Campus/People
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Dr.M Drives Smart Healthcare Industry in Partnership with Hancom
President Sung-Mo Kang signed an agreement on January 25 with Hancom Group Chairman Sang Chul Kim to establish a smart healthcare complex in Gapyeong, Kyonggido. With the Gapyeong complex launch, KAIST will come to commercialize Dr. M system along with other Dr.M consortium members as a new growth engine to drive the smart health industry.
Dr. M is a smart healthcare platform developed by the Health Science Research Institute at KAIST in 2014. Dr. M is capable of analyzing and predicting diseases, as well as prescribing, by incorporating ICT and medical technologies. Dr. M applies diverse technologies such as healthcare sensors, wearable devices, low-power communications technology, and cloud and big data collection platforms.
Hancom Group, a leading computer software company in Korea, has participated in the project since 2015 for advancing the smart healthcare market by developing mobile healthcare software program. Hancom joined the Dr.M consortium launched last November.
(President Kang (left) poses with Hancom Chairman Kim after signing.)
2017.02.03 View 5601 -
EWB-KAIST Wraps up Five-Year Project in Nepal
‘Engineers Without Borders-KAIST (EWB-KAIST)’ led by Professor Tae-ho Song from the Department of Mechanical Engineering returned to Korea on January 10 after a two-week project in Nangi, Nepal.
EWB-KAIST was established in 2012 by KAIST students and professors. Since then, the team visited Nangi, in the Annapurna region of Nepal, to engage in Appropriate Technology (AT) development projects. The projects included building passive houses and small hydroelectric power, and teaching science education. In particular, passive houses that use straw as an insulator received great a reception from the locals.
This was their last visit to Nepal, since the five-year project has now come to an end. Future projects in Mongolia will be led by Professor Buhm Soon Park from the Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy.
Professor Song commented, “I am glad that the Nepal project was successfully conducted over the last five years. To make sure the support does not end here, I will personally continue to visit the Himalayas to assist the villagers.”
EWB-KAIST is a non-profit organization that conducts activities with the aim of AT development and providing support for less-developed countries in need of the benefits of technology.
( Passive house made of straws by EWB-KAIST team in Nangi, Nepal.)
2017.02.01 View 6258 -
KAIST Intensive Science Camp for Middle-High School Students
The KAIST Global Institute of Talented Education (Director: Dong-Soo Kwon) invited around 90 middle and high school students for an advanced science intensive camp from January 22 to 24.
This camp targeted middle and high school students in community centers or child-care institutions. It aims to increase students’ interest in science and engineering, and assist them with their career paths through programs such as special lectures on science, advanced science projects, and career mentoring.
Participating students were divided into groups of seven or eight with a KAIST student as a mentor to conduct advanced science projects such as VR controller production and robot arm programming. The camp included exploring future career options and science and engineering college admission counselling.
Jiyoung Ryu, Research Professor for the KAIST Global Institute of Talented Education, said, “KAIST started the science and engineering career experience program in 2016 with the Ministry of Education and Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (KRIVET). So far, 6000 middle and high school students from around the country have participated. The camp is more meaningful since it educates students in social responsibility, in addition to the fields of science and engineering, both of which are missions and goals that KAIST strives for.” She continued to say, “We plan to continue to expand the program in the future.”
The KAIST Global Institute of Talented Education is actively conducting research and projects on national education for talented youth such as policy research concerning gifted education, science and engineering career education, advanced science camps, training for gifted education teachers, and cyber gifted education programs.
2017.02.01 View 6996 -
Educating for Sustainability: KAIST's Graduate Schools of EEWS and Green Growth
At the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Annual Meeting (Davos Forum) January 17-20, 2017 in Davos, Switzerland, the International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN) and the Global University Leaders Forum (GULF) shared exemplary case studies for teaching “sustainability” on campuses, which were implemented by 30 leading universities around the world.
KAIST President Sung-Mo Kang participated in the meeting and introduced two of the university’s graduate schools and their main activities in 2016: The Graduate School of EEWS (energy, environment, water and sustainability) and The Graduate School of Green Growth.
President Kang explained that the EEWS Graduate School, created in 2009, represents KAIST’s commitment to interdisciplinary education and research, addressing key issues of today’s global challenges including energy, environment, and water for a sustainable society. The graduate school hosted its first international forum last October, “The EEWS 2016: Progress and Perspective of Energy Science and Technology.” Over 200 participants from Korea and across the world discussed and learned about recent advances, challenges, and future opportunities in energy science and technology, such as the development of sustainable energy harvesting and storage, catalytic energy conversion technology, green chemical materials, and photocatalytic systems for sustainable water treatment.
He also presented the Green Growth Graduate School as KAIST’s initiative to a build global alliance for sustainable growth. Established in 2013 in the College of Business, the graduate school provides world-class education and research on green business, finance, and policy. Among many international conferences and workshops it hosts, the school has held the Seoul Climate Energy Conference annually since 2014. Last year alone, over 400 international participants including climate and energy policy makers and scholars gathered at the conference and strengthened partnerships with the global community. The school has been an active member of international organizations that advocate for green economies and sustainable development, the Global Green Growth Institute and the United Nations Environment Programme, for example.
President Kang noted that KAIST has been at the forefront of formulating and implementing holistic and cross-disciplinary approaches to foster learning and research environments in which university members can take on global issues, which are critical to humanity and our ecosystem, and work toward a more sustainable future.
Founded in 2007, the ISCN is a non-profit association of globally-leading colleges and universities representing over 30 countries and working together to holistically integrate sustainability into campus operations, research, and teaching.
Created in 2006, the GULF is one of the WEF’s expert communities, which consists of top leaders from 26 global universities, including the University of Cambridge, Peking University, Stanford University, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. The GULF offers in-depth discussions and exchange of ideas on the future of higher education and the role of science in society. Since 2012, KAIST has been a member of GULF, the only university from Korea.
The ISCN and GULF have held a meeting each year at the Davos Forum since 2011 to share information, insights, and best practices for achieving sustainable campus operations and integrating sustainability into research and teaching.
To see the full report on the 2017 WEF ISCN-GULF case studies, please go to
http://www.international-sustainable-campus-network.org/downloads/general/462-educating-for-sustainability/file.
2017.01.25 View 8918 -
Humanoid Robot Research Center Opened
(Photo from left: Kyong-Hoon Kim from Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology, Vice President of Research at KAIST Hee-Yoon Lee, Director Oh, Jong-Hwan Kim at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, President Ki-Han Park at the Korea Institute for Robot Industry Advancement, and Dean of KAIST Institute Yun Chol Chung.)
KAIST opened its Humanoid Robot Research Center on January 19 at the KAIST Institute. Endorsed by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy with 15 billion KRW funding over five years, the center will conduct research for advancing humanoid robot technology and fostering research fellows in the field.
Professor Jun Ho Oh at the Department of Mechanical Engineering will serve as the director of the center. Team KAIST under Professor Oh won the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) with its humanoid robot DRC-HUBO, beating 23 teams from six countries.
Professor Oh said, “I believe we have already achieved technological prowess through developing the HUBO robot over the past decade. The center will continue to strive for further development of original technology crucial for humanoid robots’ key components. We want to pave the way for having enough of our own technology and needing to bring in technology from abroad. Professor Oh said he will focus on fields such as high-efficiency, high-powered electric drives and hydraulic system humanoid robot capable of executing solid manipulability with high confidence and object recognition intelligence technology. In addition, he said the center will develop module type and extended open software in an effort to disseminate robot technology.
2017.01.23 View 6971 -
Davos 2017: Global Science Outlook
President Sung-Mo Kang of KAIST participated in the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting January 17-20, 2017 in Davos, Switzerland.
On January 20, President Kang joined the Arena discussion on the outlook of global science in the year ahead with a group of distinguished scientists, including the Director of the US National Science Foundation, France A. Córdova, and the Editor-in-Chief of Nature, Philip Campbell.
Under Dr. Campbell’s moderation of the session, the panelists introduced their perspectives on 2017 and engaged in free discussions among themselves and with the audience.
President Kang began his talks on four major technological trends that have caught much of our attention in recent years, which he called “ICBM.” The “I” stands for the Internet of Things (IoT), “C” for cloud computing, “B” for brain, in other words, cognitive computer science such as artificial intelligence, and “M” for mobile technology that has been widely applied to unmanned ground vehicles and drones.
He noted the emergence of brain research as one of the most exciting fields in the coming years, and accordingly, we will learn more about its functions and develop promising results in treating brain-related diseases, i.e., a nanoscale memory chip being inserted into a patient suffering from dementia for targeted therapy.
President Kang also mentioned the role of higher education in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, for example, how to foster scientists and engineers to responsibly meet with the challenges anticipated in today’s rapidly changing technological environments. He said that robots would replace many jobs, and it is important to come up with real solutions for such changes.
Lastly, President Kang stressed that the scientific community should continue its efforts to communicate with the public, accurately informing them of key scientific issues and offering opportunities to hold public discussions and debates that have greater influence over society. He presented a case of Korea’s latest outbreaks of Avian Influenza that resulted in destroying hundreds of thousands of infected chickens to prevent the spread of the disease, and highlighted the need for maintaining a strong communication channel between science and the public.
The full list of the participating panelists included Sung-Mo Steve Kang, President, KAIST; Marc N. Casper, President and Chief Executive Officer, Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA; France A. Córdova, Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), USA; and Fabiola Gianotti, Director General of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva, Switzerland.
To watch the entire discussion, please go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF-joYnyYa0.
2017.01.23 View 7589 -
JETS Conference 2017
KAIST and four science and technology research universities in Korea co-hosted a technology start-up fair, the 2017 JETS (Job, Exhibition, Tech Forum, and Startup) Conference January 19 ~20 in the Ryu Geun-chul Sports Complex at KAIST.
Korea’s major science and technology research universities, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Pohang University of Science and Technology (Postech), and Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), held the event in a collaborative effort to educate, inspire, and connect young entrepreneurs, especially those who will launch technology start-ups.
The conference brought entrepreneurs and innovators together who seek ways of working with and supporting start-ups and for their sustainable growth. It also drew aspiring young students and researchers from universities and the government-funded research institutions who are in the process of commercializing their technology. Students from each university’s industry-academia cooperation program who incubated their technology and ideas were key contributors.
At the Tech Forum, entrepreneurship and technology consultation specialists including Joe Jasin, managing director at DNA Investment Partners in the US, the founder of Cyworld Dong-Hyung Lee, and Professor Hawoong Jeong, a complex bio-network specialist from the Department of Physics of KAIST lectured on the ecosystem of start-ups and its trends and development.
The Dean of University-Industry Cooperation at KAIST Joongmyeon Bae said, "We organized this event in collaboration with four major research universities to further encourage technology start-ups from young students and help their ideas and technology bear fruit. We will continue to strive to create an ecosystem of start-ups which works efficiently.”
(Above photo: Founder of the Cyworld, Dong-Hyung Lee gives a lecture at the Tech Forum. Below photo: Students visit exhibition booth of each participating institution.)
2017.01.20 View 10089 -
KAIST Joins IoF 2020 with 'Oliot'
KAIST will take part in the Internet of Food & Farm 2020 (IoF 2020) project with its international standard IoT open source platform ‘Oliot’ (Open Language for the Internet of Things, http://oliot.org), developed by a research team under Professor Daeyoung Kim from the School of Computing. Dr. Kim is also the director at the Auto-ID Labs at KAIST (http://autoidlabs.org).
IoF 2020 is a project to provide solutions and facilitate the large-scale uptake of IoT by addressing the organizational and technological challenges the European farming and food sectors face today. The project will develop innovative IoT solutions by fostering co-creation in interactive improvement cycles focusing on user acceptability and business models to boost technology and market-readiness levels.
Along with 71 partners from 16 countries, Professor Kim’s ‘Oliot’ will play a part in creating an ecosystem for providing safe and healthy agrifood, incorporating ICT(information and communications technologies) into the areas of smart farms and the agrifood service sector over the next four years. The project received €30 million in funding from Horizon 2020, the largest research and innovation program in the EU. KAIST is the only Korean institution to participate in this project.
For the project, Professor Kim’s team will initially establish smart farm and food service testbeds for the domestic agrifood industry with ‘Oliot’ prior to connecting to the European one. Professor Kim said he will leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) and deep learning in order to analyze the data collected from the ecosystems in the EU. He aims to open an integrated IoT platform system incorporated with AI technologies to serve governments, institutions, corporations, and farmers.
It is expected that technologies developed for IoF 2020 will also benefit the domestic agrifood market and its supply chain infrastructure. Oliot will also be expected to further advance domestic smart industries including health care and connected vehicles.
George Beers, project manager at Wageningen University & Research and the IoF 2020 project coordinator said, “IoF 2020 has the potential to transform the paradigm of the supply chain of agrifood from the farm to consumers’ dining tables. We believe this project will contribute to enhance European competitiveness and excellence in the food commerce industry.”
Professor Kim said, “Technological applications of international standard IoT have already started in the domestic agrifood industry in collaboration with KAIST. We are working now with Asian and South American countries, as well as European nations, for the integration of a global agrifood business ecosystem.”
Auto-ID Labs are a global research consortium of seven academic institutions that research and develop new technologies for advancing global commerce, partnering with GS1 (Global Standard 1), a non-profit organization that established standards for global commerce such as introducing barcodes to the retail industry. The Auto-ID Labs include MIT, University of Cambridge, Keio University, Fudan University, and ETH Zurich/University of St. Gallen as well as KAIST.
2017.01.18 View 6940 -
KAIST to Participate in the 2017 Davos Forum
(President Sung-Mo Kang and Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee)
KAIST representatives will join high profile, multi-stakeholder dialogues with global leaders across the world to discuss higher education, science, and technological innovation.
KAIST President Sung-Mo Kang and Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department will participate in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Annual Meeting on January 17-20, 2017, in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.
To be held under the theme “Responsive and Responsible Leadership,” the Annual Meeting will offer global leaders from government, business, academia, and civil society a highly interactive platform to address some of the most pressing issues facing the world today, from climate change, economic inequality, to the Fourth Industrial Revolution and its impact on future employment.
On January 18, President Kang will participate in the Global University Leaders Forum, a community of top 26 universities invited from around the world, and will discuss the relevance of higher education in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. He will also share KAIST’s experiences in developing innovative initiatives to bring future-oriented and creative values into its educational and research programs.
On January 19, at the Global Future Council on Production, President Kang will speak about new technologies taking place in traditional production and distribution systems as introduced by the emergence of rapidly evolving technological advancements, and present KAIST’s endeavors to transform those changes into opportunities.
With an eminent group of scientists, including the Director of the US National Science Foundation France A. Córdova and the Editor-in-Chief Philip Campbell of Nature at the Global Science Outlook session, on January 20, President Kang will discuss key challenges for the global science agenda in the year ahead and examine the role of science in formulating public discussions and polices that will have great impact on society and the lives of people.
Currently, Professor Lee is the founding Co-Chair of the WEF’s Global Future Council, an interdisciplinary knowledge network dedicated to promoting innovative thinking on the future. On January 20, he will share his insights at an independent session entitled “World Changing Technology: Biotech and Neurotech,” briefing the audience on the current state of research, development, and commercialization in these fields, as well as explaining how they will contribute to coping with the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Professor Lee said, “In recent years, we have seen the world become ever more complex, interconnected, and realigned as it is deeply affected by this unprecedented technological innovations, collectively driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution. One pillar of such innovation will take place in biotechnology and neuroscience, which will help us design solutions to many of global problems such as environment, pandemic diseases, aging, healthcare, and previously intractable illnesses.”
President Kang added, “This year’s Davos meeting will focus on the need to foster leadership at the national, regional, and global level to respond collectively with credible actions to issues of major concern for the sustainable and equitable growth, social inclusion, and human development. KAIST has always been a crucial player in these collaborative efforts, and I am happy to share our insights at the upcoming event.”
2017.01.17 View 8517 -
KAIST Alumni of the Year
(From left Chul-Hwan Kim, president and CEO of Orange Power, Hooshik Kim, president & CEO of Vieworks, Chilhee Chung, presient of Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, KAIST President Sung-Mo Kang, KAIST Alumni Association President Jung-Sik Ko, Won-Pil Baek, senior vice president for R&D program at Korea Atomic Energy Research Insitute, Hyonho Jung, CEO of Medytox, Jaehwa Kim on behalf of Han-Oh Park, president & CEO of Bioneer Corporation)
The KAIST Alumni Association presented the Alumni of the Year award to six of its most accomplished alumni at the New Year dinner held at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul on January 14.
KAIST alumni community, which numbers over 500,000, has made a significant impact around the globe in science and technology, industry, education, and the public sector. Each year, the KAIST Alumni Association honors individuals who have made a significant contribution with outstanding leadership through the Alumni of the Year awards.
KAIST Alumni Association President Jung-Sik Ko awarded the recipients at the dinner. About 200 alumni, faculty, and students, including KAIST President Sung-Mo Kang, joined the celebration.
The 2016 awardees are Dr. Chilhee Chung, president of Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology(SAIT); Dr.Won-Pil Baek, senior vice president for R&D program at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute(KAERI); Dr.Han-Oh Park, president & CEO of Bioneer Corporation; Dr.Hyonho Jung, CEO of Medytox; Hooshik Kim, president & CEO of Vieworks; and Dr.Chul-Hwan Kim, president & CEO of Orange Power.
Dr. Chung of SAIT (MS in physics ’79) played a leading role in developing top-notch system semiconductors and memory device technology while serving as president of the Samsung Electronic Semiconductor R&D Center. He has focused on the development of cutting-edge future technology, the Quantum Dot, by incorporating eco-friendly materials with the highest efficiency and color purity which is cadmium-free.
Working at KAERI since 2001, Dr. Baek (Ph.D. in nuclear and quantum engineering ’87) has made contributions to help Korea emerge as a nuclear technology powerhouse. He played a critical role in developing and facilitating a global nuclear safety verification facility dubbed ‘ATLAS.’ Such nuclear technological prowess led the Korean government to advance into the foreign markets, such as exporting nuclear power plants to United Arab Emirates.
The CEO of Bioneer, Dr. Park (Ph.D. in chemistry ’87) started a bio-venture in Korea. His company has developed hundreds of reagents, diagnostic kits, and advanced equipment for gene research over two decades. Bioneer has paved the way for establishing a world-class level of infrastructure in genomic technology. By developing the innovative technology "SAMiRNA ™ (Self-Assembled-Micelle-inhibitory-RNA)" that overcomes the problems in drug development, Bioneer presented a new solution for the treatment of incurable diseases. In collaboration with global pharmaceutical companies and research groups, Dr. Park has successfully led joint development in the licensing of new therapeutic medicine candidates for various incurable diseases.
Dr. Jung (Ph.D. in biological sciences ’88) founded the bio-pharmaceutical company Medytox in 2000. Medytox is the first company in Korea that commercialized botulinum toxin formulation. Medytox developed the non-animal liquid botulinum toxin formulation for the first time in the world. It successfully localized botulinum preparation that can treat various neurological diseases. Medytox’s new toxin formulation resulted in improving public health care as well as relieving the heavy dependence on importing bio-pharmaceutical products.
As the CEO of Vieworks, Kim (MS in physics ’95) succeeded in commercializing of digital X-ray. Especially, it is leading the design of optical and image systems that affect the quality of digital X-ray image. Kim’s company established related technology base, contributing to human health promotion and national industrial development.
President Kim of Orange Power (Ph.D. in chemical and biomolecular engineering ’93) is also the founder of the KITE Entrepreneurship Foundation. He launched Biogenix Co., Ltd. and Image and Materials Co. in 2005. In order to nurture an entrepreneurship and start-ups eco-system, he invested 10 billion KRW from the proceeds of the sale of one of his start-ups. In addition, he started Orange Power Co., Ltd. in 2012 to solve the secondary battery heat problem and established a global partnership with Hydro Quebec in Canada, Nexion in UK, Volkswagen of Germany, and Tesla of the US.
2017.01.16 View 10709 -
KAISTian of the Year 2016: Professor Hee-Sung Park
Professor Hee-Sung Park of the Department of Chemistry has been named the KAISTian of 2016. President Sung-Mo Kang awarded him at the New Year ceremony on January 2, 2017.
The KAISTian of the Year recognizes the most outstanding professor whose research and scholarship made significant achievements for the year. The Selection Committee announced that Professor Park was chosen as the 16th awardee in recognition of his developing new methods to incorporate unnatural amino acids into proteins.
Earning his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at KAIST in 2000, Professor Park has been a professor at KAIST since 2009. His research focuses on the production of synthetic proteins and the generation of diverse protein functions as well as the designing and engineering of new translation machinery for genetic code expansion, and the application of synthetic biology techniques for basic cell biology and applied medical science.
He developed a tool to engineer designer proteins via diverse chemical modifications, providing a novel platform for investigating numerous diseases such as cancer and dementia. Post-translational modifications (PTMs) are constantly taking place during or after protein biosynthesis. PTMs play a vital role in expanding protein functional diversity and, as a result, critically affect numerous biological processes. Abnormal PTMs have been known to trigger various diseases including cancer and dementia. Therefore, this technology, that enables proteins to reproduce with specific modifications at selected residues, will significantly help establish experimental strategies to investigate fundamental biological mechanisms including the development of targeted cancer therapies.
Professor Park’s research results appeared in the September 28, 2016 edition of Science. For more on Professor Park's research, please visit:
http://kaistcompass.kaist.ac.kr/?issues=fall-2016&magazine=a-chemical-biology-route-to-site-specific-authentic-protein-modifications
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2016/09/28/science.aah4428
http://www.kaist.ac.kr/html/en/news/podcast.html (Podcast: Season 6 Episode 7: When good proteins go bad )
2017.01.10 View 7376 -
Science, IT & Culture Volunteering Team at Cambodia
The Science, IT and Culture Volunteering Team, which is composed of 17 undergraduates, is visiting Cambodia January 1 to 16. Based at Hosanna High School in Phnom Penh, the KAIST volunteering team will participate in diverse science and IT classes as well as cultural events for Cambodian high school students.
The KAIST volunteering service is designed to improve Cambodian students’ science education including the areas of physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, as well as an increased exposure to IT technologies. For this service, the volunteering team has prepared for three months, making syllabi for the science classes in addition to planning Arduino IT classes and cultural performances, including K-pop dances and Korean traditional games.
The team will present various science experiments including smart electric fan and mini vehicles using Arduino. Before departing, the students made great efforts to ensure this service would be a success by taking a basic Khmer language class and studying safety education.
Se-Woong Oh, the head of the team said, "All our members are very excited to have the chance to share our knowledge with Cambodian students and help them learn science and IT technology. We hope this service will serve as an opportunity to understand a different culture as well. We made every effort to prepare for an activity we believe in."
(KAIST volunteer team with Hosanna High School students in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.)
2017.01.10 View 4369