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KAIST to Build Branch Campus in New Administrative City
KAIST signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Multifunctional Administrative City Construction Agency and the Korea Land Corporation on March 4 to build a branch campus in the city now under construction to house many government organizations to be relocated from Seoul.
The MOU calls for building a well-facilitated KAIST campus on 310,000 square meters of land within the planned city, about 30 kilometers west of Daejeon. The multifunctional city, named Sejong City, is scheduled to be dedicated in 2014.
The MAC now being built in the Yongi-Gongju area of South Chungcheong Province is geographically in the center of South Korea, and many governmental agencies and major public organizations will move in from 2015.
The KAIST campus is envisioned to be home to a newly established College of Strategy and Policy, a Strategy and Policy Research Center, and an Innovative Technology Research Center. The College of Medical Science currently based in the Daejeon campus will be relocated to the campus. With a research-oriented hospital and a medical engineering research center, KAIST hopes to become a leading institution in disease treatment and medical engineering technologies.
The new campus is also expected to house new KAIST colleges now in the planning stage which will offer interdisciplinary courses such as the College of IT and Contents and the College of Life Sciences. KAIST also seeks to resolve housing shortage problems by building an in-campus village designed to provide international living environment for professors and students on the planned campus
2008.03.18 View 13626 -
2008 Commencement Ceremony Held
The 2008 KAIST Commencement Ceremony was held on Feb. 29 at the KAIST Amphitheater in the presence of KAIST President Nam Pyo Suh, U.S. Ambassador to Korea Alexander Vershbow, alumni representatives and parents.
Other dignitaries on hand included National Assemblymen Sang-Kee Suh, Chang-Sun Hong and Sang-Min Lee; and Daejoen City Major Sung-Hyo Park.
President Suh and Vice President Soon-Heung Chang presented degrees to each of the 1,321 graduates (200 doctors, 725 masters and 396 bachelors) instead of just to representatives. Since its inception in 1971, KAIST has produced 7,067 Ph.D. graduates, 18,636 master"s degree holders and 8,998 bachelor"s degree holders. This year, 40 percent of the Ph.D. graduates, 79, were in their twenties upon graduation.
President Suh called on the graduates to return the favor they received from society by making their share of contributions to humanity. "You were chosen to be students of this unique university because the Korean people -- not only KAIST professors and staff, but also ordinary taxpayers -- believe that outstanding young people like you can change the world in which we live for the better. Now it is time for you to pay back their support," he said.
Notable graduates of this year include So-Yeon Yi, 29, the first Korean female astronaut candidate, who earned her doctorate degree in bio and brain engineering. She was granted a special award in recognition of her role in advancing space science in Korea but she could not attend the graduation ceremony due to her training schedule in Russia which will continue until April.
Eun-Gyu Oh, 26, was the youngest doctorate recipient in the ceremony and Won Hye-jeong, 21, recorded the top undergraduate GPA with a score of 4.20 over 4.3. Civil and environmental engineering major Seung-Hee Park, 28, published a total of eight papers in major international journals while attending KAIST and two more papers are currently under review.
So-Yeon Yi said: ``I frequently stayed up all night to research and write the paper. It was tough experience for me. Thanks to ceaseless support from professors and colleagues, however, I was able to complete the task,"" she said. ``I have done my best in studying, exercising and so on. I"m sure that my active, participatory attitude brought about this honorable moment.""
She is now training at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center near Moscow as a replacement astronaut in case Koh San, 31, who is to be the first Korean astronaut, is unable to go into orbit.
Koh and Yi were selected from more than 36,000 applicants last year. Koh was finally picked as the primary candidate last September. The two are serving as space ambassadors appointed by the Ministry of Science & Technology.
2008.03.09 View 14322 -
Pop Singer Kim Makes Second Donation to KAIST
Popular singer Kim Jang-Hoon donated 50 million won to KAIST for the development of Korea"s prestigious S&T university on Thursday, Feb. 14.
It was the singer"s second gift to KAIST in a year. Kim donated the same amount of money in March 2007 to express his gratitude to Professor Oh Jun-Ho and his research team for allowing him to use HUBO, South Korea"s first humanoid robot, for his concerts in 2006.
In a brief donation ceremony at the KAIST president"s office, Kim said he hoped he would be of any help in the development of science in Korea.
2008.02.18 View 11923 -
Prof. Lee Listed on Marquis Who's Who
Professor Lee Ji-hyun of the Graduate School of Culture Technology at KAIST was registered to Marquis Who"s Who, known as one of the world"s three leading biographical dictionaries.
Prof. Lee"s biography was published in the 25th anniversary edition of "Marquis Who"s Who in the World 2008."
Lee"s research interests are the color and culture, computer-supported collaborative design, creative design, evolutionary systems in design, formal models of design process, representation and reasoning in design and visualization for design information.
Lee has published about 30 papers in science journals and for scholastic conferences. She is also a participating professor at KAIST Institute for Entertainment Engineering. Before joining KAIST in 2007, she was an assistant professor at the Department of Digital Media Design and Graduate School of Computational Design, the National Yunlin University of Science & Technology (NYUST) in Taiwan starting from 2002.
She received her Ph.D. from the School of Architecture (Computational Design) at Carnegie Mellon University in 2002. She graduated from the Department of Housing & Interior Design at Yonsei University in Seoul in 1991 and received her M.S. from the same university in 1993.
2008.02.14 View 14648 -
KAIST, Hynix Agree to Cooperate in Fostering Skilled Manpower
KAIST and Hynix Semiconductor, the world’s second largest producer of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips, have agreed to promote bilateral cooperation in fostering highly skilled manpower for the semiconductor industry. A signing ceremony was held on Jan. 21 in Seoul.
The agreement marked an expansion of the scope of cooperation between the two organizations into the system IC industry. Since 1995, KAIST and Hynix have cooperated in fostering human resource specialized in the memory semiconductor area, bringing up a total of 250 highly skilled personnel in the area so far. Under the new agreement, Hynix will provide financial support, including scholarships, to KAIST for the next five years. The number of students subject to the Hynix-financed program will be increased to 20 a year from the current 10. New material engineering and physics will be added to the areas covered by the cooperation program.
2008.01.29 View 10821
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KAIST, Nokia Launch Joint Research Project
Prof. Kyung Wook Baik of KAIST and his research team in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering announced the launch of a joint research project with Nokia, the world"s leading mobile phone supplier, on Jan. 24.
It is the first time that Nokia runs a joint research project with a Korean university or research institute.
Under the agreement, KAIST will develop a new ultrasonic welding process to bond various modules for mobile phones. The ultrasonic welding process, an indigenous technology patented by the research team led by Prof. Baik, is expected to contribute greatly to improving productivity in manufacturing mobile phones, as well as making it smaller and lighter.
The research period is six month and the project fund amounts to 35,000 euros.
2008.01.29 View 11419
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Intelligent SoC Robot War 2007 Has Finale
Kyung Hee University’s “Sandi2007” and “Triple K” of Korea University of Technology and Education and Chungbuk National University were victorious in the Tank Robot category and the Taekwon Robot categories of the 6th Robot War Contest hosted by Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).
Boldly entitled “07 Intelligent SoC Robot War”, KAIST hosted its 6th Robot War Contest. In this contest, battles between mechanical robots utilizing System on Chip (SoC) technology are fought. The first Robot War contest was held in 2002. Before the actual contest from October 18th to 21st, preliminary assessments and the final selection was administered in August.
The Intelligent SoC Robot War Contest has two sections called Tank Robot and Taekwon Robot. The Tank Robot contest has robots in the form of tanks duel with laser beams through visual recognition, wireless communication, and audio recognition. On the other hand, the Taekwon Robot contest is a hand-to-hand fight. The robots had to be capable of defending, recognizing the opponent, and attacking without external control.
The 15 teams of the Tank Robot section and the 10 teams of the Taekwon Robot section that passed through the preliminary selections participated in the final battles for 3 days starting on October 18th. The Tank Robot category winner “Sandi2007” showed great ability in visual sensing and the Taekwon Robot category winner “Triple K” had effective arm and leg combinations that eventually led the team to victory.
Kyung Hee University’s “Sandi2007” received 2 million Korean Won as the grand prize along with a special recognition from the Prime Minister, while “Triple K” received 1 million Korean Won with a special recognition from the Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE).
The Intelligent SoC Robot War contest was part of the 2007 International Robot Contest (IRC 2007) which was organized by the Center for Robot Industry Promotion (CRIP) and held at Convention & Exhibition Center (COEX) Indian Hall. The individual contests included 8 competitions: Grand Challenge, Robotpiad, Humanoid Robot Contest, Robofest, Intelligent SoC Robot War, FIRA Challenge Cup, Robot Festival, and URC Robot Contest.By KAIST Herald on November, 2007
2007.12.21 View 13422
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Three Professors Selected as IEEE Fellows
Three Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)’s professors, Ju-Jang Lee, Yong-Hee Lee, and Hoi-Jun Yoo, were selected as a part of the 2008 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc (IEEE)’s “Fellows.” A Fellow is the highest level of membership given only to those “with an extraordinary record of accomplishments” in their field of study. Although some IEEE memberships can be gained freely by all, the Fellow status is bestowed only by the IEEE Board of Directors.
Professor Ju-Jang Lee was awarded the Fellow status “for contributions to intelligent robust control and robotics.” Robust control is a system’s stable maintenance under many inputs in a dynamic environment. A part of KAIST’s Electrical Engineering Department, Professor Ju-Jang Lee has conducted successful research in these fields, and has published 538 papers. He also holds many patents in and outside of the country, and is the General Chair for two upcoming IEEE conferences in 2008 and 2009.
Professor Yong-Hee Lee of KAIST’s Physics Department was recognized for his “contributions to photonic devices based upon vertical cavity surface emitting lasers and photonic crystals.” Photonic devices are those that allow the practical use of photons, and photon crystals are structures that affect the motion of photons. Professor Yong-Hee Lee is an expert in the field of Photonics and his works have been cited over 2500 times. He is also an outstanding speaker, giving over 30 lectures in front of international audiences in the past 5 years, and receiving The Distinguished Lecturer’s Award from IEEE.
Professor Hoi-Jun Yoo was granted the prestigious Fellow status for his “contributions to low-power and high-speed VLSI design.” VLSI stands for ‘very large scale integration’ and refers to the skill for packing a huge number of semiconductors on an integrated circuit. Professor Lee’s Fellow status is noteworthy in that he studied, worked, and researched solely in Korea. He is also the youngest of the three KAIST professors to be granted membership in the class of 2008 Fellowship. IEEE also recognized Professor Yoo as the most frequent publisher during the past 8 years.
IEEE, originally concentrating on Electric Engineering, has now branched into many related fields. It is a nonprofit organization, and its aim is to be the world"s leading professional association for the advancement of technology. For its Fellow Class of 2008, 295 members were chosen; which is less that 0.1% of their total members.By KAIST Herald on December, 2007
2007.12.21 View 17124
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KAIST Takes Merging Steps with ICU
Plans to begin the merging of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Information and Communications University (ICU) have emerged.
ICU board members and Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) officials held a meeting at Lotte Hotel, Seoul, on November 21st. The two parties agreed upon the merging of KAIST and ICU; and an interim organization to carry out the merging procedures was to be established. In addition, a preliminary road-map was presented during the meeting.
In the event that a company would show a willingness to financially support ICU, the parties agreed to take this path into consideration as well.
Also at this meeting, the resignation of ICU President Huh Unna was accepted by the board members of ICU. President Huh and the executive board have opposed any proposals of unification between the two universities. The president called for an independent ICU in response to MIC’s withdrawal of funding.
On November 27th, ICU Electrical Engineering Professor Hyuck Jae Lee was appointed as ICU president.
The talk of merging the two universities surfaced when the Board of Audit and Inspection concluded that financial support of ICU from the government was illegal as ICU was established under the private school law exempting the institution from governmental support. When ICU was established in 1997, MIC provided 200 billion Korean Won and has continually supported the university financially with 10 billion Korean Won per year.
Both universities have not released official statements regarding the merging of the respective institutions.
ICU has a student body of about 400 undergraduate students and 600 graduate students. On the other hand, KAIST has a student body of around 3000 undergraduate students, 2000 graduate students, and 2000 doctorate students. Both institutions are located in Daejeon, Korea.
Talk of establishing a single-department IT-convergence university where ICU is currently located surfaced as a possible merging-concept by KAIST.
Organizations and groups opposing the unification of the two technology-related institutions are concerned with details of the merger, such as the personnel management of ICU professors. However, analyses demonstrate that the unification will give KAIST the competitive edge through a larger faculty, student body, and increased facilities.
In July, an in-house poll was conducted at ICU and the results showed that 15 percent of graduate school students and undergraduate students were against the merger while 82.6 percent of undergraduate students and 84.8 percent of graduate students were in favor. 88.6 percent of ICU professors supported the unification of the two universities.By KAIST Herald on December, 2007
2007.12.21 View 12224
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KAIST Introduces Dual Degree Program for MBA with American and British
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Graduate School of finance signed a dual degree program contract with the University of Rochester and London Business School. Starting from the entering class of 2009, the dual degree program will allow students of the Graduate School of finance to attend ten lectures in a foreign university and receive degrees from both institutes. After the dual degree program is applied, in the case of the University of Rochester, KAIST students will finish three terms at KAIST Graduate School of Business. Then the students will spend the last eight months in the University of Rochester. This opportunity will be given to roughly 20 students out of 100 entering students.KAIST MBA School was built in 1995 and has been operated as the Graduate School of Business Administration for ten years. Then, it was developed into two major departments: the Graduate School of finance and the Graduate School of information and media. After the division, they have chosen the dual degree program as the strategy for building up the capability of the Graduate School of Business.The dual degree program of KAIST has a unique feature that other MBA Schools do not have. Once a student is selected by KAIST to participate in the dual degree program, the student will be able to study in the foreign university even if he or she had been rejected from it. This is an important characteristic that differentiates KAIST from other MBA Schools where students need to have approvals from both universities.As well as the Graduate School of finance, the Graduate School of information and media is currently working on signing a dual degree program contract with Marshall University. Once a contract on Memorandum of Understanding is signed, students will be able to receive MBA degrees from both KAIST and Marshall University.The University of Rochester is a MBA School specializing in finance, which in 2007, was ranked 5th in financial affairs and accounting according to Financial Times. Currently, 14 KAIST students are enrolled in a dual degree program for MBA in the university.By KAIST Herald on November 2007
2007.12.21 View 12859
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S&T Policy Agenda of Major Presidential Candidates
Science and Technology Policy Agenda of Major Presidential Candidates
The KAIST TIMES recently reviewed science and technology policy suggestions made by five major presidential candidates. Below is a summary of the information assembled based on written interviews conducted by The KAIST TIMES, gatherings on science and technology policies, and press conferences.
Chung Dong-young of the United New Democratic Party
The UNDP’s Chung Dong-young presented a vision to join the world’s top seven aerospace leaders in an effort to transform Korea into a science-technology powerhouse.
In order to achieve this goal, he suggested five policy strategies: support research and development of creative, innovative science and technology, ; expand resources for the innovation of science and technology, ; promote academia and business partnerships, ; strengthen infrastructure to innovate scientific and technological fields, ; boost the morale of scientists and engineers, ; and promote the dissemination of scientific culture.
The most noticeable striking part element of his vision is to make add Korea to join the list of the world’s top seven aerospace powerhouses. Chung included the this vision in his 20 key 20 pledges, underscoring his commitment to the aerospace industry. He said that the aerospace industry can produce simultaneous growth of various high-tech industries.
Chung also vowed that he would extensively foster high-value added assembly industry in conjunction with a scheme to nurture parts and material industries.
As detailed action plans to achieve his vision, he cited development of small and medium-sized aircraft carriers and upgrading air control systems as part of the efforts to make Korea as a stronghold of popular aviation of in Northeast Asia. He also revealed plans to embark on a project to explore the Moon and send an unmanned probe there by 2020.
To implement aerospace development plans systematically, he suggested inaugurating the envisioned Korean Aeronautics and Space Administration, modeled after the NASA of the United States and JAXA of Japan.
Lee Myung-bak of the National Grand Party
Presidential candidate Lee pointed out basic sciences and open-source technologies as crucial prerequisites to achieve economic growth. As five implementation strategies to promote the development of these areas, he called for the fostering of more scientific and technological talents; a drastic increase in investment in science and technology; creation of new fusion industries that will serve as future growth engines; promotion of autonomy and creativity; and popularization of science and technology.
He also pledged to carry out two large-scale projects, the creation of “an international scientific-corporate city belt” and the technological development of new renewable energy.
Among them, drawing the largest attention is the creation of an “international scientific-corporate city belt” connecting several technological complexes located in Chungcheong Provinces. The city belt is envisioned to connect the Daedok Innopolis in Daejeon, the proposed Bio-Health Science Technopolis in Osong, Sceintific Industrial Complex in Ochang, and the new administrative town under construction in Yeongi-Gongju. At a lecture hosted by the Science and Technology Forum and the Korean Engineers Club, Lee said that the project has been motivated by the idea of locating research and corporate complexes in close proximity to bring about maximum efficiency of commercializing research results.
Kwon Young-ghil of the Democratic Labor Party
In a written interview with The KAIST TIMES, Kwon summed up his vision for science and technology as shifting from “science-technology for the rich and privileged” to “science and technology to promote public interest and participation.”
As action plans to realize his vision, he suggested increasing investment into public-interest research and development projects and building the necessary infrastructure as well as boosting relevance between science-technology policies and various welfare sectors including environment, health, and medicare. He also wishes to pay greater attention to improving the treatment of young engineers and scientists.
Moon Kook-hyun of the Creative Korea Party
Moon Kook-hyun’s science and technology policy proposals focus on nurturing more experts in the fields of science and technology. As specific action plans to ease the tendency among high-school graduates to shun the fields engineering and science as their majors, he revealed a plan to appoint a Prime Minister with an engineering or scientific background and positively expand social participation of engineering or science graduates.
He also expressed strong commitment to making Korea a technological power house, focusing on convergence of various high-tech industries including BT and IT. He would also build infrastructure to increase cooperation for technological development among large and mid and small-sized companies, and among Korea and many other countries.
Independent Candidate Lee Hoi-chang
Lee Hoi-chang’s vision for science and technology can be highlighted by his strong commitment to greatly increasing R& D investment in this area. He said that the move is aimed at expanding science and technology capital, which will serve as a fundamental infrastructure for corporate activities.
In particular, he said that he would concentrate on fostering eight core technologies based on individual knowledge and creativity: IT, BT, NT, ST, ET (Environment Technology), CT, MT(Marine Technology), and FT (Fusion Technology).
2007.12.17 View 15372
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KAIST and Carnegie Mellon University establish a Dual Degree Program
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Carnegie Mellon University make an agreement on collaboration in research and education, and a dual degree program.
KAIST and Carnegie Mellon make an agreement on ▲Exchange of Faculty Members ▲Exchange of Students ▲Dual Degree Program and ▲ Exploring cooperation in education and research. Presidents of both Universities had a signing ceremony at 11 A.M on Friday, Oct. 5th, 2007.
▲Lectures, joint research and exchange of faculty members ▲Undergraduate/graduate student exchange up to five students from one University each year ▲Dual degree program at the Ph. D. level ▲Opportunities for joint research projects and conferences will be explored according to the agreement between the two Universities.
KAIST and Carnegie Mellon have created a new dual degree program for Ph.D. students in civil and environmental engineering. Students admitted through the dual degree program are required to spend minimum 2 academic years in residence at each University. The total number of the student candidates participating in this program shall not exceed five in any given academic year initially. The students who met the graduation requirements shall be awarded two PhD degrees, one from KAIST and the other from Carnegie Mellon. All of its courses at KAIST are taught in English, which is the case starting in Fall 2007. Both Universities will explore the concept of sharing courses taught in English using videoconferencing technologies.
KAIST President Nam Pyo Suh said “We are delighted to have President Jared L. Cohon of Carnegie Mellon visit KAIST. I am looking forward to discussing various issues related to higher education and signing the Memorandum of Understanding between the two universities for student/faculty exchange programs, joint research, and the Carnegie Mellon- KAIST dual-degree program in civil and environment engineering. The dual degree program will initially begin in civil and environment engineering, and we hope to expand this to other areas in the future. Our goal is to generate future leaders who are able to lead global enterprises and conduct interdisciplinary research. This can be done through collaboration among leading scholars at Carnegie Mellon and KAIST. Our hope is that we can solve serious problems of the 21st century through the collaboration between our two institutions. I am especially excited to establish such a collaboration with Carnegie Mellon, my alma mater."
“Carnegie Mellon is well-suited to collaborate with KAIST. We believe this agreement will be a catalyst for future educational and research opportunities. I am especially pleased that this partnership is with an institution of KAIST"s stature” said Cohon.
About Carnegie Mellon:
Carnegie Mellon is a private research university with a distinctive mix of programs in engineering, computer science, robotics, business, public policy, fine arts and the humanities. More than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students receive an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration, and innovation. A small student-to-faculty ratio provides an opportunity for close interaction between students and professors. While technology is pervasive on its 144-acre Pittsburgh campus, Carnegie Mellon is also distinctive among leading research universities for the world-renowned programs in its College of Fine Arts. A global university, Carnegie Mellon has campuses in Silicon Valley, Calif., and Qatar, and programs in Asia, Australia and Europe. For more, see www.cmu.edu ..
2007.10.09 View 16922