Type Public Academic staff 1,140 (2013) Students 10,249 (2013) President Shin Sung-chul Total enrollment 10,249 (2013) Undergraduates 4,047 | Established 1971 Administrative staff 322 (2008) Postgraduates 6,202 (2013) Phone +82 42-350-2114 Founded 1971 Colors Blue, Light blue | |
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Address 291 Daehak-ro, Guseong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, South Korea Notable alumni Yoon So‑hee, Kim So‑jung, Lee Jun‑seok, Yi So‑yeon, Ryoo Ryong Similar Seoul National University, Pohang University of Scienc, Yonsei University, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea University Profiles | ||
Kaist expectations vs realities
KAIST (formally the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) is a public research university located in Daedeok Innopolis, Daejeon, South Korea. KAIST was established by the Korean government with the help of American policymakers in 1971 as the nation's first research oriented science and engineering institution. KAIST also has been internationally accredited in business education. KAIST has approximately 10,200 full-time students and 1,140 faculty researchers and had a total budget of US$765 million in 2013, of which US$459 million was from research contracts. From 1980 to 2008, the institute was known as the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. In 2008, the name was shortened to KAIST.
Contents
- Kaist expectations vs realities
- Kaist admissions for international students full version
- History
- Academics
- Students
- Organization
- Campus
- Main Library
- Daedeok Innopolis
- Research
- Electric vehicles
- Academic rankings
- Notable faculty and staff
- Academia
- Science and technology
- Business
- Entertainment
- References
In 2007 KAIST adopted dual degree programs with leading world universities to offer its students diverse educational opportunities and strengthen academic exchanges; since then with the Technical University of Denmark, Carnegie Mellon University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Technische Universität Berlin, and the Technische Universität München.
Kaist admissions for international students full version
History
The institute was founded in 1971 as the Korea Advanced Institute of Science (KAIS) by a loan of US$6 million (US$34 million 2014) from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and supported by President Park Chung-Hee. The institute's academic scheme was mainly designed by Frederick E. Terman, vice president of Stanford University, and Chung Geum-mo, a professor at the Polytechnic Institution of Brooklyn. The institute's two main functions were to train advanced scientists and engineers and develop a structure of graduate education in the country. Research studies began by 1973 and undergraduates studied for bachelor's degrees by 1984.
In 1981 the government merged the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and the Korean Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) to form the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, or KAIST. Due to differing research philosophies, KIST and KAIST split in 1989. In the same year KAIST and the Korea Institute of Technology (KIT) combined and moved from Seoul to the Daedeok Science Town in Daejeon. The first act of President Suh upon his inauguration in July 2006 was to lay out the KAIST Development Plan. The ‘KAIST Development Five-Year Plan’ was finalized on February 5, 2007 by KAIST Steering Committee. The goals of KAIST set by Suh were to become one of the best science and technology universities in the world, and to become one of the top-10 universities by 2011. In January 2008, the university dropped its full name, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and changed its official name to only KAIST.
Academics
Admission to KAIST is based on overall grades, grades on math and science courses, recommendation letters from teachers, study plan, personal statements, and other data that show the excellence of potential students. It is Korea’s first test-free admissions system.
Full scholarships are given to all students including international students in the bachelor, master and doctorate courses. Doctoral students are given military-exemption benefits. In addition, many courses are provided in English. According to JoongAng Daily National Rankings, more than 80% of major courses taught at KAIST are conducted in English.
Governed by a special law, the university has an autonomous and flexible academic system. Other South Korean colleges and universities are required to abide by government-directed admissions and curriculum requirements. Undergraduate students can join the school through an “open major system” that allows students to take classes for three terms and then choose a discipline that suits their aptitude. In addition, undergraduate students are free to change their major anytime.KAIST has also produced many doctorates through the integrated master’s and doctoral program and early-completion system. Students must publish papers in internationally renowned academic journals for graduation.
Students
KAIST produced a total of 48,398 alumni from 1975 to 2014, with 13,743 bachelor's, 24,776 master's, and 9,879 doctorate degree holders. As of April 2014, 10,146 students were enrolled in KAIST with 3,980 bachelor’s, 2,918 master’s, and 3,518 doctoral students. More than 70 percent of KAIST undergraduates come from specialized science high schools. On average, about 600 international students from more than 70 different countries come to study at KAIST, making KAIST one of the most ethnically diverse universities in the country.
Organization
KAIST is organized into 6 colleges, 2 schools and 33 departments/divisions. KAIST also has three affiliated institutes including the Korea Institute of Advanced Study (KIAS), National NanoFab Center (NNFC), and Korea Science Academy (KSA).
Campus
KAIST has two campuses in Daejeon and one campus in Seoul. The university is mainly located in the Daedeok Research Complex in the city of Daejeon, 150 kilometers south of the capital Seoul. Daedeok is also home to some 50 public and private research institutes, universities and high-tech venture capital companies.
The Daejeon campus (besides Daejeon Expo Park) plays main roles including lectures, research activities, housing services. It has a total of 29 dormitories where all students wishing to reside can stay. Twenty-three dormitories for male students and four dormitories for female students are located on the outskirts of the campus, and two apartments for married students are located outside the campus.
KAIST Seoul Campus is the home of the Business Faculty of the university. Graduate school of finance, management and information & media management is located there. The total area of Seoul Campus is 413,346 m2 (4,449,220 sq ft). Its primary goal is to achieve an optimal combination of engineering and business studies which will make engineers more effective at their craft.
The Munji campus, previously ICU (Information and Communication University) campus, KAIST Information Technology Convergence Campus near main campus, has a total of two dormitories, one for undergraduate students and the other for graduate students.
Main Library
KAIST Main Library was established in 1971 as KAIS library, and it went through a merge and separation process with KIST library. It merged with KIT in March 1990. A contemporary 5 story building was constructed as the Main Library, and it is being operated with an annex library. The library uses the American LC Classification Schedule.
Daedeok Innopolis
Daedeok Innopolis, formally known as the Daedeok Science Park, is a cluster of institutions in research and development of technology located in Daedeok Valley in northern Daejeon. The cluster is built around KAIST, Chungnam National University, a group of government research institutes in applied technologies, corporate research centers and more than 1,000 venture companies.
Research
Seven KAIST Institutes (KIs) have been set up: the KI for the BioCentury, the KI for Information Technology Convergence, the KI for the Design of Complex Systems, the KI for Entertainment Engineering, the KI for the NanoCentury, the KI for Eco-Energy, and the KI for Urban Space and Systems. Each KI is operated as an independent research center at the level of a college, receiving support in terms of finance and facilities. In terms of ownership of intellectual property rights, KAIST holds 2,694 domestic patents and 723 international patents so far.
Electric vehicles
Researchers at KAIST have developed an electric transport system called Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV), where the vehicles get their power from cables underneath the surface of the road via non-contact magnetic charging (a power source is placed underneath the road surface and power is wirelessly picked up on the vehicle itself). As a possible solution to traffic congestion and to improve overall efficiency by minimizing air resistance and so reduce energy consumption, the test vehicles followed the power track in a convoy. In July 2009 the researchers successfully supplied up to 60% power to a bus over a gap of 12 cm (4.7 in) from a power line embedded in the ground using power supply and pick up technology developed in-house.
Academic rankings
In 2015 Thomson Reuters named KAIST the tenth most innovative institution in the world. In 2013/14 QS World University Rankings ranked KAIST 60th overall in the world and 12th within Asia, coming 16th in Material Sciences and 24th in Engineering and Technology. In the 2009 THE-QS World University Rankings (in 2010 Times Higher Education World University Rankings and QS World University Rankings parted ways to produce separate rankings) for Engineering & IT, the University was placed 21st in the world and 1st in Korea and was placed 69th overall. KAIST was again recognized as a number one University in Korea by JoongAng Ilbo Review. In the year of 2009, KAIST's department of industrial design has also been listed in the top 30 Design Schools by Business Week. KAIST ranked the best university in Republic of Korea and the 7th university in Asia in the Top 100 Asian Universities list, the first regional ranking issued by THE-QS World Rankings.
Times Higher Education ranked KAIST the 3rd best university in the world under the age of 50 years in its 2015 league table.