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- Korean Mathematical Society’s Spring Meeting 2016 on NCS
- The Department of Mathematics hosted the Korean Mathematical Society’s Spring Meeting 2016 on the Natural Sciences Campus from April 22 for 3 days in collaboration with the Korean Mathematical Society. The Meeting was also sponsored by the Korean Institute for Advanced Studies, National Institute for Mathematical Studies, Institute for Nonlinear Ergodic Theory headed and Brain Korea 21 PLUS Project Group of the Department of Mathematics. The programs comprise a series of organized academic sessions for each specific field of mathematical science, including algebra, analysis, geometry, topology, and cryptography, etc. Two public and plenary lectures were also presented to audiences by Professor Michael Summerfield Jolly of the Department of Mathematics, Indiana University and Professor LEE Woo Young of the Department of Mathematical Sciences. More than 300 mathematicians and researchers were invited to join for scientific engagement and sharing knowledge.
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- 작성일 2016-05-18
- 조회수 3875
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- Radboud University Marie Curie Students’ Association for Physics’ Visit to College of Science
- The College of Science and the Department of Physics invited the Marie Curie Students’ Association for Physics and Astronomy, a student scientific study and research group of Radboud University Nijmegen, to the Natural Sciences Campus On May 6, 2016. They were given chances to get to know about Sungkyunkwan University and natural science disciplines, particularly physics and astrophysics, throughout the programs co-organized by the College of Science and the Department of Physics. The one-day tailored program was begun by the Global Student Network Help and Information Club, or GSN HI-Club, with one-hour presentation about South Korea and SKKU and campus walk tour for about an hour. During their visit, a group of physics students were also invited build friendship with the students who are studying similar academic disciplines by exchanging ideas about common field of interest in physics studies during lunch and coffee breaks. In the afternoon, Professor RHEE Joo Yull and CHOI Wooseok delivered special lectures to nineteen future Dutch physicists from Holland. They were also brought to experimental physics laboratories by our physics students to see how our physics research is done.
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- 작성일 2016-05-10
- 조회수 3989
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- Nurturing Creative Convergence Talent to Reach Top 10 Rank in Asia
- Nurturing Creative Convergence Talent to Reach Top 10 Rank in Asia SKKU’s “New Challenge Project” from the Leader of Convergence Education Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) is carrying out its “New Challenge Project” which is based on convergence education, global alliances, academic-industrial cooperation, and management innovation in order to lead global issues and create positive changes in society. The name “New Challenge Project” suggests the specific plans of action for SKKU’s Vision 2020, the purpose of which is entering into the top 10 ranked universities in Asia and the top 50 ranked universities in the world. A main attribute of the plan is multilateral convergence education that includes software (SW) lectures, convergence between majors, reinforcement of academic-industrial cooperation, and promotion of engagement between foreign universities. SKKU has leading innovative software education for training SW professionals and convergence specialists with global competitiveness to keep pace with the rapid growth of SW education nowadays. Following Sungkyunkwan University’s selection as the SW Core University in 2015 all freshmen are taking basic SW courses. Furthermore, SKKU established the Sungkyunkwan Software Education iNstitute (SSEN) to teach SW to non-software and computer engineering majors. Through SSEN, SKKU will change academic SW programs, which up till now have been developer-oriented, to general education. Sungkyunkwan University is planning to create SW college by combining the Department of Software and the Department of Computer Engineering. SKKU will conduct a special entrance process for 60 students with SW talents and offer them 4 years of full scholarships from 2018. “The primary goal of SW education is cultivating thinking skills, not simply training developers. Students can learn logic, and acquire analytical and thinking skills in the process of analyzing problems by utilizing computer principles and making algorithms”, said Prof. Jae Hyoun Kim of SKKU’s Department of Computer Engineering. Another convergence education program Sungkyunkwan University has is the “C-School Project” by SKKU’s University Education Innovation Center. Students from every year team up as one group to solve problems based on integrated thinking beyond flat, major-oriented studying. The curriculum contains activities such as visiting new growing companies with global prospects, and the global camp with the leading universities in the fields of SW and Informatics. “The convergence education of the C-School is a creative way of educating that breaks the walls between majors and helps students achieve their dreams through genuine convergence. We will offer the program to students from all of the departments in the school”, said Sang Hoon Bae, Chief of the University Education Innovation Center. SKKU is establishing an academic-industrial foundation by expanding and reorganizing the research institutes in the school and building an academic-industrial cooperation system based on strong research abilities. In addition, the Sungkyun Advanced Institute of Nano Technology and Sungkyun Interfaculty Collaboration Center were recently established for convergence education between departments and promoting research. For this purpose, many research and education teams such as Future Nano Science Education and ICT Convergence Facility Administrative Education are receiving funding that reaches nearly 6,840,000 USD. Also, the Faculty of Engineering is running a business team for nurturing specialists that have a deep understanding and practical abilities in materials. To strengthen academic-industrial engagement, SKKU has recruited former executives who worked at companies as professors exclusively appointed for industry-university cooperation. The assessment of professors was also changed from quantitative evaluation to a differentiated assessment method such as technology transfer and job creation. As a result, Sungkyunkwan University has attained 329.4 billion won in research funding which has increased significantly since 2010 when it was at 219.9 billion won. SKKU’s international SCI thesis performance has also doubled from 2,782 in the year 2010 to 4,865 in 2015. The university was ranked number one in Korea in terms of SCI publications with an average of 0.8 per professor. The amount of paper citations per international thesis was 8.53 and there were 317 paper citations in the top 1% of theses which means that they were not only quantitatively high but also showed high qualitative results. To foster talented students who possess professionalism and practicality, the Sungkyunkwan Graduate School is also reinforcing industry-university links. SKKU recently opened a Grand ICT Research Center in Pangyo Techno Valley where 80,000 venture entrepreneurs are gathered. The Grand ICT Research Center will be running consortiums in various research areas such as intelligent ICT convergence and convergence SW development with the university as well as enterprises by operating the Pangyo SW Graduate school of Convergence. Through this, Sungkyunkwan University is creating a hub to handle the development of new technologies, transfer of technology, and creation of patents which are all directly connected to business ventures. With this effort, SKKU has earned high acclaim as an ‘outstanding’ institution, which is the highest ranking among the 85 universities in the Leaders in INdustry-university Cooperation (LINC) evaluation last year. The income generated by technological transfer was 2.5 billion won in 2010 which increased up to 3.7 billion won last year. Sungkyunkwan University is also reinforcing the links between overseas universities to foster global creative leaders in the era of internationalization. The university has expanded the joint research between the EU’s prestigious universities and America’s best public universities while at the same time developing a network with Australia’s research-centered universities. This year, SKKU is holding a joint forum with the University of Minnesota in the fields of Nanotechnology and Physics, the SKKU-PKU Forum with Beijing University, and another forum with Leiden University in the Netherlands. Sungkyunkwan University has signed exchange agreements with 921 universities in 76 countries, providing multiple double degree systems and exchange scholarship programs. There are currently 1,400 students studying overseas and 2,400 foreign students studying at SKKU. Also, more than 100 students each year are receiving dual degrees from prestigious overseas universities such as MIT, Indiana University, Fudan University, Beijing University, and Birmingham University. Sungkyunkwan University students are enjoying the opportunity to live all over the world and develop their global mindsets and language skills through international programs. SKKU’s 7+1 Supreme Studies Program provides the students with the chance to study in leading UK and US universities such as Kings College London, Indiana University, the University of Minnesota, Perdue University, and Edinburgh University. Students can take advantage of using the 7+1 Regional Expert Program and gain regional expertise by studying in countries that are not widely known in the second and third world such as Eastern Europe, Central and South America, and Africa. SKKU also has active academic exchange and research cooperation with overseas universities. A university staff member said, “We are currently running exchanges in the engineering academic field with the world’s most prestigious schools such as MIT and Beijing University. We are also conducting research by inviting technology centers such as the world’s best chemical company, BASF’s, Asia and Pacific R&D Center and the fourth ranked petrochemical company in the world, SABIC’s, Electrical, Electronic, and Lighting Technology Center.” The results of Sungkyunkwan University’s innovation and effort can be checked in several objective indexes. The number of students per full-time professor and the percentage of full-time professors are each 21.3 and 101.14%, which is the highest among the main private universities in Korea. Furthermore, the university has achieved a 231.2% total educational restitution rate which exceeded the nation’s average of 116.6%. SKKU had ranked 1st in employment rate among the 4-year universities of Korea with a rate of 68.3% in 2015. As for the global assessments of Sungkyunkwan University, it has ranked 16th in Asia and 148th in world according to the Times Higher Education’s (THE) university rankings and 17th in Asia and 118th in the world according to Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) university rankings. SKKU has also been selected as “the most noticed university around the world since 2009” along with MIT, Stanford University, Munich University, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich according to QS in 2014.
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- 작성일 2016-05-10
- 조회수 4326
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- Successful launch of Korean led space telescope
- The Soyuz rocket successfully launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia, on the morning of April 28th. One of the satellites the rocket was transporting loaded the space telescope, which is designed for observing gamma-ray bursts. The telescope was developed by a joint-research team consisting of five countries, led by Sungkyunkwan University’s, Professor of Physics, Il Hung Park. Prof. Park explained; “It is almost the first time we produced satisfactory results in the field of space through international joint research. I will study the space flash including gamma-ray bursts during the next three years, whereafter I will share my findings with the public".
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- 작성일 2016-05-04
- 조회수 4086
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- Fall in Love with Korean Language - Korean Writing Contest Held in Ho Chi Minh City
- Fall in Love with Korean Language - Korean Writing Contest Held in Ho Chi Minh City Students Utilize the Topic 'Seed' to Show off Their Korean Writing Skills “Just as a seed in the ground grows towards the sun, we have to work hard for our future.” (Ding Thi Nga, Ho Chi Minh Human Science University) “There are no bad seeds in the beginning; the important thing is where we plant them.” (Line Sreinit, Royal Phenomph University) The ‘SungKyun Korean Writing Contest’, hosted by Sungkyunkwan University with the goal of spreading interest and proficiency in the Korean language, was held on the 25th of this month at Eden Saigon Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. There were 37 students chosen from 15 universities in 4 countries in Southeast Asia such as Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. It was filled with the enthusiasm of the local university students eager to display their skills and win a chance to study in Korea. The students used the ‘seed’ metaphor to write about the future and the concept of hope. Even though the writing wasn’t perfect, the students’ love for the Korean language was reflected in each letter. Chief Examiner, Prof. Jae Ho Sung, of SKKU’s School of Law said, “We have chosen seed as the topic because we wish that the contest will be a bridge that connects not only the economics but also the social culture and humanitarianism of Korea and Southeast Asia.” Lee Yeon Le (21) from Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities who is majoring Korean studies said, “It regrettable that I spent too much time thinking about how to write about the subject ‘seed’ because it has various meanings.” Ding Thi Nga (23) won first prize and the other twenty-three students were honored with prizes as well. The first, second, and third prize winners were awarded full scholarships to attend Sungkyunkwan University’s master’s course. The Vice President of International Affairs and also the Chairman of the Writing Contest Committee, Dr. Suke Kyu Lee, said, “There have been lots of changes since we have been holding the writing contest four times a year. For example, Vietnamese middle schools and high schools have chosen to have Korean taught as a second foreign language from this year.”
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- 작성일 2016-04-28
- 조회수 4002
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- Restraining Fat stem cell differentiation to avoid child obesity
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Korean researchers have figured out the mechanism for the cause of obesity. This contribution can be led to developing new obesity-curing drugs, especially in child obesity. Here’s the report from Mr. Shin. Last year, it is estimated by the CDC that 10% of children and teenagers are obese. Once the fat cell has been created, it never vanishes causing adult obesity. Prof. Choi, Min-kyu(Hallym Univ. Medical Center) Chile obesity is mainly caused by increasing fat cells. It often leads to adult obesity and increases possibility of hypertension or diabetes. Local researchers presented in the acdemic journal that they found the mechanism how protein induces fat cells to cause obesity. ‘S6K1’, a signal transmitter in the body, was dyed in green to observe the fat stem cells. S6K1 is activated by food intake, causing excessive fat cells. It seems that a new medicine can be developed to prevent S6K1. Prof. Han, Jung-hwan(Sungkyunkwan University) “If we can restrain S6K1 from going into the nucleus, it will be a safe medicine to cure child obesity problem.” In fact, the mouse that had restrained S6K1 weighted less than half of the mouse without restraint. Also, visceral fat was only 1/4. If it is possible to prevent excessive differentiation from the stem cell to fat cell, the stem cell can differentiate into the bone or muscle, lessening the possibility of obesity. -
- 작성일 2016-04-26
- 조회수 3945
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- [10 years of Korean MBA] Local MBA proceeds to global level
- 3300 applicants in 13 universities Significant increase in customized curriculums 10 years have passed since Korean MBA was launched. Started with 8 in September 2006, 13 Korean MBA programs are currently available in Korea. The recruiting number has tripled to 2023 students, while the total number of applicants has doubled. Korean MBA strived to be ‘Global’ by recruiting foreign professors and students. All 13 schools accepted foreign students last year. 134 students from 55 countries, mostly from US(19 students) and China(14 students) and France(5 students). National variety as well as number of students increased both, compared to the last year. For globalization of academic curricular, the effort for recruiting foreign professors continues, with 83 foreign professors instructing in Korean MBAs. English taught courses take 53% of all courses, amounting up to 831 courses. Among those, 11 full-time programs and 3 night-weekend programs are being held 100% in English. With the effort of universities, 13 programs are lisensed by AACSB(Association to Advance Collegiate School of Business) and EQUIS(European Quality Improvement System). These endeavors resulted in good performances in overseas. Especially, Sungkyunkwan GSB program(daytime) ranked 66th worldwide in 2012, jumping to 59th last year, ranked world’s top 100 MBA for three consecutive years. For night MBA, ‘Corporate MBA’ by Yonsei University ranked 45th in 2015 Financial Times ‘World’s 100 Executives’. Executive MBA by Korea University ranked 27th in FT World’s 100 MBA rankings in 2015, proving its excellence globally. Currently, local MBA programs are developing over time to suit applicants’ various needs. Ewha Women’s University introduced ‘Engineering program for management’, to raise female CEOs who can understand cutting edge technologies. Understanding Artificial Intelligence, Virtual reality, 3D printing is included. Addition to that, Ewha is opening ‘Creating Shared Value’ track, which will focus on low growth, environment, rich-poor gap, etc. Also, Ewha is supporting various networking groups as to provide sucessful careers of women CEOs. Sungkyunkwan University(SKKU) has opened MSMS(Master of Science in Management Studies) for students who just finished their bachelor’s degrees or less than 2 years of experience in the company. It is highly merited that non-business major students can learn fast to prepare for future careers. Graduate School of China in SKKU, which was established in 2005, aims to focus on 10 year project regarding Chinese silk road. Starting from Xian, China, every student will walk step by step to complete the Silk Road through middle Asia and Europe.
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- 작성일 2016-04-26
- 조회수 3956
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- Early Adoption of Software Based Education in SKKU, Ewha, and KU
- The leading universities in Korea have begun to reorganize their Computer Science departments to incorporate software technology. These efforts are intended to satisfy the demands of technicians working in the software sector. Starting next year, Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) has decided to increase enrollment in the Department of Software from 50 to 135. On April 8th, a faculty member involved announced, “The decision has been made to expand the Department of Software by downsizing and altering the Faculty of Computer Science & Engineering, in which there are a lot of possibilities such as scholarships and a free exchange student program for students. Five years since it was established in 2011, SKKU’s Department of Software has initiated a special course where bachelor’s and master’s degrees can be directly obtained. The students who undertake the course will have great opportunities such as studying with around thirty major companies in Korea like Samsung and SK Planet and visiting global enterprises like Google and Facebook. There is a full scholarship offered for the top 50 ranked students and a 50% scholarship offered for extra students chosen annually. Ewha University appears to be executing the same plan as SKKU by enlarging its Department of Computer Science and Engineering and reorganizing it as the Department of Software; the amount of enrollment is undetermined though. The university has changed its educational policies starting from the 2016 spring semester so that every freshman, except in the Department of Pharmacology, must take information technology and computer science classes for graduation. These are all related to software technology. A faculty member said, “The Ewha Software Center will be built next year for teaching software technology and promoting female professionals in the field.” In the meantime, Korea University (KU) has been initiating a “Software-friendly Plan” by instituting a new department that combines the studies of language, brain science, and computer technology (LB&C). KU is able to enroll up to 20 students in the new department and they must acquire 36 credits to obtain a degree in LB&C. Dongguk University has also decided to begin fostering software education in the 2016 fall semester. It will offer various classes in the subject by fusing it with Criminalistics, Robot Convergence, and Cultural Art. A faculty member stated that the motivation for developing the new software-oriented majors with the aforementioned subjects was because they have become the primary ones students are interested in at the university.
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- 작성일 2016-04-26
- 조회수 4111
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- The Instant a Water Drop Evaporates Has Been Captured
- A research group led by Professor Byung Mook Won from Sungkyunkwan University’s Faculty of New Materials Engineering was successful in capturing a water drop’s evaporation for 0.3 seconds. The head of the group announced on April 4th, “We have initially made a success in watching the process of evaporation of water drop 214fL in volume. The abbreviation in this case ‘fL’ denotes one liter over a quadrillion. The group captured the scene of the process in which a water drop becomes invisible as it is squeezed between micro particles by using an ‘Ultrahigh Speed X-ray Nano Picture Beam Line’ that belongs to Pohang Laboratory. The result from the study shows that the internal pressure of water drop is 0.6, which is lower than that of the air. The speed of the evaporation was one-sixth the speed a normal water drop evaporates. As a result, the hypothesis that the speed of evaporation of a squeezed water drop may be slower than usual has been proved. Prof. Won says, “The evaporation slows down as it becomes harder for the vapor to escape from the water drop on account of the lower internal pressure compared to the surrounding air. This discovery will contribute to the understanding of the formation of clouds and the control of nanoparticles. The research group’s findings have been posted on Scientific Reports in cooperation with Nature.
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- 작성일 2016-04-26
- 조회수 3764
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- Sungkyunkwan University Professor Ahn, Chang Wook develops ‘AI Composer’
- Professor Ahn, Chang Wook (39) from the Computer Engineering Department has been developing an ‘AI Composer’ using deep-learning (a technique that makes the computer learn on its own) and an evolution algorithm (problem-solving process). The computer analyzes the inputs and combines them to a scale to produce thousands of songs and pick out the best one(s). Professor Ahn has dreamed of developing the AI Composer since he was a graduate student back in early 2000s. As he started his Ph.D. program after finishing his master’s degree, he changed his major from wireless communications to evolution computing in order to study artificial intelligence (AI). He said, “I had more fun studying AI than my original major and was interested in music since I was in high school. I even played acoustic guitar.” He is regularly having the AI Composer’s songs evaluated by real composers. The professor said, “For now, AI is not able to create completely new or highly artistic songs like people do. However, composers are saying that its songs can be matched with that of amateur composers.” Ph.D. student, Chung, Jae Hoon has been developing the AI Composer along with Professor Ahn since the beginning. To fully understand the art of musical composition, he has been attending a music academy for two years now where he has been learning theory and how to generate compositions. Mr. Chung said, “I thought that to develop a humanlike AI Composer a profound understanding of music is required just as much as deep learning is.” Professor Ahn and Mr. Chung’s study did not always go smoothly. They applied for research funding from many organizations, but got rejected. They are continuing their AI Composer study without any outside research funding. They cover necessary funds with profits from other research projects. Professor Ahn’s goal is to start a business with his students. He wants to develop a program that creates matching music to video, or matching video to music. The Professor says, “Now we are fusing music with AI only. We are trying to expand the area into various arts such as painting as well. We assume it will take about three to four years to develop these other fields.”
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- 작성일 2016-04-26
- 조회수 3756