The “Office of Innovative Program for Graduate School Development” has signed an agreement with King Sejong Institute Foundation in order to assist with POSTECH international members’ Korean language learning. As a result, Online King Sejong Institute Korean Language Courses (Collaborative e-Class) with exclusive access to POSTECH members have opened. Those who enroll can gain access to all materials after signing up and logging in. Sign-up instructions are outlined in the attached file, ‘Online King Sejong Institute User Guidance for Learners.’

We hope that these courses can benefit many of our members.

* Members must use their POSTECH e-mail accounts to sign up

 

■ Eligibility: Any POSTECH member wishing to learn Korean (beginner to intermediate levels)

■ Service Period: July 1, 2021 ~ December 31, 2021

■ Tuition Fee: All courses are free of charge

 

■  What is Online King Sejong Institute?

1. Concept: An online learning service through which users can access Korean learning materials on PC and mobile devices.

2. Course Introduction: Users will take a level test before learning begins in order to assess the most appropriate course for their respective Korean level (Refer to the attached file, ‘How to Use Online Level Test’).

Level	Course of Study
Introductory	Sejong Korean Introduction
Beginner 1	Cyber Korean Beginner 1
	Sejong Korean Conversation 1
Beginner 2	Cyber Korean Beginner 2
	Sejong Korean Conversation 1
Intermediate	Cyber Korean Intermediate 1
	Sejong Korean Conversation 3
	Cyber Korean Intermediate 2
	Sejong Korean Conversation 4
K-WAVE Korean	Let’s learn Korean through K-dramas
	Let’s learn Korean through K-pop

3. Course Materials: All materials for each course can be accessed through the QR code below and downloaded in e-book or PDF form.

 

4. Supported Languages: 9 languages including Korean, English, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Portuguese, Spanish (supported languages may vary for each course).

 

5. Completion Criteria: 70% or higher completion percentage for each course is required for users to be certified for completion.

 

6. Certification: Learners can be issued with a certificate upon course completion (self-issuance is available through Online Sejong Institute).

 

※ Please refer to the Online Sejong Institute website for more information:

https://www.iksi.or.kr/lms/main/main.do

POSTECH’s School of Convergence Science and Technology (SCST) will officially open with its first major in social data science in February 2021 following its establishment in October 2020. It is POSTECH’s latest undertaking to pursue various solutions to the common challenges facing humanity through convergence research, and to raise creative convergence talents with expertise. The major is set to open with two tracks – POSCO and SK Hynix. We speak with Kun-Hong Lee, the Dean of School of Convergence Science and Technology, to get the details.

 

What is the School of Convergence Science and Technology and what kind of research and education will it provide?

 

The School of Convergence Science and Technology was established to provide and conduct the world’s best convergence education and research based on a wide range of academic knowledge to foster creative convergence talent with practical expertise and to create new industries by securing key technologies based on convergence technology.
We are starting off with the social data science major that combines humanities and sciences. The goal of this major is to raise leaders who can solve social issues through systematic education based on data science. Under this major, POSCO and SK Hynix have opened their tracks and we are discussing opening more tracks with additional companies. We also plan to offer majors with the AI + X concept, which is the research of a field combined with AI such as AI + medicine, AI + finance, and AI + other industries.

 

This is POSTECH’s first attempt at convergence education which combines the liberal arts with the sciences. It must be a significant move for POSTECH.

 

In today’s world, the traditional boundaries of a nation – such as politics, culture, technology, economy, and national security – are disappearing. In particular, humanity now faces major transformations that they have never experienced before, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, AI development, and the imminent space-age.
It is an era where it is impossible to explain one field of study without mentioning other fields, and only a fraction of the whole can be fully understood and not the whole. It is an era that demands convergence. Convergence is simply the creation of a new field that combines and applies each separate field of science, technology, and humanities – and it is also the process of such endeavors.
POSTECH’s founding tenet bids us to contribute to the nation and humanity by conducting in-depth science and engineering research on the profound theories and wide range of applications essential to the advancement of Korea and the world, and training a select pool of talented students to become future global leaders through high-quality education. I think convergence education is the very key to realize POSTECH’s founding tenet to lead the change that mankind will experience today and into the future.

POSTECH is an institution with expertise in science and engineering – also a latecomer the scene. Isn’t that a disadvantage?

 

For the past 20 to 30 years, higher education has collectively focused on raising experts. This trend has led to a specialized society centered around experts, but it has revealed its limits. These experts are oblivious to fields outside their specialty – They struggle to make comprehensive decisions or judgments. This is why many are jumping on the convergence education wagon. However, there is no set path in convergence.
Getting a head start does not necessarily guarantee getting ahead just as starting late does not lead to falling behind. It means that POSTECH has accumulated ample data to seek new paths and decipher a better direction. We can forego that much trial and error.
POSTECH has meticulously prepared for this expansion through accumulating much knowledge under each major over the years. POSTECH is an open forum where 300 of the greatest experts have gathered. Every expert in the forum will discuss, communicate, share knowledge, and find the creative ways to move towards the right direction. Convergence is the common language that makes this possible. It is about acknowledging one’s expertise and adding a new field to it to create one anew. Isn’t POSTECH already demonstrating this capability by knocking down walls through the Mueunjae School of Undergraduate Studies and the School of Convergence Science and Technology?

 

How will the SCST be operated?

 

SCST presents a new paradigm in the field of future leading studies crossing the scholastic and industrial boundaries. For this, the school will take on the role of an incubator for development and activation of convergence education and research programs inside POSTECH. We will fully support these efforts by rearranging organizational structures, developing operating programs, appropriately allocating spaces and funds to stimulate convergence education and research.
For instance, at SCST, professors from different departments are free to gather to make new programs within the school at any time. This is an open approach to eliminate barriers between individual departments. We also plan to operate each program flexibly depending on the success of the programs. In addition, we plan to secure a convergence space at the university-level by rearranging spaces in new or existing buildings.

 

POSTECH, Samsung Display and three Vietnamese universities held a joint MOU signing ceremony at the Samsung Display Giheung Campus to cultivate future leaders of Vietnam together.

 

With this MOU, Samsung Display will select outstanding students in science and engineering from the three universities to provide opportunities to gain professional knowledge and conduct cutting-edge research in cooperation with POSTECH. Through this process, they plan to cultivate future leaders who are also familiar with Korean culture. The program will be operated from September 2020 to August 2024, and graduates of the program will have the opportunity to work at Samsung Display Vietnam (SDV).

 

The collaboration, based on POSTECH’s prominent education system and research outcomes in the field of display materials, is expected to contribute to promoting the exchange between Korea and Vietnam through a close academia-industry cooperation.

 

The online live ceremony was attended by POSTECH President Moo Hwan Kim and Samsung Display President & CEO Dong-Hoon Lee from Korea, VNU-UET Vice Rector Chu Duc Thrinh, HUST Vice President Huynh Quyet Than and GUST Rector Vu Dinh Lam in Vietnam.

[Professor Yong-Tae Kim’s research team improves the durability of

automotive fuel cells through selective electro-catalysis.]

 

 

When a bicycle gets wet in the rain, the frame and chain become corroded or rusty which shorten the life of the bike. Oil needs to be regularly applied to prevent this from happening. Battery cells are devices that create electrical energy through moving electrons by triggering oxidation and reduction reactions separately. But they also corrode when exposed to oxygen. Can these cells also be greased to prevent rusting?

 

A research team led by Professor Yong-Tae Kim and doctoral student Sang Moon Jung of Materials Science and Engineering at POSTECH used a catalyst (Pt/HxWO3) that combines platinum and hydrogen tungsten bronze to solve the corrosion in fuel cells that occur when hydrogen cars are shut down. The catalyst, recently introduced in Nature Catalysis – a sister journal of Nature – has been shown to promote hydrogen oxidation and selectively suppress oxygen reduction reactions (ORR).

 

As eco-friendly hydrogen cars become more common, the race for research and development for improving fuel cell performance – the heart of hydrogen cars – is getting fierce around the world. The performance of automotive fuel cells are severely low owing to their intermittent shut-downs compared to power-generating fuel cells that do not stop once started. This is because when ignition is turned off, the ORR occurs as air is temporarily introduced into the anode, and corrosion of the cathodic components accelerates as the potential of cathod surges instantaneously.

 

The research team focused on the Metal Insulator Transition (MIT) phenomenon, which can selectively change the conductivity of materials depending on the surrounding environment, to solve the problem of durability degradation in automotive fuel cells.

 

In particular, the research team focused on the tungsten oxide (WO3) that has traditionally been used as an electrical discoloration material since it greatly changes conductivity via the insertion and reduction of protons. Applying the MIT phenomenon of WO3 in normal operation results in an electrode reaction while maintaining the H-WO3 (conductor) state with the insertion of a proton. In contrast, when ignition is shut-down, mixed air is drawn in which increases the oxygen pressure and changes it into WO3 (subconductor) which stops the electrode reaction, thus solving the issue of cathodic corrosion.

 

The Pt/HxWO3 selective hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) catalysts imparted by the metal-insulator transition phenomenon showed more than twice the durability of conventional commercial Pt/C catalyst materials in shut-down conditions in the MEA evaluation of automotive fuel cells.

 

Professor Yong-Tae Kim who led the research commented, “This research has dramatically improved the durability of automotive fuel cells.” He added, “It is anticipated that the commercialization of hydrogen cars may be further facilitated through these findings.”

 

This research was conducted with the support from the Future Materials Discovery Project and the hydrogen energy innovation technology development program of the Ministry of Science and ICT.

– A joint research team from POSTECH and KAIST develops self-powering, color-changing humidity sensors
– Applicable to various fields including smart windows, health care and safety management

Smart windows that automatically change colors depending on the intensity of sunlight are gaining attention as they can reduce energy bills by blocking off sun’s visible rays during summer. But what about windows that change colors depending on the humidity outside during the monsoon season or on hot days of summer? Recently, a Korean research team has developed the source technology for smart windows that change colors according to the amount of moisture, without needing electricity.

The joint research team comprised of Professor Junsuk Rho of departments of mechanical and chemical engineering, Jaehyuck Jang and Aizhan Ismukhanova of Department of Chemical Engineering at POSTECH, and Professor Inkyu Park of KAIST’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. Together, they successfully developed a variable color filter using a metal-hydrogel-metal resonator structure using chitosan-based hydrogel, and combined it with solar cells to make a self-powering humidity sensor. These research findings were published as a cover story in the latest edition of Advanced Optical Materials, a journal specializing in nanoscience and optics.

Sensors using light are already widely used in our daily lives in measuring the ECG, air quality, or distance. The basic principle is to use light to detect changes in the surroundings and to convert them into digital signals.

Fabri-Pero interference^*1 is one of the resonance phenomena that can be applied in optical sensors and can be materialized in the form of multilayer thin films of metal-dielectric-metal. It is known that the resonance wavelength of transmitted light can be controlled according to the thickness and refractive index of the dielectric layer. However, the existing metal-dielectric-metal resonators had a big disadvantage in not being able to control the wavelengths of transmitted light once they are manufactured, making it difficult to use them in variable sensors.

The research team found that when the chitosan hydrogel is made into the metal-hydrogel-metal structure, the resonance wavelength of light transmitted changes in real time depending on the humidity of the environment. This is because the chitosan hydrogel repeats expansion and contraction as the humidity changes around it.

Using this mechanism, the team developed a humidity sensor that can convert light’s energy into electricity by combining a solar battery with a water variable wavelength filter made of metal-hydrogel-metal structured metamterial that changes resonance wavelength depending on the external humidity.

The design principle is to overlap the filter’s resonance wavelength with the wavelength where the absorption of the solar cells changes rapidly. This filter is designed to change the amount of light absorption of solar cells depending on the amount of moisture, and to lead to electric changes that ultimately detect the surrounding humidity.

Unlike the conventional optical humidity sensors, these newly developed ones work regardless of the type of light, whether it be natural, LED or indoor. Also, not only does it function without external power, but it can also predict humidity according to the filter’s color.

Professor Junsuk Rho who led the research commented, “This technology is a sensing technology that can be used in places like nuclear power reactors where people and electricity cannot reach.” He added, “It will create even greater synergy if combined with IoT technology such as humidity sensors that activate or smart windows that change colors according to the level of external humidity.”

The study was supported by the Samsung Research Funding & Incubation Center for Future Technology.
 

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1.Fabry-Perot Interferometer
A device where multiple wavelengths enter a filter, and cause multiple interferences to occur in a particular space to transmit only certain wavelengths and reflect the others to select only the desired data.

 

– POSTECH Professor Seung-Ki Min’s joint research team identifies the mechanism behind the reduction in precipitation after volcanic eruptions
– Volcano-induced El Niño amplifies the reduction in precipitation. Safety of geoengineering that mimic volcanoes is not guaranteed.

Climate change is occurring all over the globe as 1°C increase in Earth’s surface temperature has led to the sea level rise, abrupt melting of the Arctic sea ice, and the increase in extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, and floods. To accurately predict the anthropogenic climate changes under the increase in greenhouse gases, it is important to understand the effects of natural factors such as solar and volcanic activities. A recent study has shown how global precipitation decreases when volcanoes erupt in the tropics.

Professor Seung-Ki Min and Dr. Seungmok Paik of Division of Environmental Science and Engineering at POSTECH and researchers from the French National Centre for Scientific Research, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, and University of Edinburgh have released new findings that the El Niño induced by volcanic eruptions plays a key role in the decrease in global precipitation. So far, studies have shown that volcanic activity reduces precipitation across the globe, but its specific mechanism had been unclear. These research results were recently published in Science Advances, a sister journal of Science.

During the two to three years following Mount Pinatubo’s eruption in 1991, the average global temperature fell by about 0.2 degrees. This is because the massive dust including sulfur dioxide emitted by the eruption reflected the light from the sun and blocked its heat from reaching the Earth’s surface. Volcanic activities, along with this cooling effect, reduce the global terrestrial precipitation but its amplitude greatly varies depending on climate model simulations. For the first time, the joint research team confirmed that the main factor for the drop in precipitation after volcanic eruptions is the difference in El Niño’s response.

El Niño is a natural climate variability that occurs every three to eight years, with weakened trade winds in the equatorial Pacific Ocean and warmer sea surface temperatures in the equatorial eastern Pacific, causing extreme weather conditions across the globe including drought and heavy rains. Under El Niño’s influence, precipitation reduction occurs especially in the global monsoon regions, including Southeast Asia, India, South Africa, Australia and northern South America.

The team compared several climate model simulations and found that El Niño appeared in the year following a volcanic eruption in most models, with a significant drop in precipitation around the global monsoon region. In particular, the strength of El Niño was different for each simulation, and the stronger the El Niño, the more pronounced the reduction in precipitation occurred. The research team also found that the stronger the volcanic forcing and the greater the warm water volume in the western Pacific Ocean, a stronger El Niño developed, which in turn intensified the reduction in precipitation.

These findings are expected to be used to identify the side effects of geoengineering techniques and to predict the climate of the later years. In particular, it suggests that if geoengineering techniques are used to reduce global warming by spraying sulfur dioxide – the main component of volcanic ash – in the lower stratosphere to imitate artificial volcanoes, they could produce unexpected side effect of changing the precipitation patterns across the globe.

Professor Seung-Ki Min stated, “If geoengineering techniques are applied to mimic volcanoes and block sunlight, drought and water shortages may increase significantly in the monsoon regions – home to two-thirds of the world’s population.”

This research was supported by the Mid-career Researcher Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea.

– Prof. Sung Key Jang of POSTECH developed a quick diagnostic testing for viral infections using aptamers.

– This new technology led to beginning of developing a new COVID-19 diagnostic system and a clinical treatment of the disease.

The novel coronavirus, named as COVID-19, began in Wuhan, China and is threatening all regions around the globe that the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared this outbreak a pandemic since the swine flu 11 years ago. When such a highly contagious and fatal new disease occurs, it is necessary to quickly identify infected individuals and quarantine them. The most important step in this procedure is to have a quick diagnosis of viral infection.

A research team from POSTECH recently developed a quick diagnostic testing for viral infections that can bring results in 15 minutes by using an aptamer (nucleic acid molecule), a kind of molecular capture. This new test can be applied to diagnosis of all novel viruses and is expected to be used in clinical applications as well.

Prof. Sung Key Jang, Dr. Junyoung Kwon, and Dr. Chandan Narayan of Department of Life Sciences, POSTECH with Aptamer Sciences (Inc.) developed a new method (designated as viro-SELEX) for discovering aptamers against membrane proteins. Using viro-SELEX, they were able to develop aptamers with high sensitivity and specificity for binding to target proteins which led to rapid 15-minute diagnosis of viral infections. Their new discovery is published in the renowned journals, Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology and Analyst.

There are several ways to test viral infections including molecular assays, immunoassays, and virus cultivation. For COVID-19, molecular assays are used to diagnose, however, the whole diagnosis process is not convenient despite of its high sensitivity. It requires the samples to be sent to professional institutions for analysis, takes more than six hours to analyze, and is highly expensive. Virus cultivation takes even longer time to analyze from two to four weeks and is not appropriate for massive tests. Lastly, immunoassays for COVID-19 has not been developed yet. Unfortunately, there has not been a real-time diagnostic test for COVID-19 developed that can be tested on site where the samples are taken.

An aptamer is a nucleic acid that is composed of DNA or RNA. It is kind of a molecular capture that binds to various targets ranging from a low molecular weight compound to macromolecules such as proteins with high specificity and affinity. DNA aptamers are highly stable and therefore easy to transport and store. When the sequence of aptamer is known, it can be synthesized in mass at economical price. So, it is considered as a substitute for an antibody.

Aptamers are discovered through the process called, SELEX^*1. However, it has been challenging to develop aptamers through the conventional SELEX method in cases of virus because its targeted molecules are membrane proteins.

The research team generated recombinant baculoviruses^*2 (surrogate viruses) containing target proteins on the viral envelope instead of purifying the membrane proteins. They applied the surrogate viruses in the SELEX process (designated as viro-SELEX.

Based on this new method, they generated new aptamers that bound to viral envelope proteins, HA, of influenza virus. Also, they were able to develop a diagnosis kit that changed a color, indicating the infection of virus like a pregnancy test kit by using a pair of aptamers which bound to different areas of HA. If this kit is used for diagnosis of viral infections, 15 minutes is enough to know the result.

“We can develop aptamers that bind to the spike proteins of COVID-19 with high specificity and affinity by using this newly developed viro-SELEX method. And using the aptamers, we can make a quick diagnosis kit. Moreover, these aptamers may also protect healthy cells from COVID-19 infection through interaction and inactivation of spike proteins. In other words, these aptamers could serve as lead molecules for developing a clinical treatment.” said, Prof. Sung Key Jang.

Meanwhile, the research team began developing a diagnostic test for COVID-19 with Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, which has the facility to cultivate COVID-19, and Aptamers Science Inc., which developed a KFDA-approved diagnosis of lung cancer for the first time in the world. Their goal is to establish a platform that can rapidly develop diagnosis and treatment of a novel virus such as COVID-19, MERS, and SARS.
 

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1. SELEX, Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment
It is also known as in vitro evolution. It is a method for generating nucleic acids that can bind to targeted molecules with high affinity.

2. Baculoviruses
This virus is pathogenic to insects but not harmful to humans. It is often used for producing proteins in mass.