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Professor Ji-Yun Lee, Received FAA Recognition Award
Professor Ji-Yun Lee, from the Department of Aerospace Engineering at KAIST, received the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Recognition Award for her Ground-Based Augmentation System (GBAS) and her contribution to the development of satellite navigation technology.
GBAS contributes to the safety of aircraft navigation by providing flawless information with real-time location accuracy within one meter.
Professor Lee developed the monitoring software to improve the safety of GBAS users in her paper published in the International Journal of Radio Science in July of 2012.
The software will be distributed and used by many organizations including Eurocontrol following verification from the FAA technical center. It is expected to be standardized after discussions among international organizations.Professor Lee said, “As satellite navigation is applied to the infrastructure of air, marine, and ground transportation, as well as information & communications and finance, ensuring the performance and safety of the system is the most important factor. GBAS will be further developed and applied as a part of a global service system through international collaboration.”
2013.11.15 View 11737 -
2013 International Forum on Eco-Friendly Vehicle and System
Leaders in transportation technology gathered at KAIST to discuss commercialization & standardization and to encourage the exchange of research progress, strategy, and future initiatives in transportation technology.
The Graduate School for Green Transportation at KAIST hosted the 2013 International Forum on Eco-friendly Vehicles and Systems (IFEV) in Fusion Hall of the KAIST Institute Building from October 21 to 22.
About 50 leaders in the field of future transportation from academic institutes and industries including Dr. Soon-Man Hong, President of Korea Railroad Research Institute (KRRI), Dr. Kwang-Hee Nam, Professor at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), and Mr. Mike Schagrin, the Intelligent Transportation Systems Program Manager of the US Department of Transportation (retired) participated in the 4th annual IFEV.
The commercialization & standardization session and a technical session were followed by the plenary meeting of the forum.
Dr. Hong, the keynote speaker, introduced the High Capacity Double Deck High Speed Train, Near Surface Subway System, and Urban Railway System with Wireless Power Transfer Technology under the title “Korea’s Policy and Technology Initiative for Enhancing Green Transport Systems.”
Dr. Kwang-Hee Nam presented “Electric Vehicle Trends & the POSTECH E-Car Research Center Power Train Design,” followed by Mr. Mike Schagrin who spoke about “Going Green with Connected Automation.”
Dr. Omer C. Onar from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) shared recent research on “ORNL Development in Stationary and Dynamic Wireless Charging.”
In the commercialization session, Faical Turki of Vahle, Germany, presented “Wireless Inductive Battery Chargers,” and Professor Kazuyuki Ouchi from Tokyo University presented “Wind Challenger, the Next Generation Hybrid Vessels.”
In the technical session, presentations and discussions were performed on future ground vehicles and railroad technology, intelligent transportation systems and strategy, and policy on eco-friendly vehicle technology, including Professor In-Soo Suh of the Graduate School for Green Transportation at KAIST who presented on “Armadillo-T: 4WD Micro Electric EV with a Foldable Body Concept.”
On the second day of IFEV 2013, representatives of the European Union’s Safe and Green Road Vehicles (SAGE) consortium discussed connectivity in road transportation as a means of improving safety, efficiency and convenience in future safe and green vehicles with collaboration from Korean transportation organizations such as the Korea Transport Institute and Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute.
Professor Suh, who organized the forum, said, “This forum will serve as an excellent opportunity to discuss and share R&BD progress in the green transportation field. “Details can be found at http://gt.kaist.ac.kr/ifev2013/.
2013.11.15 View 12984 -
Kinetic Lighting, Dlight, Dominates World Renowned Design Awards
Professor Sang-Min Bae
“D’light,” a lamp that transforms its lampshade shape, developed by a team led by KAIST Department of Industrial Design’s Professor Sang-Min Bae, won Japan’s Good Design Awards on October the 2nd, soon after winning the internationally renowned 2013 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) in August.
IDEA, sponsored by the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA) and BusinessWeek, awards the best work from over 6,000 exhibits from 50 countries. Japan’s Good Design Awards, founded by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion (JDP) in 1957, is the most prestigious and one of the World’s four major design awards.
“D’light” combines “donative” and “light.” Its meaning originates from the meaning of “delight” which means “giving great joy.” The shape and the brightness of the lamp can be transformed by turning the end of the heart-shaped lampshade. The team states that the lamp carries a figurative meaning of generous hearts lighting the neglected of the world by designing the lamp to be the brightest when it takes the shape of a heart. D’light developed as the 5th product of “the Nanum” project that started in 2006. Professor Bae first participated in the project in developing the 2nd product, “Cross Cube” in 2007. The he designed and launched the environmentally friendly humidifier “Lovepot” in 2008 and interactive tumbler “Hearty” in 2009.
The “Nanum” project aims to develop innovative products for charity to create a humane social circulatory system. The project, led by the international relief and development organisation, World Vision and KAIST’s ID+IM laboratory run by Professor Bae, donates all profits to educate the children of low-income families. The project raised a total of 1.7 billion Korean won from 2007 this year to provide scholarships to 240 children in need.
Professor Bae’s team has undertaken seed and “Nanum” projects with the theme of philanthropy design helping people in need by creating innovative designs. The project has produced four excellent and authentic products which received 44 world renowned design awards.
Professor Bae said, “’The Nanum’ project consists of planning, designing, producing and selling for charity and donates all profit to children in need through education and scholarship.” He continued, “The consumers can purchase products that are aesthetically pleasing and convenient as well as gaining an opportunity to donate to children in need.”
Figure1 Kinetic lighting D’light
Figure 2. Characteristics of “Nanum” D’light
The shape of the lampshade can be transformed. The lamp sheds the brightest light when it takes the shape of a heart, hence showing the figurative meaning of brightening the neglected parts of the world with generous hearts.
Figure 3. Detailed Images of D’light
2013.11.11 View 10469 -
The World Economic Forum Invites KAIST to 2014 Davos Forum
President Steve Kang and Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee have been invited by the World Economic Forum (WEF) to attend its annual meeting slated for January 22-25, 2014 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.
The president will also join the Global University Leaders Forum (GULF) to be held during the annual meeting. The GULF consists of leading research universities throughout the world, at which President Kang will address agenda related to higher education and research.
From September 11th to 13th, KAIST was invited to the WEF’s 2013 Summer Davos Forum held in Dalian, China. The Summer Davos Forum is recognized as a barometer of the world economy, and KAIST hosted three sessions there.
In a session titled “Smart Regulations,” Professor Sang Yup Lee hosted presentations and discussions under the topic of “How regulation models can strengthen technical innovation and expansion.” President Steve Kang, Peter Sands, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank Group, Mark Weinberger, CEO of Ernest & Young, and Peter Terium, CEO of RWE, participated in the discussions.
The KAIST delegates also presented and participated in a session titled “From Trade Center to Innovative Hub” to discuss how to lead innovations in Asia, as well as “Marine Resources: Finding New Frontier” to address issues of how to develop and manage oceanic resources for potential growth.
President Kang said, “The World Economic Forum allows us to introduce the results of our innovative and creative research to global leaders and to demonstrate that our global position continues to grow.”
The WEF has been hosting Summer Davos Forum in China since 2007. About 1,500 participants from over 90 countries joined in this year’s summer forum under the theme of “Innovation: Inevitable Mainstream.” New strategies for innovations and solutions for global threats were suggested through presentations and discussions in 125 sessions.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an independent, international, and non-profit organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. It is committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and government leaders to shape global, regional and industry agenda.
Among the meetings and forums organized by the WEF, its annual meeting held each January in Davos, a.k.a. the Davos Forum, has been the best known gathering. The Davos Forum brings together some 2,500 top business leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals and journalists to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world including health and environment.
2013.11.07 View 11581 -
KAIST announced a novel technology to produce gasoline by a metabolically engineered microorganism
A major scientific breakthrough in the development of renewable energy sources and other important chemicals; The research team succeeded in producing 580 mg of gasoline per liter of cultured broth by converting in vivo generated fatty acids
For many decades, we have been relying on fossil resources to produce liquid fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and many industrial and consumer chemicals for daily use. However, increasing strains on natural resources as well as environmental issues including global warming have triggered a strong interest in developing sustainable ways to obtain fuels and chemicals.
Gasoline, the petroleum-derived product that is most widely used as a fuel for transportation, is a mixture of hydrocarbons, additives, and blending agents. The hydrocarbons, called alkanes, consist only of carbon and hydrogen atoms. Gasoline has a combination of straight-chain and branched-chain alkanes (hydrocarbons) consisted of 4-12 carbon atoms linked by direct carbon-carbon bonds.
Previously, through metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli (E. coli), there have been a few research results on the production of long-chain alkanes, which consist of 13-17 carbon atoms, suitable for replacing diesel. However, there has been no report on the microbial production of short-chain alkanes, a possible substitute for gasoline.
In the paper (entitled "Microbial Production of Short-chain Alkanes") published online in Nature on September 29, a Korean research team led by Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) reported, for the first time, the development of a novel strategy for microbial gasoline production through metabolic engineering of E. coli.
The research team engineered the fatty acid metabolism to provide the fatty acid derivatives that are shorter than normal intracellular fatty acid metabolites, and introduced a novel synthetic pathway for the biosynthesis of short-chain alkanes. This allowed the development of platform E. coli strain capable of producing gasoline for the first time. Furthermore, this platform strain, if desired, can be modified to produce other products such as short-chain fatty esters and short-chain fatty alcohols.
In this paper, the Korean researchers described detailed strategies for 1) screening of enzymes associated with the production of fatty acids, 2) engineering of enzymes and fatty acid biosynthetic pathways to concentrate carbon flux towards the short-chain fatty acid production, and 3) converting short-chain fatty acids to their corresponding alkanes (gasoline) by introducing a novel synthetic pathway and optimization of culture conditions. Furthermore, the research team showed the possibility of producing fatty esters and alcohols by introducing responsible enzymes into the same platform strain.
Professor Sang Yup Lee said, "It is only the beginning of the work towards sustainable production of gasoline. The titer is rather low due to the low metabolic flux towards the formation of short-chain fatty acids and their derivatives. We are currently working on increasing the titer, yield and productivity of bio-gasoline. Nonetheless, we are pleased to report, for the first time, the production of gasoline through the metabolic engineering of E. coli, which we hope will serve as a basis for the metabolic engineering of microorganisms to produce fuels and chemicals from renewable resources."
This research was supported by the Advanced Biomass Research and Development Center of Korea (ABC-2010-0029799) through the Global Frontier Research Program of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) through the National Research Foundation (NRF), Republic of Korea. Systems metabolic engineering work was supported by the Technology Development Program to Solve Climate Changes on Systems Metabolic Engineering for Biorefineries (NRF-2012-C1AAA001-2012M1A2A2026556) by MSIP through NRF.
Short-Chain Alkanes Generated from Renewable Biomass
This diagram shows the metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for the production of short-chain alkanes (gasoline) from renewable biomass.
Nature Cover Page (September 29th, 2013)
2013.11.04 View 12623 -
KAIST ranked 60th in the 2013 QS World University Rankings
KAST achieved the highest ranking in its history in the QS World University Rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds.
The British company, which specializes in education, has ranked KAIST 60th in the world in its 2013 QS World University Rankings, as announced on its homepage on September 10th. KAIST was ranked 198th in 2006 and was promoted to 63rd in 2012.
This year, MIT was first, followed by Harvard in second, Cambridge in third, University College of London in fourth, and Imperial College in fifth.
Seoul National University, in 35th place, was ranked the highest among Korean universities. Six other Korean universities were included in the top 200, including KAIST, POSTECH which ranked 107th, Yonsei University in 114th place, Korea University in 145th, and Sungkyunkwan University in 162nd.
QS World University Rankings are assessed based on six different criteria: academic reputation (40%), citations per faculty (20%), student-to-faculty ratio (20%), employer reputation (10%), international student ratio (5%), and foreign faculty ratio (5%).
KAIST improved over 10 points from last year in the areas of employer reputation and citations per faculty.
“This has been accomplished through the challenging spirit and passion of the KAIST family including the students and the faculty. All possible support will be provided for them to excel in research and education”, said the president, Steve Kang.
KAIST also ranked sixth in the 2013 Chosun Daily Newspaper Asian University Rankings and first in the Chungang Daily Newspaper University Rankings for five years from 2008 to 2012.
2013.11.04 View 6476
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Collaboration with Korea Institute of Energy Research
KAIST and the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) agreed on September 4th to further collaboration on energy research such as the development of nano-based hybrid solar cells, bio-fuels, artificial photosynthesis, and carbon dioxide reduction.
The two institutions will select 11 research projects to focus on their cooperation. President Steve Kang (in the right) stood with Jooho Whang, the president of KIER (in the left), holding the signed memorandum of understanding.
2013.11.04 View 8403 -
KAIST's classes now available to take from all around the world
Signed a partnership agreement with Coursera to provide millions of people with online courses in science and technology.
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), a world-leading research university focusing on science, engineering and technology, joined a new, online platform for open access that serves the needs of Korean and global learners.
KAIST and Coursera, the world"s largest provider of massive open online courses (MOOCs), agreed on October 14th, 2013 to partner for the provision of internet-based open learning, through which the university expects to reinforce its current education initiative, Education 3.0.Steve Kang, president of KAIST, was upbeat about the partnership."We know the benefits and importance of online education that will significantly impact the landscape of today"s higher education. Hopefully, our partnership with Coursera will expand our initiative to continuously provide quality education globally."
With its network of 107 prestigious partner universities and public institutions worldwide, Coursera offers 482 free online courses across a wide field of humanities, science, engineering, and business to 5 million students around the globe.
KAIST will be able to utilize top-notch online courses and lecture contents available on the company"s website. The university can also supply its online courses to the global community, allowing the faculty"s top quality lectures to reach hundreds and thousands of students and adult learners throughout the world.Incorporating advanced information and communications technology, KAIST has implemented a new, smart education program, Education 3.0, since 2012 to effectively meet the growing demands of creating a better and more interactive learning and teaching environment for students and faculty. Under Education 3.0, students study online and meet in groups with a professor for discussions and problem solving.
Tae-Eog Lee, Director of the Center for Excellence in Learning & Teaching at KAIST, said:"We received a phenomenal response from students and professors to the courses made available under Education 3.0. For this year alone, we are offering 60 courses, such classes as calculus, general biology, basic programming, design and communication, bioengineering fundamentals, and logic and artificial intelligence."
Professor Lee added:"It has turned out that our education initiative is not only useful to our students but also quite popular among learners outside the university and Korea. It"s a great thing that KAIST can contribute to the world"s concerted efforts to provide equal opportunities for learning. At the same time, we look forward to seeing the benefits of MOOC-based content being used in our classrooms."
Founded in 2012 by two eminent Stanford University professors, Coursera has held a strong lead in MOOCs. Unlike the traditional online education model, open courseware (OCW), designed for simply sharing lecture materials including videos, slides, and data through the internet, MOOCs develop and evaluate courses, lecture contents, and delivery quality to meet high academic standards—In order to earn credits, subscribers (universities and students) are required to submit course registration, specification, and description; student attendance roster; homework and assignments; and assessment.
Daphne Koller, co-founder of Coursera, commented on the partnership agreement with KAIST:"We are honored to have so many brilliant minds working together to expand educational opportunities globally. To be able to offer courses from professors at the forefront of their fields to millions of people is truly remarkable, and our students remind us daily of the value of spreading this knowledge globally."
Among the partner universities and institutions are Stanford University, California Institute of Technology, Columbia University, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, the National University of Singapore, the University of Tokyo, the World Bank, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
President Steve Kang (in the left) singed a partnership agreement with Dr. Daphne Koller (in the right), president and CEO of Coursera.
2013.11.04 View 10261 -
KAIST Hosted the 6th International Presidential Forum on Global Research Universities
More than 120 global leaders from higher education, private and public sectors, to discuss the promotion of economic growth through knowledge creation and entrepreneurship
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) held the 6th International Presidential Forum on Global Research Universities (IPFGRU) on October 15th at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
About 64 presidents and vice presidents from 57 research universities in 28 nations attended for a presentation and panel discussion on the topic of “The Role and Responsibility of Research Universities: Knowledge Creation, Technology Transfer, and Entrepreneurship.”Annually held, the forum is organized to promote excellence and innovation in higher education and provide a place for discussion among prominent research university leaders and key policy-makers in the private and public sectors from across the world.Among the notable universities attending the 2013 forum were the University of California, Irvine, the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Technische Universität Berlin, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Rice University, the University of Waterloo, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Government officials as well as representatives from business and industry such as Samsung Electronics, Korea Telecom, and Elsevier also joined the event.
The forum was proceeded with three separate sessions: Enabling Knowledge Creation, Entrepreneurship & University-Based Technology Transfer, and Higher Education & Strategic Knowledge Creation: Specialization & Performance, through which speakers and panelists examined how universities have played a role in knowledge creation and technology transfer, and ultimately how they have contributed to the development of national economies.
Keynote speakers were Michael Drake, chancellor of UC Irvine, and Jörg Steinbach, president of Technische Universität Berlin. Forum participants shared their experiences and insights in starting up knowledge- and technolgy-based new businesses.
Steve Kang, president of KAIST, talked about the purpose of the 2013 IPFGRU:
“In the face of an ever-changing economic climate driven by shifts in technological advancement, demographic trends, and global integration, the role of research universities is becoming ever more significant in achieving sustainable economic growth. This forum will help participants from around the world to define the choices ahead as universities seek the most productive and beneficial models for cooperation with industry, venture startups, and government.”For the 2013 IPFGRU, Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning, ROK, Saudi Aramco, Samsung Heavy Industries, S-Oil, Elsevier, Thomson Reuters, and the Korea Economic Daily were forum sponsors.
2013.11.04 View 11037 -
First Prize in the 2013 International Military Science and Technology Contest
Professor James R. Morrison and his students of the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at KAIST were awarded the first prize in the 2013 International Military Science and Technology Contest organized by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration held in COEX from July 11 to 14.
The research group, Byungduk Song (Ph.D candidate), Jonghoe Kim (Ph.D candidate), Hyolin Park (MS candidate) and Professor James R. Morrison, received the first prize with their paper entitled “Automated and persistent UAV system for a complementary method for border patrol and target tracking.”
The Defense Acquisition Program Administration is the host of the annual contest which aims to contribute to the future of the defense industry and to expand technology exchange between private institutes and the military through the coordination of defense technology and advanced technology from industrial and educational cooperation.Professor Morrison’s team received the honor of the first-place prize out of 56 competitors from within Korea and 7 from overseas in the field of Synthetic New Technology/Academic Thesis.
2013.10.31 View 9555 -
Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee appointed as an advisor for Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China
In recognition of his outstanding accomplishments in the area of bioengineering, specializing in metabolic engineering, Sang Yup Lee, a distinguished professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST, was assigned as an advisory professor for the bioengineering department at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China for five years from August 2013 to July 2018.
Together with Peking University and Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University is one of the top three universities in China.
The advisory professors carry out collaborated research programs in special areas and provide advice on education and research issues.
Professor Lee, a specialist in metabolic engineering, has initiated systems metabolic engineering which integrates metabolic engineering, systems biology, and synthetic biology and has applied it to various chemical production systems to develop bio fuel and many eco-friendly chemical production processes. Recently, he received the Marvin J. Johnson Award from the American Chemistry Society, the Charles Thom Award from the American Society for Industrial Microbiology, as well as the Amgen Biochemical Engineering Award. As a global leader in the area of bioengineering, Professor Lee is a member of the Korean Academy of Science & Technology, the National Academy of Engineering of Korea, the US National Academy of Engineering, and is the chairman of the Global Agenda Council on Biotechnology at the World Economic Forum.
2013.10.31 View 9342 -
Core Technology for Lithium Air Secondary Battery Developed
KAIST-Kyonggi University joint research team developed composite catalyst out of nano fiber and graphene
Five times improvement in capacity compared to lithium-ion secondary battery, driving 800 km at maximum
The core technology for lithium air secondary battery, the next generation high capacity battery, has been developed.
A research team formed by KAIST Department of Materials Science’s Professors Il-Doo Kim and Seokwoo Jeon, and Kyonggi University Department of Materials Science’s Professor Yong-Joon Park has created a lithium air secondary battery, with five times greater storage than the lithium-ion secondary battery, by developing a nano fiber-graphene composite catalyst. The research results are published in the August 8th online edition of Nano Letters.
A cathode of a lithium-ion battery consists of graphite and an anode of the battery consists of a lithium transition metal oxide. Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in mobile phones and laptops. However, lithium-ion batteries cannot support electric vehicles, providing energy for only 160 kilometers on one full charge. The lithium air secondary battery just developed by the research team uses lithium on the cathode and oxygen on the anode. It is earning a popular acknowledgement among the next generation secondary battery research community for having lightweight mass and high energy density.
However, lithium-ion batteries remain difficult to commercialize because of their short lifespan. Lithium and oxygen meet up to form lithium oxide (Li2O2) at discharge, and decompose again at charge. In a traditional lithium air battery, this cycle does not occur smoothly and results in high resistance, thereby reducing the lifespan of the battery. It is thus essential to develop high efficiency catalyst that facilitates the formation and decomposition of lithium oxides.
The research team used electric radiation to develop a nano composite catalyst by mixing cobalt oxide nano fiber and graphene. The performance of the battery has been maximized by settling nonoxidative graphene, which has high specific surface area and electrical conductivity, on catalyst active cobalt oxide nano fiber. Applying the nano composite catalyst on both poles of the lithium air battery resulted in an improved lifespan of over 80 recharge cycles with capacity greater than 100mAh/g, five times greater than a lithium ion battery. The newly discovered charge-discharge property is the highest among the reported performances of the lithium air battery so far.
The lithium air battery is cheap to make, as the main materials are metal oxide and graphene. “There are yet more issues to resolve such as stability, but we will collaborate with other organizations to open up the era of electronic vehicles,” said Professor Il-Doo Kim. “We hope to contribute to vitalizing the fields of next generation lithium air battery by leading nanocatalyst synthesis technology, one of the core materials in the fields of secondary battery,” Professor Kim spoke of his aspiration.
The graduate students participated in the research are Won-Hee Ryu, a postdoctorate at KAIST Department of Materials Science, Sungho Song, a PhD candidate at KAIST Department of Materials Science, and Taek-Han Yoon, a graduate student at Kyonggi University.
Picture I: Schematic Diagram of Lithium Air Battery Made of Nano Composite Catalysts
Picture II: Images of Cobalt Oxide Nano Fibers and Graphene Nano Composite Catalysts
Picture III: Images of Manufacturing Process of Cobalt Oxide Nano Fibers and Graphene Nano Composite Catalysts for Lithium Air Battery
2013.10.18 View 12419