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Apple Developer Academy opens in Pohang

[200 students will receive best-in-class training in Coding, Design, App Business & Marketing, and Professional Skills to be part of Apple’s App Economy] [Students are “looking forward to a diverse set of experiences to create new values through collaboration.”] Korea’s first Apple Developer Academy held its first class online on March 14. The Apple Developer Academy is an education program for developers in the making. The nine-month course will be conducted online to start, with in-person classes at POSTECH at a later date. On the first day of classes, both the students and the mentors showed much enthusiasm and strong engagement. The Apple Developer Academy – designed to provide computer science education and startup opportunities to the aspiring entrepreneurs, developers, and designers – will run five days a week for nine months. The curriculum covers a range of courses including Coding, Design, App Business & Marketing, Professional Skills and Process to deliver a multi-disciplinary framework to equip students with the skills and experience they need to bring their ideas to life. Apple Developer Academy and POSTECH selected 200 students across the country to participate in the free program. The class of 2022 are a talented group of students with much personality, passion, and potential. “We’re thrilled to partner with Pohang University of Science and Technology to open Korea’s first Apple Developer Academy, and to support Korea's next generation of developers and entrepreneurs” said Gordon Shukwit, the director of Apple Developer Academy. “The App Store ecosystem is an engine for creativity and economic development, and we can’t wait to see how the 200 students in the first Academy class use their skills to build new businesses and create apps that change the world." “I was thinking about my career path while pursuing my major in life sciences and became interested in Apple’s operating system iOS; but I noticed a big gap between the classes offered at school and the actual development work,” explained Jikyung Kim, a student enrolled in the Apple Developer Academy. “Apple’s education curriculum is what I need but what I am looking forward to is growing together through collaborating with other students from different backgrounds.” Inseop Kim, who worked as a guitarist and sound engineer, said that he joined the developer academy to find a new way to express through app development. “I got the courage to apply after seeing an interview of a participant at the developer academy in Brazil who was a band musician.” He added, “It is exciting that this program allows a diverse group of people to create synergy and new values with their own ideas.” “POSTECH is thrilled to safely hold the first class of Korea’s first Apple Developer Academy, despite an ongoing pandemic, in partnership with Apple, a leading global company,” remarked President Moo Hwan Kim of POSTECH. “We will do our best to support these 200 exceptional individuals – full of potential – in their course of learning over the nine months so that they can grow into leaders who can contribute to the advancement of their communities and the nation." There are more than a dozen Apple Developer Academy sites around the world, including Detroit (US) and Italy. The first of its kind in Korea has opened at POSTECH. On average, graduates from the Apple Developer Academies receive 3 job offers after completing the course and have launched more than 1,500 apps in the App store and founded 160 new companies in total. Korea has a thriving iOS app economy, which supports hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country. Launching an Apple Developer Academy builds on Apple’s partnership with Korea and is expected to create more jobs and startups across the country.

Professor Suk Bong Hong Wins the Edith M. Flanigen Lecture Award

Professor Suk Bong Hong of the Division of Environmental Engineering at POSTECH became the first Asian researcher to receive the Edith M. Flanigen Lecture Award from Honeywell UOP, the U.S. petrochemical company with more than 100 years of history. Prof. Hong, who received his PhD degree from Virginia Tech and worked at Caltech and KIST before joining the POSTECH faculty in 2007. He is considered a global authority on nanoporous materials. Prof. Hong was selected as the winner for his contribution to the development in materials science, establishing the concept of new zeolite structure expansion and reporting on the composition of nanoporous materials and 40 kinds of new structures over the past 30 years. In particular, all six former winners were from North America and Europe and Prof. Hong is the first researcher from Asia to receive the award. He was selected as a winner in 2020 but the award ceremony has been postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic until this month. Prof. Hong gave a commemorative lecture at the Honeywell UOP research center on February 3, 2022. Honeywell UOP, founded in 1914, selects and awards researchers who have achieved outstanding accomplishments globally in the fields of materials science every other year to commemorate the achievements of its distinguished researcher Edith M. Flanigen.

Professor Byungsub Kim Gives a Lecture at 2022 International Solid-State Circuits Conference

Professor Byungsub Kim of the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Department of Convergence IT Engineering at POSTECH gave a tutorial lecture at the 2022 International Solid-State Circuits Conference, the foremost global forum for presentation of advances in solid-state circuits and systems-on-a-chip, on Feb 11. ISSCC, called the ‘Olympics in the circuit design’, selects the lecturer among the experts in this field every year and holds tutorial lectures for junior scholars. Professor Byungsub Kim, a tutorial lecturer this year, is an expert in high-speed interface circuits and analog automated process planning. Prof. Kim gave a lecture of a basic equalization techniques for high-speed serial interfaces at this conference. The Lecture was delivered online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The recorded lecture will be managed by IEEE Solid-State Society (SSCS), an academic society of semiconductor design, and will be used for education for junior researchers.

POSTECH and Coinone Join Hands to Conduct Joint Research on Crypto·BlockChain

POSTECH and Coinone, Korea's leading cryptocurrency market, signed a MOU for industry-academia cooperation for joint research of Crypto and Blockchain technology. POSTECH President Moo Hwan Kim, Coinone CEO Myunghun Cha, POSTECH Center for Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Research Co-Director James Won-Ki Hong and Jongsoo Woo attended the signing ceremony held at POSTECH on Jan 18. POSTECH and Coinone will jointly operate Coinone Research Development Center (CRDC) under the Center for Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Research (CCBR) and lead the cryptocurrency research. Coinone-POSTECH R&D Cooperation Promotion Committee will be organized in the CRDC led by the executives of Coinone and professors of POSTECH. The project is constructed in four parts which are ▲ Joint research and development of virtual assets and blockchain technologies for financial innovation ▲ Internships and scholarships to cultivate talented leaders ▲ Sound technology development to drive CSR in crypto market ▲ Hold hackathon and promote venture development in blockchain and virtual assets. Coinone plans to provide an annual amount of 1 billion won over the next five years. Coinone CEO Myunghun Cha said, “Coinone has been worked hard to operate research center to promote Bitcoin and blockchain since the beginning of the market, where information asymmetry was severe. I think this is the CSR efforts as a cryptocurrency market and ultimate development of the blockchain industry by conducting academic research and nurturing the future leaders." POSTECH President Moo Hwan Kim stated, “The time has come for a new day in aggressive investment for nurturing future talents and conducting research since the virtual asset market, including Crypto, became an important industry globally. We welcome the decision of Coinone, led by the young CEO who graduated from POSTECH, and we will play a major role in the crypto industry in Korea.

Professor Yoon-Ho Kim Appointed as 2022 Optica Fellow

Professor Yoon-Ho Kim of the Department of Physics at POSTECH was recently selected as a 2022 Optical Society of America (Optica) Fellow. Professor Kim, who completed his Ph.D. at University of Maryland (UMBC) in 2001, worked as a Eugene Wigner Fellow at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the U.S. before joining the POSTECH faculty in 2004. Professor Kim was selected as an Optica fellow in recognition of his significant contribution to the advancement of quantum information technology through his basic and applied research on weak quantum measurement. Weak quantum measurement is an approach to obtain as much information as possible while applying only a small impact on the quantum state of the object to be measured. It is anticipated to be applicable in quantum communication and quantum computers as it can be measured efficiently without collapsing the quantum state. Established in 1961, the American Optical Society (Optica) is the most prestigious international academic organization in optics with more than 20,000 international members. Fellows are selected within the top 0.5 percent among members and account for no more than 10 percent of the total membership. 2,800 members of Optica are currently serving as fellows and only 20 fellows are Korean.

POSTECH Becomes a Public Sector Partner of Google Cloud APAC

[POSTECH and Google Cloud signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on December 15 to lead the innovation in the sports industry together.] POSTECH has been selected as a public sector partner in the Asia Pacific region for Google Cloud. POSTECH and Google Cloud held an online MOU signing ceremony to lead the global research development in AI for the sports industry. With this agreement, the POSTECH Korea Sports Industry Development Institute and Google Cloud look forward to taking the lead in the rapidly changing landscape of the global sports industry. Going forward, the two institutions will seek opportunities to promote the POSTECH Sports AIX Convergence Innovation Center, which will include collaborating on new projects, cultivating talents of global sports AIX convergence and innovation, providing technical support, securing global R&D projects and supporting technology-based start-ups, and holding international conferences together. In addition, POSTECH plans to establish the infrastructure for Metaversity (combination of the words metaverse and university), to enhance the sports healthcare component to establish the medical science and engineering major at POSTECH’s Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology in 2023, and to collaborate on the IT infrastructure of POSTECH. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the signing ceremony was held online using Google Meet, which is Google's video-communication service. The ceremony was attended by Mike Daniels, the Vice President of Google Global, Paul Wilson, the Director of Google Cloud APAC, Kwei Foong Koh, the Head of Public Sector of Google Cloud APAC, Moo Hwan Kim, the President of POSTECH, Jong Kyu Kim, the Vice President of Planning, and Yeong-Seok Kim, the Director of Korea Sports Industry Development Institute among other guests.

POSTECH Opens the Research Center for Carbon-zero Green Ammonia Cycling

POSTECH opened the Research Center for Carbon-zero Green Ammonia Cycling at POSTECH’s School of Environmental Science and Engineering Building on December 14, 2021. The newly opened research center aims to replace the conventional ammonia production process and to develop original eco-friendly technologies to reduce greenhouse gases by 600 million tons per year. In addition, the center plans to secure the hydrogen energy production technology with the eco-friendly ammonia conversion process as it is a high-density green hydrogen energy source. “Green ammonia cycling is the future technology for environmentally friendly production and storage of next-generation hydrogen energy source,” explained Kijung Yong, the center’s director. He added, "We plan to contribute to achieving carbon neutrality by year 2050 – which is the current goal of the Korean government – through green ammonia cycling.”

POSTECH to Receive a 10 Billion Won Gift from Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital

[Chairman Ha Choong-sik of Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital commits a gift of 10 billion won to POSTECH to raise physician scientists and promote public health in Korea and the world.] Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital has committed a gift of 10 billion won (USD 8.4 million) to POSTECH, which has recently started initiatives to nurture physicians-scientists. Chairman Ha Choong-sik of Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital and POSTECH president Moo Hwan Kim recently attended the donation ceremony held at the Grand Mercure Ambassador in Changwon to mark this occasion. The gift will help to drive the medical science and engineering research, and to raise physician scientists at the new School of Convergence Science and Technology, set to open in 2023. In the long-run, the gift will be used for the establishment of POSTECH’s engineering-based College of Medicine and for its innovative medical education and research for the advancement of humanity. “POSTECH and Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital share the common goal to promote public health within Korea and the world through biomedical engineering,” explained Chairman Ha on his commitment to donate to POSTECH. “We will work together to achieve this shared goal by partnering in research and education.” "Innovation in medical science education and research is an imperative choice for humanity as we rapidly enter the super-aged society and experience the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic,” President Moo Hwan Kim said. "We will cultivate physician scientists together with Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital, which will share and partake in POSTECH’s new vision.” Changwon Hanmaeum Hospital is one of Changwon's leading hospitals that opened in 1994 and currently operates 30 departments under 24 treatment centers. Chairman Ha is deeply interested in social contribution as he has donated over 15 billion won (USD 12.7 million) for over 30 years through outreach programs. POSTECH announced that it will newly open a graduate program in medical science and engineering in the School of Convergence Science and Technology in 2023 to train physician scientists coming from different backgrounds. POSTECH houses excellent biomedical infrastructure such as the 3rd and 4th synchrotron radiation accelerators and the Institute of Membrane Proteins to prepare for Korea’s super-aged society and for the post-Covid-19 era.

Professor Wook-Shin Han Appointed as a Trustee of VLDB Endowment

Professor Wook-Shin Han of POSTECH’s Graduate School of Artificial Intelligence (and Department of Computer Engineering, and Department of Convergence IT Engineering) has recently been elected as a trustee of VLDB Endowment. Professor Han received his Ph.D. from KAIST in 2001 and worked at KAIST and Kyungpook National University before joining the POSTECH faculty in 2013. In September 2020, Professor Han was appointed as the director of POSTECH's BK21 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Center and as the Vice President of Academic Information Affairs in September 2021. His main research focus is in database management systems (DBMS). Since 2015, Professor Han has been serving as the Vice Editor-in-Chief of the VLDB journal and will be overseeing the VLDB journal and the VLDB conference for a six-year term from January 2022. The VLDB Endowment is the world’s leading authority in the database field, along with the American Computer Society Database Division (ACM SIGMOD). The Endowment is run by 21 elected trustees who have outstanding achievements in the field.

Symposium Held to Commemorate the 10th Anniversary of Tae-Joon Park's Passing

On December 3, POSTECH held a memorial symposium at the Seoul POSCO Center to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the passing of Tae-Joon Park, the founder of POSCO and POSTECH. December 13 of this year marked the 10th anniversary of Tae-Joon Park’s passing. Well-known as an entrepreneur, the late chairman founded POSCO on the idea of ‘patriotism by steel manufacturing’ and established POSTECH to realize ‘patriotism by education’ for national development and future of Korea. In commemoration of the 10th anniversary, the POSTECH Tae-Joon Park Institute hosted a conference to reflect on his pioneering achievements and the future he dreamed of, and to discuss the future vision to carry on his legacy. Under the title of Eternal Echo, Spirit for the Future, the conference opened with a tribute from Professor Emeritus Bok Song of Yonsei University who coined the term ‘Taejoonism’ who has conducted in-depth research on Park’s philosophy and leadership. Three keynote speakers then presented on the following: Leadership and the Economic Development (Byung-Yeon Kim, the director of the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University), From University to Metaversity (Moo Hwan Kim, president of POSTECH), and Pohang: Two 1 kilometers to Lead the Future (Mi-Ok Moon, former vice minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT of Korea). In the discussion sessions that followed, Director Seunghwan Kim of the POSTECH Tae-Joon Park Institute took the lead to discuss with presenters and guests in reflecting on Park’s achievements and incorporating his spirit in the future development of Korea.