Gunyoung Kim, a researcher at the Superconducting Applications Laboratory (Advisor: Professor Seungyong Hahn), was selected as a recipient of the IEEE Council on Superconductivity Graduate Study Fellowship. This fellowship selects six graduate students from the field of superconductivity worldwide each year based on the impact and potential of their research, awarding them a $5,000 scholarship. The awards ceremony took place on September 2, 2024, at the Applied Superconductivity Conference 2024, held in Salt Lake City, USA. Source: https://ece.snu.ac.kr/ece/news?md=v&bbsidx=55870 Translated by: Dohyung Kim, English Editor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, kimdohyung@snu.ac.kr...

On August 29, 2024, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering held the 2023 fall (78th) graduation ceremony and conferred degrees to 56 Ph.D. graduates, 18 Master's graduates, and 51 Bachelor's graduates. During the ceremony, representative graduates were issued their certificates, plaques for the Graduate School Excellent Thesis Award were presented, and certificates were awarded to the top graduates. Furthermore, Professor Saewoong Bahk delivered a message of congratulations and encouragement for the bright future of the graduates. Source: https://ece.snu.ac.kr/ece/news?md=v&bbsidx=55838 Translated by: Dohyung Kim, English Editor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, kimdohyung@snu.ac.kr...

At the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC’24) held in Denver, USA, on June 10th, Professor Byonghyo Shim (Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Seoul National University; ECE Department of SNU) won the Journal of Communications and Networks (JCN) Best Paper Award with his paper, “6G R&D Vision: Requirements and Candidate Technologies.” Since its publication in 2022, this paper has gained significant attention from academia and industry, and it has been selected as the most popular article in the JCN journal with over 5,000 downloads. (June 10, 2024) Source: https://ece.snu.ac.kr/ece/news?md=v&bbsidx=55756 Translated by: Jiyong Yoo, English Editor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, cyoo7@snu.ac.kr...

Professor Sunghoon Kwon's research team, in collaboration with Professors Wanbum Park and Inho Kim from Seoul National University Hospital and company QuantaMatrix, has announced a breakthrough in significantly improving the survival rate of sepsis patients, a condition with a mortality rate exceeding 40%. Sepsis is a life-threatening condition caused by the proliferation of pathogens like bacteria or fungi in the bloodstream, leading to an excessive inflammatory response throughout the body. This can rapidly cause organ failure, often resulting in death within a few days. The 30-day mortality rate for sepsis is over 30%, more than twice that of heart attacks or myocardial infarctions. Rapid prescription of the optimal antibiotic treatment is crucial to reducing the mortality rate. This achievement was published on July 25th (2024) in Nature, one of the world's most prestigious academic journals, with an impact factor of 50.5. Source: https://ece.snu.ac.kr/ece/news?md=v&bbsidx=55758 Translated by: Jiyong Yoo, English Editor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, cyoo7@snu.ac.kr...

Professor Yongtaek Hong’s research team stated that they have developed a “site-selective integration technology” that can electrically & physically connect miniature electronic components (such as micro-LEDs) on highly flexible or stretchable substrates. The core of their “site-selective integration strategy” involves selectively patterning adhesives containing ferromagnetic particles to microdevices, using a dip-transfer coating method, followed by tuning the distribution of ferromagnetic particles by a magnetic field, forming an anisotropic conductive path. The results of this research were published as the cover paper in the May issue of 'Nature Electronics,' the world's leading academic journal in the field of electronics. Source: https://ece.snu.ac.kr/ece/news?md=v&bbsidx=55757 Translated by: Jiyong Yoo, English Editor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, cyoo7@snu.ac.kr...

○ The Outstanding Paper Award in Science and Technology is presented annually to scientists and engineers who have published outstanding papers in domestic academic journals through innovative research activities. This year, 471 papers published last year were recommended by member societies of The Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies (KOFST). Following an in-depth evaluation by specialized committees in five fields and the Academic Promotion Committee, a total of 243 outstanding papers were finally selected. ○ The awardees by academic field include 32 in the natural sciences, 88 in engineering, 37 in agricultural and fisheries sciences, 59 in health sciences, and 27 in the general category, totaling 243 recipients. Awarded date: July 11, 2024 For more information: https://www.kofst.or.kr/bbsview.bit?sys_type=0000&menu_code=040402&bid=BBS_06_04&bbs_no=615&page=2 Source: https://ece.snu.ac.kr/ece/news?md=v&bbsidx=55802 Translated by: Jiyong Yoo, English Editor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, cyoo7@snu.ac.kr...

24-08-07 (Reported by Munhwa Daily Newspaper on Jul. 2, 2024) Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Professor Hyukjae Lee, Director of Seoul National University’s (SNU’s) Inter-university Semiconductor Research Center Short-term Effects on Science and Engineering Due to Increase in Medical School Enrollment Quota Aftermath of Early Retirement During the IMF Remains Until Recovery, Measures to Strengthen Workforces Gain Importance Government Support Focuses on Strengthening Weaknesses While Supporting the Expansion of Semiconductor Facilities, Incentives for Technical Workforces Must Also Be Increased The government and the medical community are currently at odds over the issue of expanding medical school quotas. Observing this situation, many engineering professors are concerned that if more top students choose to enter medical schools due to increased quotas, fewer students will strive to enter engineering schools. On the other hand, some professors believe that, in the long run, this will not significantly affect engineering school admissions. Nevertheless, it is expected that the number of top students entering science and engineering fields will decrease temporarily, posing a challenge for engineering schools to train the workforce needed by industries during this period. In the 1980s, when I entered university, the entrance cut-off scores for departments such as Electronic Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Control and Instrumentation Engineering at Seoul National University were often higher than those for the Pre-Medical Department. However, after the financial crisis (IMF crisis) in the late 1990s, the popularity of the medical field increased due to its stability, while interest in science and engineering declined. This shift away from science and engineering has become a major cause of the workforce shortage in advanced technology fields such as semiconductors. Another factor aggravating the workforce shortage in the semiconductor industry is the increasing number of employees moving abroad. The semiconductor industry believes that Micron, which used to be the third most competitive company in the memory semiconductor industry, has recently caught up with Korean companies partly because many of our workforce moved there. The reality is that it is not easy to prevent employees from moving to overseas companies that offer much higher salaries than domestic companies. The government is also implementing various workforce development policies, such as increasing the quotas for semiconductor departments in universities, to address the shortage of semiconductor personnel. However, even with increased university quotas, there are limitations in obtaining high quality workforce, leading to cases where newly-established semiconductor departments fail to fill their admission quotas. This is because top students tend to prefer medical fields, leaving science and engineering fields relatively neglected. To fundamentally address national issues such as the neglect of science and engineering and overseas job transfers, it is essential to improve the treatment of technical personnel working domestically. Recently, our government announced a 26 trillion won comprehensive support program for the semiconductor industry. This program includes low-interest loans, investment tax credits, investment fund creation, research and development (R&D) support, and infrastructure development such as power and water supply. Such government policy support is inevitable to compete with global companies abroad, as many governments worldwide are implementing even larger-scale support measures for the semiconductor industry. Governments in various countries are directing their support to address their weaknesses. In the case of the United States, semiconductor design companies dominate the global market, but there is a shortage of semiconductor manufacturing facilities. Therefore, subsidies and additional financial support are provided to attract manufacturing facilities domestically. Conversely, the U.S. has many world-class companies in the semiconductor design field. The competitiveness of design companies comes from excellent talent, and since Silicon Valley companies attract many global talents with high salaries and good working environments, the U.S. government does not need to invest large-scale budgets in this area. There is a need to adjust the direction of our government’s semiconductor support to suit our reality. Priority should be given to supporting the expansion of semiconductor manufacturing facilities, which require large-scale funding. Additionally, to address our weakness of workforce shortages, more proactive large-scale support measures are necessary. We have to consider providing direct benefits to the workforce in the semiconductor industry. Financial support, tax benefits, and infrastructure development could be provided to employees working in semiconductor companies, or support could be directed towards living facilities for them. Various measures can ensure that R&D support directly benefits the personnel involved in corporate technology development. If such government support is provided through companies, it will help secure the workforce for those companies and avoid criticism of providing benefits solely to the companies. It is time for the government to actively consider strengthening support for technical personnel in the semiconductor industry, implementing policies suitable for the current situation of our country. Professor Hyukjae Lee of SNU ECE Department Source: https://munhwa.com/news/view.html?no=2024070201033011000002 Translated by: Jiyong Yoo, English Editor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, cyoo7@snu.ac.kr ...

24-08-07 (Reported by SBS news on Jul. 25, 2024) Reporter: Medical Journalist Dongchan Jo News video: https://news.sbs.co.kr/news/endPage.do?news_id=N1007737533 Sepsis is a dangerous disease where bacteria spread into the bloodstream, increasing the mortality rate by 9% every hour. A research team in our country (S. Korea) has found a way to significantly reduce the testing time for identifying sepsis, thereby cutting the mortality rate by more than half. This is Medical Journalist Dongchan Jo reporting. This researcher is culturing blood from a sepsis patient to identify the type of bacteria. [Hyelyn Joo / Researcher of Seoul National University (SNU) Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department: “The total time required for culturing is at least 2 days.”] It takes an additional day to find an effective antibiotic for the specific patient. However, the mortality rate of Sepsis increases by 9% every hour. This makes the three days it takes to find an appropriate antibiotic extremely critical for the patient. The domestic sepsis mortality rate is as high as 38%. The number of sepsis deaths per 100,000 people has jumped nearly fourfold, from 3.7 in 2011 to 12.5 in 2021. The SNU research team is rapidly culturing blood from 190 sepsis patients by separating their blood with nano magnetic particles. In just a few hours, they rush into finding suitable antibiotics. [Haewook Jang / Researcher of SNU ECE Department: “This is a process of loading samples on a chip for antibiotic sensitivity testing.”] Each of the dozens of circles represents a cluster of antibiotics, and artificial intelligence detects and highlights the subtle changes that indicate which bacteria are responding. [Junwon Kang / Researcher of SNU ECE Department: “When a patient’s sample is implemented, only the micro disc corresponding to the patient’s bacterium is lighted.”] Once the bacteria causing the sepsis are identified, they are transferred in real-time to an adjacent machine to determine the most effective antibiotics. [Sunghoon Kwon / Professor of SNU ECE Department: “Antibiotics that have resistance (to the patient’s bacteria) will only cause side effects if used. This device quickly selects the most effective antibiotic.”] The time required to find an appropriate antibiotic has been reduced from 3 days to 13 hours. The results are nearly identical to those of the 3-day test, with a 94% consistency rate. According to clinical results from Seoul National University Hospital, even reducing the testing time to 24 hours cuts the sepsis mortality rate by more than half. This research has been published and revealed today (the 25th of July) in the prestigious journal Nature. Source: https://news.sbs.co.kr/news/endPage.do?newsId=N1007737533&plink=THUMB&cooper=SBSNEWSPROGRAM Translated by: Jiyong Yoo, English Editor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, cyoo7@snu.ac.kr...