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Reasons for Hope: Jane Goodall Lectured at KAIST
Dr. Jane Goodall, globally acknowledged chimpanzee researcher and environmental activist, was invited to KAIST and gave a lecture on the importance of preservation and restoration of the ecosystem on the earth. The lecture took place on the 28 of September at the university’s auditorium from 5PM to 7PM.
The lecture, titled “Reasons for Hope: Celebrating 50 Years of Chimpanzee Research,” was organized to celebrate her longtime career as a primatologist and anthropologist.
The visiting of Dr. Jane Goodall, who had dedicated a long period of time in spreading the significance of the diversity of life, gave a meaningful opportunity to increase the Korean public’s awareness of life’s diversity.
This lecture was jointly sponsored by Ehwa Woman’s University and KAIST, and the lecture was translated by Professor Choi Jae-Chun of Ehwa University.
2010.09.29 View 9932 -
KAIST maintains its No. 1 ranking, Joongang Ilbo, Sep. 27, 2010
Joongang Ilbo, one of the leading daily newspapers in Korea, released the results of its annual survey of universities nationwide. KAIST was nominated the best university in the nation for three consecutive years. For the article, please click the link:
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2926395
2010.09.27 View 9128 -
OLEV Safety Confirmed by International Standards
On September 19, KAIST announced that the electromagnetic (EM) field levels of its online electric vehicle (OLEV) measured in June and September of this year demonstrated verification of its safety.
Last June, the EM field level of OLEV installed at the Seoul Grand Park was measured by the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) to test its harmfulness to human. The results were 0.5 ~ 61mG which is within the national and international standards of 62.5mG.
KRISS measured EM field levels on 22 spots on the side of and at the center of OLEV at a fixed distance (30cm) but variable heights (5cm~150cm) according to the national standard of measurement methods for electromagnetic fields of household appliances and similar apparatuses with regard to human exposure (IEC 62233).
In addition, another testing took place on September 13 following a request by National Assemblywoman Young-Ah Park, a member of the National Assembly’s Education, Science and Technology Committee, who has raised an issue on the safety of OLEV. This testing session was held by EMF Safety, Inc., an institution designated by Park, and it tested the EM field level of the same OLEV train that was tested in June.
As a result, the September measurements were well within the national and international standards with 0~24.1mG. The test was conducted under the presence of third party to produce a fair and objective result.
As reference, the EM field level results are well within the American IEEE electromagnetic field standards of 1,100 mG.
The September measurements were produced by Park’s recommendation of following the criteria specified in the measurement procedures of IEC 62110, “Electric and magnetic field levels generated by AC power systems to public exposure,” which were 15 measurements at a fixed 20cm distance at the side of and from the center of OLEV with variable heights of 50cm~150cm.
2010.09.27 View 13247 -
Nanowerk Spotlight: Bacteria as environmentally friendly nanoparticle factories, Sep. 24, 2010
The Nanowerk.com is a leading portal site for nanotechnology and nanosciences, which runs a daily news section called “Spotlight.” On September 24, 2010, the Spotlight published an article on the latest developments of the research by a KAIST team headed by Distinguished Professor Sang-Yup Lee of the Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering Department. For the article, please click the link below:
Nanowerk Spotlight: Bacteria as environmentally friendly nanoparticle factories, Sep. 24, 2010
By Michael Berger.
http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=18188.php
2010.09.25 View 11446
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The CEO of the World's Largest Oil Company Visited KAIST.
Khalid A. Al-Falih, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Saudi Aramco, an oil company owned by Saudi Arabia, the largest oil-producing country in the world, visited the KAIST campus on September 15, 2010. During his visit, Mr. Al-Falih was introduced to KAIST’s innovative projects such as On-Line Electric Vehicle, Mobile Harbor, and Hubo.
Mr. Al-Falih was invited to the KAIST campus by President Suh, both of which are currently consultants for King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in Saudi Arabia. Having visited Daejon right after attending the 21st World Energy Congress in Montreal, Canada, he would head to China for another conference on the next day.
Al-Falih stated that he visited KAIST despite his busy schedule because he had “heard about KAIST that it is one of the best research oriented universities in Korea. Aramco and KAIST share the same goal of putting an effort in solving the problems that are of great concern to mankind today including issues related to energy, food, water, and climate.”
“There are researchers in our company who know Korean, and we wish to send them to KAIST’s masters and doctorate programs to train them into professional research force. In particular, Aramco is hoping to strengthen research cooperation between KFUPM, King Abdullah University of Science Technology (KAUST), and KAIST as well as contribute to the economic development between Saudi Arabia and Korea by increasing cooperation with KAIST through our shared visions.”
Saudi Aramco is the largest oil company in the world with the largest proven crude oil reserves and production known to date, responsible for over 30% of total OPEC crude oil production. It produces over 3.4 billion barrels of oil annually and has invested in S-Oil, one of the top three oil refining companies in Korea in 1991 to contribute to the development of Korean national oil refining industry.
2010.09.17 View 12526 -
Former Minister of Information & Communications Dae-Je Jin donated to KAIST.
From left to right: Yong-Hoo Lee, Dean of Information Science & Technology College, KAIST; Gang-Seok Lee, Vice President of Skylake Incuvest, Inc.; Dae-Je Jin, Former Minister of Information & Communications; Byung-Kyu Choi, Provost of KAIST; and Dae-Joon Joo, Vice President of Planning & Budget, KAIST.
Mr. Dae-Je Jin, who had served as the Minister of Information & Communications, South Korea, gave away about 100,000 USD to KAIST and hoped that his donation would be used for the development of information and technology industry in the nation.
Mr. Jin, widely known as one of the reputable business leaders in the IT industry, was also once the president of Samsung Electronics, a leading global supplier of electronic products and goods. Currently, he runs a private equity investor called, Skylake Incuvest, Inc., which invests and incubates innovative information, communications, and technology companies.
“The real growth engine for our nation to become an economic powerhouse on a global stage has been the highly trained people who shore up our industry. Universities including KAIST have played an excellent role in providing our nation with such outstanding researchers and engineers. I will continue to support for KAIST"s mission as a leading research university in science and technology in Korea and the world,” said Mr. Jin.
KAIST said that his donation would be used for the support of its IT researches.
2010.08.27 View 11847 -
Nanowire crystal transformation method was newly developed by a KAIST research team.
Figure 1
Schematic illustration of NW crystal transformation process. FeSi is converted to Fe3Si by high-temperature thermal annealing in diluted O2 condition and subsequent wet etching by 5% HF.
Figure 2
Low-resolution TEM images of FeSi; Fe3Si@SiO2 core—shell; Fe3Si NW after shell-etching; and Scale bars are 20 nm
Professor Bongsoo Kim of the Department of Chemistry, KAIST, and his research team succeeded to fabricate Heusler alloy Fe3Si nanowires by a diffusion-driven crystal structure transformation method from paramagnetic FeSi nanowires. This methodology is also applied to Co2Si nanowires in order to obtain metal-rich nanowires (Co) as another evidence of the structural transformation process. The newly developed nanowire crystal transformation method, Professor Kim said, would be valuable as a general method to fabricate metal-rich silicide nanowires that are otherwise difficult to synthesize.
Metal silicide nanowires are potentially useful in a wide array of fields including nao-optics, information technology, biosensors, and medicine. Chemical synthesis of these nanowires, however, is challenging due to the complex phase behavior of silicides.
The metal silicide nanowires are grown on a silicon substrate covered with a thin layer of silicon oxide via a simple chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process using single or multiple source precursors. Alternatively, the nanowires can be grown on the thin silicon oxide film via a chemical vapor transport (CVT) process using solid metal silicide precursors.
The CVT-based method has been highly effective for the syntheses of metal silicide NWs, but changing the composition of metal silicide NWs in a wider range, especially achieving a composition of a metal to silicon, has been quite difficult.
Thus, developing efficient and reliable synthetic methods to adjust flexibly the elemental compositions in metal silicide NWs can be valuable for the fabrication of practical spintronic and neonelectronic devices.
Professor Kim expliained, “The key concept underlying this work is metal-enrichment of metal silicide NWs by thermal diffusion. This conversion method could prove highly valuable, since novel metal-rich silicide NWs that are difficult to synthesize but possess interesting physical properties can be fabricated from other metal silicide NWs.”
The research result was published in Nanao Letters, a leading peer-reviewed journal, and posted online in early August 2010.
2010.08.25 View 11984 -
South Koreans Develop High-Performance Software Router.
HPC Wire, covering news on computing software, hardware, networking, storage, tools and applications, published an article on the development of high-performance router by a KAIST research team.
The research team consisted of the Departments of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, KAIST, presented PacketShader, a high-performance software router framework for general packet processing with Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) acceleration. PacketShader, the research team said, that exploits the massively-parallel processing power of GPU to address the CPU bottleneck in current software routers.
For the article, please click the link: http://www.hpcwire.com/news/South-Koreans-Develop-High-Performance-Software-Router-101401434.html
2010.08.25 View 11299
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An internationally renowned academic journal published the research result produced by a KAST research team on its cover.
Fc DAAP VEGF-Trap
Photograph showing the gross features of tumor growth along the mesentery-intestinal border. T: tumor. Scale bars represent 5 mm.
Professor Gou-Young Koh of the Biological Sciences Department, KAIST, and his research team published their research result in Cancer Cell, a peer-review scientific journal, as a cover article dated August 17, 2010. It is the first time for the journal to pick up a paper written by a Korean research team and publish it as the cover.
It has been known that a vascular growth factor (VEGF) is closely related to the growth of a tumor. The research team recently discovered that in addition to VEGF, another growth factor, angiopoietin-2 (Ang2), is also engaged with the increase of tumors.
Professor Koh said, “VEGF and the angiopoietins play critical roles in tumor progression and metastasis, and a single inhibitor targeting both factors have not been available.”
The team led by Professor Koh has developed a double anti-angiogenic protein (DAAP) that can simultaneously bind VEGF-A and the angiopoietins and block their actions.
Professor Koh said in his paper, “DAAP is a highly effective molecule for regressing tumor angiogenesis and metastasis in implanted and spontaneous solid tumor; it can also effectively reduce ascites formation and vascular leakage in an ovarian carcinoma model. Thus, simultaneous blockade of VEGF-A and angiopoietins with DAAP is an effective therapeutic strategy for blocking tumor angiogenesis, metastasis, and vascular leakage.”
So far, cancer patients have received Avastin, anticancer drug, to inhibit VEGF, but the drug has not successfully restrained the growth of cancer tumors and brought to some of the patients with serious side effects instead.
Professor Koh said, “DAAP will be very effective to control the expansion of tumor growth factors, which will open up a new possibility for the development of more helpful cancer medicine with low side effects.”
2010.08.20 View 12937 -
A graduating student speaks about "hope" for many disabled people who dare to have a dream of becoming a scientist.
Dong-Won Kim, a graduate student of the Mechanical Engineering Department, KAIST, will leave for the US at the end of this month to further pursue his advanced degree at University of Michigan (UM) in Ann Harbor. He has completed his master’s program at KAIST this summer, specializing in rehabilitation engineering.
Mr. Kim was born with cerebral palsy, which made him difficult to talk and use his hands. Notwithstanding the obstacles, he went through the regular school system and earned a master’s degree offered by one of the toughest universities in Korea.
When asked about what was the most difficult thing to study, he said with a gentle smile that “other than taking him a longer time to solve a math problem because of his weak hand muscle, he doesn’t have any difficulties.”
“Of course, people around me helped me a lot, but I tried to maintain my confidence in me and did my best so as not to disappoint my family and friends who have supported me,” Mr. Kim added.
Professor Pyung-Hoon Chang of the Mechanical Engineering Department, who was an adviser to Mr. Kim, recalled,
“Dong-Won has been a great student; I was quite impressed with his intellectual vigor and academic passion. He got along well with his peer students and had always positive and can-do attitude. I’m really pleased to see him graduate, given the tough situation he’s been in. He sets an inspiring role model who overcame difficulties and achieved great accomplishments.”
Mr. Kim hopes that universities including KAIST improve their educational environment to adopt friendlier policies toward the people with disabilities so that more of them can be offered an opportunity to become a scientist or engineer.
He will study medical engineering at University of Michigan—through his doctoral study, he wishes to identify causes and improvements of disabilities suffered by people and become an expert in rehabilitation.
Mr. Kim also donated 1 million won to KAIST out of his appreciation for the support he had received during his stay at the school. He said, “Although this is a small amount, I’d like to “thank you” for the members of KAIST community including its faculty and staff who have encouraged me to finish the study. If possible, I’d like to make a greater contribution in the future, and to that end, I’ll study harder and try to become the person whom I have planned for.”
Upon hearing about his generosity, President Nam Pyo Suh said, “The gift is so wonderful because it was given to us from one of our students. I wish him great success in his future study and will look forward to having his valuable contributions to our school and the nation.”
2010.08.17 View 11882 -
KAIST has developed a powerless and wireless keyboard that can be folded and easily carried around.
The KAIST Institute for Information Technology Convergence (KIITC) has developed the next generation keyboard that does not need power and wires.
The powerless/wireless keyboard developed by KIITC is flexible, foldable, portable, and compact, making the possession of keyboard easier and more convenient.
The idea of this technology was derived from "Idea Contest for Future Device" opened by KIITC in 2007, and Future Device Team (Team Leader: Dr. Sungkwan Jung) of KIITC embodied the idea and developed full-flexible powerless/wireless keyboard by using the passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to support the convenient data input for daily mobile life.
Through the technology, KAIST expects to realize ubiquitous computing and communication environment, open a new market for foldable keyboards, and secure the competitiveness of mobile devices industries in the world market.
KIITC has also successfully transferred the technology of powerless/wireless keyboard to Hanyang Demitech for commercialization.
2010.08.12 View 13176 -
A graduate-level education for working professionals in science programs and exhibitions will be available from mid-August this year.
The Graduate School of Culture Technology (GSCT), KAIST, has created a new course for professionals who purse their career in science programs and exhibitions, which will start on August 19 and continue through the end of November 2010. The course will be held at Digital Media City in Seoul.
The course, also co-sponsored by National Science Museum, will offer students tuition-free opportunities to brush up their knowledge on the administration, policy, culture, technology, planning, contents development, and technology & design development, of science programs and exhibitions. Such subjects as science contents, interaction exhibitions, and utilization of new media will be studied and discussed during the course. Students will also have a class that is interactive, engaging, and visual, as well as provides hands-on learning activities.
A total of 30 candidates will be chosen for the course. Eligible applicants are graduates with a B.S. degree in the relevant filed, science program designers and exhibitors, curators for science and engineering museums, and policy planners for public and private science development programs.
2010.08.12 View 12750