IT
-
Professor Choi Chul Hui appointed as editor-in-chief of Nanobiosensors in a disease diagnosis magazine
Professor Choi Chul Hui of the Department of Biological and Brain Engineering has been appointed the editor-in-chief of Nanobiosensors, an international medical magazine that concentrates on disease diagnosis.
As the editor-in-chief, Professor Choi will be involved in dissertation evaluations and overall direction of the magazine.
Professor Choi is one of the leading authorities in the field of clinical medicine and has published 60 SCI level dissertations in the fields of cell biology, computational biology, and bio-optics.
He is also the executive director of the KAIST BioImaging Research Center, and his research lab focuses on cell signals and bio imaging. Professor Choi is researching the generation process of degenerative diseases like arteriosclerosis by taking a multidisciplinary approach.
Professor Choi has recently developed a new bio imaging technique that allows for the measurement of perfusion and a new technology for the drug delivery to nerves using ultra short wavelength laser beams.
2011.10.10 View 10721 -
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 10956 -
Bicycle Sharing System "Ta-Shu" Arrives at KAIST.
KAIST has begun providing a bike rental service, called “Ta-Shu,” to its students. This bicycle sharing system, implemented in tandem with the local city government, has been in service since the 7th of September and will allow KAIST students to rent bicycles for travel within campus and even to other parts of the city, Daejeon.
The ‘University Pubic-Bicycle Rental System’ is a program in which numbers of bicycles are made available for shared use by students. Initiated by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, the university expects that more students will use bicycles as part of their daily mobility means through this system.
2011.09.22 View 8451 -
Cancer detection from an implantable, flexible LED
Professor Keon Jae Lee
A KAIST research team has developed a new type of biocompatible and bendable GaN LED biosensor.
Daejeon, the Republic of Korea, August 8, 2011—Can a flexible LED conformably placed on the human heart, situated on the corrugated surface of the human brain, or rolled upon the blood vessels, diagnose or even treat various diseases? These things might be a reality in the near future.
The team of Professor Keon Jae Lee (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, KAIST) has developed a new concept: a biocompatible, flexible Gallium Nitride (GaN) LED that can detect prostate cancer.
GaN LED, a highly efficient light emitting device, has been commercialized in LED TVs and in the lighting industry. Until now, it has been difficult to use this semiconductor material to fabricate flexible electronic systems due to its brittleness. The research team, however, has succeeded in developing a highly efficient, flexible GaN LED and in detecting cancer using a flexible LED biosensor.
Prof. Lee was involved in the first co-invention of "High Performance Flexible Single Crystal GaN" during his PhD course at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). This flexible GaN LED biosensor utilized a similar protocol to transfer thin GaN LED films onto flexible substrates, followed by a biocompatible packaging process; the system’s overall potential for use in implantable biomedical applications was demonstrated.
Professor John Roger (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, UIUC) said,
“Bio-integrated LEDs represent an exciting, new technology with strong potential to address important challenges in human health. This present work represents a very nice contribution to this emerging field.”
This paper was published in the online issue of Nano Energy Elsevier Journal (Editor, Prof. Zhong Lin Wang) dated September 16, 2011.
Flexible GaN LED produces blue light.
2011.09.20 View 11761 -
Mrs. Kim Sam Yeol donates to KAIST 5 billion Korean Won in real estate following her husband Chairman Kim Byoung Ho's act of generosity.
“Everything is hard the first time around, but it becomes easier from the second time around. The same goes for donation. I wish my small donation can go a long way in the development of KAIST.”
Chairman Kim Byoung Ho donated to KAIST 30 billion Korean Won in real estate in 2009 and on the 19th of September of 2011, his wife Mrs. Kim Sam Yeol visited President Seo Nam Pyo at KAIST Seoul campus to donate 5 billion Korean Won in real estate.
It is the first time in KAIST history that the donator of a substantial donation or his/her family member donates once more, an equally substantial donation. Mrs. Kim relayed that, “Seeing the Kim Byoung Ho & Kim Same Yeol IT Fusion Center start construction in May of this year as a result of my husband’s donation made me think how great a contribution we have made in the development of this country” and that “It has been some time since I decided to make additional donation upon the completion of the IT Fusion Center in December.”
She explained that the earlier than planned donation reflects her wish that KAIST begin using and investing her donation as quickly as possible.
Mrs. Kim stated that, “We planned to build a mansion to live in in commemoration of our 30th wedding anniversary on the real estate property we donated, but it seemed much better and meaningful to take part in the joy of giving and donate to KAIST with the belief that the property will be used in a more meaningful way.”
She went on to say that, “It was harder to make the decision to donate the second time around. We felt sorry for our son and his spouse, but our decision was made final when we thought of the professors, students, staff, including President Seo Nam Pyo who spend day and night working to develop science and technology in Korea.”
Her husband Chairman Kim Byoung Ho agreed to donate the real estate property to KAIST.
President Seo commented, “Mrs. Kim Sam Yeol’s donation will contribute greatly to the spread of the ‘donation virus’ and will be marked as the start of a new chapter. In order to commemorate her goodwill for KAIST, it will be seen to it that the donation will be used in manner that is meaningful and beneficial to the development of KAIST.”
The couple, Kim Byoung Ho and Kim Sam Yeol, has donated a sum of 20 million Korean Won since their 2009 donation for the development of KAIST.
2011.09.20 View 8762 -
Op-Ed by MIT President, Manufacturing a Recovery, New York Times, August 29, 2011
New York Times carried an opinion piece of MIT President, Susan Hockfield. Dr. Hockfield put emphasis on the importance of recovering manufacturing to revive the US economy and suggested investments in the development of high technology and “tight integration of design production” through “networks of innovation, lab research to new production processes, and business models.” For the op-ed piece, please go to
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/opinion/manufacturing-a-recovery.html?_r=2.
2011.08.31 View 10435 -
Future of Petrochemical Industry: The Age of Bio-Refineries
The concept of bio-refinery is based on using biomass from seaweeds and non-edible plant sources to produce various materials.
Bio-refineries has been looked into with increasing interest in modern times due to the advent of global warming (and the subsequent changes in the atmosphere) and the exhaustion of natural resources.
However past 20 years of research in metabolic engineering had a crucial limitation; the need to improve the efficiency of the microorganisms that actually go about converting biomass into biochemical materials.
In order to compensate for the inefficiency, Professor Lee Sang Yeop combined systems biology, composite biology, evolutionary engineering to form ‘systems metabolic engineering’.
This allows combining various data to explain the organism’s state in a multi-dimensional scope and respond accordingly by controlling the metabolism.
The result of the experiment is set as the cover dissertation of ‘Trends in Biotechnology’ magazine’s August edition.
2011.07.28 View 11784
-
Scientists develop highly efficient industrial catalyst
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2011/07/14/48/0501000000AEN20110714009600320F.HTML
SEOUL, July 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korean scientists said Friday that they have developed a highly efficient nanoporous industrial catalyst that can have a considerable impact on chemical and oil-refining sectors.
The team of scientists led by Ryoo Ryong, a chemistry professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), said the solid zeolite compound developed in the laboratory has a reaction speed five to 10 times faster than that of conventional materials.
Zeolite, which is made from silica and aluminium, is frequently used as an absorbent, water purifier and in nuclear reprocessing, although it is mainly employed in the chemical industry.
The annual size of the zeolite market is estimated at US$2.5 billion with output using the material topping $30 billion. At present, 41 percent of all catalysts used in the chemical sector are nano-scale zeolite materials.
The KAIST team said that because the new zeolite is made up of different sized pores, the material can be used as a catalyst when existing materials are unable to act as a changing agent.
"Existing zeolites only have pores under 1 nanometer in diameter, but the new material has holes that range from 1 nanometer to 3.5 nanometers, which are all arranged in a regular honeycomb arrangement," Ryoo said. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.
He said the ability to have both micro- and meso-sized pores is key to the faster reaction speed that is an integral part of raising efficiency. The South Korean researchers used a so-called surfactant process to make the different sizes of pores.
The development is a breakthrough because researchers and companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. have been trying to build zeolite with different sizes of pores for the past two decades without making serious headway. There are more than 200 different types of zeolites in the world.
Ryoo, who received funding from the government, has requested intellectual property rights for the discovery, which has been published in the latest issue of Science magazine. He also developed another zeolite in the past that can transform methanol to gasoline up to 10 times more efficiently than existing catalysts.
Exxon Mobil has expressed interest in the two zeolites made by Ryoo"s team. Undisclosed South Korean petrochemical companies have also made inquiries that may lead to commercial development in the future.
"There are some technical issues to resolve, mainly related with mass production and stability," the scientist said.
He said full-fledge production will be determined by how much companies are willing to spend on research to speed up development that can bring down overall production costs.
The KAIST team said it took two years to make the new zeolite, which can be custom made to meet specific needs.
(END)
2011.07.15 View 12418
-
KAIST Tops Patent List Among Domestic Universities, Chosun Ilbo, July 5, 2011
According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office, KAIST took the first place among the universities in Korea registering patents from 2006 to 2010. For the article from Chosun Ilbo, please go to the below link:
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/07/05/2011070500743.html
2011.07.05 View 10241
-
University Alums go out directly in search of Creative Future Talents
KAIST decided to involve 140 alums in the interview process for the class enrolled in 2012.
The alums participating in the interview process will be focusing on the finding of creative science and technology talent and the characteristics of becoming a leader in the math and science fields. Those alums participating in the interview process are from all walks of life including representatives of industries, universities professors, researchers, and public servants.
The reason for the inclusion of the alums in the admissions process is to stress the togetherness of KAIST family and take another step to becoming a world class university.
2011.06.24 View 8751
-
Yonhap News, Scientists Develop Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Supercapacitor, June 6, 2011
Yonhap News Agency, South Korea’s wire news agency, reported that KAIST’s research team developed “a new type of power storage technology using nitrogen and graphene.”
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=591725
2011.06.08 View 9499
-
President Seo Nam Pyo receives DTU Gold Medal
President Seo Nam Pyo receives DTU Gold Medal on the 6th of May in the DTU Annual Commemoration Day Ceremony.
The DTU has recognized the achievements, innovative ideas, and great effort made by President Seo in heightening the world level of engineering education and his success in improving the status of science and technology of Korea.
The Technical University of Denmark was established in 1829 and is known as the best engineering university in Scandinavia and awards a gold medal annually to a person that is recognized for their accomplishment in the field of science and technology.
2011.05.31 View 8485