KAIST Ready for New Takeoff for Global Prominence
Retrospective View of 2008 and New Year’s Message for 2009 to the KAIST Faculty and Staff
Dear Colleagues,
Year 2008 was a good year for KAIST, thanks to the effort made by our professors, staff, and students. We have achieved many of the goals we established for 2008 because you worked hard. On behalf of our community, I would like to thank each and every one of you for your contributions.
The education and research at KAIST have been exemplary and increasingly recognized for their excellence throughout the world. Innovative research programs, goal-oriented organizations, major advances in research, and thoughtful changes implemented at KAIST have created a sense of pride and forged progress for many of our activities. The alumni/ae, parents of students, government officials, and leaders of Korean society have given us their moral and financial support so that we can achieve the long-term goal of KAIST to become one of the best S&T universities in the world.
KAIST is now ready to take on new challenges and opportunities that will be presented to us in 2009. Challenges will come from many different directions and from many different quarters, especially in this worsening economic environment. However, challenges are always accompanied by unique opportunities that will motivate and propel us to elevate KAIST to the next plateau in our march for excellence in education and research. We must be ready and willing to take on these new opportunities and become a leading S&T university that serves the needs of the world in the 21st century.
Some of the goals for 2009 may include the following:
1. Teach the student well.
2. Produce outstanding graduates who are responsible citizens and who can become global leaders.
3. Continue to emphasize research that can make a major impact, e.g., EEWS, HRHR, and other research programs.
4. Continue to support the research in which KAIST professors excel.
5. Promote creative activities of students and faculty.
6. Improve the quality of living conditions for students.
7. Maintain high ethical and moral standards.
8. Recruit and support outstanding professors, students, and staff.
9. Complete the construction of the Park KI Building, the Papparlardo Medical Center, the Sports Complex, and the International Student Center in 2009.
10. Support the new Renaissance Ph.D. programs.
11. Be prudent with our financial resources.
12. Raise gifts from those who want to see KAIST become one of the best S&T universities in the world.
The World Around Us
Achieving the above 12 goals in Year 2009 will require careful planning and execution, especially in this difficult economic environment. As all of us know, many people in many nations are affected by the unprecedented economic downturn. Korea’s economy is also affected by its sluggish exports, the drop in stock prices, and sudden unfavorable changes in foreign exchange rate. In this environment, KAIST may have challenges as well in satisfying all of our needs with our available financial resources. We need to be prudent and careful. We will save where we can, but spend where we must to strengthen our educational and research programs.
Everyone can and should help. Our students, especially our graduate students, should work harder than ever before, even on evenings and weekends, to complete their research work in the shortest period of time. There is nothing to be gained by staying in school as a student longer than necessary. The sooner our students complete their study, the sooner they can make more contributions to the world.
Five-Year Plan Revisited
To understand our challenges and opportunities of 2009, it is good to look back to the Five-Year Plan, which was developed in 2006 and modified since then. The key elements of the five-year plan are as follows:
1. Increase the number of undergraduate students from 700 per year to 1,000 per year.
2. Increase the number of tenure-track faculty to 700
3. Secure government support for doubling our base budget in five years
4. Contribute to society and S&T through original and creative research
5. Improve and increase facilities for education and research
6. Improve productivity and performance of everyone in KAIST
7. Concentrate our resources to solve important problems of the 21st century
8. Concentrate our resources where we have unique strengths
Organizational Changes Implemented in 2008
In 2008, KAIST was reorganized to maximize the opportunities for major strides in research and education. The College of Life Science and Bioengineering (Dean Sang Yup Lee) was created in recognition of the fact that the gap between molecular biology, biotech and bio-engineering is almost non-existent. All life science and technology related departments belong to this college. Similarly, the College of Information Science and Technology (Dean YongHoon Lee) was created to deal with science and engineering of information and information technology, communications systems, software and software systems, information services, and related issues. Within this college, we have created a new Department of Intelligent Service Engineering (Head, Professor Wan Chul Yoon), which is charged with creating the intellectual basis, codification of underlying knowledge, and disciplinary foundation for information generation, transmission, extraction, and delivery of messages when the bandwidth of communications systems approaches infinity. In the College of Engineering(Dean Seung O Park), we have created the Department of Ocean Systems Engineering (Head, Professor Soon Heung Han) in recognition of the fact that the ocean will increasingly become more important in dealing with energy, energy storage, transportation, food supply, and mediation of the environment. In the College of Natural Science (Dean Yong Kyu Do), we have created the Department of NanoScience and Technology (Head, Professor Jung Hoon Shin) to codify the knowledge in nanoscience and technology, to create an academic discipline based on the knowledge that has been generated in many diverse fields such as biology, materials, physics, and engineering, and to pursue basic research and technology innovation at the interface between these disciplines.
EEWS (energy, environment, water, and sustainability) is an important initiative of KAIST. We believe that the organization that solves these important issues of the 21st century will become one of the leading universities in the world. As we do more research in EEWS, we need to invite collaboration of many colleagues who are interested in energy, environment, water, and sustainability. To oversee and actively promote research and education in these fields, we have formed an inter-disciplinary organization for EEWS (Dean Jae Kyu Lee) and within EEWS, the Energy Research Group (Head, Professor Jung Koo Kang). I am pleased to report to you that we will receive 10 billion KRW a year for five years for this and related initiatives.
To capitalize on KAIST’s outstanding research in optical science and technology, the KAIST Institute in Optical Science and Technology, which is headed by Professor Seung Woo Kim of Mechanical Engineering, was formally established.
All of these new departments and programs, except one, will be supported by the World Class University (WCU) Program of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST). We received the WCU grants (about 18 billion KRW per year for five years) thanks to the efforts made by the participating professors, deans, vice presidents, and staff. We owe a debt of gratitude to all these colleagues for their hard work and leadership.
I also want to offer my congratulations and thanks to Professor Tae Yong Yang and Chul Soo Ahn for receiving the financial support of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MSF) for the MOT (Management of Technology Program). MOT will be funded for five years at 2 billion KRW per annum. These and other efforts made on behalf of KAIST make our university one of the best S&T universities in the world.
Facility and New Construction
The quality of the working environment does affect the effectiveness and quality of research and education. Also new research programs need space. Therefore, in 2008, we have embarked on an ambitious building construction program to accommodate new faculty, departments, and research programs, as well as to improve the quality of life on campus for students, faculty, and staff.
We renovated three major buildings (formally known as Bldg 1, 2, and 3) that were constructed when the undergraduate school (known as KIT) was first established in 1986. These old buildings have received a new life and vitality through imaginative redesign of the building and major renovations. They now provide some of the best space for research and education on campus.
A new building has just been completed for the Geocentrifuge Center, which houses a large centrifuge testing machine that will be used to determine the behavior of soil under high-pressure. This is one of the unique facilities in the world. Professor Dongsoo Kim, Director of the Laboratory, should be congratulated for his vision and leadership in securing the funds and establishing this research center.
Our campus is now busy with major construction activities. We are building the Park KI Building, the Pappalardo Medical Center, the Sports Complex, and the International Student Center. These are modern buildings that will change the landscape of the KAIST campus. The Park Building will provide new research space for the KAIST Institutes. The new Pappalardo Medical Center will provide primary care for students, faculty, staff, and their family members. The new Sports Complex will provide expanded indoor facilities for sports and other activities, including the graduation exercise when the weather is inclement. The Center for International Students will be a home away from home for our international students.
Most of these buildings are scheduled to be completed in Year 2009. Others will be completed in early 2010, which should improve the quality of our education and research as well as the overall quality of life on campus.
In spite of these new buildings and renovated space, we are already short of space for newly hired faculty and new departments. We also need additional dormitories for students and housing for international faculty.
To accommodate the continuing expansion of existing research and educational activities and to allow future growth of KAIST, we are planning to acquire some land.
Gift and Donations
The construction of new buildings has been made possible by our generous benefactors, who gave KAIST major gifts. All of us owe thanks to Dr. and Mrs. B. J. Park, Dr. and Mrs. A. Neil Pappalardo, Chairman and Mrs. Moon Sul Chung, Chairman and Mrs. Donald Kim, Chairman and Mrs. Chong Moon Lee, Woori Bank, Hanbit Church, and POSCO, in addition to the support provided by the government. We are most grateful to all of our supporters and donors. Recently, Dr. Geun Chul Lyu has given KAIST 58 billion KRW, the largest personal gift ever, for which we are most grateful. We have also received a major gift of 4.5 billion KRW from two anonymous donors. The total number of donors is expected to exceed 3,000, an order of magnitude increase in two years.
KAIST needs to receive more gifts, large and small, to reach our goal of establishing an endowment of one trillion KRW. Your active support of the KAIST Development Foundation (Executive Director: Professor Soohyun Kim) will be greatly appreciated. Dr. Geun Chul Lyu will be the honorary chairman of the KAIST Development Foundation and spearhead our fund-raising activities.
Undergraduate Education
I believe that KAIST offers a strong educational program to freshmen. Our freshman design course is unique among all S&T universities of the world. The freshman design course (Instructors in charge: Professors Taesik Lee and M. Kate Thompson) has received strong endorsement from the students who took the course and the faculty members who participated in teaching the subject. I was really impressed by the creativity and quality of the term projects. They were outstanding. One design that captured my imagination, among other equally imaginative projects, was the machine that climbed up the stairways. They were imaginative and thought-provoking.
The communication part of the design course is also playing an important role. Both verbal and written communications are emphasized, which should serve our students well throughout their career as they assume leadership positions in industry and society.
In science, engineering, and business, the most commonly used language for communications is English. Therefore, we are preparing our students for the global community in which they function by teaching all of the freshman and sophomore courses in English. In two more years, all undergraduate subjects except a few will be taught in English. The subjects taught in English are getting positive response from students, receiving an equal or better rating than those subjects taught in Korean. The freshmen who presented their design projects were fluent in English.
We are emphasizing to our students to learn how things are really done by joining the internship program provided by industrial firms and research institutes. Our internship program for undergraduate and graduate students should be strengthened to encourage more of our students to make use of this opportunity and learn something new and different during the summer vacation. Last summer, we had more internship positions available than taken by students. Hopefully this year, we will have more applicants for the internship program, since the experience they acquire as interns will be invaluable in their professional development.
Undergraduate Research
Undergraduate students at KAIST can participate in research through the Undergraduate Research Participation (URP) program. URP is designed to broaden the educational experience of undergraduate students. They propose their own ideas for research and lead their projects as PI’s. Since its establishment in Spring 2006, around 350 URP projects have been carried out with the participation of about 630 undergraduate students. Those completing the URP program earn academic credits, and the research results are presented at URP workshops. Some projects are selected for further funding to enrich the research experience of students as scientists and engineers. With increasing participation of students and faculty members as supervisors, the URP program has become as an important element of undergraduate education at KAIST.
Renaissance Ph.D. Program
Ph.D. programs in engineering are often dissected by many universities in order to determine how Ph.D. education should be improved. One of the shortcomings of the current Ph.D. programs in engineering that has been discussed a great deal is the breadth of knowledge. However, we believe that it is the lack of ability to synthesize complex systems (i.e., design) that is limiting the continuing growth of some of the Ph.D.s, since most of the doctoral programs emphasize only analysis.
To overcome this problem, nine of our academic departments have launched the Renaissance Ph.D. Program, which consists of two years of design education (i.e., course work and actual design research), followed by three years of analysis and optimization of the artifact designed during the first two years of their graduate study. This “five-year” program is being monitored by many universities to determine if KAIST’s pioneering effort will produce graduates who are flexible in their thinking, have the ability to move into new areas throughout their careers, and have the ability to deal with the broad issues of engineering, industry, and society.
Their exposure to design issues will crystallize the need to understand and consider socio-economic political issues when we devise technological solutions. With this new dimension of knowledge added to our Ph.D. programs, KAIST Ph.D.s will be better prepared for leadership positions.
Productivity and Finance
One of the things we hope to achieve this year is the increased “productivity” of KAIST.
We want to make sure that students complete their prescribed study within the time allotted for various degrees. Right now, our dormitories are over-crowded, in part because there are too many students who have not completed their prescribed study in the time allotted for their degrees. We hope that our students will learn to do things within a prescribed period of time by managing their time better and prioritizing their demanding tasks. Managing one’s time effectively and completing assignments on time may be as important as receiving good grades when they pursue their careers after graduating from KAIST.
In order to increase the productivity of professors, we need to reduce their time spent on non-academic tasks by providing additional staff support. We are planning to add more support staff in our academic units this spring.
For 2009, we did get additional government funding for EEWS, ICU, and MOT, but did not get the support for hiring of additional faculty. For 2009, we sought to get the approval of the Ministry of Planning and Finance for an additional 35 faculty members, but our request was denied because of the overall hiring freeze announced by government. We did not ask for additional students this year since we will have additional students when ICU merges with KAIST. We will ask for the government funding for additional undergraduate students to reach an optimum student body. Overall our budget has increased, thanks to the support of government officials for KAIST. We need to increase it at a faster rate to achieve the goals of the Five-Year Plan.
Research
In 2008, many of our professors have received major awards and recognitions for their outstanding research contributions from foundations, professional societies, government, and international organizations. Although there are too many to list them here, the importance of these awards cannot be overstated. They have raised the visibility of KAIST and have created new opportunities for collaboration with other institutions. On behalf of KAIST, I would like to offer them our sincere congratulations and thank them for making KAIST a haven for fundamental research and technology innovation.
External support of our research is essential for KAIST’s intellectual growth. Many of our colleagues received many research grants, some mega-sized grants. I cannot list them all here, except a few. Professors Hee Kyung Park and Jin Keun Kim received two center grants related to urban planning and environment; Professor Tae-Eog Lee received a major grant for a research center for simulation and modeling; Professor Byung Tae Ahn received an Engineering Research Center (ERC) grant; Professor Jie-Oh Lee received a grant for Creative Research Initiative Program; Professor Young-Ho Cho received a collaborative research grant from Samsung Electro-Mechanics; Professor Dong Ho Cho and his colleagues in the KI for IT Convergence received many major industrial and government grants; Professor Dai Gil Lee of the KI for Design of Complex Systems received a major industrial grant.
We have also received major grants from organizations outside of Korea. KAIST-Microsoft Research Center was established recently, which will be directed by Dean Hyun Seung Yang. Also our SatRec Center and the Department of Aero/Astronautics have a collaborative effort with NASA.
As we discussed earlier, we are focusing our attention on important problems of the 21st century by launching the EEWS program. With the government support granted in 2009 of 10 billion KRW, we will support most imaginative and basic research and technological development in energy, environment, water, and sustainability. The issues related to all these topics are wide ranging, including transportation, global warming, and depletion of natural resources. Our research should seek quantum jumps in efficiency in energy generation, conversion, utilization, and exploration. We should develop technologies that will eliminate pollution at its source. KAIST should generate new ideas through basic research and technology innovation.
To encourage bold thinking, identification of significant research problems, and creative culture at KAIST, we have funded high risk, high return (HRHR) projects. Professors and graduate students can apply for HRHR funding any time they have great, creative ideas that can be supported by the HRHR program. Once they prove the validity of their ideas, they can then go for outside funding. Although the program has been in existence for only a short time, the results are encouraging.
In order to promote inter-disciplinary research, KAIST has established KAIST Institutes (KI). Faculty members from different departments participate in KIs. Many professors and students from a number of different departments are collaborating on common research topics at the KIs. New faculty members are hired through KIs to promote inter-disciplinary research. Many of the KIs are doing excellent inter-disciplinary research. As they gain experience, I hope that all of the KIs will be equally productive this year.
Overhead and Accounting
One of the many things that keep me awake at night is the financial issue. Without the financial resource, KAIST cannot achieve the goal of becoming one of the best S&T universities in the world. There are many issues. Although I am not an accountant, let me present my understanding of some of the issues involved.
One of the most controversial issues at many research universities is the overhead cost. Some of our colleagues feel that it is too low and some believe it is too high. Both of these views are valid and understandable, depending on one’s perspective on the issue. Certainly this issue has been one of the topics that have been discussed intensely in many meetings among administrators, faculty, and staff. Contrary to the way the system should work, apparently the nature of these discussions was not conveyed to all faculty members. I take responsibility for this oversight.
At universities and research institutes, there are many cost items that are not covered by “direct cost” when we receive research grants. They may include the staff salary, heat, water, electricity, maintenance of buildings, depreciation of certain capital equipment, cost of information service (including the cost of running the library), etc. It is a standard practice to lump all these “indirect costs” under the heading of overhead. The true overhead rate should normally be determined by an accounting firm or a government agency. In the US, one of the government agencies that fund the university research audits the cost of doing research at the research university and determines the overhead rate. A typical overhead rate comes out to be somewhere between 40 to 60%, which depends on how one defines the “indirect cost.” In our case, the overhead rate is decreed by government without auditing. In many cases, the overhead does not cover the actual indirect cost. In our case, the salary of the faculty is partially subsidized by the overhead charge. KAIST nominally receives the base salary budget from the government each year. However, what government allows for the faculty salary is a small fraction of the actual salary paid, since we get about 70% of the salary paid to the faculty from government. Also the increase we get in our budget for salary each year is much less than the actual increase of the salary of the faculty and staff. This year the government has just about frozen the salary. We also partially subsidize the start-up cost of new faculty (such as the cost of equipping laboratories, etc.), which is not covered properly in our base budget. Although we offer a substantial “start-up package,” in some cases we are not competitive with leading universities in the United States. We have to pay for these start-up funds from other sources.
Deans and department heads need an operational fund to run their organizations, but there is no direct allowance for paying the cost of running departments and colleges. Therefore, a part of the overhead charge is returned to the colleges and departments for their operational fund.
We plan to return a portion of the additional overhead charged to the faculty, which can be used by the faculty to pay for their summer salary or for other expenses. This is to create resources from which faculty members can charge their summer salary, which can be up to 3 months of the annual salary. It should be noted that we cannot charge summer salary to government research contracts, although we hope that this policy can be changed in the future by convincing the government ministries of our need to be more competitive in faculty compensation.
One of the major assumptions at KAIST is that the more research funding we receive, the better off KAIST is financially. It is certainly true that we cannot operate without the research funding. What is not well known is that all research projects at KAIST are partially subsidized centrally because the overhead rate is unrealistically low. Therefore, our base budget has been paying a large fraction of the indirect cost, which is equivalent to eating away the seed funding of KAIST.
On the Relationship with Industry and New Growth Engine Project of MKE
It is good for education and research to have a linkage to industry, which is the ultimate user of our research results. Therefore, most S&T universities try to have strong and productive relationships with industry. KAIST is no exception.
To forge a strong relationship with industry, we have to identify enlightened industrial leaders who are interested in creating new technologies and strengthening the scientific basis for industrial technologies. I am pleased that we have a strong relationship with many industrial firms, such as Samsung Electronics, Samsung Electric, Hynix, LG, Samsung Heavy Industry, POSCO, Korea Electric Power, STX, and others. These companies are working with us on a variety of different projects, ranging from mobile harbor, semiconductor manufacturing, urban electric cars, displays, IT, and others. We need to expand this list of collaborating companies to strengthen our educational and research programs.
KAIST has a major role to play as Korea seeks new growth engines for its economy. We not only have to create the scientific basis for new technologies and introduce technological innovations, but also help some industries transform themselves by adopting new technologies. It is easy for industrial firms to make the same mistakes the US automotive industry has made. General Motors and others could have created their own fuel-efficient cars but chose not to invest in and adopt new technologies such as electric cars. As is well known, General Motors was the first to manufacture electric cars and work on battery technologies, but financial expediency killed the electric-vehicle projects, and General Motors did not produce fuel-efficient small cars.
At KAIST, we have formed a new ad hoc committee for New Growth Engines (NGE) under the leadership of Dean Seung O Park to investigate how KAIST can participate in the NGE Program of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. We should not only do R&D work but also play a major role in transformation of some of the industries. This role is befitting KAIST as it was established under special legislation to assist in Korea’s industrialization.
Mergers
As many of you know, KAIST and ICU will merge in March 2009. We are looking forward to the merger of KAIST with ICU so as to strengthen the original goals of both institutions. It has been two years since this possible merger was first discussed. The merger will increase the total number of students by about 1,000 students -- about 350 undergraduate students and 550 graduate students -- as well as increase the faculty size by 46 professors in engineering and 16 professors in management. About 50 staff members of ICU will join KAIST as well. We plan to merge KAIST and ICU seamlessly. After the merger, there will be only one school with no distinction as to the former affiliation. We must make sure that after the merger, the sum of the parts will be greater than the parts. That is, we should work together to make sure that the merged KAIST and ICU is much stronger than before the merger./p>
By agreement, KAIST has to accept all the graduates of the Korea Science Academy (KSA), which is located in Busan. KSA students are specially chosen among those with strong aptitude for science and engineering. The goal is to generate outstanding scientists and engineers who are creative. To make sure that the KSA students are properly educated, KAIST will oversee the teaching and learning at KSA by making KSA an affiliated organization of KAIST from 2009. KAIST will focus on creative aspects of science, mathematics, and engineering. The management and operation of KSA will not deviate much from the way KSA has been operating to date. KAIST will inject more pedagogical ideas for enhancing creativity. One of the things we will do is to bring some of the KSA students to KAIST during the summer vacation for internship in our research labs.
Ethics and related Issues
As we vigorously pursue our research and educational agenda, sometimes we can overlook and unintentionally create what others may perceive to be ethical issues. When they occur, they can do much damage to the reputation of higher education in general and that of KAIST in particular. To be sure that we deal with any issues related to perceived and real conflict of interest, IPR, management of research grants, authorship of papers, and relationship with students, a standing Faculty Committee on Professional Activities will be established. The committee’s function is to render judgment of colleagues on a specific case brought to its attention before any administrative actions are taken. The goal is to maintain high ethical standards and assist faculty and staff in dealing with issues that may have legal consequences.
PAC, EAC, and the KAIST Board of Trustees
As we execute our programs and policies, we make certain decisions and judgments based on a set of assumptions and hypotheses that may affect our policies on education, research, and public service. Also we do many things following our past practices, sometimes without questioning the basic assumptions behind them, some of which may no longer be appropriate for KAIST in 2009. Furthermore, there is the need for KAIST to be connected to the external world through leaders of the worldwide community of education, research, industry, and society-at-large.
The KAIST Board of Trustees, which is the governing body of KAIST, has provided the administration with timely guidance and advice. They approved all the initiatives of the KAIST administration, which is required by law. In addition to the formal approval, we have benefited a great deal by the advice and inputs provided by the individual members of the Board.
In addition to the statutory Board of Trustees, we also have two external advisory councils that provide us with timely advice, counsel, and guidance. We established the President’s Advisory Council (PAC) for the central administration and the External Advisory Council (EAC) for the departments. The PAC and EAC members are outstanding leaders from many countries with deep insights on topics that are of interest to KAIST. I have personally gained in many ways from the sage advice I have received from the PAC members. Their impact on KAIST’s programs and policies has been significant. In addition to their advice and counsel, some PAC members have given us major financial support for many of the KAIST projects, as was mentioned in an earlier section.
In addition to providing valuable advice and assessment of our departments, the needs of our departments have been articulated by EAC members to the administration, which have been very helpful in formulating KAIST’s policies. Their inputs to the department were taken seriously by the department head, which have resulted in some significant changes.
I would like to express my personal appreciation to each member of the KAIST board of trustees and the President’s Advisory Council. They have provided a great deal of service to KAIST, Korea, and the world of higher education. I am personally indebted to each member of the KAIST board and PAC for their advice and support. I would also like to thank each EAC member for his/her contributions to KAIST.
Conclusions
In 2009, KAIST will have many challenges and opportunities. By working together for a common goal of making KAIST one of the leading S&T universities in the world, we will make KAIST a great place to learn, experiment, and create unique solutions to difficult societal and technological problems. KAIST will continue to be a stimulating place to work, study, and pursue one’s aspirations and dreams.
I would like to thank you for your contributions to our joint effort.
Wish you and your family a Happy and Prosperous New Year.
Nam Pyo Suh
President, KAIST
January 2, 2009