“We found about 80,000 tons of buoyant plastic currently in the GPGP.” Micro plastics, tiny fragments of plastic smaller than 5mm in size, make up the majority of items in GPGP (Great Pacific Garbage Patch). This trash vortex is getting bigger, and is now estimated to be fifteen times the size of South Korea. On May 28, the EU decided to phase out a plan to ban the use of the 10 most widely used the disposable plastic products, including straws and coffee sticks, by 2021. Korea’s annual use of plastic for packaging per person is the second largest in the world. The number of vinyl used per per

POSTECH has announced the appointment of Prof. Song Ho-Keun of Social Science at Seoul National University (SNU) as the Dean of POSTECH’s Humanities and Social Science Department (HASS Dept.) and have bestowed upon him an endowed professorship.Prof. Song was appointed as SNU’s first endowed professor in the field of HASS due to his accomplished research achievements regarding polarization and social conflict intensification. Beginning from 1994 as a SNU Prof. of Social Science, he also contributed to the advancement of SNU as the Head of the Social Science Department. Due to his appraised pers

The joint research team of Professor Kwon Se-kyun (GIFT) and Professor Levente Vitos (Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm) have succeeded in solving the simultaneous increase in strength and ductility in high-entropy alloy through the theory of metal plasticity. This can be applied directly to the study of various existing metal materials as well as the development of stronger and more flexible steel – ultra high strength steel that is three times stronger than aluminum. The team noted the phenomenon of twinning, and succeeded in unraveling the secrets of high-entropy alloy. The alloy is

Prof. Sung H. Han (IME), a world-renowned human engineering authority, has been selected as a scholar member of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA), and named an IEA Fellow. The selection is more meaningful considering throughout the 60 year history of IEA, only 120 people have been selected for the scholar membership. The IEA was formed in 1959 and is the world’s leading academic institution attended by scholars from 51 countries around the world. It gives out membership to those who have outstanding academic achievements in the field of ergonomics and who have made international c

Hydrogen has been utilized as clean energy source in numerous areas including hydrogen cars and nickel-hydride batteries. The steam-methane reforming reaction whereby methane from natural gas is used to produce hydrogen in thermal processes is responsible for as much as 90% of hydrogen production around the globe. However, such a reaction has a major drawback: heavy carbon dioxide emission. As a countermeasure, a two-step thermodynamic water dissociation was spotlighted only to be labeled inefficacy because of a high reaction temperature of 1400℃.Assistant professor Jin Hyun-gyu from ME along

High-tech devices that are used in smartphones and wearable devices have complex nanometer-sized patterns. Since the size of electronics shrinks as technology evolves, devices face a difficult challenge in becoming smaller but being able to carry on more advanced functions. Professor Kim Jin-kon (CE) and Kim Sang-hoon (CE, Ph.D. Integrated) research team and Dr. Lee Woo’s research team developed a hybrid mould chemically layered in the field of polydimethylsiloxane with porous alumina that can be applied to the roll-to-roll process. This development was published as a title page paper on the A

President Kim Doh-Yeon and Neuromeka representative Park Jong-hun hold together the certificate of gratitude.On May 8, Park Jong-hun, representative of alumni corporation Neuromeka donated 50 million KRW as a scholarship to Mechanical Engineering graduate students. POSTECH President Kim expressed his gratitude by presenting him with a certificate of gratitude. This money is to be used to support outstanding students who have reported sincere progress in research related to the field of mechanical engineering and robotics.Neuromeka Corporation is a company established by a group of POSTECH alum

On May 10, 2018, the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (KODIT) has signed a university-industry cooperation agreement with five institutes of science and technology (POSTECH, UNIST, KAIST, DGIST, and GIST) to secure high-quality jobs in the STEM field by industrializing outstanding researches and bankrolling innovative start-up. Through this agreement, KODIT and the five universities will (1) recommend outstanding start-up business inside those universities (2) support those businesses both financially and non-financially (3) mutually cooperate to vitalize start-ups through the means of start-up con

Invisibility cloaks were deemed impossible in real life until the creation of metamaterials. Metamaterials made of metals that have unique optical properties, such as magnetic resonance and have control over negative refractive index, have drawn interest from academia and industry. However, the material is created through the lithography method, which is expensive, time consuming, size-limited.Professor Kim Jin-kon (CE) and Kim Moo-seong (CE, Ph.D. Integrated) have teamed up with Professor Rho Jun-suk (CE/ME) and Mun Jung-ho (CE, Ph.D Integrated), and developed an accordion-like silver structu

A joint team consisting of students from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH’s PLUS) and the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST’s KaisHack) and the undergraduate group (GON), ranked 4th at Plaid CTF (PCTF) 2018.PCTF is an online CTF (Capture The Flag), which is an information security competition, operated by Carnegie Mellon University’s PPP, which is designed to challenge its participants to solve computer security problems and to defend computer systems.The joint team of KaisHack, PLUS, and GoN, which was formed for the first time for this tournament,

Professor Kim Sang-uk (LIFE) and Han Seong-kyu (LIFE, Ph.D. Integrated) developed a technology to select genes so that animal models can accurately represent human diseases using the principle of the evolution of gene switch through analysis of big data. This achievement, published in the recent issue of “Molecular Biology and Evolution”, a leading research journal of the realm of evolution, is aimed to help develop various animal disease models precisely, which would help develop new medicines or explore effective treatments.The research team gathered the symptoms observed from the disease mo

On April 23, POSTECH, along with Seoul National University, KAIST, and Chung-Ang University—had the honor of being chosen as ‘2018 SW StarLab.’ The purpose of SW StarLab is to push Korea’s software technology to become world-class by giving grants to several outstanding laboratories. Since the advent of this program, a total of 21 laboratories were selected.This year, the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Promotion (IITP) selected POSTECH and KAIST to research Intelligent Software, Seoul National University to research Distributed Computing and algorithm, and Chung-Ang Univ

On April. 24, a talk concert covering the topics of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency was held at the POSCO International Center of POSTECH. Cha Myeong-hun (CSE 07), the CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange ‘Coinone’, was invited as a guest lecturer to share his knowledge and insight of the cryptocurrency field. He briefly introduced the basic concepts of how a cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin and ethereum, work. He also shared his opinions of the expandability of cryptocurrencies, mentioning the possibility of its usage during the trade process. After the lecture a brief talk concert wa

On Dec. 21, 2017, there was a huge fire in Jecheon’s Sports Center. The fire, which took 29 people’s lives, was reported to have caused more damage as the aging radios did not work properly at the scene of the accident, diminishing further opportunities to rescue victims. In fires and disasters, radios play a major role in reducing casualties. As it is not easy to survey a situation directly due to the smoke and noise at a scene, radio plays an important role for firefighters. At present radios can not be used effectively while fighting a fire, and when they are used, they are difficult and cu

On April 16, 2018, Gyeongsangbuk province announced that they will be launching an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Center at the POSTECH Information Research Lab.The institute will be operated by a handful of experts. 20 POSTECH professors, who also happen to be Korea’s top AI and Internet of Things professionals, will assist the center to function as an AI Industrial Promotion Center. Experts who have worked with Germany’s AI Research Center (DFKI) to constitute the ‘POSCO Smart Factory’ will also participate to increase the usage of the ‘smart factory’.Gyeongsangbuk province has worked

A joint research team of Professor Rho Jun-suk (ME/CE), Professor Kim Wook-sung (EEE), Professor Nam Ki-tae (SNU), and Dr. Chang Ki-seok (LG Display Lab) were able to extend the ‘mirror image’ chirality of biological molecules to gold nanostructures for the first time ever.Prior to this research chiral properties were thought to be unique to biological molecules, however, by growing the gold in the presence of cysteine or cysteine-based peptides, they were able to implement the chiral structure to the gold nano-molecule. In greater detail, they demonstrated a solution-based method of synthesiz

Professor Choi Jun-il (EEE) was named associate editor of ‘IEEE Communications Letters’. IEEE Communications Letters is a journal in the field of information technology, published by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), one of the largest academic societies in the field of electrical and electronic technology.Prof. Choi, who has been actively conducting research on intelligent communication systems, received his Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from Purdue University and was a postdoctoral fellow at The University of Texas at Austin. His main researc

POSTECH has officially announced the UI (University Identification) containing a new directing point ‘Value Creating University’.In 2016, POSTECH had its 30th anniversary, and since then, POSTECH has attempted to go a step further - from being a research-oriented university to a value creating university. A value creating university maximizes talent and value of knowledge through education, research through inceptions, and having policies and systems that can expand these values into significant social values, such as creating employment or making important contributions to society. Since 2016

Professor Kim Ki-moon (CHEM, Director of IBS Center for Self-assembly and Complexity), Hwang Woo-seup (CHEM, Ph.D. Candidate), Dr. Baek Kang-kyun (IBS Center for Self-assembly and Complexity) developed a platform for detecting and observing a single molecule using Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy is a technique that uses a laser to reveal the chemical composition of a few nanometers size samples. It makes it easier to observe single molecules because it does not require complex processes or specialized equipment.The research team first used cucurbituril,

Zeolite is widely used as a petrochemical catalyst for the production of raw materials for petroleum and plastic products during crude oil refining. It is a core material whose nanostructure contains tiny holes arranged regularly and repeatedly, and is utilized as ion exchangers and separators. Specifically, these physical chemistry properties are primarily differed by the pole structure that the synthesis of zeolites can bring out the ripple effect in chemical related industries.Professor Hong Seok-bong (DESE) succeeded in synthesizing PST-14 and a new aluminophosphate molecular, PST-13. The