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"The 2010 Artificial Intelligence Robot War Competition" begins to receive applications
[Event Notice]
“The 2010 Artificial Intelligence Robot War Competition” begins to receive applications
A good opportunity to gauge the intelligence of your robots
“The 2010 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Robot War Competition” will be held in October 2010, and the Competition has been receiving applications from contestants since April 1st. The deadline for the application will be May 31st, 2010.
Qualified contestants must be a minimum of two, but less than six, team members, and they will compete in one of the two fields: System on Chip (SoC) Taekwon Robot and Humanoid Robot (HURO). Winners will be decided based on the intelligence capabilities presented by a robot’s platform that mimics key functions of the human brain.
SoC Taekwon Robot will compete against one another by using a camera installed on its head to recognize visual images, locations, distances, and gestures of the other competing robot.
HURO competition is a new entry begun this year, and winners will be determined in accordance with the robot’s ability to perform given missions and fights. Missions are to go through a track installed with obstacles, recognize colors and shapes of barriers, and knock down barriers to earn scores. Fighting will be performed in the form of a Korean martial art, Tae-kwon-do.
The Korean government has nominated Robotics as one of the key growth engines to develop IT industry and Korean economy. Robotics converge many of different engineering fields, such as machinery, materials, components, and embedded software. In particular, the SoC is an essential technology for Korea to continuously take lead in the semi-conductor industry in the world, which is an important element for robotics.
SoC stands for System on Chip, an integrated chip that assembles various chips and components to be fabricated together on a single chip, instead of building them on a circuit board. The SoC technology has advantages of higher performance, smaller space requirements, lower memory requirements, higher system reliability, and lower consumer costs.
An artificial intelligence SoC robot is autonomous because it can adapt itself to changes in various environments and reach a given goal without constantly receiving external orders.
For details of the event, please refer to the website of www.socrobotwar.org.
2010.04.06 View 11943 -
President Suh Hosted Press Conference with Seoul-based Correspondents, on March 9, 2010
President Suh Hosted Press Conference with Seoul-based Correspondents, on March 9, 2010
President Nam-Pyo Shu had a press conference with foreign correspondents based in Seoul, South Korea, on March 9, 2010 at Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club (SFCC).
Prior to the conference, the president and correspondents attended a ceremony for the completion of Online Electric Vehicles (OLEV) that carries passengers to look around the amusement park, Seoul Grand Park, in Gewacheon City. OLEV was developed and built by KAIST. Following President Suh’s opening speech, a questions and answers (Q&A) session between the president and reporters proceeded.
In his opening speech, President Suh said electric vehicles are an alternative to conventional automobiles with combustion engines, and in order to manufacture affordably priced electric vehicles on a large scale, their charging should be streamlined. In response, KAIST has come up with the online electric vehicle concept.
He added, without installing separate charging stations, OLEV receives electric power from the cables buried underground while driving, idling, or parking. Its connection to a power source is non-contact.
President Suh expressed his excitement for demonstrating OLEV at Seoul Grand Park that its system works as KAIST has designed and predicted. He showed his confidence that KAIST is indeed at the stage to implement OLEV in Seoul City soon and hoped to demonstrate it at the upcoming G-20 Summit to be held in November 2010 in Seoul City.
During the Q&A session, reporters cited the construction of OLEV at the amusement park and mainly asked about a possibility of its commercialization. Other topics, they also questioned about, were hurdles related to the development and commercialization of OLEV; level of cooperation received from industries and central/local governments; technological breakthroughs and accomplishments; future development plans for the commercialization; and reactions from the public and government.
Media outlets participated in the conference were Reuters, AFP, the International Herald Tribune, ABC News, Bloomberg News, Businessweek, Voice of America, Sankei Shimbun, and etc.
2010.03.16 View 9757
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Indoor Localization System for Mobile Devices Developed by KAIST Research Team
The technology will be available to smart phone users around the world through Goole Apps Store.
The wireless fidelity (WiFi)-based indoor localization can be installed on smart phones for commercialization, a technology developed by a research team at KAIST. The KAIST research team, led by Professor Dong-Soo Han, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, explained that the technology offers smart phone users, e.g., Google’s Android phone and Apple’ iPhone, a unique way to recognize their location through WiFi Open Radio Map. WiFi Open Radio Map is built with WiFi Location Fingerprint that contains wireless local area network (LAN)’s signal strength and wireless access points (AP) number, and with location information.
Through using the Map, WiFi-based indoor localization recognizes the location of smart phones and sends the location information to the phones. Since the technology uses WiFi signal information only to recognize the whereabouts of phones, it can be widely used in the future, without installing extra machines and equipment for detection, for a complicated, large indoor environment, where the Global Positioning System (GPS) is not available.
Currently, Professor Han has established WiFi Open Radio Map inside and outside of a few buildings at KAIST and developed several location based application services to perform a beta testing. He plans to open and distribute the technology to smart phone users through Google and Apple Apps Store in early 2010. Collaborations with major smart phone makers such as SK Telecom, Korea Telecom, and Samsung as well as outdoor/indoor localization manufactures and suppliers will also be sought, according to Professor Han.
Professor Han is invited to an international conference, Eighth Annual IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications, slated for early April 2010, in recognition of his work. At the conference, he will give a presentation on WiFi based indoor localization technology and conduct its demo version.
2010.02.10 View 10931
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World Research University Heads to Discuss Challenges in Global Financial Turmoil
About 70 leaders of the world"s major research universities will discuss how to better contribute to continued development of human society in global financial turmoil at a symposium organized by KAIST Monday (Sept. 21) at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul.
Participants of the 2nd International Presidential Forum on Global Research Universities are from 40 universities in 25 countries, including Stanford University and Georgia Institute of Technology of the United States, Berlin Institute of Technology of Germany, Paris Institute of Technology of France, Technical University of Denmark, National University of Singapore and Tokyo Institute of Technology. They include 20 presidents of Korean universities and two dozens of leaders from industry and the government.
Under the main subject of "Challenges to Global Research Universities," the international symposium will proceed in four panel sessions. The subjects of each session and their keynote speakers are:
-- "Institutional Management in Times of Financial Crisis" by Kurt Kutzler, President of Berlin Institute of Technology
-- "Innovations in Education & Research" by Brian Cantor, Vice Chancellor of University of York
-- "Globalization of Institutes of Higher Learning" by Gary Schuster, Provost and Executive Vice President of Georgia Institute of Technology
-- "The Roles of Government, University and Industry in Green Technology Development" by KAIST President Nam-Pyo Suh
KAIST President Suh said of the purpose of the conference: "The world has witnessed a global financial turmoil of unseen magnitude and many nations are still struggling under the devastating impacts. While universities were no exception in facing economic turmoil, they have realized renewed pressures and expectations from their respective communities to provide answers to the great challenges."
"The conference will serve as an opportunity for the representatives of research universities to compare their visions of networking among theier institutions and initiate steps for new relationships. The conference I am sure will have a far-reaching influence on the course our research universities will take to shoulder greater responsibilities for building a better future of the mankind."
For more information, visit forum.kaist.ac.kr
2009.09.16 View 14786
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Transparent Antenna for Automobile Developed
A research team led by Prof. Jae-Woo Park of the School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, KAIST, developed a transparent antenna for the next-generation automobiles, university authorities said on Monday (Aug. 17).
The development was made possible through joint researches with the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group; Winncom, a car antenna manufacturer; and a group of researchers led by Han-Ki Kim of the Department of Display Materials Engineering at Kyung Hee University in Seoul.
The transparent antennas were developed in two kinds -- one for the HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), a new protocol for mobile telephone data transmission, and the other for transmitting and receiving radio wave for emergency call.
Using the transparent electrically conductive film formation technology, the transparent antennas are to be mounted on the windshield of a vehicle.
"The development of transparent antenna represents a step forward for the advancement of the next-generation automotive electronic technology," said Seong-woo Kim, a senior researcher at the Hyundai-Kia Group.
2009.08.18 View 12320 -
KAIST's OLEV Best Model of Creative Growth Engine
Various models of electric vehicles designed to replace the internal combustion automobiles face significant problems as they invariably failed to overcome the limitations involving lithium battery in terms of power capacity, weight, raw materal price, recharging time and preparation of charging stations. Worst of all, the limited supply of lithium will eventually raise its price sky high when all cars use lithium batteries, and the economic value of electric cars will be lost.
KAIST"s online electric vehicle project (OLEV) seeks to resolve these fundamental problems involving electric vehicles that have so far been developed. KAIST OLEV, a project to develop a new growth engine for the nation and lead the future of global automotive industry, is an entirely new concept: the electric vehicle picks up power from underground power supplier lines through the non-contact magnetic charging method, while either running or standing. This is the first eco-friendly and economic automotive system that can resolve the problems inherent to previously-developed electric vehicles, according to the KAIST OLEV Project Center.
In February 2009, KAIST researchers first proved that up to 80 percent power conveyance is possible through a gap of 1 centimeter from the power line, and in July they successfully supplied power to a bus -- up to 60 percent across a 12 cm gap from the power line embedded in the ground -- using power supply and pick-up devices they developed. In this process, KAIST has secured the core technologies for maximizing power efficiency and minimizing the cost of installing the non-contact power supply system. KAIST has established the Online Electric Vehicle Co., Ltd., to undertake business activities related to the OLEV project, including the IPR on power supply and pick-up devices, parts and accessories and commercial promotion. A demonstration event is scheduled for Aug. 13, Thursday.
The impact of the development of the OLEV technology on the energy and environment issues and the overall economy will be enormous. In case a half of the total automobiles running in Korea, or 6 million vehicles, are replaced with OLEV, electric power produced by just two of the nation"s atomic power plants will be enough to operate them all, and the nation will be able to reduce crude oil import by 35 million barrels worth U.S.$3 billion a year (supposing $80 per barrel).
Korea"s export of OLEV units will in the future surpass the present level of overseas sale of conventional cars. When nations use online electric vehicles in large numbers, their demand for CO2-free power plants will grow. Korea has cutting-edge technology in the construction of atomic power plants. As a world leader in the area of nuclear power plant, Korea will enjoy new opportunities to contribute to the global advancement of atomic power generation as well as transportation industries.
Korea still shares a small portion of the world"s automobile market estimated to worth some 2,000 trillion Korean won. But commercialization of the OLEV technology worldwide will greatly enhance Korea"s global automotive market share. Successful development of the online electric vehicle requires preemptive investment and positive support by the government for the ultimate purpose of resolving energy and environment problems.
If and when domestic enterprises secure technological supremacy in the next generation automobile market with their online electric vehicles which will replace the 100-year-old combustion engine, it will be the most desirable shortcut to raising Korea"s international competitiveness. OLEV promises to be the model of creative growth engine in the 21st century.
2009.07.30 View 15880
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World Research University Heads To Discuss Global Networking at KAIST Symposium
About 70 leaders of the world"s major research universities will discuss how to strengthen and operate global networks to share faculty, students, facilities and other resources for common advancement at a symposium Monday, Sept. 8, at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul organized by KAIST, Korea"s foremost institute of science and technology education and research.
Participants of the 1st International Presidential Forum on Global Research Universities are from 39 universities in 20 countries. They include nine presidents of Korean universities.
The international symposium, the first such event to be held in Korea, will proceed in five panel sessions. The subjects of each session and their keynote speakers are:
-- "Roaming Professorships: To Whose Benefit?" by Dr. John Anderson, president of the Illinois Institute of Technology, USA,-- "Dual Degree Programs: Future Potential and Challenges" by Dr. Paul Greenfield, president of the University of Queensland, Australia, -- "Sharing Facilities and Expertise" by KAIST President Nam Pyo Suh,-- "An Approach to Joint Research Ventures with NASA" by Yvonne Pendleton, NASA, and-- "Globalization through Interfacing with Existing Networking" by Dr. Lars Pallesen, rector of the Technical University of Denmark.
KAIST President Suh said of the purpose of the conference: "Research universities have become global enterprises. Collaborations that were once primarily between individual researchers are now increasingly occurring at institutional and international levels. Similarly, educating students which used to be the responsibility of a single university has now become a multi-institutional undertaking, involving many universities in different countries.
"Now leading research universities in many countries depend on the continuous supply of outstanding graduate students from the "feeder" schools of developing nations. There are concerns that the current system may not be serving the interest and need of some institutions, especially those in developing nations. This should be examined and understood to devise international mechanisms that can accentuate the positive aspects of globalization.
"Through this forum, we hope to forge an international network of universities that will strengthen the effort of individual universities and create alliance for research and education that can become a new paradigm for global collaboration."
Prime Minister Han Seung-soo will give a speech at a dinner after the conclusion of the symposium. President of the Korea International Traders Association Lee Hee-beom will make a welcoming address at the start of the conference.
Co-sponsors of the international university presidents" forum include the Dong-a Ilbo, a major national daily, and the Dong-a Science magazine.
The research universities presidential forum will be followed on Sept. 9 by an international academic workshop at KAIST"s Daejeon campus on EEWS (Energy, Environment, Water and Sustainability).
Under the theme of "Challenges as Opportunities," research teams from MIT, CalTech, the Korean Ministry of Knowledge and Economy, KAIST Institute and KAIST EEWS team will present their research results at the workshop. Major Korean businesses, including SK Energy, GS Caltex and the Samsung Group will also introduce their research programs concerning EEWS, the most pressing prblems of today"s world.
A groundbreaking ceremony will be held at the KAIST campus in the afternoon of the same day for the construction of the KI Building, which will house all the eight research institutes of KAIST. The KI for Bio Century, KI for IT Convergence, KI for Design of Complex Systems, KI for Entertainment Engineering, KI for Eco-Energy, KI for Urban Space and Systems, and the KI for Optical Science and Technology were established between 2006 and 2008. More than 230 professors from 18 departments have actively engaged in research activities in their respective fields.
KAIST will start construction of the Pappalardo Medical Center in a ceremony on Wednesday with the attendance of Mr. Neil Pappalardo, chairman-CEO of Meditech Inc. of the United States who donated $2.5 million for the project. The medical facility for KAIST students, faculty and the residents of the university area will be completed in September 2009.
The President"s Advisory Council (PAC) for KAIST will hold its 3rd general meeting on Sept. 10 to discuss KAIST"s short- and long-term strategies to become the world"s top-ranked research university. The PAC was formed in 2006 with 11 foreign and 14 domestic figures from the business and academic circles.
Foreign PAC members include John Holzrichter, president of Fannie and John Hertz Foundation; Donald C. W. Kim, chairman of AMKOR A&E, Inc.; Chong-Moon Lee, chairman of AmBex Venture Group; Byung-Joon Park, founder of Bureau Veritas CPS, Inc.; Lars Pallesen, rector of the Technical University of Denmark. PAC members have advised the KAIST president on international publicity on KAIST"s academic excellence, fund-raising, and promotion of cooperative relations with overseas institutions.
2008.09.04 View 18053
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KAIST Opens M&S Technology Research Center
KAIST held an opening ceremony for a new defense research center focusing on modelling & simulation located at its main campus in Daejeon on Thursday (June 19).
The opening of the M&S Technology Research Center is aimed at developing technologies and processes to test, practice and operate newly-developed precision and micro weapons systems in virtual space. The center will be supported by two state-run defense agencies, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration and the Korean Agency for Defense Development.
The new research center is expected to receive a total of 11.5 billion won (US$11.2 million) research grants from the state for the next eight years until 2016. The center will be involved in the development of sophisticated, complex and inter-related weapons system and training research personnel in the specialized area.
The research center will undertake a total of 21 specific projects in collaboration with seven other universities in Korea. Also joining the projects are such overseas institutions as Georgia Institute of Technology and the U.S. Naval Post-Graduate School, and private defense solution providers including Posdata, Samsung Thales and LIG Nex 1.
The opening of the research center comes at a time when modelling and simulation gain growing importance as today"s armies employ more sophisticated, complex and inter-related. weapons systems and equipment than ever before.
Tae-Uk Lee, director of the research center said: "The opening of the center will spur development of operational technologies of precision and micro weapons system on our own, departing from dependence on advanced countries."
2008.06.19 View 15238 -
KAIST Receiving Applications for Intelligent SoC Robot War
KAIST is receiving applications to participate in the 2008 Intelligent SoC Robot War through the annual contest"s homepage at www.socrobotwar.org. Application deadline is May 1.
The annual contest features battles between mechanical robots utilizing System on Chip (SoC) technology. The annual robot competition, which began in 2002, is scheduled for Oct. 15-19 this year at the Indian Hall of Convention & Exhibition Center (COEX) in southern Seoul.
The Intelligent SoC Robot War Contest has two sections, Tank Robot and Taekwon Robot. In the Tank Robot contest, robots in the form of tanks engage in duels with laser beams through visual recognition, wireless communication, and audio recognition. On the other hand, the Taekwon Robot contest is a hand-to-hand fight. The robots had to be capable of defending, recognizing the opponent, and attacking without external control.
Any team consisting of more than two people and under six undergraduate or graduate students are eligible to take part in the competition.
Prior to the contest, preliminary assessments and the final selection will be made between July and September.
2008.04.14 View 12526
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Intelligent SoC Robot War 2007 Has Finale
Kyung Hee University’s “Sandi2007” and “Triple K” of Korea University of Technology and Education and Chungbuk National University were victorious in the Tank Robot category and the Taekwon Robot categories of the 6th Robot War Contest hosted by Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).
Boldly entitled “07 Intelligent SoC Robot War”, KAIST hosted its 6th Robot War Contest. In this contest, battles between mechanical robots utilizing System on Chip (SoC) technology are fought. The first Robot War contest was held in 2002. Before the actual contest from October 18th to 21st, preliminary assessments and the final selection was administered in August.
The Intelligent SoC Robot War Contest has two sections called Tank Robot and Taekwon Robot. The Tank Robot contest has robots in the form of tanks duel with laser beams through visual recognition, wireless communication, and audio recognition. On the other hand, the Taekwon Robot contest is a hand-to-hand fight. The robots had to be capable of defending, recognizing the opponent, and attacking without external control.
The 15 teams of the Tank Robot section and the 10 teams of the Taekwon Robot section that passed through the preliminary selections participated in the final battles for 3 days starting on October 18th. The Tank Robot category winner “Sandi2007” showed great ability in visual sensing and the Taekwon Robot category winner “Triple K” had effective arm and leg combinations that eventually led the team to victory.
Kyung Hee University’s “Sandi2007” received 2 million Korean Won as the grand prize along with a special recognition from the Prime Minister, while “Triple K” received 1 million Korean Won with a special recognition from the Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE).
The Intelligent SoC Robot War contest was part of the 2007 International Robot Contest (IRC 2007) which was organized by the Center for Robot Industry Promotion (CRIP) and held at Convention & Exhibition Center (COEX) Indian Hall. The individual contests included 8 competitions: Grand Challenge, Robotpiad, Humanoid Robot Contest, Robofest, Intelligent SoC Robot War, FIRA Challenge Cup, Robot Festival, and URC Robot Contest.By KAIST Herald on November, 2007
2007.12.21 View 13378