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Collaboration Agreement with Seoul National University
KAIST and Seoul National University (SNU) signed a memorandum of understating (MOU) on April 23, 2014 at KAIST to cooperate in education, research, and academic information.
About 30 senior representatives from both universities participated in the MOU signing ceremony.
With the agreement, KAIST and SNU will establish various exchange programs for students and faculty, share academic information, implement joint research projects across a wide field of disciplines, and co-host symposia and conferences.
President Steve Kang of KAIST said,
“We hope that the agreement will facilitate more exchanges and collaborations between KAIST and SNU, which will bring synergistic growth to the two universities.”
In the picture below, President Steve Kang (fourth from the left of the first row) and President Cheon-Yeon Oh of SNU (fifth from the left of the first row) are taking a picture together, along with deans and directors of the two universities.
2014.04.25 View 6483 -
Thermoelectric generator on glass fabric for wearable electronic devices
Wearable computers or devices have been hailed as the next generation of mobile electronic gadgets, from smart watches to smart glasses to smart pacemakers. For electronics to be worn by a user, they must be light, flexible, and equipped with a power source, which could be a portable, long-lasting battery or no battery at all but a generator. How to supply power in a stable and reliable manner is one of the most critical issues to commercialize wearable devices.
A team of KAIST researchers headed by Byung Jin Cho, a professor of electrical engineering, proposed a solution to this problem by developing a glass fabric-based thermoelectric (TE) generator that is extremely light and flexible and produces electricity from the heat of the human body. In fact, it is so flexible that the allowable bending radius of the generator is as low as 20 mm. There are no changes in performance even if the generator bends upward and downward for up to 120 cycles.
To date, two types of TE generators have been developed based either on organic or inorganic materials. The organic-based TE generators use polymers that are highly flexible and compatible with human skin, ideal for wearable electronics. The polymers, however, have a low power output. Inorganic-based TE generators produce a high electrical energy, but they are heavy, rigid, and bulky.
Professor Cho came up with a new concept and design technique to build a flexible TE generator that minimizes thermal energy loss but maximizes power output. His team synthesized liquid-like pastes of n-type (Bi2Te3) and p-type (Sb2Te3) TE materials and printed them onto a glass fabric by applying a screen printing technique. The pastes permeated through the meshes of the fabric and formed films of TE materials in a range of thickness of several hundreds of microns. As a result, hundreds of TE material dots (in combination of n and p types) were printed and well arranged on a specific area of the glass fabric.
Professor Cho explained that his TE generator has a self-sustaining structure, eliminating thick external substrates (usually made of ceramic or alumina) that hold inorganic TE materials. These substrates have taken away a great portion of thermal energy, a serious setback which causes low output power.
He also commented,
"For our case, the glass fabric itself serves as the upper and lower substrates of a TE generator, keeping the inorganic TE materials in between. This is quite a revolutionary approach to design a generator. In so doing, we were able to significantly reduce the weight of our generator (~0.13g/cm2), which is an essential element for wearable electronics."
When using KAIST's TE generator (with a size of 10 cm x 10 cm) for a wearable wristband device, it will produce around 40 mW electric power based on the temperature difference of 31 °F between human skin and the surrounding air.
Professor Cho further described about the merits of the new generator:
"Our technology presents an easy and simple way of fabricating an extremely flexible, light, and high-performance TE generator. We expect that this technology will find further applications in scale-up systems such as automobiles, factories, aircrafts, and vessels where we see abundant thermal energy being wasted."
This research result was published online in the March 14th issue of Energy & Environmental Science and was entitled "Wearable Thermoelectric Generator Fabricated on Glass Fabric."
Youtube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlN9lvEzCuw&feature=youtu.be
[Picture Captions]
Caption 1: The picture shows a high-performance wearable thermoelectric generator that is extremely flexible and light.
Caption 2: A thermoelectric generator developed as a wristband. The generator can be easily curved along with the shape of human body.
Caption 3: KAIST’s thermoelectric generator can be bent as many as 120 times, but it still shows the same high performance.
2014.04.21 View 19836 -
The KAIST Graduate Program for Future Strategy Holds Symposium on Futurology
The KAIST Graduate Program for Future Strategy held the 2014 Futurology Symposium entitled "Limits to Growth and Quantum Jumps"
at the Korea Press Center on April 3rd. The symposium was organized in efforts to
overcome the limits of Korean society’s growth potential and find a new growth momentum.
Three types of sessions took place: special lectures, field-specific subject presentations, and comprehensive debates.
As keynote speakers, Jim Dator, a professor at the University of Hawaii, lectured on Korea’s limits and possibilities, and David E. Van Zandt, the president of the New School in New York City on future social changes and our choice.
The seven field-specific subject presentations included: "The re-framing of social conflicts and frames" by Young-Jin Kang of Sungkyunkwan University, "The limits of technology and three-dimensional tech-knowledge solutions" by Chun-Taek Rim of KAIST, and "The limits of capitalism and the present financial system" by
Su-Chan Chae of KAIST
.
In addition, Yong-Suk Seo of the Korea Institute of Public Administration made a presentation on the "Population structure change and three future strategy options," Se-Yeon Kim, Congressman of the Saenuri party, on "The limits of politics and future strategy organization," and Seung-Bin Park, Dean of the KAIST College of Engineering, on the "Energy exhaustion and environmental problems."
The debate topic at the third session,
chaired by Kyu-Yeon Lee, a member of the editorial board of
Joongang Ilbo,
a Korean
daily newspaper, was "The limits of growth and another leap proposed by opinion leaders of Korea."
The seven
fields
stand for society, technology, economy, population, politics, environment, and resource, the major elements that bring
changes
in future society.
Jim Dator (left) and
David E. Van Zandt (right)
2014.04.04 View 6985 -
An Electron Cloud Distribution Observed by the Scanning Seebeck Microscope
All matters are made of small particles, namely atoms. An atom is composed of a heavy nucleus and cloud-like, extremely light electrons.
Korean researchers developed an electron microscopy technique that enables the accurate observation of an electron cloud distribution at room-temperature. The achievement is comparable to the invention of the quantum tunneling microscopy technique developed 33 years ago.
Professor Yong-Hyun Kim of the Graduate School of Nanoscience and Technology at KAIST and Dr. Ho-Gi Yeo of the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) developed the Scanning Seebeck Microscope (SSM). The SSM renders clear images of atoms, as well as an electron cloud distribution. This was achieved by creating a voltage difference via a temperature gradient.
The development was introduced in the online edition of Physical Review Letters (April 2014), a prestigious journal published by the American Institute of Physics.
The SSM is expected to be economically competitive as it gives high resolution images at an atomic scale even for graphene and semiconductors, both at room temperature. In addition, if the SSM is applied to thermoelectric material research, it will contribute to the development of high-efficiency thermoelectric materials.
Through numerous hypotheses and experiments, scientists now believe that there exists an electron cloud surrounding a nucleus. IBM's Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) was the first to observe the electron cloud and has remained as the only technique to this day. The developers of IBM microscope, Dr. Gerd Binnig and Dr. Heinrich Rohrer, were awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics.
There still remains a downside to the STM technique, however: it required high precision and extreme low temperature and vibration. The application of voltage also affects the electron cloud, resulting in a distorted image.
The KAIST research team adopted a different approach by using the Seebeck effect which refers to the voltage generation due to a temperature gradient between two materials.
The team placed an observation sample (graphene) at room temperature (37~57℃) and detected its voltage generation. This technique made it possible to observe an electron cloud at room temperature.
Furthermore, the research team investigated the theoretical quantum mechanics behind the electron cloud using the observation gained through the Seebeck effect and also obtained by simulation capability to analyze the experimental results.
The research was a joint research project between KAIST Professor Yong-Hyun Kim and KRISS researcher Dr. Ho-Gi Yeo. Eui-Seop Lee, a Ph.D. candidate of KAIST, and KRISS researcher Dr. Sang-Hui Cho also participated. The Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning, the Global Frontier Initiative, and the Disruptive Convergent Technology Development Initiative funded the project in Korea.
Picture 1: Schematic Diagram of the Scanning Seebeck Microscope (SSM)
Picture 2: Electron cloud distribution observed by SSM at room temperature
Picture 3: Professor Yong-Hyun Kim
2014.04.04 View 12975 -
Professor Sang-Yup Lee Named the Winner of the Ho-Am Prize in 2014
The Ho-Am Prize, awarded by Samsung Group’s Ho-Am Foundation, was announced on April 2, 2014 in Seoul. Professor Sang-Yup Lee of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST was among the five recipients.
The prize is presented to Koreans who have made great contributions to the development of Korea in the field of science, engineering, medicine, arts, and philanthropy.
Professor Lee received the award in recognition of his pioneering research on systems metabolic engineering.
For the story written by Korea Joongang Daily, please go to the link below:
Ho-Am Foundation Names Annual Prize Winners
Korea Joongang Daily
April 3, 2014
http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/Article.aspx?aid=2987332
2014.04.03 View 9097 -
Press release from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International): Eighty-five business schools extend their AACSB accreditation in business or accounting
The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International) released a news announcement on April 1, 2014, saying that 85 business schools around the world extended their AACSB accreditation in business or accounting. KAIST is one of the 85 schools which is renewing its business accreditation for another five years.
Founded in 1916, AACSB International is a global accrediting organization for business schools that offer undergraduate, master’s, and doctorate degrees in business and accounting. The release said, “AACSB Accreditation is the hallmark of excellence in business education and has been earned by less than five percent of the world’s business schools. Today, there are 694 business schools in 45 countries and territories that have earned the accreditation.”
For the entirety of the release, please go to:
http://www.aacsb.edu/en/newsroom/2014/4/eighty-five-b-schools-extend-accreditation/
2014.04.02 View 6151 -
Newsletter: KAIST Breakthroughs in Engineering and Information Science & Technology
The
College of Engineering and the College of Information Science & Technology
at KAIST jointly published a bi-annual online newsletter, KAIST Breakthroughs in Engineering and Information Science &
Technology. The newsletter highlights major research achievements of the
two colleges while updating readers on any news or developments in their educational
programs.
For
the spring issue of the newsletter, please go to:
http://kaist.e-eyagi.com/newsletter/2014/01/
2014.03.28 View 6502 -
ACM Interactions: Demo Hour, March and April 2014 Issue
The
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the largest educational and scientific
computing society in the world, publishes a magazine called
Interactions
bi-monthly.
Interactions
is the flagship magazine
for the ACM’s Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI) with
a global circulation that includes all SIGCHI members.
In
its March and April 2014 issue, the Smart E-book was introduced. It was developed by Sangtae Kim, Jaejeung
Kim, and Soobin Lee at the Information Technology Convergence in KAIST
Institute, KAIST.
For
the article, please go to the link or download the .pdf files below:
Interactions,
March &
April 2014
Demo Hour: Bezel-Flipper
Bezel-Flipper
Interactions_Mar & Apr 2014.pdf
http://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/march-april-2014/demo-hour29
2014.03.28 View 9483 -
KAIST Holds 'Wearable Computer Contest'
Application for ‘2014 Wearable Computer Contest’ until May 23rd
KAIST is holding the 2014 Wearable Computer Contest (WCC) sponsored by Samsung Electronics in November and is currently receiving applications until May 23rd.
Wearable Computer is a device that can be worn on body or clothing, which allows users to be connected while on the move. It is currently receiving attention as the next generation of computer industry that will replace smart phones.
The Wearable Computer Contest will be held under the topic “Smart Fashion to Simple Life” and will be divided into a designated topic contest and an idea contest.
In the “designated topic contest,” each group will compete with their prototypes based on their own ideas about a wearable computer that combines IT and fashion. A total of 15 teams that enter the finals after a document review will be provided with USD 1,400 for a prototype production, Samsung's smart IT devices, and a systematic training program.
For the “idea contest,” competitors will present their ideas for a wearable computer in a poster format. The teams qualified to continue onto the finals will be given an opportunity to create and exhibit a life-sized model.
Chairman of the Wearable Computer Contest (WCC), Professor Hoejun Yoo from the KAIST Department of Electrical Engineering said, “Wearable Computer is the major future growth industry that will lead IT industry after smart phones. I hope WCC will help nurture the future professionals in the field of wearable computer industry.”
The applications for the Wearable Computer Contest can be found on the main website (http://www.ufcom.org) until May 23rd. Both undergraduate and graduate students can participate as a team for the “designated topic contest,” and there are no qualifications required for those who enter the “idea contest.”
Last year, a total of 104 teams from universities all around Korea has participated in the Wearable Computer Contest. The finalist, team 'Jump' from Chungnam University, received the Award of the Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning, Republic of Korea.
2014.03.28 View 9444 -
Partnership Agreement between KAIST and SK Telecom for Cyber Security
KAIST
and SK Telecom, one of the largest wireless telecommunications operators in
Korea, signed a memorandum of understanding on the industry and university cooperation
to establish a research center for cyber security on March 18, 2014.
The
center will conduct research projects to improve privacy protection, develop core
technologies needed for cyber security, train engineers and researchers, and
host seminars and conferences.
The
two organizations will implement the first joint research project on the
development of software-defined network-based solutions and universal subscriber
identity module-based personal identification solutions.
2014.03.26 View 6735 -
Extreme Tech: Nanowire "impossible to replicate" fingerprints could eliminate fraud, counterfeit goods
Research done by Professor Hyun-Joon Song of Chemistry at KAIST on
anti-counterfeit, nanoscale fingerprints generated by randomly distributed
nanowires was introduced by Extreme Tech, an online global science and technology
news.
For the articles, please go to:
Extreme Tech, March 25, 2014Nanowire ‘impossible to replicate’ fingerprints could eliminate fraud, counterfeit goods
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/179131-nanowire-impossible-to-replicate-fingerprints-could-eliminate-fraud-counterfeit-goods
2014.03.26 View 7809 -
Professor Sang-Ouk Kim Publishes Review Article in the Journal of "Nature Materials"
Nature Materials, a
peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Publishing Group, covers a
range of topics within materials science from materials engineering and
structural materials. The
journal invited Professor Sang-Ouk Kim of Materials Science and Engineering at
KAIST to contribute to the April issue of 2014. Professor Kim,
together with his doctoral student, Ju-Young Kim, wrote a review article in the
“News and Views” section of the journal, which was entitled “Liquid Crystals:
Electric Fields Line Up Graphene Oxide.” The
News and Views is a peer-reviewed section where an academic authority in a particular
field reviews and evaluates papers published in the journal. In
the article, Professor Kim reviewed a paper written by Jang-Kun Song et al. and
highlighted important research outcomes such as the efficient electric field switching
of graphene oxide (GO) liquid-crystals in low-concentration dispersions and the
demonstration of a prototype of a GO liquid-crystal display. This technology
could lead the development of a flexible display. Professor
Kim is an eminent scholar who has reported for the first time in the world on
the solvent-based graphene oxide liquid crystals formation in 2011. For the article, please go to: http://www.kaist.ac.kr/_prog/download.php?filename=Nature_Materials_Professor_Sang-Ouk_Kim_Apr_2014.pdf
2014.03.26 View 8951