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KAIST researchers verify and control the mechanical properties of graphene
KAIST researchers have successfully verified and controlled the mechanical properties of graphene, a next-generation material. Professor Park Jung Yong from the EEWS Graduate School and Professor Kim Yong Hyun from the Graduate School of Nanoscience and Technology have succeeded in fluorinating a single atomic-layered graphene sample and controlling its frictional and adhesive properties. This is the first time the frictional properties of graphene have been examined at the atomic level, and the technology is expected to be applied to nano-sized robots and microscopic joints.
Graphene is often dubbed “the dream material” because of its ability to conduct high amounts of electricity even when bent, making it the next-generation substitute for silicon semiconductors, paving the way for flexible display and wearable computer technologies. Graphene also has high potential applications in mechanical engineering because of its great material strength, but its mechanical properties remained elusive until now.
Professor Park’s research team successfully produced individual graphene samples with fluorine-deficiency at the atomic level by placing the samples in Fluoro-xenon (XeF2) gas and applying heat. The surface of the graphene was scanned using a micro probe and a high vacuum atomic microscope to measure its dynamic properties.
The research team found that the fluorinated graphene sample had 6 times more friction and 0.7 times more adhesiveness than the original graphene. Electrical measurements confirmed the fluorination process, and the analysis of the findings helped setup the theory of frictional changes in graphene.
Professor Park stated that “graphene can be used for the lubrication of joints in nano-sized devices” and that this research has numerous applications such as the coating of graphene-based microdynamic devices.
This research was published in the online June edition of Nano Letters and was supported by the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Education and the National Research Foundation as part of the World Class University (WCU) program.
2012.07.24 View 14152 -
ICISTS-KAIST: Korea's Largest Scale University Student International Conference
An entirely student led and planned international conference will be held at KAIST.
KAIST student club ICISTS will be holding the ‘ICISTS-KAIST 2012’ conference from the 6th of August till the 10th of August.
This is the 8th annual conference which started in 2005 which is planned and executed entirely by undergraduate students. The conference aims at examining the rapidly changing relationship between science and technology and society and actively debate on the matter.
The 1st conference involved only 150 students of which only a few from abroad. However last year’s conference involved 300 students from 22 nations from all over the world.
The keyword of the conference in the much talked about ‘integration’ and therefore aims at establishing interdisciplinary networks that go beyond background and borders.
Not only does ‘ICISTS-KAIST’ involves panel talks by speakers, but also offers small scale lectures simultaneously which allows participants to attend talks that suit their individual preferences.
Group discussion session between participants and speakers will be held along with various performances and booths to introduce Korean traditional culture to international participants.
The theme of this year’s conference is “Age of Integration: Beyond the Borders of Knowledge”. It is comprised of 3 smaller conferences with themes of Art and Science, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences, and Science and Technology and Human Society.
This year’s conference will host lectures by Professor S. Shyam Sundar of Pennsylvania State Communication University, Professor Bruce E. Seely Dean of Michigan School of Engineering, and Professor Shin Hui Seop who was named as the ‘1st National Scientist’ in 2005.
Registration ends on the 15th of July and more information can be found at www.icists.org.
2012.06.18 View 8023 -
New concept 'mole game' robot developed
A new game robot concept developed by KAIST researchers came in first place at a world-renowned virtual reality exhibition, despite being the first ever entry by a Korean team.
Professor Lee Woohun’s team from the Department of Industrial Design at KAIST won the first-place award of ‘Gran Prix du Jury’ at the famous virtual reality exhibition, Laval Virtual 2012, which was held between March 28th and April 1st, with the mole game robot, ‘MoleBot’.
MoleBot can be enjoyed in a completely physical environment unlike other virtual reality games and allows interaction between the virtual world and reality. Such imaginative interaction attracted numerous spectators during the exhibition.
The MoleBot table consists of approximately 15,000 small cubes, and as the object inside the table moves, the cubes slide as if a mole is inside. By using a joystick, users can enjoy physical interaction with the table and a wide range of games.
The MoleBot can also be operated with hand gestures using ‘Kinect’, a motion sensing input device developed by Microsoft, making it possible to enjoy games as if playing with a pet.
Professor Lee’s team came up with the project from a simple idea: ‘What if moles lived inside the table?’
The team first created a table that would hold and allow the movement of the cubes, and then placed a plastic mold underneath it with a layer of spandex in between to lessen the friction, allowing smooth and lifelike movement.
The mold contains magnets that allow the accurate delivery of mechanical movement. After two years of continued additional research, MoleBot was released to the world.
In the acceptance speech, Professor Lee said, ‘It is rare for a design team to win first place in an engineering exhibition’ and that ‘to achieve such a feat, the MoleBot’s technological creativity and artistic completeness became one’.
Professor Lee also said that ‘this concept of creating an interactive world on a table could potentially become a new game interface’ and that he would research on applying this MoleBot technology to different fields such as human-computer interaction, architecture, interior, and clothing.
Laval Virtual is a world-renowned exhibition that displays cutting edge technologies in the field of virtual reality. This year was the 14th exhibit, and over 10,000 people participated in it. The exhibition gives out 12 awards, one per field, and Professor Lee’s team won the highest award.
2012.05.07 View 10713 -
Exhibition of Investment Demonstration on EEWS Research Held
- Five winners of business-planning project exhibition hold exhibition towards thirteen Angel Investors.
Venture capital firm and industry investors are investing for themselves on the Green Growth Project of KAIST, which strives for solutions of global issues, such as; energy depletion, environment pollution and sustainable development.
KAIST awarded the winner of "EEWS business-planning exhibition competition" and held investment demonstration exhibition. The exhibition is opened by the winners of the competition and held towards the firms and inventors encouraging capital on green business project and green technologies.
The venture capital firms that participated in this exhibition were; Coolidge Corner Investment, Dae-Duk Investment Corp, KPM, Locus Capital Partners and Bo-Gwang Investment.
The industry investors that participated were: Samsung C&T Corp, Cheil Industry, Dasan Networks, Hanhwa L&C, thirteen companies in total.
The goal of EEWS Exhibition is to encourage the commercialization of research and development. It was co-hosted by DFJ Athena LLC and Ilshin ventures. The competition was divided into business planning section and business technology section.
Grand prize on green growth went to Professor Joong-Myeon Bae who suggested "Eco-friendly hydrogen fuel cells", runner-up prize went to "Real-time measuring of NOx on Eco-friendly diesels" by Jin-Su Park, the technology director of CIOS.
Grand prize of green technology went to "Highly-refractive, heat resisting hybrimer LED sack’ by Byung-Su Bae, professor of new material engineering, participation award went to ‘ITO-Free touch screen for smart phone’ by Min-yang Yang, professor of the department of Mechanical Engineering.
A representative of KAIST said those of the firms and investors who have gone through commercialization showed interest on the creativity and the high level of the product.
Jae-Kyu Lee, the head of EEWS who supervised the whole exhibition mentioned that, "EEWS Planning Group is consistently going to come up with innovative results” and that “Angel Investors showed enthusiasm. The representatives of Venture capital firm even considered participating as the jury of the competition in the future.”
[Definition]
EEWS stands for Energy depletion, Environment pollution, Water shortages and Sustainability, a project for the solution of such global issues promoted by KAIST.
2012.03.06 View 9368
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Professor Sang-Min Bae appears on EBS Global Theme Travel.
"We want to present "hope" by designing schools and homes for the third-world countries, while considering the culture of the nation.”
Professor Bae and his team went to Ethiopia, Africa, for "Design for Social Donation and Design Research for isolated third-world nations".
Professor Bae commented that, "We have visited for preparatory investigation, experiencing and investigating the life and cultures of the third-world nations in order to design schools and homes."
He continued, "From this visit, we want to develop adequate technology catered for the locals and create a design guideline." He added "We also want to propose a new model using design and technology that contributes to social welfare".
Meanwhile, EBS team accompanied to cover the report and was broadcasted through "EBS Global Theme Travel.
2012.03.06 View 7865
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Annual Future Knowledge Service International Symposium
Knowledge Service Research preparing for the future knowledge based society has been academically publicized.
The First Annual Future Knowledge Service International Symposium was held in COEX Grand Ball Room Hall by KAIST’s department of Knowledge Service Engineering.
Knowledge Service Engineering is a core component to the future knowledge based society and is the convergent result of decision making, recognition sciences, artificial intelligence, IT, and other knowledge management technologies from each of the industries. Therefore Knowledge Service Engineering will innovate the cooperation and communication between humans and machines thereby forming the center point of the development of knowledge society.
The symposium was attended by 9 important figures from domestic and foreign academia, government representative, and key figures from industries. The symposium was based around debates concerning the role of the Knowledge Service Engineering in the future knowledge based society.
The key note speaker was Chairman of Korea Science and Technology Information Research Institute Park Young Suh and the theme of the speech was ‘Change in Information Environment and Knowledge Service’.
Director of National IT Industry Promotion Agency Kang Hyun Gu gave a lecture on the topic of ‘Important Knowledge Service Policies by National IT Industry Promotion Agency’. And from industry experts, Bradley K. Jensen (Manager of Microsoft Industry-Education Cooperation), Lee Kang Yoon (Research Director at IBM), Choi Yoon Shik (Head of Asia Future Human Resource Institute) proposed a direction for research and gave their account on recent trends of knowledge service from the perspective of onsite experience.
Academic experts like Fred D. Davis (Professor at State University of Arkansas), Jussi Kantola (Professor at KAIST), Kim Young Gul (Professor at KAIST Management University), Yoon Wan Chul (Professor at KAIST Knowledge Service Engineering) gave the recent trends in academic research.
The symposium was held in 3 sessions: ▲Policy of Korean Government ▲Academic Research Trend ▲Recent Trend and Application.
More information can be found at http://kss.kaist.ac.kr
2012.01.31 View 8425
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KAIST Ph.D Mihyun Jang Employed as Professor at Technische Universitat Graz
A Ph.D purely from Korea has been employed as a professor at Technische Universitat Graz.
This is the news of Prof.Mihyun Kang (39) who has graduated from KAIST’s mathematics department. Prof.Kang has transferred on January 2012.
KAIST explained that “it’s the first time for a mathematics Ph.D from Korea has been employed abroad.”
Technische Universitat Graz of Australia is ranked the top third university within the country. It is a global university with 1,700 students from 78 different countries out of its 11,000 students.
Prof. Kang researched mainly theories of combination including random graphing theories, analytical combination theories, and probabilistic combination theories. She has been employed as a lifetime professor through open recruitment where she competed with others through academic debates and interviews.
Technische Universitat Graz valued Prof. Kang’s research highly made her the department head of the ‘Optimization and Discrete Mathematics department’ to create an environment where she could continuously research.
Prof. Kang graduated from Jeju university majoring math educations and did her graduate studies in KAIST. She is a purely ‘Korean’ Ph.D. After her studies, she worked for Germany’s Humboldt University and Freie Universitat Berlin. In 2007, she was able to be employed as a professor in Germany, and in 2008, she was chosen as a Heisenberg fellow.
Prof. Kang who had her research achievements recognized in Germany and Austria was also offered seat as professor in Ludwig Masximilan University of Germany and Alpenadria University in Austria, but chose Technische Universitat Graz.
2012.01.31 View 10215
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City of McAllen, Texas Adopts OLEV Technology
KAIST will be exporting the OLEV technology to the United States for the first time since its development.
The city of McAllen of Texas will be stationing 3 OLEV buses in the 10 mile (16km) route from 2013 from OLEV Technology Corporation.
The OLEV Technology Corporation based in Massachusetts and is a venture company that KAIST has 30% share of and has the OLEV technology. The corporation has sole license in commercialization of OLEV in the United States.
The OLEV technology has been commercialized in the city of Seoul since July of 2011. But this is the first instance of foreign implementation of the OLEV technology.
The reason for the city of McAllen adopting the OLEV is because of the support of the Department of Transportation. The Department of Transportation has been supporting Green Energy Research and Future Transportation Technology Development projects since 2009.
A total of 266 research proposals were submitted in 2011 and out of that 46 were selected and given a total of 112 million USD.
Representative of McAllen city commented “the operation of OLEV buses developed by KAIST will result in decrease in energy consumption and emission of greenhouse gases. The OLEV technology can be applied to existing diesel buses and therefore has high cost efficiency”.
2012.01.31 View 7059
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KAIST to Support R&D Plans of Mid-Small Sized Enterprises
KAIST signed a MOU for the ‘Support for R&D Plans for Mid-Small Sized Firms’ with the Small and Medium Business Conference and Korea South-East Power Co. Ltd.
KAIST and Korea South-East Power Co. Ltd. will now be improving their cooperation on supporting R&D plans to help the technology development and commercialization for Small and Medium Businesses.
Korea South-East Power Co. Ltd. will now select 20 best qualified firms out of its 300 cooperating firms and suggest them as candidates to KAIST Business membership System.
The suggested firms will be given: ▲Strategy R&D Planning ▲Consult Difficult Technology ▲Provide Information on Research Labs and Researchers among other various programs.
The firms participating in the KAIST Business membership System will be able to minimize risk and increase its possibility for success on Development Technology.
KAIST Business membership System is a program provided to firms for a membership fee, in order to create technological innovation and strengthen cooperation between university and industry.
2012.01.31 View 8397
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2011 International Presidential Forum on Global Research Universities
KAIST’s 4th International Presidential Forum Held in Seoul on November 8, 2011
The largest annual congregation of university presidents in Asia invited leaders from academia, government, and industry for talks on issues related to higher education in the Age of Globalization.
Borderless and Creative Education: the ability to cross borders a crucial key to dominate the information era
Seoul, Republic of Korea, November 8, 2011—The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) hosted the “2011 International Presidential Forum on Global Research Universities (IPFGRU)” on Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at the Millennium Hilton Hotel in Seoul.
With more than 120 participants from 44 institutions in 27 countries present, the full-day forum provided participants with an opportunity to discuss challenges and responsibilities facing higher education in a time of globalization that has resulted from an ever-growing demand for technological innovation.
In his plenary speech, Dr. Robert Birgeneau, Chancellor of UC Berkeley, stressed that “Higher educational intuitions must be prepared to drive innovation and enhance competitiveness by educating a highly trained workforce that will have the critical skills necessary to solve problems and lead in today’s interdependent world.”
“Finding solutions to the world’s most challenging problems will depend on the ability to cross borders: national borders, border between different fields of discipline and research, and borders between academe, government, and industry,” said Chancellor Birgeneau to address the importance of “borderless and creative education,” the theme of the forum.
Other major keynote speakers were Jörg Steinbach, President of Technische Universität Berlin, Lars Pallesen, President of Technical University of Denmark, Paul F. Greenfield, President of University of Queensland, Marcelo Fernandes de Aquino, President of the University of the Sinos Valley (UNISINOS), and Eden Woon, Vice President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Dr. Nam-Pyo Suh, President of KAIST, gave talks on the university’s new education plan, “The I-Four Education,” at the afternoon session. The four Is are information technology (IT), independent learning, integrated knowledge acquisitions, and an international learning environment.
“In this format, there are no formal lectures,” President Suh explained. “A group of students learn together by using the materials available on the internet, doing homework and conducting experiments together. Pre-recorded lectures are delivered in English by I-Four professors, some of them regular KAIST professors and some professors in other countries who participate in the I-Four Program as consulting professors.”
He added, “The overall purpose of the I-Four Education Program is to encourage students to learn independently, gain exposure to the best lectures by the most eminent professors in the world, accelerate the development of a global frame of reference in the students by dealing with information available throughout the world, and provide an integrated learning environment by using diverse examples from many disciplines to achieve understanding of basic principles.”
The 2011 IPFGRU, the fourth forum since its inception in 2008, rose to prominence in the past years as an international network for leaders of research universities from around the world to share information and exchange views about contemporary issues in higher education.
At this year’s forum, entitled “Borderless and Creative Education,” speakers took a deeper look into the transitions and transformations many research universities are undergoing today, delving into the following topics: the development of e-learning and cyber campuses; increased student mobility and international collaborations; multi-disciplinary and convergence approaches in research and education; and methodology of nurturing future global leaders.
Participants also discussed experiences and accomplishments earned from their own endeavors to accommodate such changes and presented ways to strengthen internationalization and improve the academic and research competitiveness of universities.
The 2011 International Presidential Forum on Global Research Universities (IPFGRU) was organized by KAIST and sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, POSCO, Hyundai Motor Company, Samsung Heavy Industries, S-Oil, and Elsevier Korea.
2011.11.09 View 11880 -
Professor Son Hoon received "Structural Health Monitoring Person of the Year Award."
Professor Son Hoon (42) of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering received the “Structural Health Monitoring Person of the Year Award” at an international workshop on structural health monitoring held in Stanford University.
The award is given by the editor and advisors of prestigious international magazine, “Journal of Structural Health Monitoring,” to a researcher with the best research record in a year. Professor Son has published 42 SCI level dissertations, registered 17 patents both domestically and internationally, and presented over 100 papers in international journals, for which he was recognized with the award. Professor Son is the first Korean who receives this award.
One of the most significant achievements by Professor Son was “reference-free damage diagnosis” that he had developed in 2007. The diagnosis allows for the detection of wear and tear of a structure without having to use the foundation signal from the initial stages of the structure. The diagnosis contributed greatly in increasing the reliability of the signal information received from smart sensors attached to the structure by eliminating the environmental impact like temperature.
Professor Son is currently working on green energy structural health monitoring system development related projects. His current work deals with airplanes, bridges, nuclear facilities, high speed railways, wind turbines, and etc. in cooperation with Boeing, United States Air Force Research Institute, Korea Research Foundation, Ministry of Defense Research Institute, Korea Expressway Corporation, POSCO, and etc.
In addition, Professor Son successfully adopted a local monitoring method using smart piezoelectric sensors on a bridge in New Jersey as part of the Long Term Bridge Performance Program initiated by the National Highway Bureau. The success was even introduced in New Jersey’s public TV and newspaper agencies.
Professor Son was given tenure at a record age of 39 in 2008 and received numerous awards given out by the Ministry of Education and Science and international organizations like the ‘Edward M Curtis’ Professor Award from Purdue University.
2011.10.10 View 9950 -
In Demand: Ideas that can change the world in 10 years.
The hot topic of the day was from KOLON group (Chairman Lee Oung Yeol) and its decision to hold a contest exhibition specifically aimed at KAIST students, professors and staff on ideas that could potentially change the everyday lifestyle in the near future. It is the first time a Korean company in the top 30 to hold such a contest aimed at a specific university.
The total prize money involved amounts to 50million Korean Won which will be handed out to ten teams. The 1st prize will be given to one team along with 20million Korean Won, the 2nd prize will be given to two teams each receiving 10million Korean Won, and the rest of the teams will be given 1million Korean Won worth in gift certificates.
The idea contest is planned by KOLON-KAIST Lifestyle Innovation Center (from here on referred to as KOLON LSI Center). Anyone who is part of the KAIST community can participate by preparing a two A4 page report and sending it to kolon.kaist.dreamer@gmail.com until October 31st five o’clock in the afternoon. The results and the awards ceremony will be held on the 23rd of November on ‘KOLON Day’.
The Executive Director of KOLON Kim Kyung Yong commented, “The dreams of yesteryears like shrinking a room sized computer to fit in the palm of my hand and being able to communicate to anyone in the world have become reality. The KAIST community is composed of Korea’s finest in the field of Science, and it seemed fitting to search the KAIST community to find ideas that could potentially change the world in ten years’ time.”
2011.09.26 View 8557