Kaist

KAIST to Develop a Korean-style ChatGPT Platform S..

On May 23rd, KAIST (President Kwang-Hyung Lee) announced that its Digital Bio-Health AI Research Center (Director: Professor JongChul Ye of KAIST Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI) has been selected for the Ministry of Science and ICT's 'AI Top-Tier Young Researcher Support Program (AI Star Fellowship Project).' With a total investment of ₩11.5 billion from May 2025 to December 2030, the center will embark on the full-scale development of AI technology and a platform capable of independently inferring and determining the kinds of diseases, and discovering new drugs. < Photo. On May 20th, a kick-off meeting for the AI Star Fellowship Project was held at KAIST Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI’s Yangjae Research Center with the KAIST research team and participating organizations of Samsung Medical Center, NAVER Cloud, and HITS. [From left to right in the front row] Professor Jaegul Joo (KAIST), Professor Yoonjae Choi (KAIST), Professor Woo Youn Kim (KAIST/HITS), Professor JongChul Ye (KAIST), Professor Sungsoo Ahn (KAIST), Dr. Haanju Yoo (NAVER Cloud), Yoonho Lee (KAIST), HyeYoon Moon (Samsung Medical Center), Dr. Su Min Kim (Samsung Medical Center) > This project aims to foster an innovative AI research ecosystem centered on young researchers and develop an inferential AI agent that can utilize and automatically expand specialized knowledge systems in the bio and medical fields. Professor JongChul Ye of the Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI will serve as the lead researcher, with young researchers from KAIST including Professors Yoonjae Choi, Kimin Lee, Sungsoo Ahn, and Chanyoung Park, along with mid-career researchers like Professors Jaegul Joo and Woo Youn Kim, jointly undertaking the project. They will collaborate with various laboratories within KAIST to conduct comprehensive research covering the entire cycle from the theoretical foundations of AI inference to its practical application. Specifically, the main goals include: - Building high-performance inference models that integrate diverse medical knowledge systems to enhance the precision and reliability of diagnosis and treatment. - Developing a convergence inference platform that efficiently combines symbol-based inference with neural network models. - Securing AI technology for new drug development and biomarker discovery based on 'cell ontology.' Furthermore, through close collaboration with industry and medical institutions such as Samsung Medical Center, NAVER Cloud, and HITS Co., Ltd., the project aims to achieve: - Clinical diagnostic AI utilizing medical knowledge systems. - AI-based molecular target exploration for new drug development. - Commercialization of an extendible AI inference platform. Professor JongChul Ye, Director of KAIST's Digital Bio-Health AI Research Center, stated, "At a time when competition in AI inference model development is intensifying, it is a great honor for KAIST to lead the development of AI technology specialized in the bio and medical fields with world-class young researchers." He added, "We will do our best to ensure that the participating young researchers reach a world-leading level in terms of research achievements after the completion of this seven-year project starting in 2025." The AI Star Fellowship is a newly established program where post-doctoral researchers and faculty members within seven years of appointment participate as project leaders (PLs) to independently lead research. Multiple laboratories within a university and demand-side companies form a consortium to operate the program. Through this initiative, KAIST plans to nurture bio-medical convergence AI talent and simultaneously promote the commercialization of core technologies in collaboration with Samsung Medical Center, NAVER Cloud, and HITS.

“For the First Time, We Shared a Meaningful Exchan..

• KAIST team up with NAVER AI Lab and Dodakim Child Development Center Develop ‘AAcessTalk’, an AI-driven Communication Tool bridging the gap Between Children with Autism and their Parents • The project earned the prestigious Best Paper Award at the ACM CHI 2025, the Premier International Conference in Human-Computer Interaction • Families share heartwarming stories of breakthrough communication and newfound understanding. < Photo 1. (From left) Professor Hwajung Hong and Doctoral candidate Dasom Choi of the Department of Industrial Design with SoHyun Park and Young-Ho Kim of Naver Cloud AI Lab > For many families of minimally verbal autistic (MVA) children, communication often feels like an uphill battle. But now, thanks to a new AI-powered app developed by researchers at KAIST in collaboration with NAVER AI Lab and Dodakim Child Development Center, parents are finally experiencing moments of genuine connection with their children. On the 16th, the KAIST (President Kwang Hyung Lee) research team, led by Professor Hwajung Hong of the Department of Industrial Design, announced the development of ‘AAcessTalk,’ an artificial intelligence (AI)-based communication tool that enables genuine communication between children with autism and their parents. This research was recognized for its human-centered AI approach and received international attention, earning the Best Paper Award at the ACM CHI 2025＊, an international conference held in Yokohama, Japan. ＊ACM CHI (ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems) 2025: One of the world's most prestigious academic conference in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). This year, approximately 1,200 papers were selected out of about 5,000 submissions, with the Best Paper Award given to only the top 1％. The conference, which drew over 5,000 researchers, was the largest in its history, reflecting the growing interest in ‘Human-AI Interaction.’ Called AACessTalk, the app offers personalized vocabulary cards tailored to each child’s interests and context, while guiding parents through conversations with customized prompts. This creates a space where children’s voices can finally be heard—and where parents and children can connect on a deeper level. Traditional augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tools have relied heavily on fixed card systems that often fail to capture the subtle emotions and shifting interests of children with autism. AACessTalk breaks new ground by integrating AI technology that adapts in real time to the child’s mood and environment. < Figure. Schematics of AACessTalk system. It provides personalized vocabulary cards for children with autism and context-based conversation guides for parents to focus on practical communication. Large ‘Turn Pass Button’ is placed at the child’s side to allow the child to lead the conversation. > Among its standout features is a large ‘Turn Pass Button’ that gives children control over when to start or end conversations—allowing them to lead with agency. Another feature, the “What about Mom/Dad?” button, encourages children to ask about their parents’ thoughts, fostering mutual engagement in dialogue, something many children had never done before. One parent shared, “For the first time, we shared a meaningful exchange.” Such stories were common among the 11 families who participated in a two-week pilot study, where children used the app to take more initiative in conversations and parents discovered new layers of their children’s language abilities. Parents also reported moments of surprise and joy when their children used unexpected words or took the lead in conversations, breaking free from repetitive patterns. “I was amazed when my child used a word I hadn’t heard before. It helped me understand them in a whole new way,” recalled one caregiver. Professor Hwajung Hong, who led the research at KAIST’s Department of Industrial Design, emphasized the importance of empowering children to express their own voices. “This study shows that AI can be more than a communication aid—it can be a bridge to genuine connection and understanding within families,” she said. Looking ahead, the team plans to refine and expand human-centered AI technologies that honor neurodiversity, with a focus on bringing practical solutions to socially vulnerable groups and enriching user experiences. This research is the result of KAIST Department of Industrial Design doctoral student Dasom Choi's internship at NAVER AI Lab. ＊ Thesis Title: AACessTalk: Fostering Communication between Minimally Verbal Autistic Children and Parents with Contextual Guidance and Card Recommendation ＊ DOI: 10.1145/3706598.3713792 ＊ Main Author Information: Dasom Choi (KAIST, NAVER AI Lab, First Author), SoHyun Park (NAVER AI Lab) , Kyungah Lee (Dodakim Child Development Center), Hwajung Hong (KAIST), and Young-Ho Kim (NAVER AI Lab, Corresponding Author) This research was supported by the NAVER AI Lab internship program and grants from the National Research Foundation of Korea: the Doctoral Student Research Encouragement Grant (NRF-2024S1A5B5A19043580) and the Mid-Career Researcher Support Program for the Development of a Generative AI-Based Augmentative and Alternative Communication System for Autism Spectrum Disorder (RS-2024-00458557).

KAIST’s RAIBO2 becomes the World’s First Robo-dog ..

KAIST's quadrupedal walking robot "RAIBO", which can run seamlessly on sandy beaches, has now evolved into "RAIBO2"and achieved the groundbreaking milestone by becomeing the world's first quadrupedal robot to successfully complete a full-course marathon in an official event. < Photo 1. A group photo of RAIBO2 and the team after completing the full-course marathon > KAIST (President Kwang Hyung Lee) announced on the 17th of November that Professor Je Min Hwangbo's research team of the Department of Mechanical Engineering participated in the 22nd Sangju Dried-Persimmon Marathon and completed the full-course race (42.195 km) with a time of 4 hours 19 minutes and 52 seconds. < Photo 2. RAIBO2 after completing the full-course marathon with its official record presented on the photo wall > The Sangju Dried Persimmon Marathon is known for its challenging course featuring two 50 m elevation climbs, each at the 14 km and 28 km marks, making it defficult for amateur runners. This made it an especially demanding challenge for the walking robot, as unexpected losses in efficiency could occur. < Photo 3. RAIBO2 with the completion medal around its neck > To prepare RAIBO2, Professor Hwangbo's team developed a walking controller using reinforcement learning algorithms within their proprietary simulation environment "RaiSim". This simulator allowed the team to simlate diverse terrains such as slopes, stairs, and icy roads to ensure stable walking performance. In particular, RAIBO2's high torque transparency joint mechanism enable the robot to efficiently harvest energy on the downhill slopes to regain some of the energy used in climbing up steep hill. In addition, the stability of the robot was greatly improved through the collaboration with RAION ROBOTICS Inc., a company founded by the researchers from Professor Hwangbo’s lab. < Figure 1. Conceptual diagram of power flow employed by the quadrupedal robot > < Figure 2. The process of leg posture change of RAIBO2 walking at the most efficient walking speed of 3 m/s. By reducing the ground contact speed of the feet, the collision energy loss was reduced, and by minimizing the slipperiness of the foot upon contact, the body's kinetic energy was maintained towards the direction of the movement. > Due to the nature of walking, pedal robots must employ highly complex systems that can withstand periodic vibrations from the frequent impacts that occur upon contact with the ground surface. Immediately after development, high efficiency was already recorded in short-distance experiments in the laboratory at the beginning of the year, but the manufacturing technology of RAION ROBOTICS significantly bolstered RAIBO's performance in running safely for a prolonged time of more than 4 hours among random pack of people in an actual marathon. Compared to previous studies on improving walking efficiency, where external parts or software could not be changed and only limited improvements were made in some areas, Professor Hwangbo’s research team cited the fact that they were able to comprehensively solve problems by developing all steps and parts in-house, including mechanism design, electrical design, software, and artificial intelligence, as a key factor in improving efficiency. Following the development of RAIBO1, the research team developed RAIBO2 and optimized all aspects of the robot. In particular, the team integrated the motor driver circuitry directly into the robot to minimize actuator losses and increase the control bandwidth, greatly improving walking efficiency and stability. < Photo 4. RAIBO2 running the full-course marathon along human participants > Choongin Lee, a Ph.D. Student that co-first author of the studies on RAIBO, said, “Through the marathon project, we demonstrated that RAIBO2 has the walking performance to stably execute services such as delivery and patrol in urban environments with many people and random objects,” and “In follow-up research, we will add autonomous navigation functions to RAIBO and strive to achieve the world’s best walking performance in mountainous and disaster environments.” < Photo 5. RAIBO2 and co-first authors of the related research at the Ph.D. program of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at KAIST. (From left) Choongin Lee, Donghoon Youm, and Jeongsoo Park > This research was conducted with the support of Samsung Electronics Future Technology Promotion Center and RAION ROBOTICS Inc.

KAIST’s Beach-Roaming Quadrupedal Robot “RAIBO” to..

“RAIBO”, KAIST’s four-legged robot featuring remarkable agility even on challenging terrains like sandy beaches, is now set to be the first in the world to complete a full marathon. < Photo 1. A group photo of the research team of Professor Je Min Hwangbo (second from the right in the front row) of the Department of Mechanical Engineering who participated in the marathon event at 2024 Geumsan Insam Festival last September > On the 17th of November, KAIST (represented by President Kwang Hyung Lee) announced that Professor Je Min Hwangbo’s team from the Department of Mechanical Engineering has developed an upgraded version, “RAIBO2,” which will take on the full 42.195-kilometer course at the "Sangju Dried-Persimmon Marathon". This is over double the previous maximum distance achieved by quadruped robots, which was limited to around 20 kilometers. The KAIST team has successfully developed a robot that can walk continuously for 43 kilometers on a single charge, completing the course in 4 hours and 40 minutes by following a GPS-guided path on the university’s main athletic field. Through this marathon, the team aims to demonstrate RAIBO2’s walking performance in an actual urban environment. Previously, most measurements of walking robots’ travel distances were confined to controlled laboratory conditions or theoretical data. This marathon challenge is thus significant in that the robot will run alongside the general public in a real urban setting, marking the first attempt to validate the practical potential of four-legged robots in real environments. Quadruped robots have shown advantages in challenging terrains, such as ice, sand, and mountainous areas, where they can walk stably. However, limited travel distance and running time have long been obstacles to wider applications. < Figure 1. Conceptual diagram of power flow employed by the quadruped robot > Professor Hwangbo’s team designed every component of the robot, from its actuators to its mechanical structure, to overcome these limitations. Notably, they implemented an efficient walking control system based on reinforcement learning using their proprietary dynamic simulator “RaiSim”. The team also collected and analyzed walking data from outdoor environments, creating a model to address walking losses. This model was then used to iteratively improve walking efficiency over one full year. < Figure 2. The leg posture change process of RAIBO2 walking at the most efficient walking speed of 3 m/s. By reducing the ground contact speed of the feet, the collision energy loss was reduced, and by minimizing the slipperiness of the foot upon contact, the body's kinetic energy was maintained towards the direction of the movement. > This is the team’s second attempt. Their first was during the marathon event at “Geumsan Insam Festival” in September when the robot’s battery ran out at the 37-kilometer mark, falling short of completion. The battery drained 10 kilometers earlier than expected due to frequent speed changes as the robot adjusted to the pacing of other runners on the course. Following the initial attempt, the team focused on technical improvements for a successful finish. They enhanced control efficiency by implementing joint stiffness control directly onto the motor actuator and increased battery capacity by 33％ by refining the internal structure. These improvements enabled the robot to cover a maximum distance of 67 kilometers on straight paths. < Figure 3. Data from completing 43 km on a single charge at the main sports field on campus. Left) GPS data of the driving course used during autonomous running. Middle) Covered distance by the hour. Right) Energy consumption by module > Choongin Lee, a Ph.D. student of RAI Lab who is one of the co-first author of this study, explained, “Our comprehensive analysis of walking losses in terms of mechanics, electrical systems, and walking methods was crucial to improving walking efficiency. This research marks an important milestone in extending the operating range of quadruped robots to urban environments.” < Photo 2. A Photo from Practice Run> This research was supported by the Samsung Electronics Future Technology Development Center and RAION ROBOTICS Co., Ltd. < Photo 3. A Photo from Practice Run >

Professor Sung-Hyon Myaeng from School of Computin..

Professor Sung-Hyon Myaeng from KAIST has published a book "The Age of AGI and the Future of Humanity." Professor Sung-Hyon Myaeng of KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) has published a new book titled "The Age of AGI and the Future of Humanity," which analyzes the latest trends in artificial intelligence research and its potential impact on future society. This book deeply examines the various possibilities of the AGI era and the challenges humans need to prepare concrete strategies for coexistence and advancement with AI. Additionally, it discusses ethical, social, and economic issues related to coexistence with AGI and offers specific survival guidelines to ensure humans can thrive in the AGI era. The author, Professor Sung-Hyon Myaeng, conducts research on artificial intelligence and machine learning at the School of Computing at KAIST and is recognized as an authority in the field of AI through numerous academic papers and books. His research has received international attention, and he said "I want to share in-depth knowledge of AGI with the public through this new book" "The Age of AGI and the Future of Humanity" is an essential read for understanding the AGI era and preparing for coexistence with AI. It is highly recommended for anyone interested in artificial intelligence. Author: Sung-Hyon Myaeng (Professor at the School of Computing, KAIST) Publisher: 헤이 북스 Purchase Link: https://www.yes24.com/Product/Goods/126794729 https://product.kyobobook.co.kr/detail/S000213398879

KAIST’s unmanned racing car to race in the Indy Au..

- Professor David Hyunchul Shim of the School of Electrical Engineering, is at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada with his students of the Unmanned Systems Research Group (USRG), participating in the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) ＠ CES as the only Asian team in the race. Photo 1. Nine teams that competed at the first Indy Autonomous Challenge on October 23, 2021. (KAIST team is the right most team in the front row) - The EE USRG team won the slot to race in the IAC ＠ CES 2023 rightly as the semifinals entree of the IAC ＠ CES 2022’ held in January of last year - Through the partnership with Hyundai Motor Company, USRG received support to participate in the competition, and is to share the latest developments and trends of the technology with the company researchers - With upgrades from last year, USRG is to race with a high-speed Indy racing car capable of driving up to 300 km/h and the technology developed in the process is to be used in further advancement of the high-speed autonomous vehicle technology of the future. KAIST (President Kwang Hyung Lee) announced on the 5th that it will participate in the “Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) ＠ CES 2023”, an official event of the world's largest electronics and information technology exhibition held every year in Las Vegas, Nevada, of the United States from January 5th to 8th. Photo 2. KAIST Racing Team participating in the Indy Autonomous Challenge ＠ CES 2023 (Team Leader: Sungwon Na, Team Members: Seongwoo Moon, Hyunwoo Nam, Chanhoe Ryu, Jaeyoung Kang) “IAC ＠ CES 2023”, which is to be held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS) on January 7, seeks to advance technology developed as the result of last year's competition to share the results of such advanced high-speed autonomous vehicle technology with the public. This competition is the 4th competition following the “Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC)” held for the first time in Indianapolis, USA on October 23, 2021. At the IAC ＠ CES 2022 following the first IAC competition, the Unmmaned Systems Research Group (USRG) team led by Professor David Hyunchul Shim advanced to the semifinals out of a total of nine teams and won a spot to participate in CES 2023. As a result, the USRG comes into the challenge as the only Asian team to compete with other teams comprised of students and researchers of American and European backgrounds where the culture of motorsports is more deep-rooted. For CES 2022, Professor David Hyunchul Shim’s research team was able to successfully develop a software that controlled the racing car to comply with the race flags and regulations while going up to 240 km/h all on its on. Photo 3. KAIST Team’s vehicle on Las Vegas Motor Speedway during the IAC ＠ CES 2022 In the IAC ＠ CES 2023, the official racing vehicle AV-23, is a converted version of IL-15, the official racing car for Indy 500, fully automated while maintaining the optimal design for high-speed racing, and was upgraded from the last year’s competition taking up the highest speed up to 300 km/h. This year’s competition, will develop on last year’s head-to-head autonomous racing and take the form of the single elimination tournament to have the cars overtake the others without any restrictions on the driving course, which would have the team that constantly drives at the fastest speed will win the competition. Photo 4. KAIST Team’s vehicle overtaking the Italian team, PoliMOVE’s vehicle during one of the race in the IAC ＠ CES 2022 Professor Shim's team further developed on the CES 2022 certified software to fine tune the external recognition mechanisms and is now focused on precise positioning and driving control technology that factors into maintaining stability even when driving at high speed. Professor Shim's research team won the Autonomous Driving Competition hosted by Hyundai Motor Company in 2021. Starting with this CES 2023 competition, they signed a partnership contract with Hyundai to receive financial support to participate in the CES competition and share the latest developments and trends of autonomous driving technology with Hyundai Motor's research team. During CES 2023, the research team will also participate in other events such as the exhibition by the KAIST racing team at the IAC’s official booth located in the West Hall. Professor David Hyunchul Shim said, “With these competitions being held overseas, there were many difficulties having to keep coming back, but the students took part in it diligently, for which I am deeply grateful. Thanks to their efforts, we were able to continue in this competition, which will be a way to verify the autonomous driving technology that we developed ourselves over the past 13 years, and I highly appreciate that.” “While high-speed autonomous driving technology is a technology that is not yet sought out in Korea, but it can be applied most effectively for long-distance travel in the Korea,” he went on to add. “It has huge advantages in that it does not require constructions for massive infrastructure that costs enormous amount of money such as high-speed rail or urban aviation and with our design, it is minimally affected by weather conditions.” he emphasized. On a different note, the IAC ＠ CES 2023 is co-hosted by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) and Energy Systems Network (ESN), the organizers of CES. Last year’s IAC winner, Technische Universität München of Germany, and MIT-PITT-RW, a team of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Massachusetts), University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), Rochester Institute of Technology (New York), University of Waterloo (Canada), with and the University of Waterloo, along with TII EuroRacing - University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy), Technology Innovation Institute (United Arab Emirates), and five other teams are in the race for the win against KAIST. Photo 5. KAIST Team’s vehicle on the track during the IAC ＠ CES 2022 The Indy Autonomous Challenge is scheduled to hold its fifth competition at the Monza track in Italy in June 2023 and the sixth competition at CES 2024.

Yuji Roh Awarded 2022 Microsoft Research PhD Fello..

KAIST PhD candidate Yuji Roh of the School of Electrical Engineering (advisor: Prof. Steven Euijong Whang) was selected as a recipient of the 2022 Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship. < KAIST PhD candidate Yuji Roh (advisor: Prof. Steven Euijong Whang) > The Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship is a scholarship program that recognizes outstanding graduate students for their exceptional and innovative research in areas relevant to computer science and related fields. This year, 36 people from around the world received the fellowship, and Yuji Roh from KAIST EE is the only recipient from universities in Korea. Each selected fellow will receive a ＄10,000 scholarship and an opportunity to intern at Microsoft under the guidance of an experienced researcher. Yuji Roh was named a fellow in the field of “Machine Learning” for her outstanding achievements in Trustworthy AI. Her research highlights include designing a state-of-the-art fair training framework using batch selection and developing novel algorithms for both fair and robust training. Her works have been presented at the top machine learning conferences ICML, ICLR, and NeurIPS among others. She also co-presented a tutorial on Trustworthy AI at the top data mining conference ACM SIGKDD. She is currently interning at the NVIDIA Research AI Algorithms Group developing large-scale real-world fair AI frameworks. The list of fellowship recipients and the interview videos are displayed on the Microsoft webpage and Youtube. The list of recipients: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/academic-program/phd-fellowship/2022-recipients/ Interview (Global): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Q-XwOOoJc Interview (Asia): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwq3R1XU8UE [Highlighted research achievements by Yuji Roh: Fair batch selection framework] [Highlighted research achievements by Yuji Roh: Fair and robust training framework]

VP Sang Yup Lee Receives Honorary Doctorate from D..

< Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee (left) and DTU President Anders Bjarklev during the DTU Commemoration Day 20200 on April 29. > Vice President for Research, Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee at the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) during the DTU Commemoration Day 2022 on April 29. The event drew distinguished guests, students, and faculty including HRH The Crown Prince Frederik Andre Henrik Christian and DTU President Anders Bjarklev. Professor Lee was recognized for his exceptional scholarship in the field of systems metabolic engineering, which led to the development of microcell factories capable of producing a wide range of fuels, chemicals, materials, and natural compounds, many for the first time. Professor Lee said in his acceptance speech that KAIST’s continued partnership with DTU in the field of biotechnology will lead to significant contributions in the global efforts to respond to climate change and promote green growth. DTU CPO and CSO Dina Petronovic Nielson, who heads DTU Biosustain, also lauded Professor Lee saying, “It is not only a great honor for Professor Lee to be induced at DTU but also great honor for DTU to have him.” Professor Lee also gave commemorative lectures at DTU Biosustain in Lingby and the Bio Innovation Research Institute at the Novo Nordisk Foundation in Copenhagen while in Denmark. DTU, one of the leading science and technology universities in Europe, has been awarding honorary doctorates since 1921, including to Nobel laureate in chemistry Professor Frances Arnold at Caltech. Professor Lee is the first Korean to receive an honorary doctorate from DTU.

Professor Lik-Hang Lee Offers Metaverse Course for..

< Professor Lik-Hang Lee > Professor Lik-Hang Lee from the Department of Industrial System Engineering will offer a metaverse course in partnership with the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) from the Spring 2022 semester to Hong Kong-based professionals. “The Metaverse Course for Professionals” aims to nurture world-class talents of the metaverse in response to surging demand for virtual worlds and virtual-physical blended environments. The HKPC’s R&D scientists, consultants, software engineers, and related professionals will attend the course. They will receive a professional certificate on managing and developing metaverse skills upon the completion of this intensive course. The course will provide essential skills and knowledge about the parallel virtual universe and how to leverage digitalization and industrialization in the metaverse era. The course includes comprehensive modules, such as designing and implementing virtual-physical blended environments, metaverse technology and ecosystems, immersive smart cities, token economies, and intelligent industrialization in the metaverse era. Professor Lee believes in the decades to come that we will see rising numbers of virtual worlds in cyberspace known as the ‘Immersive Internet’ that will be characterized by high levels of immersiveness, user interactivity, and user-machine collaborations. “Consumers in virtual worlds will create novel content as well as personalized products and services, becoming as catalyst for ‘hyperpersonalization’ in the next industrial revolution,” he said. Professor Lee said he will continue offering world-class education related to the metaverse to students in KAIST and professionals from various industrial sectors, as his Augmented Reality and Media Lab will focus on a variety of metaverse topics such as metaverse campuses and industrial metaverses. The HKPC has worked to address innovative solutions for Hong Kong industries and enterprises since 1967, helping them achieve optimized resource utilization, effectiveness, and cost reduction as well as enhanced productivity and competitiveness in both local and international markets. The HKPC has advocated for facilitating Hong Kong’s reindustrialization powered by Industry 4.0 and e-commerce 4.0 with a strong emphasis on R&D, IoT, AI, digital manufacturing. The Augmented Reality and Media Lab led by Professor Lee will continue its close partnerships with HKPC and its other partners to help build the epicentre of the metaverse in the region. Furthermore, the lab will fully leverage its well-established research niches in user-centric, virtual-physical cyberspace (https://www.lhlee.com/projects-8 ) to serve upcoming projects related to industrial metaverses, which aligns with the departmental focus on smart factories and artificial intelligence.

Team KAIST to Race at CES 2022 Autonomous Challeng..

Five top university autonomous racing teams will compete in a head-to-head passing competition in Las Vegas < Team KAIST of self-driving team from the Unmanned System Research Group (USRG) advised by Professor Hyunchul Shim (second from right) > A self-driving racing team from the KAIST Unmanned System Research Group (USRG) advised by Professor Hyunchul Shim will compete at the Autonomous Challenge at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) on January 7, 2022. The head-to-head, high speed autonomous racecar passing competition at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway will feature the finalists and semifinalists from the Indy Autonomous Challenge in October of this year. Team KAIST qualified as a semifinalist at the Indy Autonomous Challenge and will join four other university teams including the winner of the competition, Technische Universität München. Team KAIST’s AV-21 vehicle is capable of driving on its own at more than 200km/h will be expected to show a speed of more than 300 km/h at the race.The participating teams are: 1. KAIST 2. EuroRacing : University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy), University of Pisa (Italy), ETH Zürich (Switzerland), Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland) 3. MIT-PITT-RW, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pittsburgh, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Waterloo (Canada) 4.PoliMOVE – Politecnico di Milano (Italy), University of Alabama 5.TUM Autonomous Motorsport – Technische Universität München (Germany) Professor Shim’s team is dedicated to the development and validation of cutting edge technologies for highly autonomous vehicles. In recognition of his pioneering research in unmanned system technologies, Professor Shim was honored with the Grand Prize of the Minister of Science and ICT on December 9. “We began autonomous vehicle research in 2009 when we signed up for Hyundai Motor Company’s Autonomous Driving Challenge. For this, we developed a complete set of in-house technologies such as low-level vehicle control, perception, localization, and decision making.” In 2019, the team came in third place in the Challenge and they finally won this year. For years, his team has participated in many unmanned systems challenges at home and abroad, gaining recognition around the world. The team won the inaugural 2016 IROS autonomous drone racing and placed second in the 2018 IROS Autonomous Drone Racing Competition. They also competed in 2017 MBZIRC, ranking fourth in Missions 2 and 3, and fifth in the Grand Challenge. Most recently, the team won the first round of Lockheed Martin’s Alpha Pilot AI Drone Innovation Challenge. The team is now participating in the DARPA Subterranean Challenge as a member of Team CoSTAR with NASA JPL, MIT, and Caltech. “We have accumulated plenty of first-hand experience developing autonomous vehicles with the support of domestic companies such as Hyundai Motor Company, Samsung, LG, and NAVER. In 2017, the autonomous vehicle platform “EureCar” that we developed in-house was authorized by the Korean government to lawfully conduct autonomous driving experiment on public roads,” said Professor Shim. The team has developed various key technologies and algorithms related to unmanned systems that can be categorized into three major components: perception, planning, and control. Considering the characteristics of the algorithms that make up each module, their technology operates using a distributed computing system. Since 2015, the team has been actively using deep learning algorithms in the form of perception subsystems. Contextual information extracted from multi-modal sensory data gathered via cameras, lidar, radar, GPS, IMU, etc. is forwarded to the planning subsystem. The planning module is responsible for the decision making and planning required for autonomous driving such as lane change determination and trajectory planning, emergency stops, and velocity command generation. The results from the planner are fed into the controller to follow the planned high-level command. The team has also developed and verified the possibility of an end-to-end deep learning based autonomous driving approach that replaces a complex system with one single AI network.

3 PhD Candidates Selected as the 2021 Google Fello..

< The 2021 Google PhD fellow Soo Ye Kim, Sanghyun Woo, and Hae Beom Lee (from left) > PhD candidates Soo Ye Kim and Sanghyun Woo from the KAIST School of Electrical Engineering and Hae Beom Lee from the Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI were selected as the 2021 Google PhD Fellows. The Google PhD Fellowship is a scholarship program that supports graduate school students from around the world that have produced excellent achievements from promising computer science-related fields. The 75 selected fellows will receive ten thousand dollars of funding with the opportunity to discuss research and receive one-on-one feedback from experts in related fields at Google. Soo Ye Kim was recognized for her research outcomes in image and video quality enhancement. In particular, she was the first to suggest a deep learning-based method to restore super-resolution and HDR videos, and to handle super-resolutionization and interpolation at the same time. Her related research outcomes were presented at top international conferences in the fields of computer vision and AI, including CVPR, ICCV, and AAAI. She is also collaborating with Google and Adobe research teams through research internships to research various high-quality video conversion methods. Sanghyun Woo was recognized for his research in the fields of visual perception and deduction. He suggested an effective deep learning model design based on the human attention mechanism, and efficient learning methodologies utilizing self-learning and simulators, which received a lot of attention. His various research outcomes related to models and learning methodologies were presented at top international conferences in the fields of computer vision and AI, including CVPR, ECCV, and NeurlPS. In particular, his paper presented at ECCV in 2018, “Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM)”, is being used in various computer vision applications, and has exceeded 2700 citation counts on Google Scholar. Woo was also selected as a Microsoft Research Asia PhD Fellow in 2020. Hae Beom Lee’s research achievements include effectively overcoming various limitations of the existing meta-learning framework. Specifically, he proposed ways to deal with a realistic task distribution with imbalances, improved the practicality of meta-knowledge, and made meta-learning possible, even in large-scale task scenarios. These various studies have been accepted to numerous top-tier machine learning conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML, and ICLR. In particular, one of his papers was selected as an oral presentation at ICLR 2020 and another as a spotlight presentation at NeurIPS 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the award ceremony was held via the online Google PhD Fellow Summit, and the list of recipients can be found on the Google website .

Alumni Professor Cho at NYU Endows Scholarship for..

< Alumni Professor Kyunghyun Cho at New York University endowed the “Lim Mi-Sook Scholarship” at KAIST for female computer scientists in honor of his mother. President Kwang Hyung Lee (far left) and his parents attended the donation ceremony last week at the campus. > Alumni Professor Kyunghyun Cho at New York University endowed the “Lim Mi-Sook Scholarship” at KAIST for female computer scientists in honor of his mother. Professor Cho, a graduate of the School of Computing in 2011 completed his master’s and PhD at Alto University in Finland in 2014. He has been teaching at NYU since 2015 and received the Samsung Ho-Am Prize for Engineering this year in recognition of his outstanding researches in the fields of machine learning and AI. “I hope this will encourage young female students to continue their studies in computer science and encourage others to join the discipline in the future, thereby contributing to building a more diverse community of computer scientists,” he said in his written message. His parents and President Kwang Hyung Lee attended the donation ceremony held at the Daejeon campus on June 24. Professor Cho has developed neural network machine learning translation algorithm that is widely being used in translation engines. His contributions to AI-powered translations and innovation in the industry led him to win one of the most prestigious prizes in Korea. He decided to donate his 300 million KRW prize money to fund two 100 million KRW scholarships named after each of his parents: the Lim Mi-Sook Scholarship is for female computer scientists and the Bae-Gyu Scholarly Award for Classics is in honor of his father, who is a Korean literature professor at Soongsil University in Korea. He will also fund a scholarship at Alto University. “I recall there were less than five female students out of 70 students in my cohort during my undergraduate studies at KAIST even in later 2000s. Back then, it just felt natural that boys majored computer science and girls in biology.” He said he wanted to acknowledge his mother, who had to give up her teaching career in the 1980s to take care of her children. “It made all of us think more about the burden of raising children that is placed often disproportionately on mothers and how it should be better distributed among parents, relatives, and society in order to ensure and maximize equity in education as well as career development and advances.” He added, “As a small step to help build a more diverse environment, I have decided to donate to this fund to provide a small supplement to the small group of female students majoring in computer science.