KAIST

Professor Young Jae Jang of KAIST’s Industrial and Systems Engineering Department won the Grant Award from Mathworks, Inc., an American developer of mathematical computing software. Headquartered in Massachusetts in the United States, Mathworks has been known for its MATLAB software that is used by many engineers and scientists around the world for algorithm development, data analysis, visualization, and numeric computation.

Winners of the Grant Award are selected from proposals submitted by educational institutions in 18 different countries based on their innovative lab curricula and future potential for innovation and creativity.

Award winners receive a cash grant of up to USD 40,000 as well as various other forms of support including software and technical guidance for creating a course.

Professor Jang has researched combining the concept of industrial engineering education with Lego principles since 2014. He developed Lego-based experimental equipment and utilized it to teach students about difficult ideas, for example, big data and manufacturing technologies needed for Industry 4.0, such as automation, cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things, and cloud computing. He created an innovative teaching environment where students learn engineering concepts and then conduct experiments on their own to understand the new paradigm of industrial systems.

Lego-based education allows students to personalize their learning process, shifting lecture-centered approaches toward learner-oriented approaches. Students apply theories to operate tools and equipment made with Lego, identify problems, and find solutions. In such processes, they can understand the content of their study more easily and efficiently and become more motivated.

Professor Jang’s research has attracted a great deal of interest overseas, and he is frequently invited to international conferences as a keynote speaker.

Picture: Lego-based Learning Model of Experiment Equipment Developed by Professor Young Jae Jang