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Six Organizations Join Forces to Induce Projected National Brain Institute to Daejeon
Six major organizations including KAIST have joined forces to help Daejeon City to win the government approval to build the envisioned Korean Brain Institute in Daedeok Research Complex.
The six organizations signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperating in establishing the government-funded institute built within the Daedeok Research Complex in the city of Daejeon, at KAIST on Jan. 14. The six organizations are KAIST, the Daejeon City Government, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Korea Research Institute of Standard and Science, Asan Medical Center, and SK Corp., a pioneer in effective therapeutic invention for serious brain disorders.
The partnership of the six organizations is expected to bring a broad-based cooperation opportunities and create a massive synergy effect in the brain science researches and the development of new therapeutic treatment for brain disorders by combining their resources and infrastructures.
The six organizations have also built an international research network with such globally-renowned brain research institutions as RIKEN, a large natural sciences research institute in Japan, Max Plank Institute in Germany, Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, in Switzerland and Brain Research Institute of University of Queensland in Australia. The research network is under the support and guidance of Dennis Choi, a prominent neuroscientist who once served as the President of the Society for Neuroscience and is currently a professor in the Departments of Neurology and biology at Emory University.
The tentatively titled Korea Brain Institute is envisioned to help fight brain disorders and create Korea"s new growth engine, as well as lengthening life span, by conducting convergence researches in nero science, brain science and pharmacology. If the consortium of the six organizations wins the government approval to build the proposed institute within the Daedeok complex, the central government and the Daejeon city government are expected to pour a total of 329.7 billion won into the project by 2020.
2009.01.14 View 15802 -
Five KAIST Students Offered Internship from Qualcomm
Qualcomm Inc., a wireless telecommunications research and development company based in San Diego, California, has offered internship for five KAIST students of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, university authorities said on Monday (Jan. 5).
The five students who are graduate and doctoral students studying communication and RFID (radio frequency identification) design will be working for six months at Qualcomm"s RFIC (radio frequency integrated circuits) Department in Santa Clara, Calif., as co-researchers. These interns will receive about $7,000 a month each with other benefits.
It is the first time that Qualcomm has offered internship for students outside the U.S., according to external relations officials at KAIST. Students who have shown outstanding research output during the internship period will be offered employment at Qualcomm.
"Qualcomm"s internship for KAIST students is designed to help young Korean talents to become professionals who will lead global advancement in the IT sector and strengthen its research network with Korea," Seung-Soo Kim, senior director of Qualcomm Korea, was quoted as saying.
Qualcomm plans to continue providing internship program for KAIST students, as well as pursuing joint research initiatives, the officials said.
2009.01.08 View 14175 -
Prof. Seong Publishes English Book on Reliability in Digital Control Systems
Prof. Poong-Hyun Seong of Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering has recently published an English-language book on reliability and risk issues in large scale safety-critical digital control systems used in complex facilities such as nuclear power plants.
The book entitled “Reliability and Risk Issues in Large Scale Safety-critical Digital Control Systems” is a result of Prof. Seong’s collaboration with some KAIST graduates who used to be under his guidance. The 303-page publication has been published by Springer, one of the world’s leading publishers of academic journals, as part of the Springer Series in Reliability Engineering.
The book consists of four parts; part I deals with issues related to hardware, part II software, part III human factors and finally the last part integrated systems. It can be purchased through some on-line book stores such as Amazon.com.
Prof. Seong served as an editor-in-chief for Nuclear Engineering and Technology (NET), an international journal of Korean Nuclear Society (KNS), from 2003 to 2008. He also worked as a chair of the Human Factors Division (HFD) of American Nuclear Society (ANS) from 2006 to 2007. Prof. Seong is now a commissioner of Korea Nuclear Safety Commission which is the nation’s highest committee on Nuclear Safety.
2008.12.26 View 15006
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Prof. Cho Wins Best Paper Award
KAIST Prof. Nam-Zin Cho of the Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, won the Best Thesis Award in the nuclear reactor physics category at the 2008 Winter Meeting of the American Nuclear Society held on Nov. 9-13 in Reno, Nevada.
His paper, entitled "Thermal Feedback Transient Analysis of a Pebble Fuel Based on the Two-Temperature Homogenized Model," was jointly authored by Hwi Yu and Jong-Un Kim under the guidance of Prof. Cho.
Prof. Cho was elected a fellow of the American Nuclear Society in 2001 and has served as the deputy editor of the Nuclear Science and Engineering, the research journal of the American Nuclear Society, since 1999.
2008.12.09 View 13320 -
Prof. Kim's Team Wins Silver Prize at International Design Contest
A KAIST team led by Prof. Myung-Suk Kim of the Department of Industrial Design won a silver prize (given by the Mayor of Osaka) at the 17th International Design Competition held at the Osaka International Convention Center on Nov. 27.
The team, made up of KAIST students Da-Woon Chung (representative), Ji-Hoon Kim and Bo-Yeon Kim, presented a sonic energy absorbing (SONEA) system to transform noise energy into electrical energy. At the 2008 competition held under the main theme of "Earth-Life: Clean Aqua, Clean Air, Clean Energy," a Chinese team won the gold prize, Japanese and Korean groups shared silver prizes, and bronze prizes were given to U.S. and German contestants.
It was noteworthy that the KAIST team was the only undergraduate contestants who won the prize. Ji-hoon Kim had already won a bronze prize last year at the same competition.
The International Design Competition Osaka has been held annually or biannually, organized by the Japan Design Foundation, since 1983 and is considered as one of the most prestigious design competitions.
2008.12.09 View 14465 -
Two KAIST Professors Elected Fellows of APS
Profs. Sung-Chul Shin and Chang-Hee Nam of the Department of Physics, KAIST, have recently been elected the 2009 fellows of the American Physical Society (APS), university officials said on Tuesday (Dec. 2).
The APS fellowship is a prestigious recognition of the two professors" outstanding academic achievements in the field of physics, the officials said. The selection criteria are known to be extremely stringent and only a small fraction of APS members become fellows.
Prof. Shin was cited for his pioneering contributions to the understanding of magnetization reversal dynamics, in particular critical scaling behavior of Barkhausen avalanches of 2D ferromagnets, and discovery of novel magnetic thin films and multilayers for high-density data storage.
Prof. Nam was recognized for his contributions to the theory and experiments of physical processes of high harmonic generation for the development of attosecond coherent x-ray sources and related femtosecond laser technology.
The American Physical Society, founded in 1899, is the world"s second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. It has 46,000 members across the world.
2008.12.04 View 13136 -
2008 IEEE International Conference on Humanoid Robots Opens
The 2008 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, an international gathering to identify new research trends and technology in humanoid robotics, will open a three-day session on Monday (Dec. 1) at the Hotel Rivera and KAIST in Daejeon.
The annual conference is organized by KAIST and the Robotics and Automation Society of the Institute for Electric and Electronic Engineers, a U.S.-based international non-profit, professional organization for the advancement of technology related to electricity.
The conference is expected to draw a total of 200 robotics researchers from 19 different countries. Prof. Jun-Ho Oh, at the Department of Mechanical Engineering who led the creation of Korea"s first humanoid robot Hubo, is serving as general chair of the conference. Prof. Oh was named the host of the 2008 conference at the 2007 conference held at the Carnegie Melon University of the United States. The eight-year old conference was inaugurated in Boston in 2000.
On the opening day of Dec. 1, seven lectures will be given on diverse areas of robotics including cognitive humanoid vision, and robot vision sensor and sensing. On the subsequent two days, a total of 110 papers will be presented.
During the conference period, a variety of robots produced by six local and foreign robot makers will be on demonstration, providing opportunities for researchers and industrial robot makers to share technological ideas.
Highlights of the conference will be special lectures by world-renowned robot researchers Prof. Yoshiyuki Sankai of University of Tsukuba, who has created an exoskeletal "robot suit," and Prof. Art Kuo of Univerity of Michigan who is regarded as a leading authority in dynamic walking.
Following the conference, all participants are scheduled to tour Prof. Oh"s Hubo Lab and the Human-Robot Interaction Research Center, both located at KAIST.
2008.12.01 View 12733
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KAIST Collaborating with U.S. Universities to Advance Humanoid Robotics
Hubo, a life-size walking bipedal humanoid robot, is perhaps the best-known character in Korea that KAIST has ever produced. It was shown to the government heads of the Asia-Pacific region during the APEC held in Busan, Korea, in 2005 and appeared at the hit concerts of the pop singer Jang-Hoon Kim. The humanoid robot is soon likely to catch the fancy of Americans as a U.S. government-funded project seeks to create a Hubo that can work and interact with people in collaboration with Korean scientists.
"We are going to give the brains to Hubo. (Japanese) Asimo can do only pre-programmed actions. We want to create a Hubo that can help people, interact with people," said Prof. Paul Oh of the Department of Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics at Drexel University in Philadelphia and leader of the five-year international project which was launched in November 2007.
The U.S.$2.5 million project is funded through the Partnership for International Research and Education (PIRE) Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States. It brings together world-renowned experts in humanoid design and information technologies.
"Dr. Jun-Ho Oh"s lab at KAIST (that has created Hubo) is the world"s leader in humanoid design and the U.S. has advanced technologies in the areas such as artificial intelligence, mechanical learning and robot vision. Combining the strengths of the two countries can create a synergy effect and develop a more advanced humanoid robot," said Paul Oh. He is currently serving as Program Director of Robotics of the NSF which is overseeing robotics research (non-military) in the U.S. consisting over 150 robotics faculty.
Paul Oh"s research team consists of experts from five U.S. universities -- Drexel, Bryn Mawr College, Colby College, the University of Pennsylvania and Virginia Tech -- and KAIST.
Leading a delegation of six professors and eight students, Dr. Paul Oh made a two-day visit to KAIST on Nov. 18-19 to review the progress of the project and have a technical meeting with participants.
"The U.S. universities participating in this program are scattered across the nation. So we decided to have a technical meeting here in Korea," he said.
Asked the reason why he chose KAIST as a partner for the program, Dr. Oh said that KAIST is willing to open Hugo to international researchers, whereas in Japan only Honda engineers are allowed to touch Asimo, which is a humanoid robot created by Honda Motor Company.
The project is to establish no barrier for roboticists anywhere in the world to pursue the humanoid research; a suite of humanoid platforms will be available for researchers to develop and advance capabilities like locomotion and human-robot interaction.
The team has been initially involved in development of three tools, all of which are based on the Hubo platform, in order to kick-start humanoid research in the U.S. They are the Mini-Hubo (a small, light-weight and affordable humanoid purchasable at the price lower than $8,000), On-Line Hubo (a program to operate Hubo online) and Virtual Hubo (a simulation program to do researches in cyberspace). As the first outcome of the project, the Mini-Hubo is expected to be released in the U.S. around next April.
Another important purpose of the PIRE program is to seek transformative models to train scientists and engineers to effectively work in global multi-disciplined design teams. To this end, an aggregate number of 20 students from U.S. universities are to stay at the KAIST during the next five years, with two students taking turns on a six-month term.
"I was really amazed how much work is done with small funding here. This is really an excellent example to learn," said Roy Gross, an undergraduate from Drexel who has been staying at Prof. Oh"s Lab for the past three months.
2008.11.21 View 16394 -
Method to Synthesize New Lithium Ion Battery Cathode Material Identified
A KAIST research team headed by Prof. Do-Kyung Kim at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering developed a technology to synthesize a new lithium ion battery spinel cathode which is regarded as a core part of hybrid and lithium battery cars.
The research was conducted in collaboration with a research team of Prof. Yi Cui at Stanford University"s Department of Chemistry. Their findings were introduced in the November issue of Nano Letters, one of the leading academic journals in nano-science.
The newly synthesized lithium ion battery spinel cathode known as spinel LiMn2O4 nanorods is attracting interests as an alternative cathode material since it is a low-cost, environmentally friendly substance for Li-ion battery cathodes. Its raw material is also highly available.
Lithium ion batteries with high energy and power density are important for consumer electronic devices, portable power tools, and vehicle electrification. LixCoO2 is a commonly used cathode material in commercial lithium iron batteries. However, the high cost, toxicity, and limited abundance of cobalt have been recognized to be disadvantageous.
2008.11.20 View 11816 -
KAIST Research Team Unveils Method to Fabricate Photonic Janus Balls
A research team led by Prof. Seung-Man Yang of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering has found a method to fabricate photonic Janus balls with isotropic structural colors.
The finding draws attention since the newly-fabricated photonic balls may prove useful pigments for the realization of e-paper or flexible electronic displays.
The breakthrough was published in the Nov. 3 edition of the science journal "Advanced Materials." The Nov. 6 issue of "Nature" also featured it as one of the research highlights under the title of "Future Pixels."
Prof. Yang"s research team found that tiny marbles, black on one side and colored on the other, can be made by "curing" suspensions of silica particles with an ultraviolet lamp. When an electric field is applied, the marbles line up so that the black sides all face upwards, which suggests they may prove useful pigments for flexible electronic displays.
The researchers suspended a flow of carbon-black particles mixed with silica and a transparent or colored silica flow in a resin that polymerizes under ultraviolet light. They then passed the mixture through a tiny see-through tube. The light solidified the silica and resin as balls with differently colored regions, each about 200 micrometers in diameter.
Over the last decades, the development of industrial platforms to artificially fabricate structural color pigments has been a pressing issue in the research areas of materials science and optics. Prof. Yang, who is also the director of the National Creative Research Initiative Center for Integrated Optofluidic Systems, has led the researches focused on fabrication of functional nano-materials through the process of assembling nano-building blocks into designed patterns.
The "complementary hybridization of optical and fluidic devices for integrated optofluidic systems" research was supported by a grant from the Creative Research Initiative Program of the Ministry of Education, Science & Technology.
2008.11.12 View 12992 -
KAIST, KRIBB Agree to Cooperate in Research of Convergence Technologies
Oct. 15, 2008 -- KAIST and Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) have agreed to cooperate in the research of convergence fields of biotechnology, information technology and nanotechnology.
To this end, the two institutions concluded a memorandum of understanding to create a new academia-institute cooperative model in the convergence fields on Oct. 15 in Seoul, with KAIST President Nam-Pyo Suh, KRIBB Director Young-Hoon Park and Vice Minister of Education, Science and Technology Jong-Koo Park in attendance.
Under the agreement, the two institutions will set up the tentatively-named KAIST-KRIBB BINT Convergence Institute for the development of technologies and nurturing skilled manpower in the convergence fields.
The partnership of the two institutions is expected to bring broad-based cooperation opportunities and create a massive synergy effect by combining their resources and infrastructure for the development of convergence technologies, KAIST officials said..
The proposed institute is also designed to build a world-class research hub in systems biotechnology by combining strengths of the two institutions with initiatives to achieve the Korean government"s new vision for "low carbon, green growth."
The institute will also serve as a base for domestic brain convergence by concentrating the nation"s research capacities in genetics and brain technology.
KAIST also signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in researches in Oriental medicine with three institutions, KRIBB, Daegu Hanny University and Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine.
The agreement calls for the four institutions to conduct joint researches in traditional sciences and Oriental medicine based on systems biology, develop manpower in related fields and share academic and research information.
The agreement is expected to provide impetus to reinforcing competitiveness in compound and convergence technologies and discover new properties in Oriental medicine, according to KAIST authorities.
2008.10.16 View 14860 -
KAIST Ranks 95th among World Universities
Oct. 13, 2008 --KAIST is ranked 95th among Top 200 Universities of the World this year, scoring a notable increase from last year"s ranking of 132nd. KAIST, Seoul National University which was placed 50th, and POSTECH ranked 188th became the only three institutions of higher education in Korea to make it to the list, called "The Times Higher Education -- QS World University Rankings."
KAIST"s advancement was more conspicuous in specific area evaluations. In the area of Engineering and Information Technology, it is ranked 34th (49th last year), in Natural Sciences 46th (86th last year), and in Biological Sciences and Biotechnology 134th (166th last year).
While North America dominates the ranking with 42 universities on the list, Europe and Asia Pacific are also well represented with 36 and 22 institutions, respectively.
The list, compiled by The Times (of London) newspaper annually, is topped by Harvard University (USA), followed by Yale University (USA) and University of Cambridge (United Kingdom).
Last year, only KAIST and SNU were included in the top 200 list. This year, Yonsei University raised its ranking to 203rd from last year"s 223rd while Korea University improved from 243rd to 236th, showing overall improvement of universities in Korea.
Again this year, Japan and China had most of the top ranked universities in Asia, each sharing three in the top 50. University of Tokyo, ranked 19th, led all Japanese universities; Kyoto University was placed 25th and Osaka University 44th. University of Hong Kong was listed 26th, followed by Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on 39th and the Chinese University of Hong Kong on 42nd.
The Times Higher Education--QS World University Rankings evaluates four main categories: quality of research, globalization, and quality of education and work of graduates in society. The evaluation also considers academic peer review, citations per faculty, recruiter review, international faculty, international students and faculty-student ratio.
QS Top 100 Universities 2008
Source: QS Quacquarelli Symonds (www.topuniversities.com)
Copyright?004-2008QSQuacquarelliSymondsLtd.
1
HARVARD University
United States
2
YALE University
United States
3
University of CAMBRIDGE
United Kingdom
4
University of OXFORD
United Kingdom
5
CALIFORNIA Institute of Technology (Calt...
United States
6
IMPERIAL College London
United Kingdom
7
UCL (University College London)
United Kingdom
8
University of CHICAGO
United States
9
MASSACHUSETTS Institute of Technology (M...
United States
10
COLUMBIA University
United States
11
University of PENNSYLVANIA
United States
12
PRINCETON University
United States
13=
DUKE University
United States
13=
JOHNS HOPKINS University
United States
15
CORNELL University
United States
16
AUSTRALIAN National University
Australia
17
STANFORD University
United States
18
University of MICHIGAN
United States
19
University of TOKYO
Japan
20
MCGILL University
Canada
21
CARNEGIE MELLON University
United States
22
KING"S College London
United Kingdom
23
University of EDINBURGH
United Kingdom
24
ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of T...
Switzerland
25
KYOTO University
Japan
26
University of HONG KONG
Hong Kong
27
BROWN University
United States
28
?ole Normale Sup?ieure, PARIS
France
29
University of MANCHESTER
United Kingdom
30=
National University of SINGAPORE(NUS)
Singapore
30=
University of CALIFORNIA, Los Angeles (U...
United States
32
University of BRISTOL
United Kingdom
33
NORTHWESTERN University
United States
34=
?OLE POLYTECHNIQUE
France
34=
University of BRITISH COLUMBIA
Canada
36
University of California, BERKELEY
United States
37
The University of SYDNEY
Australia
38
The University of MELBOURNE
Australia
39
HONG KONG University of Science & Techno...
Hong Kong
40
NEW YORK University (NYU)
United States
41
University of TORONTO
Canada
42
The CHINESE University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
43
University of QUEENSLAND
Australia
44
OSAKA University
Japan
45
University of NEW SOUTH WALES
Australia
46
BOSTON University
United States
47
MONASH University
Australia
48
University of COPENHAGEN
Denmark
49
TRINITY College Dublin
Ireland
50=
Ecole Polytechnique F??ale de LAUSANNE...
Switzerland
50=
PEKING University
China
50=
SEOUL National University
Korea, South
53
University of AMSTERDAM
Netherlands
54
DARTMOUTH College
United States
55
University of WISCONSIN-Madison
United States
56
TSINGHUA University
China
57
HEIDELBERG Universit?
Germany
58
University of CALIFORNIA, San Diego
United States
59
University of WASHINGTON
United States
60
WASHINGTON University in St. Louis
United States
61
TOKYO Institute of Technology
Japan
62
EMORY University
United States
63
UPPSALA University
Sweden
64
LEIDEN University
Netherlands
65
The University of AUCKLAND
New Zealand
66
LONDON School of Economics and Political...
United Kingdom
67
UTRECHT University
Netherlands
68
University of GENEVA
Switzerland
69
University of WARWICK
United Kingdom
70
University of TEXAS at Austin
United States
71
University of ILLINOIS
United States
72
Katholieke Universiteit LEUVEN
Belgium
73
University of GLASGOW
United Kingdom
74
University of ALBERTA
Canada
75
University of BIRMINGHAM
United Kingdom
76
University of SHEFFIELD
United Kingdom
77
NANYANG Technological University
Singapore
78=
DELFT University of Technology
Netherlands
78=
RICE University
United States
78=
Technische Universit? M?CHEN
Germany
81=
University of AARHUS
Denmark
81=
University of YORK
United Kingdom
83=
GEORGIA Institute of Technology
United States
83=
The University of WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Australia
83=
University of ST ANDREWS
United Kingdom
86
University of NOTTINGHAM
United Kingdom
87
University of MINNESOTA
United States
88
LUND University
Sweden
89
University of CALIFORNIA, Davis
United States
90
CASE WESTERN RESERVE University
United States
91=
Universit?de Montr?l
Canada
91=
University of HELSINKI
Finland
93=
Hebrew University of JERUSALEM
Israel
93=
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit? M?chen
Germany
95
KAIST - Korea Advanced Institute of Scie...
Korea, South
96
University of VIRGINIA
United States
97
University of PITTSBURGH
United States
98
University of CALIFORNIA, Santa Barbara
United States
99=
PURDUE University
United States
99=
University of SOUTHAMPTON
United Kingdom
2008.10.14 View 15903