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President Shin Reaffirms Innovation Initiatives in New Year Speech
(President Shin and representatives of faculty, students, staff celebrate the New Year in a reception held on January 2 at the auditorium.)
The KAIST community gathered to celebrate a fresh start for the year 2018. At the ceremony, held in the auditorium on January 2, members of KAIST community reaffirmed their commitment to be the trailblazers of Korea and beyond through unwavering innovations.
President Sung-Chul Shin presented his new vision and plan in his New Year speech, which focused on innovation for enhancing institutional competitiveness and global visibility. He said that as you are the future of KAIST, KAIST is the future of Korea. KAIST’s vision for a better future will have a significant impact on national progress and beyond. He stressed that innovation in the five pillars of education, research, technology commercialization, globalization, and future strategy will further advance the excellence of KAIST.
At the ceremony, President Shin also presented the award for ‘the KAISTian of the Year’ to Professor YongKeun Park of the Department of Physics. The annual award recognizes a distinguished professor whose academic accomplishments made the most significant impact.
In his New Year speech, President Shin said that the year 2018 will provide an opportunity to take a leap forward for becoming a ‘Global Value Creative, World-Leading University. The Vision 2031 Committee endorsed the five innovation initiatives to fulfill KAIST’s long-term vision and will open its recommendations to the public on March 20.
Educational innovation tops the initiatives. President Shin explained that the future of Korea is in the hands of talented individuals in science and technology, emphasizing the need to nurture creative, transdisciplinary talents with the capacity to enhance the social value of science and technology.
To this end, KAIST will establish a new undergraduate non-departmental program for transdisciplinary education. This plan will eventually provide students with more options in choosing their major, as well as help students build a strong foundation in basic science and engineering and encourage multidisciplinary approaches.
For creating an innovative institutional research infrastructure, KAIST plans to build a Network of Excellence for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (NExFire) for convergence research. The plan of ‘Cross-Generational Collaborative Labs,’ will bring out a new collaboration platform by pairing up senior and junior faculty. President Shin said it will be a stepping stone to extend the spectrum of knowledge without any cessation.
For technology commercialization, KAIST will maximize its intellectual property and economic value by stimulating technology-invested companies and startups. Close cooperation with venture capitalists at home and abroad will further accelerate the commercialization drive at KAIST.
Saying that the globalization is no long an option but a necessity, he stressed KAIST will strengthen its efforts to established a bilingual campus. “KAIST will make every effort to create a more welcoming and comfortable atmosphere for the international community and their families. We will expand benefits to our international community, such as access to the KAIST Child Care Center and collaboration with the Taejon Christian International School (TCIS),” he said. President Shin added he will further expand global networks and partnerships this year, participating in a diverse range of international events at home and abroad for increasing global visibility.
He also said that well-designed future strategies will complete innovation initiatives. The Future Strategy Research Center will serve as a think tank for identifying future agendas, establishing strategies and advocating for them.
In addition to the five innovation initiatives, President Shin emphasized a new organizational culture that embraces inclusiveness and mutual respect among all of the members of KAIST.
“So far, the ideal qualifications expected of KAISTians have included creativity and a challenging spirit. From now on, we will nurture talents with a focus on the 3Cs: Creativity, Challenge, and Caring. I would like to make a campus in which all members care for each other to help attain mutual growth with warmth and respect," he said.
For the full text, Click
2018.01.02 View 7790 -
A Glance at the 2017 KAIST Literary Awards Ceremony
Since KAIST is a university specializing in science and engineering, people may think that the students rarely engage in literary activities. But KAIST students also excel in writing literature.
The 23rd KAIST Literary Award Ceremony was held on December 14 on the KAIST main campus. The award was established in 1995 to encourage students’ creative activities and to promote literary attainment. It is open to all KAIST students from undergraduate to masters and PhD students. This year, 43 students submitted a total of 68 literary works in the genres of poetry, novel, critique, and scenario.
KAIST professors Dong Ju Kim, Bong Gwan Jun, and Yunjeong Jo from the School of Humanities & Social Sciences participated as judges for the awards and they were joined by writers from the 8th Endless Road Program who served as invited judges for the novels and scenarios.
The Endless Road Program is a KAIST project for supporting artists who are engaged in literary works including scenarios, novels, webtoons, and movies by providing residences and funds. Novelists Jin Young Choi and Hak Chan Kim participated as judges for the novels and a drama scriptwriter, Joo Kim, as a judge of the scenarios.
After thorough evaluation, four submissions were chosen as awardees.
Section
Award
Name
Poetry
Winner
Sung Gil Moon (PhD candidate from the College of Business)
Runner-up
Jong Ik Jeon (Undergraduate student)
Novel
Winner
Joo Hwan Kim
(Undergraduate from the Dept. of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)
Runner-up
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Essay & Critique
Winner
-
Runner-up
Jung Joon Park
(PhD candidate from the Dept. of Bio and Brain Engineering)
Scenario
Winner
-
Runner-up
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The literary works as well as a review of the awards will be published in the KAIST Times in 2018.
2017.12.15 View 6809 -
Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee Named NAI Fellow
(Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee)
Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering was named to the National Academy of Inventors in the US. He is the first Korean scholar ever elected as a NAI fellow.
The NAI is a non-profit member organization with over 4,000 individual inventors and fellows spanning more than 250 institutions worldwide. It is comprised of universities as well as governmental and non-profit research institutes. The academy was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents from the US Patent and Trademark Office. So far, 575 fellows from 229 institutions have been elected.
The academy said Professor Lee has been recognized for fellowship induction as he has demonstrated a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society.
Distinguished Professor Lee, a pioneering researcher and scholar in the field of systems metabolic engineering, was ranked in the top 1% of highly cited researchers (HCR) this year. Over the past 11 years, he published more than 130,000 articles in prestigious journals around the world. He has been cited more than 34,000 times since he started working at KAIST in 1994.
He is also the first Korean ever elected to both the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in the US, becoming the one of 13 foreign scholars in the world holding two prestigious institutions’ fellowships.
Dr. Lee is currently the dean of KAIST Institutes, the world-leading institute for multi and interdisciplinary research. He is also serving as co-chair of the Global Council on Biotechnology and is a member of the Global Future Council on the Fourth Industrial Revolution at the World Economic Forum.
2017.12.13 View 7240 -
MoU by KAIST-Seoul-Seocho-gu for the 4th Industrial Revolution
The opening ceremony of the Yangjae R&CD Innovation Hub was held in Seoul on December 5. More than 400 guests came to the ceremony from major institutes and companies that are based in the hub. KAIST President Sung-Chul Shin, the Mayor of Seoul, Won-soon Park, and the Mayor of Seocho-gu, Eun Hee Cho, signed an MoU for Seoul to be the leading city for successfully realizing the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The three organizations aim to cooperate with one another in various areas, including an economic boost for local job creation, technology development, and the promotion of projects through an industry-academia-institute network and fostering manpower.
Yangjae R&CD is the first facility specializing in and dedicated for Artificial Intelligence, which is the major topic of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The hub is comprised of enterprises specializing in AI, open co-work spaces, conference rooms, an open networking lounge, and spaces for fostering professional manpower. The hub will recruit additional enterprises and individuals who wish to move in. KAIST, an institute containing professors and researchers in the field of AI, and Modulabs, an organization becoming distinguished in AI research, will be in charge of operating the facility together.
The Yangjae R&CD Innovation Hub will operate a professional training program with participation from KAIST professors, which aims to produce 500 professionals in AI research and development by 2020. It will also provide inexpensive space as well as consultations and venture capital to startup and venture companies. It plans to find and foster 50 innovation companies by 2020.
In particular, the hub will operate a course for new AI business models 24 times over three years.
The hub also offers job consultations, academic conferences, public space for companies residing in the hub, a free GPU cluster server, technical training, seminars, forums, investment attraction, overseas expansion, and one-to-one technical consultations.
The Yangjae R&CD Zone is the place established for the Fourth Industrial Revolution by Seoul. R&CD is a concept combining Research and Development, Connection, Companies, Community, and Culture.
Seoul aims to create the Yangjae Zone as an urban innovation hub for facilitating industry-academia linkage as well as establishing a startup-settlement-growth technical ecosystem.
2017.12.11 View 8139 -
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 5220 -
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 4655 -
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 7392 -
Strengthening Industry-Academia Cooperation with LG CNS
On November 20, KAIST signed an MoU with LG CNS for industry-academia partnership in education, research, and business in the fields of AI and Big Data. Rather than simply developing education programs or supporting industry-academia scholarships, both organizations agreed to carry out a joint research project on AI and Big Data that can be applied to practical business.
KAIST will collaborate with LG CNS in the fields of smart factories, customer analysis, and supply chain management analysis.
Not only will LG CNS offer internships to KAIST students, but it also will support professors and students who propose innovative startup ideas for AI and Big Data. Offering an industry-academia scholarship for graduate students is also being discussed. Together with LG CNS, KAIST will put its efforts into propose projects regarding AI and Big Data in the public sector.
Furthermore, KAIST and LG CNS will jointly explore and carry out industry-academia projects that could be practically used in business. Both will carry out the project vigorously through strong cooperation; for instance, LG CNS employees can be assigned to KAIST, if necessary. Also, LG CNS’s AI and Big Data platform, called DAP (Data Analytics & AI Platform) will be used as a data analysis tool during the project and the joint outcomes will be installed in DAP.
KAIST professors with expertise in AI deep learning have trained LG CNS employees since the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering established ‘KAIST AI Academy’ in LG CNS last August.
“With KAIST, the best research-centered university in Korea, we will continue to lead in developing the field of AI and Big Data and provide innovative services that create value by connecting them to customer business,” Yong Shub Kim, the CEO of LG CNS, highlighted.
2017.11.22 View 9606 -
Professor Je-Kyun Park, Awarded by The Korean BioChip Society
On November 9, Je-Kyun Park from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering at KAIST received an award from the 2017 Fall Meeting of The Korean BioChip Society held in Paradise Hotel Busan, Korea. This year’s meeting recognized Professor Park for developing lab-on-a-chip and microfluidic analytical technologies.
The Korean BioChip Society is a corporation of biochip professional established in 2006 for the development of biochip technology. Every year, the Society selects a recipient based on the nominees’ academic achievements and contributions to bio-fusion industry.
Professor Park served on the international editorial boards of renowned international journals in related fields, including Biosensors and Bioelectronics and Lab on a Chip. He was also the Committee Chairman of MicroTas in 2015.
2017.11.22 View 6814 -
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 7803 -
IDKAIST Graduation Show, Interative and Innovative Works
Undergraduate students from the Department of Industrial Design at KAIST opened up their graduation show in the Industrial Design Building for eight days in KAIST from November 10 and another four days in Coex, Seoul from December 7.
The students showcased their creative and novel works in the exhibition. Some designs successfully showed change concepts such as for mixing straws. There were also several projects designed to meet individual demand, such as a customized shoe-making application and personal makeup colorings.
Since the establishment of its undergraduate program in 1983, the department has held a graduation show to demonstrate four years of the students’ academic work and research performance to KAIST members, externals specialists, and the public.
Professor Daniel Saakes, who is in charge of the show, said, “Please come by the show and support the 28 students for their hard work. This year, students’ projects are more socially-oriented through applications and social media, making them easily approachable for consumers.”
2017.11.13 View 5876 -
LG's Woo Jong Lee Named the Alumnus of College of Engineering
The College of Engineering at KAIST selected Woo Jong Lee, President and Head of the VC Business Division at LG Electronics Inc., as the 2017 Alumnus of the Year for the College of Engineering.
‘Alumnus of the Year’ is an award given to a distinguished alumnus who has contributed to the development of industrial technology or made outstanding academic achievements.
Lee graduated from KAIST with the master’s degrees in Industrial Engineering. He also worked at Daewoo Motors as an executive member in the development division. He has been a crucial human resource for LG since he joined the company in 2000.
While leading the VC business Division, which was established in 2013, Lee is recognized as a creative engineer as well as a leader in the automotive industry. Focusing on autonomous driving and eco-friendliness, he has been engaged in the production of major projects from the beginning to the end.
Since 2014, outstanding alumni whose achievements have represented KAIST at the highest level have received the award. The first recipient was Tae-Kyung Yoo, an executive at Lumens Co., Ltd., and the second recipient was Jung-Ju Kim, the founder of NXC. In 2016, the award was not given because an appropriate candidate could not be identified.
The award was held in the Industrial Engineering & Management Building (E2) on November 8. Faculty members including the dean of the College of Engineering Jong-Hwan Kim, the vice dean Hyochoong Bang, the head of Industrial & Systems Engineering Taesik Lee, and the dean of the KAIST Academy Tae-Eog Lee attended the ceremony.
After the ceremony, Lee delivered a lecture on ‘Auto-components Business of LG Electronics’ to KAIST students.
2017.11.09 View 7159