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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 11496 -
KAIST received the best score for its BK 21 projects.
Six of KAIST’s BK 21 projects received the highest scores in the BK 21 annual evaluation. Currently, KAIST has thirteen teams running the BK 21 projects, including eight from science and technology division, one from the humanities division, and four from small scale focus division. Out of these, three science and technology division, one humanities division and two small scale focus division projects received the highest score in this annual evaluation. In addition, the chemical engineering project, pioneer physics education project, BK 21 biology project also received the second place in their corresponding divisions.
The BK 21 Project supports masters, doctorate, post-doctorate degree students for seven years from 2006 to 2012 with the intention of promoting global research-oriented universities and high performing local graduate schools to train pioneer high-achieving research and development manpower.
2010.09.17 View 8926 -
Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2010-11
Times Higher Education (THE), a weekly British magazine based in London reporting on news and other issues related to higher education, has released the rankings of the world"s best 200 universities on September 16, 2010. KAIST has been placed at 79. Please click the link for detailed rankings.
Times Higher Education World University Ranking 2010-11:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/top-200.html
2010.09.17 View 9421
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KAIST"s online electric vehicle will be introduced in Park City, Utah
Korean news media wrote articles on KAIST’s online electric vehicle (OLEV)—the OLEV technology will be exported to a US city. For details, please click the links below:
Chosun Ilbo: KAIST to Export Electric Cars to U.S.
Sep. 13, 2010 11:05 KST
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/09/13/2010091300848.html
Arirang News: KAIST Seals a Deal to Export its Unique Greed Car to US Market
Sep. 13, 2010
http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=106888&code=Ne2&category=2
2010.09.14 View 9626
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QS World University Rankings 2010
QS World University Rankings 2010 was released on September 8, 2010, and KAIST has ranked 79th among the world’s top 100 universities. The Guardian published an article on the Rankings.
“Cambridge ousts Harvard as world"s best university,” September 8, 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/sep/08/cambridge-worlds-best-university-harvard
2010.09.08 View 10802
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"Our addiction to oil is the major cause of global warming."
Joongang Daily, one of the major newspapers in Korea, interviewed Professor John Spengler from Harvard University, an internationally renowned scholar in environmental science, who visited Korea for a conference. He mentioned KAIST’s online electric vehicle (OLEV) during the course of interview.
The paper interviewed him on a wide range of environmental issues, and below is a translation of the original Korean article. For the Korean article, please download the attached picture file.
“Our addiction to oil is the major cause of global warming.”
Interview with Professor John Spengler from Harvard University—he is an internationally renowned scholar in environmental science.
By Chan-Soo Kang, Joongang Daily
September 3, 2010
“The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico by British Petroleum (BP), a multinational oil company, took place against the backdrop of our addition to oil,” said Professor John Spengler (66 years old) from Harvard University on September 2.
“The fact that we are addicted to oil means we are obsessed with mobility as well. Throughout the history of mankind, there has never been the time when we move from one place to another as frequently as today and are dependent on fossil fuels as much as today.”
Visiting Korea to attend a conference co-sponsored by International Society of Exposure Science (ISES) and International Society of Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) that was held at Coex in Seoul from August 28 to September 2, he gave his speech at plenary talks of the conference on the a topic titled, “Our health is our planet.”
Professor Spengler is an internationally well-known expert in the research of indoor air pollution and environmental exposures of chemical compounds. At the conference, he mostly talked about an ecological catastrophe resulted from the explosion of an oil rig operated by BP in the Gulf of Mexico.
He pointed out,
“It’s been a problem that oil companies are more willing to take risks of exploring dangerous places to obtain oil as the demand for oil has increased. Excessive oil consumption cannot help but lead to global warming.”
“Particularly,” he said, “the unusual climate events, frequently happening in recent years, including severe heat wave and drought in Russia this summer, are somewhat expected to occur by weather forecast models. However, it seems that the extreme weather patterns are taking place more frequently, and accordingly, we are facing more severe effects of weather conditions.”
Professor Spengler emphasized that “We should change our diet and lifestyle to reduce the stress put on our ecosystem, such as getting protein from vegetables rather than from fish or meat and having a habit of curtailing energy consumption.”
“While I’m here, I have a chance to see an online electric vehicle (OLEV) developed by KAIST. If this technology is applied, we can reduce environmental problems as such,” he assessed the development of OLEV.
He also said that “the State of Utah in the US has expressed its intention to adopt the OLEV technology.”
With regard to his research focus on indoor air pollution, Professor Spengler said, “We are having problems like “New House Syndrome” because we try to build a house with cheap materials. Governments should set a standard and control pollutants released from building materials in order to reduce risks resulted from indoor air pollution.”
He argued, “In the early 1990s, when the Irish government introduced an enhanced regulation of air pollution in Dublin, the mortality rate of the city in that winter dropped dramatically.”
“It’s been proven that as fine particle pollution gets worse, more patients with cardiovascular diseases die. Therefore, we need to make efforts to reduce the air pollution.”
“Compared with other nations,” Professor Spengler estimated Korea as a nation that “definitely improved its air quality by introducing buses with a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) engine to its public transportation system.”
(End)
2010.09.06 View 10836 -
Science News Issued on September 11, 2010: A matter of solidity
Science News, a bi-weekly news magazine of the Society for Science & the Public, published an extensive article on the issue of “supersolidity” discovered in helium-4.
Professor Eun-Seong Kim of the Physics Department, KAIST, is one of the scientists who discovered the phenomenon through an experiment of solid helium using a device called a torsional oscillator.
For the entire article, please click the link of
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/62642/title/A_matter_of_solidity.
2010.09.02 View 10159
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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 9675
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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 10066 -
Professor Thompson
Professor Mary Kathryn Thompson of Civil and Environmental Engineering Department wrote her regular column on correlation between art and engineering, “Engineers, Artists Not on Opposite Ends.” The column was published by the Korea Herald on July 23, 2010. For reading, please click the link below.
http://www.koreaherald.com/opinion/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20100722000548
2010.07.23 View 9552 -
News Article: Naro space rocket getting ready for second launch, April 12, 2010
News Article on KIAST published on April 12, 2010
The Korea Herald, 2010-04-12 17:07
Naro space rocket getting ready for second launch
By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldm.com)
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology is checking on the second launch of Naro, Korea’s first space rocket, as all the necessary parts were transferred to the launch center last week.
The Science Technology Satellite No. 2 was transferred last Thursday from the KAIST Satellite Technology Research Center in Daejeon to the Naro Space Center in South Jeolla Province, said ministry officials.
The solid-fuel second-stage rocket reached the center last Monday and the liquid-fuel first-stage rocket did so on March 23. The latter was manufactured in Russia’s Khrunichev State Space Science and Production Center.
The satellite, a small one weighing 100 kilograms, was co-developed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, KAIST SaTReC and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology.
It is to revolve around the Earth for two years collecting data on climate change by gauging the hydrogen content in the atmosphere, said officials.
“With all the crucial parts ready here in the center, we have officially kicked off our final investigation before setting the details of the second Naro launch,” said a ministry official.
Second Vice Minister Kim Joong-hyun last week visited the Naro center to attend the overall inspection on all facilities related to the rocket launch.
The date has not yet been set for the second launch but will be fixed within this month, said officials.
With the general inspection completed on the facilities, the first-stage rocket and the satellite will be assembled and the combination will be joined by the second-stage rocket in May.
The first launching attempt ended in failure in August due to faulty electrical wiring or a mechanical problem in the fairing separation mechanism, according to panels.
The two fairings -- used to cover and protect the satellite placed on top of the Naro -- failed to separate timely and thus stopped the satellite from gaining sufficient velocity to reach its planned orbit.
Korea has so far spent 502.4 billion won ($428.1 million) on the Naro project since it began in August 2002.
2010.04.13 View 12736
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New Text Book on Chemistry Published by KAIST Professor and Student
A chemistry textbook written in English and Korean will aid Korean students to learn General Chemistry in a global academic setting.
Korean students majoring in chemistry and looking for an opportunity to study abroad will have a new, handy textbook that presents them with a practical introduction to an English speaking lecture on general chemistry.
Aiming for advanced Korean high school and college/university students, the inter-language textbook is written by two incumbent professors teaching chemistry at a university in Korea and the US. The book will help Korean students prepare for a classroom where various topics of general chemistry are presented and discussed in English. Clear, collated sections of English and Korean text provide the student with sufficient explanation of the rudimentary topics and concepts.
Composed of 15 chapters on the core subjects of General Chemistry, i.e., Stoichiometry and Chemical Reactions, Thermochemistry, Atomic Structure, and Bonding, the textbook includes essential English vocabulary and usage sections for each chapter; it also contains a pre-reading study guide on the subject that prepares the student for listening to a lecture. This section includes view-graph type slides, audio files, and follow-up questions the student can use to prepare for an English-speaking course. The various accompanying audio files are prepared to expose the student to English scientific dialogue and serve as examples for instruction at Korean secondary and tertiary schools.
The book was coauthored by Korean and American scientists: A father and son, who have taught chemistry at an American and Korean university, wrote the book. Professor Melvyn R. Churchill at the State University of New York at Buffalo and Professor David G. Churchill at KAIST prepared all of the technical English text which was adapted from General Chemistry course lecture notes; the text was further shaped by original perspectives arising from many student interactions and questions.
This English text was translated into Korean by Professor Kwanhee Lee from the Department of Life and Food Science at Handong Global University, who coauthored a previous preparatory book for Korean students in a different subject. He also supplied an important introductory section which serves as a general guide to the classroom student. Kibong Kim, a doctoral student in the Department of Chemistry at KAIST, helped in preparing the book as well.
“This has been definitely a collaborative undertaking with an international academic crew and it underscores that the Korean internationalization in science is mainstream. Professors and a Korean student created a new book for Korean consumption and benefit,” Professor David G. Churchill says.
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Bibliography: “How to Prepare for General Chemistry Taught in English” by David George Churchill, Melvyn Rowen Churchill, Kwanhee Lee & Kibong Kim, Darakwon Publishing, Paju, Republic of Korea, 2010, 400 pp, ISBN 978-89-5995-730-9 (1 Audio CD included)
2010.04.02 View 13516