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U.S. Nobel Laureate to Run Korea's Top Tech University
Robert Laughlin,
President of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
DAEJEON, July 14 (Yonhap) -- Nobel Physics Prize laureate Robert Laughlin was sworn in Wednesday as the first foreign president of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea"s top technology university.
Laughlin, in his inauguration speech, pledged to transform the state-run Korean university into a globally competitive educational institution, while also vowing to make it research oriented.
"Many people have asked me how I, as a foreigner, could possibly understand the situation here at KAIST, much less figure out a path forward," he said. "The short answer is that the situation here is not unique. The problems facing the research university are historical in nature and essentially identical all over the world."
He added the same worried discussions are taking place in other universities around the globe such as at Stanford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Heidelberg and Tokyo.
"I have come here not to solve your problems but to solve my own," the 54-year-old American said.
Laughlin said KAIST is a large, well-functioning organization for which few things needed to be changed.
The former Stanford University professor also promised to work hard to lead the university in a novel direction.
"All of us in the technical university have a holy obligation ... we are here for the sole purpose of having big dreams and finding the strength to make them come to pass," Laughlin said.
"As far as I"m concerned, my job comes down to one thing: to make sure that your dreams are big enough, and to help everyone here -- faculty and students -- find the means to make them come to pass. That"s all," he said.
The ceremony was attended by Science and Technology Minister Oh Myung, Daejeon City Mayor Yeom Hong-chul and U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Thomas Hubbard, among others.
On Thursday, Laughlin is scheduled to meet President Roh Moo-hyun in Seoul. Laughlin will start his four-year term from mid-August, KAIST said.
Laughlin won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1998 with Horst Stoermer of Germany and Daniel Tsui of the United States for discovering a new form of quantum fluid that gives more profound insights into the general inner structure and dynamics of matter.
On May 28, he was chosen to run the Korean university at a board meeting. (END)
2004.07.15 View 14919 -
KAIST-Tsinghua High-Tech EXPO 2004
THE KAIST Herald 2004.5.12
By Jong-kyoung KimThe KAIST Herald Staff Reporter
KAIST and Tsinghua University are holding KAIST-Tsinghua Korea-China High Tech EXPO 2004 from July 12 to 14, at the Beijing International Convention Center. The Expo seeks to contribute to economic development through promoting exchanges between exceptional Korean and Chinese start-up companies, and to promote cooperation between high-tech industries and academic institutions through academic and technological exchanges between each nation"s best technology institutions.
The Expo is a big international affair held by a university from Korea and one from China. The Expo is also a means to implement the agreement between KAIST and Tsinghua in 2002 to promote exchanges between the two universities and to conduct international co-research. It is sponsored by various technology institutions of both nations.
The Expo is different from other expos in that it is a specialized expo where Tsinghua-related companies, experts, and buyers participate to discuss the transfer of technologies and to deal in trades. Also, to insure that the Expo is beneficial to participating Korean companies, the Expo plans to offer business talks with at least ten Chinese companies per company. From Korea, thirteen companies from enterprise-incubation center and graduate start-ups with high-tech start-ups in areas of IT, BT, NT and mechatronics that are possible in exporting related products or transferring related technologies are participating. From China, Tsinghua-related companies, China Telecom, China Unicom, and other companies under China Telecommunication Association with other famous Chinese companies are expected to participate.
In addition to exhibitions, co-work between KAIST and Tsinghua"s research centers and KAIST"s Technology Transfer & Exchange Center"s explanation on public technology transfer are taking place during the Expo.
And, after three days of the Expo, about ten companies will move to Chungking, a city in western China to hold a product and technology explanation session.
2004.05.21 View 18583
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Professor Kim Donates W5 Bil. to KAIST
Korea Times 2004.5.21
By Kim Tae-gyu / Staff Reporter
A professor from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has donated his inherited wealth of 5 billion won to the state-owned institute.
The KAIST announced professor Kim Dong-won contributed 5 billion won in properties and cash, which he inherited from his father, who passed away late last year.
``Professor Kim has asked us to spend the contribution in the development of Korea’s science in accordance with the late Kim’s will,’’ said Park Jae-wook, a KAIST spokesman.
Park added Kim had tried to remain anonymous, but his identity was revealed by some local newspapers. Kim is currently in the United States as he is out of his post on an interim basis and will come back to Korea in August.
Four billion won of the donation will be used to set up scholarships, which will endow 20 million won each to 10 KAIST students every year. The remaining 1 billion won will help invite illustrious scholars to the institute.
Adding to the good news for KAIST, Lee Chong-moon, chairman of the U.S.-based venture company Ambex, has also donated 2 billion won.
The 76-year-old Lee called for the KAIST to inspire a sprit among students by establishing a management center named after him.
2004.05.21 View 16772
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Personal data found on many used hard drives
JoongAng Daily / 2004.03.09
(photo : Professor Song-chun MoonKAIST Graduate School of Management)
Many secondhand computer hard drives that are being sold through the Internet formerly belonged to businesses and are therefore full of business records containing personal information, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), a leading local science and technology school, said yesterday.
To determine whether personal information had been properly deleted, the business database research team at KAIST"s business school conducted an experiment in which it randomly bought 41 hard drives through Internet auction sites beginning in April 2003 and analyzed their contents.
It said 26 hard drives out of the total, or 65 percent, had not even been reformatted to remove data. On those drives were business records containing the names, birth dates, home and company addresses, telephone numbers and health examination records of 1,349 people. Also, the team found 568 resident identification numbers on the drives.
"Secondhand hard disks are an open storehouse of personal information [from business records]," said the team"s head, Moon Young-chul. "We found such personal data for an average of 60 people per used disk."
Mr. Moon said that reformatting hard drives alone will not delete all information recorded on them. He said special software designed to completely delete data should be used or such disks should be destroyed.
by Ko Ran / 2004.03.09
2004.04.22 View 13412
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133 Diplomats Worldwide Visit KAIST
THE KAIST Herald April 8, 2004by jong-kyoung Kim
On March 12, diplomatic corps in Korea visited Daedeok Valley"s KAIST after taking a trial run on the Korea Train eXpress(KTX). Composed of ambassadors from 79 nations and 54 international organizations, the 133 diplomatic corps went on board KTX at 10:30 AM in Seoul and arrived in Daejeon at 11:20 AM.
Shortly after arrival, the diplomatic corps attended a luncheon hosted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade(MOFAT) before paying visits to the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute(ETRI) and KAIST. After being introduced to the current issues at KAIST, the diplomatic corps returned back to Seoul at 4:00 PM.
Seventy-nine embassy representatives out of eighty-seven currently stationed in Korea participated in this event, with fifty-four representatives from three international organizations. In addition, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, a commercial relations director, and a regional representative accompanied them.
The trial rides on April 1 were organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to publicize Korea as being the fifth country (after Japan, France, Germany, and Spain) in the world to own an express train and to introduce the growth of Korea"s IT industry through visits to ETRI and KAIST.
Events such as this are held annually to improve the understandings of the diplomatic corps about Korea"s science, technology, culture and art and to further enhance bilateral relations.
2004.04.20 View 17176
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Foreign R&D Centers Cropping Up Here
Korea Times / 2004. 03. 26 By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff ReporterThe world"s top companies and research institutes are rushing to Korea to set up research and development (R&D) centers.
The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) on Thursday said it isunder negotiation with several world-renowned firms or foundations,including University of Cambridge Cavendish Laboratory, Novartis, DuPont and EMC.The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) is also lookingto attract five to six multinational companies to establish R&D centers here this year.
Korea has already become a home for R&D institutes from top-tier foreign outfits like the world"s No.1 computer-chip maker Intel Corp. and Paris-based medical foundation Institut Pasteur as well as Germany"s Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.
The MOST said Cavendish will exchange a memorandum of understandingto set up a joint research center here together with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) as early as this May.
The two entities will join hands to accelerate knowledge in the fields of nanotechnology, optical technology and physics to name a few,a MOST official said.It also seeks to invite Swiss-based pharmaceutical group Norvatis toestablish an R&D center here on occasion of the medical symposium that will take place here from March 31.
The Fortune 500 company is expected to dispatch dozens of high-ranking staff to the two-day neuroscience convention.
The Korea Foundation for International Cooperation of Science and Technology (KICOS), an affiliate of MOST, expects a few American companies, including DuPont, to open shop here.``DuPont is likely to make a decision, and we are currently under negotiations with several big companies like EMC,"" KICOS official KimKey-hyup said.
EMC is the world"s third-largest maker of data-storage devices.Seoul seeks to host six high-tech information-technology (IT) research centers this year.
Up to now, Intel and Fraunhofer committed themselves to setting up research centers here, and IBM will likely open an R&D center as soonas its affiliate IBM Korea"s bribe scandal regarding a government contract is settled.
Such high-profile companies as Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Qualcomm are welcome to open R&D centers in Korea, an MIC official said. The government is willing to provide financial incentives to foreignR&D centers.
2004.03.26 View 17923
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Professor Yang Receives Academic Award
By Ki-beom Lee / Reporter
The KAIST Herald December 3, 2003
The Professor Dong-yol Yang of the Department of Mechanical Engineering received the Sang-woo Academic Award last month. Unlike other awards of similar nature, this award is given to one of many leading scientists who has written six to seven papers in the previous year. This award is special in that Professor Yang retired as chairman of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity in December 2002. Professor Yang received a prize on the research of the anisotropic pressing out process. He has also written papers based on the twenty-five years of research at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and has researched high-speed modeling for the first time in Korea.
2004.03.15 View 16667
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Personal data found on many used hard drives
JoongAng Daily2004.3.9
Many secondhand computer hard drives that are being sold through the Internet formerly belonged to businesses and are therefore full of business records containing personal information, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), a leading local science and technology school, said yesterday.
To determine whether personal information had been properly deleted, the business database research team at KAIST"s business school conducted an experiment in which it randomly bought 41 hard drives through Internet auction sites beginning in April 2003 and analyzed their contents.
It said 26 hard drives out of the total, or 65 percent, had not even been reformatted to remove data. On those drives were business records containing the names, birth dates, home and company addresses, telephone numbers and health examination records of 1,349 people. Also, the team found 568 resident identification numbers on the drives.
"Secondhand hard disks are an open storehouse of personal information [from business records]," said the team"s head, Moon Young-chul. "We found such personal data for an average of 60 people per used disk."
Mr. Moon said that reformatting hard drives alone will not delete all information recorded on them. He said special software designed to completely delete data should be used or such disks should be destroyed.
2004.03.15 View 12748