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A New Spin Current Generating Material Developed
(Professor Park(left) and Ph.D. candidate Kim)
Magnetic random-access memory (MRAM) is a non-volatile device made of thin magnetic film that can maintain information without an external power supply, in contrast to conventional silicon-based semiconductor memory. It also has the potential for high-density integration and high-speed operation.
The operation of MRAM involves the control of the magnetization direction by exerting spin current-induced torque on a magnetic material. Spin current is generated using electricity in conventional MRAM, but this study developed materials technology that generates spin current using heat.
A KAIST research team led by Professor Byong-Guk Park of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering developed a material that generates spin current from heat, which can be utilized for a new operation principle for MRAM.
There have been theoretical reports on the spin Nernst effect, the phenomenon of the thermal generation of spin current, but is yet to have been experimentally proven due to technological limitations. However, the research team introduced a spin Nernst magnetoresistance measurement method using tungsten (W) and platinum (Pt) with high spin orbit coupling which allows for the experimental identification of the spin Nernst effect. They also demonstrated that the efficiency of spin current generation from heat is similar to that of spin current generated from electricity.
Professor Park said, “This research has great significance in experimentally proving spin current generation from heat, a new physical phenomenon. We aim to develop the technology as a new operational method for MRAM through further research. This can lower power consumption, and is expected to contribute to the advancement of electronics requiring low power requirement such as wearable, mobile, and IOT devices”.
This research was conducted as a joint research project with Professor Kyung-Jin Lee at Korea University and Professor Jong-Ryul Jeong at Chungnam National University. It was published in Nature Communications online on November 9 titled “Observation of transverse spin Nernst magnetoresistance induced by thermal spin current in ferromagnet/non-magnet bilayers.” Ph.D. candidate Dong-Jun Kim at KAIST is the first author. This research was funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT.
(Schematic diagram of spin Nernst magnetoresistance)
(Research result of new spin current generating materials)
2017.12.08 View 8219 -
Professor Dong Ho Cho Awarded at the Haedong Conference 2017
Professor Dong Ho Cho of the School of Electrical Engineering at KAIST received an award at the 13th Haedong Conference 2017 in Seoul on the first of December.
The Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences recognized Professor Cho for his significant contributions in the field of mobile communication networks. He has carried out groundbreaking research on mobile systems, including architecture, protocols, algorithms, optimization, and efficiency analysis.
As a result, he has produced 73 papers in renowned international journals, 138 papers at international conferences, and filed 52 international patents and 121 domestic patents. In addition, he transferred 14 of the patents he filed to Korean and international companies.
2017.12.07 View 6385 -
CBNU Wins the First AI World Cup 2017
KAIST hosted the first AI World Cup 2017. A total of 26 teams, comprised of Korean undergraduates or graduates, participated in AI Soccer, AI Commentator, and AI Reporter competitions.
On the first of December, the final tournament for AI Soccer was held in the KI Building. More than 200 people came to watch the first AI soccer match based on the Deep-Q Network Learning. The games were commentated by two KAIST students who humorously interpreted the games, catching people’s attention.
In AI Soccer, 18 teams participated, and KAIST BML (KAIST), AIM (KAIST), WISRL (KAIST), and AR Lab (Chonbuk National University) made it to the final four. Each team had its own unique style and strategy.
After some fierce contests, the win went to AR Lab, which showed fearless attacks throughout the game. Having no goalkeeper, AR Lab focused on attacking. According to the team, instead of training individual players, they concentrated on training a manager that directed the players, giving them a choice when to attack and defend.
(AR Lab from Chonbuk National University, the winning team of AI Soccer tournament)
Different from humans playing soccer, it was interesting to see how AI robots self-improved their movements while playing the games.
For AI Commentators, judges looked for a team with the most accuracy, forecasting ability, and fluency. Four teams competed, and the Yally team won the title.
For AI Reporters, which required informativeness and reliability, four teams participated, and the prize went to a team, named Deep CMT (KAIST).
Although this year’s games only included domestic universities, KAIST plans to extend participation to university students from around the world in the future, and hopes that the AI World Cup 2017 will become the foundation for launching the next games on an international level.
2017.12.04 View 5308 -
Seoul Climate-Energy Conference Seeks Global Sustainability
(President Shin and Former UN Secretary General at the Seoul Climate Change-Energy Conference)
Global leaders from both the private and public sectors discussed creative ways to seek inclusive green growth and sustainable development at the Seoul Climate-Energy Conference on November 24 in Seoul. The annual conference was co-hosted by KAIST and the Coalition for Our Common Future under the theme “Creating New Momentum for the Paris Agreement and a Sustainable Future.”
More than 100 global leaders participated in the forum including the Director General Frank Rijsbermanof the Global Green Growth Institute and Executive Director Howard Bamsey of the Green Climate Fund. Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who played a significant role in the signing of the Paris Agreement, was the keynote speaker.
This year’s conference focused on Korea’s low carbon-energy transition and the Fourth Industrial Revolution to be aligned with green growth. At the conference, speakers and participants reviewed the progress of the decisions made by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP23 in Bonn, Germany. The conference discussed topics of global collaboration for new climate regimes, green energy infrastructure, the Asia super grid, financing green energy, smart green cities, and new mobility.
President Sung-Chul Shin emphasized global action and greater resilience toward climate change in his opening remarks. He said, “Today’s climate change can be attributed directly to the past three industrial revolutions. As industrialization continues, we must not make future generations pay the cost of this Fourth Industrial Revolution.” He explained that it is increasingly complicated to address climate change and energy issues because even though the use of energy consumption will continue to increase, energy policies are interwoven with global politics.
He stressed three keywords to better address this global problem: innovation, collaboration, and speed. First he emphasized innovation as a priority for future success as it is hard to retain confidence without innovation.
He noted KAIST has made sustainability initiatives in the fields of EEWS (energy, environment, water, sustainability) and green mobility. He also noted the importance of collaboration as industries are moving beyond a single discipline. KAIST is making collaborations in R&D and sustainability sectors, such as Saudi Aramco’s CO2 management center in KAIST. Finally, he explained that the speed of new transformation will be beyond our imagination, and governments should work efficiently to address issues in a fast manner.
Meanwhile, Secretary-General Ban called for global unity in addressing climate change. He strongly emphasized that countries should make agreements not of willingness but of action, and that politicians should realize that this global agenda should be given top priority above domestic politics. He addressed how the world is experiencing the most powerful and destructive effects of climate change which makes active participation in the Paris Agreement increasingly important.
He expressed his concern that the richest and most powerful countries are backing off, emphasizing the role of these countries as both global leaders and top producers of CO2. He also shared his hopes that the OECD will continue to work to fill the absence of the United States, and stressed the importance of acquiring 10 billion USD by 2020 to fund mitigation and adaptation technologies for developing countries’ CO2 emissions.
Click for President Shin's opening remarks
2017.11.29 View 8570 -
New Photocatalyst Converts Carbon Dioxide to 99% Pure Fuel
(Professor Song, Ph.D. candidates Kim, and Lim (from left))
A KAIST research team led by Professor Hyunjoon Song of the Department of Chemistry developed a metal oxide nanocatalyst that converts carbon dioxide to 99% pure methane. This technology directly uses sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into methane, which is more efficient in terms of energy storage capacity, compared to the conventional way of storing the electricity produced by solar cells in batteries. The research team used cheap catalytic materials to significantly enhance the reaction efficiency and selectivity of the chemical energy storage method.
This research was conducted as a joint research project with Professor Ki Min Nam at Mokpo National University with co-first authors Dr. Kyung-Lyul Bae and Ph.D. candidates Jinmo Kim and Chan Kyu Lim. The study was published in Nature Communications on November 7.
Although there is growing interest in sunlight as an energy resource, its usage has been limited to daytime and the power output varies with the weather. If sunlight could be directly converted to chemical energy, such as fuel, the limitations of energy storage and its usage could be overcome. In particular, the usage of sunlight to convert carbon dioxide, a main cause of the greenhouse effect in our atmosphere, is of great interest since both energy and environmental issues can be addressed. However, the stability of carbon dioxide made it difficult to convert it to other molecules. Thus, there was a need for a catalyst with enhanced efficiency and selectivity.
Professor Song’s team synthesized zinc oxide nanoparticles, often used in sun cream. The nanoparticles were then bound to copper oxide as single particles, forming a colloidal form of zinc oxide-copper oxide nanoparticles. Zinc oxides produce high energy electrons using light, and this energy is used to convert carbon dioxide into methane. Further, zinc oxide can also produce electrons with light and transfer the electrons to copper oxide. Similar to the principles of photosynthesis in leaves, the electron transfer reaction could be maintained for a long time. As a consequence, although the reaction was conducted in aqueous solution, methane of 99% purity could be obtained from carbon dioxide.
Conventional heterogeneous photocatalysts were in solid powder form with irregular structures and were not dispersed in water. Professor Song’s team used a nanochemical synthesis method to control the structure of the catalyst particles to be regular and maintained over a large surface area. This led to increasing carbon dioxide conversion activity by hundreds of fold in solution compared to existing catalysts.
Professor Song said, “A long time will be needed for the commercialization of the direct conversion reaction of carbon dioxide using sunlight. However, the precise control of catalyst structures at nanoscale would enhance the efficiency of photocatalyst reactions.” He continued, “Applying this method to various phtocatalysts will maximize the catalysts performance.”
(Figure 1. Scheme for carbon dioxide conversion reaction using nano photocatalyst in aqueous solution)
(Figure 2. Structure, photocatalytic CO2 conversion, and stability of ZnO-Cu2O nanocatalyst )
2017.11.13 View 8524 -
WEF-KAIST to Host a Forum Next April in Korea
(President Shin poses with Chairman Schwab at the meeting in Dubai)
President Sung-Chul Shin and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum agreed to co-host the Fourth Industrial Revolution Forum next April in Seoul during a meeting at the WEF Global Future Councils 2017 held in Dubai November 11-12.
Next April’s forum will be a follow-up event of the roundtable discussion KAIST and the WEF Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution co-hosted in October in Seoul. The two hosted the roundtable discussion titled “Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Future of Jobs and Inclusive Growth in Korea.”
During the annual meeting in Dubai, Chairman Schwab expressed his deep appreciation to President Shin for hosting the roundtable discussion and proposed a full-fledged forum in partnership with KAIST once again, which Chairman Schwab will be scheduled to attend.
Chairman Schwab emphasized once again that Korea, who has the world’s top high-end technologies such as 5G telecommunications and semiconductor memory, will be the best fit to realize the Fourth Industrial Revolution most rapidly. He also expressed his great interest in the city of Daejeon in which is being considered to become the Special City for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The Global Future Council of the WEF is the interdisciplinary knowledge network dedicated to promoting innovative thinking on the future. The annual council convenes in Dubai the most relevant and knowledgeable thought leaders from academia, government, business, and civil society to challenge conventional thinking and develop new insights and perspectives on key global systems, as well as the impact and governance of key emerging technologies. This year, more than 850 world-leading experts from 74 countries participated.
Under the theme of ‘Vision 2030,’ participants explored systematic changes in key areas such as energy, mobility, and infrastructure while reflecting on the impact of technological breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and other areas related to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
2017.11.13 View 9008 -
College of Business Honored with the WRDS-SSNR Innovation Award
(Professor Inmoo Lee (far left), Robert Zarazowski (WRDS), Gregg Gordon (SSRN) and Professor Jae Kyu Lee)
The KAIST College of Business received the WRDS (Wharton Research Data Services)-SSNR Innovation Award for the Asia-Pacific region on October 31 during the AACSB Asia-Pacific Conference in Seoul.
The WRDS-SSRN Innovation Award is intended to elevate the visibility of pioneering research across a broad range of financial and economic topics. Three winners are selected annually from across North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific based on their ability to demonstrate innovation and research excellence.
The award was created through collaboration with SSRN, the world’s leading early-stage research platform and Elsevier, a global information analytics company specializing in science and health. It honors top business schools that produce exceptional data-driven research. A part of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, WRDS provides global corporations, universities, and regulatory agencies with the thought leadership, data access, and analytics needed to enable impactful research.
The Dean of the College of Business Youngbae Kim, said that KAIST has been taking the lead in responding to global trends, offering many innovative programs such as an MBA for Social Entrepreneurship and the Master Course for Green Growth Management. KAIST already has been selected as the Most Innovative University in the Asia-Pacific Region by Thomson Reuters for the last two years.
Robert Zarazowski, managing director of WRDS said they recognize and support the outstanding achievement taking place at KAIST as well as its commitment to growth and innovation in business education.
2017.11.03 View 7027 -
Highly Sensitive and Fast Indoor GNSS Signal Acquisition Technology
(Professor Seung-Hyun Kong (right) and Research Fellow Tae-Sun Kim)
A research team led by Professor Seung-Hyun Kong at the Cho Chun Shik Graduate School of Green Transportation, KAIST, developed high-speed, high-sensitivity Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signal acquisition (search and detection) technology that can produce GNSS positioning fixes indoors.
Using the team’s new technology, GNSS signals will be sufficient to identify locations anywhere in the world, both indoors and outdoors. This new research finding was published in the international journal IEEE Signal Processing Magazine (IEEE SPM) this September.
Global Positioning System (GPS) developed by the U.S. Department of Defense in the 1990s is the most widely-used satellite-based navigation system, and GNSS is a terminology to indicate conventional satellite based navigation systems, such as GPS and Russian GLONASS, as well as new satellite-based navigation systems under development, such as European GALILEO, Chinese COMPASS, and other regional satellite-based navigation systems.
In general, GNSS signals are transmitted all over the globe from 20,000 km above the Earth and thus a GNSS signal received by a small antennae in an outdoor environment has weak signal power. In addition, GNSS signals penetrating building walls become extremely weak so the signal can be less than 1/1000th of the signal power received outside.
Using conventional acquisition techniques including the frequency-domain correlation technique to acquire an extremely weak GNSS signal causes the computational cost to increase by over a million times and the processing time for acquisition also increases tremendously. Because of this, indoor measurement techniques using GNSS signals were considered practically impossible for the last 20 years.
To resolve such limitations, the research team developed a Synthesized Doppler-frequency Hypothesis Testing (SDHT) technique to dramatically reduce the acquisition time and computational load for extremely weak GNSS signals indoors.
In general, GNSS signal acquisition is a search process in which the instantaneous accurate code phase and Doppler frequency of the incoming GNSS signal are identified. However, the number of Doppler frequency hypotheses grows proportionally to the coherent correlation time that should be necessarily increased to detect weak signals. In practice, the coherent correlation time should be more than 1000 times longer for extremely weak GNSS signals so the number of Doppler frequency hypotheses is greater than 20,000. On the other hand, the SDHT algorithm indirectly tests the Doppler frequency hypothesis utilizing the coherent correlation results of neighboring hypotheses.
Therefore, using SDHT, only around 20 hypotheses are tested using conventional correlation techniques and the remaining 19,980 hypotheses are calculated with simple mathematical operations. As a result, SDHT achieves a huge computational cost reduction (by about 1000 times) and is 800 times faster for signal acquisition compared to conventional techniques. This means only about 15 seconds is required to detect extremely weak GNSS signals in buildings using a personal computer.
The team predicts further studies for strengthening SDHT technology and developing positioning systems robust enough to multipath in indoor environments will allow indoor GNSS measurements within several seconds inside most buildings using GNSS alone.
Professor Kong said, “This development made us the leader in indoor GNSS positioning technology in the world.” He continued, “We hope to commercialize indoor GNSS systems to create a new market.” The research team is currently registering a patent in Korea and applying for patents overseas, as well as planning to commercialize the technology with the help of the Institute for Startup KAIST.
(Figure1. Positioning Results for the GPS Indoor Positioning System using SDHT Technology)
2017.11.02 View 6955 -
In Jin Cho Earned the Best Poster Prize at ME Summit 2017
In Jin Cho, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST received the best poster prize at the International Metabolic Engineering Summit 2017 held on October 24 in Beijing, China.
The International Metabolic Engineering Summit is a global conference where scientists and corporate researchers in the field of metabolic engineering present their latest research outcomes and build networks.
At this year’s summit, about 500 researchers from around the world participated in active academic exchanges, including giving keynote speeches and presenting posters.
During the poster session, the summit selects one person for the KeAi-synthetic and Systems Biotechnology Poster Award, two for Microbial Cell Factories Poster Awards, and three for Biotechnology Journal Poster Awards among the posters presented by graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and researchers. Cho received the KeAi-synthetic and Systems Biotechnology Poster Award. Her winning poster is on the biotransformation of p-xylene to terephthalic acid using engineered Escherichia coli.
Terephthalic acid is generally produced by p-xylene oxidation; however, this process requires a high temperature and pressure as well as a toxic catalyst during the reaction process.
Cho and Ziwei Luo, a Ph.D. student at KAIST, co-conducted the research and developed a successful biological conversion process. Compared to the existing chemical process, it does not require a high temperature and pressure; and it is environmentally friendly with a relatively high conversion rate of approximately 97%.
Cho’s advisor, Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee said, “Further research on glucose-derived terephthalic acid will enable us to produce biomass-based eco-friendly terephthalic acid through engineered Escherichia coli.”
2017.10.31 View 9545 -
High-Speed Motion Core Technology for Magnetic Memory
(Professor Kab-Jin Kim of the Department of Physics)
A joint research team led by Professor Kab-Jin Kim of the Department of Physics, KAIST and Professor Kyung-Jin Lee at Korea University developed technology to dramatically enhance the speed of next generation domain wall-based magnetic memory. This research was published online in Nature Materials on September 25.
Currently-used memory materials, D-RAM and S-RAM, are fast but volatile, leading to memory loss when the power is switched off. Flash memory is non-volatile but slow, while hard disk drives (HDD) have greater storage but are high in energy usage and weak in physical shock tolerance.
To overcome the limitations of existing memory materials, ‘domain wall-based, magnetic memory’ is being researched. The core mechanism of domain wall magnetic memory is the movement of a domain wall by the current. Non-volatility is secured by using magnetic nanowires and the lack of mechanical rotation reduced power usage. This is a new form of high density, low power next-generation memory.
However, previous studies showed the speed limit of domain wall memory to be hundreds m/s at maximum due to the ‘Walker breakdown phenomenon’, which refers to velocity breakdown from the angular precession of a domain wall. Therefore, there was a need to develop core technology to remove the Walker breakdown phenomenon and increase the speed for the commercialization of domain wall memory.
Most domain wall memory studies used ferromagnetic bodies, which cannot overcome the Walker breakdown phenomenon. The team discovered that the use of ‘ferrimagnetic‘ GdFeCo at certain conditions could overcome the Walker breakdown phenomenon and using this mechanism they could increase domain wall speed to over 2Km/s at room temperature.
Domain wall memory is high-density, low-power, and non-volatile memory. The memory could be the leading next-generation memory with the addition of the high speed property discovered in this research.
Professor Kim said, “This research is significant in discovering a new physical phenomenon at the point at which the angular momentum of a ferrimagnetic body is 0 and it is expected to advance the implementation of next-generation memory in the future.”
This research was funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea Government (MSIP) (No. 2017R1C1B2009686, NRF-2016R1A5A1008184) and by the DGIST R&D Program of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (17-BT-02).
(Figure 1. Concept Map of Domain Wall Memory Material using Ferrimagnetic Body)
(Figure 2. Scheme and Experimental Results of Domain Wall Speed Measurements)
2017.10.30 View 8484 -
Hanmaeum Education Corps Invites Multicultural Families
About 100 graduates from the Multicultural Mother Schools and their families visited the KAIST campus on October 29 at the invitation of the Hanmaeum Education Corps of KAIST. The Hanmanum Education Corps is a volunteering organization composed of KAIST faculty and students. Many retired KAIST faculties are also members of the corps. Byong Kyu Choi, an Emeritus Professor from the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, is the director of the corps and has been leading the event since 2015.
With the support of a KAIST educational volunteering organization called SEED(Social Education Embracing Diversity), this year’s event offered various activities including a treasure hunt and convergent science programs. Participants had the opportunity to experience KAIST’s educational environment and enjoyed the perfect autumn weather during outdoor activities with student volunteers.
Children enjoyed making illumination-music stickers with the KAIST students, even though it was tough to learn at first.
While the children engaged themselves in the science program, parents visited the chrysanthemum fair and some of KAIST’s cafeterias.
Hanmaeum Education Corps opened the Multicultural Mother Schools to support multicultural mothers so that they can have more interest in and help their children more with their education. Since its establishment in 2015, the Multicultural Mother Schools have been expanding throughout the country.
The corporation hopes that visiting a renowned university will encourage children from multicultural families to study hard in addition to offering self-enrichment opportunities through career exploration and science activities.
2017.10.30 View 5005 -
Distinguished Professor Lee Named International Fellow of the CAS
Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST was awarded the title of distinguished professor and international fellow from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and honorary professor from its affiliated organization the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology (TIB).
The CAS recognized Distinguished Professor Lee for his significant contributions to biotechnology. He has made significant pioneering academic achievements in the area of systems metabolic engineering, which produces useful chemicals from microorganisms. Not only did he develop the first and best source technology in that field, but also came out with processes for the production of biofuel and environmentally-friendly chemicals.”
As a global leader in systems metabolic engineering, Distinguished Professor Lee has also been appointed as an honorary professor at Jiangnan University in Wuxi, China.
Distinguished Professor Lee was listed in the ‘Top 20 Translational Researchers of 2014’ selected by the renowned international journal Nature Biotechnology. Moreover, he was the first Asian recipient of the James E. Bailey Award in 2016 and Marvin J. Johnson Award in 2012, which are given to scholars in the field of biotechnology.
He is also one of 13 global scientists who are foreign members of the renowned academic societies the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences in the US. Furthermore, he received the ‘2017 Korea Best Scientist Award’ from the president of Korea in July. Finally, his founding field, systems metabolic engineering, was chosen as one of the ‘Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2016’ by the World Economic Forum.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences, established in November 1949, is an academic organization that carries out research on basic sciences and natural sciences in China. It defined its science and technology system to include the fields of basic sciences, natural sciences, and high technology. While having a base in Beijing, its branch academies are located in 12 main cities along with 117 affiliates and 100 national key labs.
2017.10.26 View 11226