovation, Exploration, aNd Defense (C-FRIEND).
2015.04.07 View 13141 -
Professor Shim Featured with His Drone System in IEEE Spectrum
The IEEE Spectrum, a technology and science magazine published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), featured an article of KAIST’s autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) entitled “South Korea Prepares for Drone vs. Drone Combat,” posted on April 1, 2015.
The article introduces the anti-drone defense system being developed by Professor “David” Hyunchul Shim of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at KAIST. With the goal of developing guard drones that can detect and capture unknown UAVs, the anti-drone defense system consists of reconnaissance drones, agile multi-rotor UAVs equipped with nets which are dropped to snare enemy drones, and transport UAVs to carry smaller drones.
Professor Shim currently leads KAIST’s Unmanned System Research Group (USRG, http://unmanned.kaist.ac.kr/) and Center of Field Robotics for Innovation, Exploration, aNd Defense (C-FRIEND).
For the article, please go to http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/aerial-robots/south-korea-drone-vs-drone.
2015.04.02 View 14200 -
Interactions Features KAIST's Human-Computer Interaction Lab
Interactions, a bi-monthly magazine published by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the largest educational and scientific computing society in the world, featured an article introducing Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Lab at KAIST in the March/April 2015 issue (http://interactions.acm.org/archive/toc/march-april-2015).
Established in 2002, the HCI Lab (http://hcil.kaist.ac.kr/) is run by Professor Geehyuk Lee of the Computer Science Department at KAIST. The lab conducts various research projects to improve the design and operation of physical user interfaces and develops new interaction techniques for new types of computers. For the article, see the link below:
ACM Interactions, March and April 2015
Day in the Lab: Human-Computer Interaction Lab @ KAIST
http://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/march-april-2015/human-computer-interaction-lab-kaist
2015.03.02 View 11078