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A Club of Department of Information and Communication Engineering was selected by Samsung Electronics as one of the 'Samsung Software Friendship'. Samsung Electronics placed a premium on the club’s 'Wireless communication emergency broadcast' idea, and would fund for club materials and activity support for a year. [July 3, 2014] YU (President Noh Seok-kyun) academic clubs will receive sponsorships from Samsung Electronics. The Department of Information and Communication Engineering's network programming academic club 'How To' was selected for the 'Samsung Software Friendship' club. 'Samsung Software Friendship' is a program that finds and excellent software R&D clubs and fund their activities in order to foster excellent R&D human resources of the future by Samsung Electronics and Samsung Software Membership. Clubs are selected through contests every year for college clubs around the nation. In this year's contest, 200 clubs that passed the initial document review of college clubs around the nation that submitted their club activity goal and plans participated in presentation reviews. Final presentation reviews were conducted by regions, and finally, a total of 25 clubs were selected in June through on-site evaluations and club member interviews. 'How To' club will receive a total of 8 million won including 5 million won for materials expenses and 3 million won for activity funding by Samsung Electronics for one year. 'How To' proposed a 'wireless emergency broadcast' system and received good reviews from judges. The 'wireless communication emergency broadcast system' installs wireless communication equipment in areas with high risks of emergencies such as in seas, mountain regions and high-rise buildings so that if anyone uses the equipment to request rescue, it is transmitted to rescue agencies immediately through a specific wireless frequency. This allows quick and multiple requests on emergencies even if the witness or person in the disaster has no other wireless or wired communication tools. Kim Jae-bong (23), a junior who is the vice-president of the club, said, "We have witnessed emergencies occurring, but unable to transmit the situation properly resulting in huge damages, such as the Saewol ferry incident." He added, "If a person who becomes aware of the incident uses the emergency broadcast equipment and send it to multiple rescue agencies simultaneously, we thought that it could help prevent bigger damages by taking preemptive actions." Club members said, "The wireless communication emergency broadcast is just an idea for now," and added, "When we receive the funds, we plan to conduct research on configuration potential, practicality, and expandability." 'How To' was first made in 1998 and is a large club made up of 70 information and communication engineering students who look at problems on 'how to' solve them. This club not only holds study groups for students, but also cooperates with the Department of Information and Communication Engineering and the next-generation networking research lab (advisor Kim Young-tak) to carry out various projects including research on practical technologies. The president of the club, Seo Gyu-baek (23), said, "How To is not a place just to socialize, but an academic club interested in network programming," and added, "Our club provides education on our major, as well as foreign language studies to help prepare students to find jobs in the future, which led many of our seniors to enter conglomerates despite the difficult job market."
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Selected for the 'DREAM Software Human Resource Fostering Project', a college specialization program of the Ministry of Education Selected for Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning's 'Seoul Accord Promotion Support Project' 1,050,000,000 won in national funding in 2014 and total of 4.3 billion won for the next five years [July 3, 2014] The Department of Computer Engineering was selected for national funding support projects back-to-back. They attracted approximately 1,050,000,000 won for just this year and will receive a total of 4.3 billion won for the next five years in national funding. First, according to the college specialization project selection results announced by the Ministry of Education on the 30th, YU was selected for 8 project teams and procured the largest national funding in the nation. The 'DREAM Software Human Resources Fostering Project' of the Department of Computer Engineering' will receive a total of over 4 billion won over the next five years, starting with 820 million won this year. The Department of Electrical Engineering will also participate in this project to pursue software human resources fostering projects in the robot, energy, automobile, medical and green sectors. Professor Kwak Jong-wook (Department of Computer Engineering), who is leading the DREAM Software Human Resources Fostering Project Team, said, "Operating education programs that ensure employment by linking with the regional specialization industries to foster software convergence human resources is what this project is all about." He added, "While focusing on fostering IT convergence software experts with creative problem-solving skills, we will use the 'quality of job index' in the project team's self-evaluation index to construct a high quality teaching-learning environment that takes into consideration not only employment rates, but also the quality of employment, in our quest to become the IT specialized department that represents the Daegu and Gyeongbuk region." On the 2nd, YU was also selected for the 'Seoul Accord Promotion Support Project' by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency. The universities selected this year were five four-year university IT departments around the nation including YU and Handong University in the Daegu and Gyeongbuk regions. Accordingly, the Department of Computer Engineering will receive 220 million won in funding for one year from July and is planning to carry out various educational and R&D projects in connection with the local IT industry. For this project, 13 professors and 70 junior sand seniors in the Department of Computer Engineering will comprise a total of 17 teams, while IT experts from 12 local companies will also participate as mentors to provide practical consulting. Professor Kim Jong-geun (Department of Computer Engineering) who will supervise the project said, "We will construct an industry-academic educational curriculum and research system aiming at developing IT technologies related to the major industries of the region, while fostering creative and practical IT experts fitting to the convergence age." He also added, "In particular, we will resolve the issue with mismatching of IT human resources supply and demand to become a success model in which local industries and universities can have a win-win relationship." The 'Seoul Accord' is the first-ever international agreement among countries that mutually guarantee graduates of computer and IT majors in four year universities to permit them to freely gain jobs in the participating member nations. There are currently eight countries that are members of this since the 'Seoul Accord' in 2007 such as Korea, USA, England and Japan. The 'Seoul Accord Promotion Support Project' aims at responding to industrial demand through IT education innovation in link with the Seoul Accord and to pursue improvements in university programs such as strengthening IT major capacities, professor evaluation, and undergraduate management with the goal of fostering world-class IT experts who completed their bachelor's program.
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Professor Park Yong-wan's team wins 'Best Poster Paper Award' in the 11th International Conference on Information Technology-New Generation(ITNG 2014), held in Las Vegas, USA. The team proposes 'a new conceptual path generation technology for unmanned automobile' to avoid obstacles. [July 2, 2014] <Professor Park Yong-wan (left) research team (From left to right on bottom - researchers Kang Min-sung and Heo Su-jeong)> ‘When will the age of unmanned vehicles seen in films come?’ Recently, a YU research team presented a new technology that has high possibility for application in future unmanned vehicles at 'The 11th International Conference on Information Technology – New Generation, ‘ITNG 2014’)’ and received the ‘Best Poster Paper Award’. The winners were Department of Information and Communication Engineering Professor Park Yong-wan (54) and researchers Heo Su-jeong (37, PhD) and Kang Min-sung (24, master's). 'ITNG 2014', which was held from April 7 to April 9 in Las Vegas, USA, is an international academic conference on information technology and computers. It is held annually sponsored by IEEE Computer Society, which has the largest organization and number of members under the American IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. At the ITNG, papers with excellent research performance are selected every year to give the Best Poster Paper Award. At 'ITNG 2014', 425 corresponding and computer-related papers were submitted and 110 were selected for presentation. Among them, Professor Park Yong-wan's research team received the honor of the 'Best Poster Paper Award' of 2014. The topic of Professor Park's research team was 'Creating Path of Automatically Driven Automobiles based on Sensor Convergence'. The research team proposed a path creation algorithm that can safely drive by avoiding obstacles by accurately and quickly resetting paths to avoid obstacles in the event that such obstacles occur when a self-driven automobile is driving. The key to the technology for self-driven automobiles is to identify the surrounding environment to generate paths. Normally, expensive 3D laser scanners are used to identify the surrounding environment and to generate paths. However, in Professor Park's team's paper, relatively cheaper 2D laser scanners and cameras were used instead of the expensive 3D laser scanner to converge data and create paths. The research team said, "Real-time data processing and quick path generation for self-driven vehicles is directly tied to the safety of the driver. The core of this study was to configure real-time vehicle driving by extracting only the key data from the 2D laser scanner and camera," while adding, "When comparing to the existing technology that utilizes expensive sensors, there is very little difference in performance when using just 5% of the cost, and it is also 3 times faster in terms of processing speed." The award to the research team is receiving a great deal of attention as it was a research paper by an information and communication engineering major, instead of an automobile engineering major who studies unmanned self-driven vehicles. The research team said, "Noticing the change of the automobile paradigm and focusing on the roles of information communication technologies since 2007 to continuously research unmanned self-driven vehicles led to this award," while adding, "The technology that we proposed here will not only be applied simply for unmanned self-driven automobiles, but by integrating technologies and improving performance to make it more compact, it can help with the visually impaired for walking, and there are very many ways to utilize this technology." Meanwhile, this award is scheduled to be given at the 'ITNG 2015' that will be held in Las Vegas in April of 2015.
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MOU signed on 28th to share 'Saemaul Undong and Rural Development for Ethiopia' Hand over Saemaul Undong by YU on 2 sessions with the governor of Amhara in Ethiopia Foster Saemaul leaders for global co-prosperity and achieve global social contribution activity achievements [June 29, 2014] YU (President Noh Seok-kyun) will begin full-fledged spreading of the Saemaul Undong and Saemaul spirit in Ethiopia. At the 19th floor of the YU Central Library on the 28th, the YU International Development Cooperation Center (Director Choi Oe Chool) and the governor of Amhara signed an MOU to establish Saemaul Undong in Ethiopa and to cooperate in rural development. This MOU was made through the request of Ethiopian Amhara Governor Gedu Andaregachew Alene (50) who visited YU to develop Ethiopia's rural level, which is still at the level of the 1960s in Korea, like that of current Korea. He came to learn the countless trial-and-errors and knowhow compiled while overcoming many difficulties during the course of Korea's Saemaul Undong, rural development policies and development processes. With this agreement, YU share the university's capacities such as technical business support for agricultural education and rural development, research and education program support to share the Saemaul Undong and economic development experience, consulting for establishing Saemaul college, and cooperation for the global Saemaul forum. Amhara Province of Ethiopia agreed to provide full cooperation from the provincial government so that the 'Ethiopia Saemaul Undong' can take root. Governor Alene's delegation visited YU to learn the Saemaul Undong from the 20th to the 29th. This agreement, which was carried out together with the training completion ceremony, is the will of Ethiopia to be continuously handed down the experience and knowledge of the Saemaul Undong, Saemaul spirit and rural development from YU, rather than making their visit to YU just a one-time event. Prior to Governor Alene's visit, high ranking public officials including Alemnew Mekonnen Wolde (42), of the Central Committee of the Ethiopian ruling party visited YU as the first Saemaul training team from June 8 to 18, and the first team also requested cooperation from YU. The delegation from Ethiopia learned Korea's knowhow in various fields of rural development such as the history and achievements of the Saemaul Undong, economical development through the Saemaul Undong, Saemaul Undong and rural development, agricultural technology development, and finding income outside of agriculture. The delegations also had field trips to various research institutes and industrial complexes such as the Gyeongsangbuk-do Agricultural Research & Extension Services, Yeongcheon Agricultural Technology & Extension Center, Samsung Electronics, and POSCO. Furthermore, they visited grape and cattle farms, the Cheongdo Saemaul Undong Memorial Hall, and the Pohang Sabang Memorial Park to see for their selves the traces of the Saemaul Undong and the success cases of forestation projects pursued by the Korean government in the 1970s. Goveror Alene said, "I was surprised seeing the achievements of the Saemaul Undong and the development of Korea during my training period," and added, "I will do my best to take what I learned here and apply them to Amhara, so I ask that YU to continuously share their knowledge and experiences with us." In response, YU International Development Cooperation Center director Choi Oe Chool said, "If the past 50 years was a time of opportunity for Korea, the next 50 years will be a very important time for our two countries, especially for Ahmara and YU." He added, "Since we have seen the intent to learn and practice the Saemaul Undong by the Ahmara provincial government of Ethiopia through their two visits to learn Saemaul and our MOU, we will do our best to help Saemaul Undong to take root in Ethiopia and contribute to the development of not only Ahmara through rural development, but also for the development of YU."
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College of Pharmacy Professor Chang Hyun-wook suggests possibility of development of new drugs for metabolism and allergy diseases Published in online version of <Allergy and Clinical Immunology>, the world's top journal in allergies [June 24, 2014] College of Pharmacy Professor Chang Hyun-wook (62) accelerated the possibility of developing a new drug that can simultaneously treat metabolism related diseases and allergy related diseases for the first time in the world. In 2013, Professor Chang scientifically proved through that by artificially activating 'AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase), a signal protein for maintaining body energy homeostasis, it is possible to simultaneously treat allergy diseases as well as metabolism diseases simultaneously through experimentations on rats. Professor Chang's research was the first in the world to reveal that AMPK activation can treat metabolism diseases such as diabetes, obesity and fatty liver, while also simultaneously suppressing allergic and inflammation reactions. Through follow-up research Professor Chang confirmed that AMPK and the signal controlling phosphorylation enzyme ERK1 and 2 (extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2) restricted mutual activation. Through fatty cells, which are the main cells that cause allergies, and animal tests, Professor Chang became the first in the world to reveal that ERK1 and 2 and AMPK cancels out each other's effects to control generation of allergy and inflammation causing substances. When fatty cells are activated, ERK 1 and 2 moves the AMPK in the cytoplasm to the nucleus so that it cannot function, to promote generation of mediums that cause allergies and inflammation. He discovered that on the flip side, when ERK 1 and 2 are suppressed, the AMPK comes out of the nucleus to the cytoplasm to suppress allergy causing substances. Again after 2013, the research results were published in the world's top SCI journal in the allergy field <Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI, Impact Factor 12.05)> published by the American Academy of Asthma and Immunology's June 17 online version. This research was very significant in that it provided a cornerstone for developing new allergy treatment. Clinical allergy treatments used currently are normally chemicals that suppress generation such as histamine receptor antagonist, histamine allergy suppressing drugs, lipid medium and inflammatory cytokine. These drugs can relieve allergy symptoms, but is accompanied with various side effects, and therefore, discovery of new control paths have been necessary in order to develop more fundamental allergy treatment. Professor Chang said, "The achievement of this study is that it was confirmed that when AMPK is artificially activated in fatty cells, activation of ERK 1 and 2 can be suppressed." He added, "Because artificial activation of AMPK can be connected to type 2 diabetes and obesity treatment, depending on the research results, it can be used as important basic data needed for developing new drugs that can simultaneously treat metabolism-related diseases and allergy diseases." Meanwhile, this study was carried out with funding by the senior researcher support program (core research) pursued by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and the National Research Foundation.
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YU concluded an MOU with Beagle, a health and fitness app development company. Through this MOU, YU will start the 'Challenge 1,000' project to enhance confidence and employment capacities of students. through the health management. [June 19, 2014] YU (President Noh Seok-kyun) will pursue the 'Challenge 1,000' project to enhance confidence and employment capacities through the health management of students. This project was organized to foster human resources with great self-managing abilities by systematically helping the health management of students by the school. The ‘Challenge 1,000’ project is a program where students select from running and hiking and completing their 1,000km goal within the four years at school. A semester-program from completing 100km will be carried out simultaneously. Students who meet their goals will be given the 'Challenger 1,000' certificate ('Challenger 100' for semester programs) and students who rank first to third place in each field will be given cash prizes of 200,000 to 1,000,000 won. For the success of this project, YU signed an MOU with Beagle (CEO Chang Chi-guk), health and fitness app development company at 3 p.m. on the 19th. YU agreed to operate the 'Cheonma Challenge 1,000 Club' to promote health and fitness of students using 'Triangle GPS', a game-based health and fitness service offered by Beagle. With this MOU, YU students can join membership through the YU banner at the Beagle event homepage (http://event.tranggle.com) or download the Beagle's online mobile app 'Triangle GPS' to join ‘Cheonma Challenge 1,000 Club’ for use. All students have to do is run the 'Triangle GPS' app on their smart phone prior to exercising, select the type of exercise, and then press End after they complete their workout to save and upload the data. The running and hiking data registered by students are managed by the YU Health Management Center (Director Doh Joon-young) after being received by Beagle. The exercise records and achievements of students can be searched using their smart phone app at any time and the overall ranking per exercise is available on the Beagle homepage. YU President Noh Seok-kyun said, "There is an Arabian proverb that says, a healthy person has all hopes and a person with hopes achieves all dreams." He added, "I hope that through this program students will become a Y-type human resource filled with a challenging spirit and passions to increase their confidence not only through studies, but also via thorough health management." Meanwhile, the 'Challenge 1,000' project will be test operated during the second semester of 2014 and launch officially in the first semester of 2015.
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Professor Cho Gyeong-hyeon's research team scientifically explains 'dangers of trans fat' Published in international academic journal in the top 3% in the nutritional biochemistry and molecular nutritional science fields Expected to be used as basic data to establish food safety management standards and recommended daily consumption standards [June 18, 2014] "Exactly how and where is trans fat harmful?" The School of Biotechnology's Professor Cho Gyeong-hyeon research team found clues on the harms of trans fat, which was just vaguely known to be harmful. Professor Cho's team proved that trans fat lowers the function of high density lipoproteins (HDL) causing cell toxicity and blood vessel toxicity. HDL, which is known to be the 'blood vessel cleaner' that removes wastes piled inside the vessels, was found to be transformed by trans fat and due to this, HDL is unable to perform its functions. Trans fat is a solid fat made by adding hydrogen to unsaturated fatty acid in the liquid state. It is easy to store and improves tastes, and is thus used for long-term preserved foods and instant foods. They are commonly used in fried processed foods such as cookies, doughnuts, chicken and popcorn. Excessive consumption can lead to diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, breast cancer and colon cancer, and can increase risk of deformities. However, the exact cause of disease and the reason for its toxicities have not yet been revealed. The research team used zebra fish (carp that has similar genetic structures with humans and lays hundreds of eggs making it suitable for mass genetic function research and for verification of new drugs and toxicities) to discover that trans fat transforms serum HDL (high density lipid). Moreover, the research team found in zebra fish that consumed trans fat for 20 weeks that consumption of trans fat worsened fatty liver and liver inflammation, while also causing skin cell aging, embryo poisoning and developmental disabilities. Professor Cho Gyeong-hyeon explained the reason for research saying, "We started this research thinking that it is important to reveal exactly how trans fat is harmful since many people enjoy eating trans fat despite knowing that it is unhealthy," and added, "The achievement of this study is that it revealed that trans fat causes not only cardiovascular poisoning, but is also toxic for skin, embryo and fatty liver." He also stated, "We hope that the results of this study will be used as basic data to provide food safety management standards or daily recommended amounts by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety." This research, which was carried out with the support of the BK21 Plus Project and general researcher support project hosted by the Ministry of Environment and the senior researcher support project pursued by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, was published in the May 26 online issue of <Molecular Nutrition & Food Research (IF; impact factor 4.310), an international academic journal in the top 3% in the nutrition biochemistry and molecular nutrition field. The primary author of this research paper was researcher Park Gi-hoon (25), who was in the first batch of students of the YU School of Biotechnology and currently enrolled in a combined master's and PhD course, while Professor Cho participated as a corresponding author. Earlier, Professor Cho's research team became the first in the world to explain that smoking promotes skin aging. The research team published in the May 2014 issue of <Toxicological Science (IF 4.328)>, an international academic journal on toxicology, that the high density lipids (HDL) transformation of young smokers was similar to the transformation in serum of senior citizens in their 70s, thus scientifically proving that such HDL transformation promotes skin cell aging.
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Professor Lee Mun-yong's research team was recognized for their energy efficiency innovation technology at the 'EU-Russia Innovation Forum', being awarded consecutively at world prominent process design contests since 2013 [April 18, 2014] <School of Chemical Engineering Lee Moon-yong (left) and Harvianto currently in PhD program> YU Graduate School of Chemical Engineering Professor Lee Moon-yong (54) and his research team once again made the astonishing feat of announcing his research capacities to the world. The YU Graduate School of Chemical Engineering Process System Design and Control Research Team (advisor Lee Moon-yong) was awarded at the '2014 Green Innovation Contest' hosted by the 'EU-Russian Innovation Forum'. The '2014 Green Innovation Contest' accepted innovative ideas and technologies from around the world in the energy efficiency, clean technologies and green smart city sectors for green growth. They select the top five teams in recognition of their technological superiority for awards. This event, which was held under the theme 'Sustainable Green Growth Economy', was joined by a total of 38 teams from companies, universities and research centers and competed fiercely. In result, Professor Lee's research team was selected as a winning team with 'Industrial energy efficiency improvement technologies through advanced vapor technologies' and was invited to the '4th EU-Russia Innovation Forum' held in Lappeenranta, Finland that was held from the 4th to the 6th. Professor Lee's team was represented by Gregorius Rionugroho Harvianto (23, 1st term in PhD program) originally from Indonesia who is in his doctorates program at YU to present the research team's energy efficiency innovation technology and receive the award. Meanwhile, the YU Graduate School of Chemical Engineering and the Process System Design and Control Research Lab were awarded for the second consecutive year in world-acclaimed process design contests, thus being globally recognized for their research capacities in the process sector. At the 'Huntsman Design Contest' held as part of the '9th European Congress of Chemical Engineering' at the Hague, in the Netherlands held in April, Yus Donarld CHANIAGO (33, received PhD) and Riezqa ANDIKA (24, 4th term in combined master's PhD program) of this research lab won the bronze medal. At the 'Asia-Pacific UnISim Design Contest' hosted by Honeywell in August, Khan Mohd Shariq (29, PhD) won first place.
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14 Member Group including Vice Prime Minister of Cambodia and Vice Ministers of major ministries visit YU YU visualizes achievements in fostering leaders and social contribution activities for global joint prosperity [June 17, 2014] The Cambodian government visited YU. They came to learn about the Saemaul Undong and Saemaul spirit that provided the cornerstone for the astonishing development of Korea. In the morning of the 16th, YU (President Noh Seok-kyun) greeted a 14 member group composed of Cambodian vice prime minister and chairman of the agricultural/rural development committee Yim Chhayly (64), and vice ministers of major government ministries of Cambodia such as the rural development ministry, education ministry, and public projects and transportation ministry. Vice Prime Minister Yim Chhayly said, "We came to YU to learn the Saemaul Undong that made Korea's miraculous economic growth possible," and added, "We ask that YU passes on the academic knowledge and experience of the Saemaul Undong and Saemaul spirit to Cambodia." YU responded by saying, "YU has played a pioneering role in the academic positioning of the Saemaul Undong," while adding, "We will do our best to integrate the Saemaul Undong to the cultures and environments of Cambodia to help with their development." Following this at the 3rd floor main conference room of YU, YU International Development Center Director Choi Oe Chool held a special lecture on 'Korea's Saemaul Undong Experience and Implications'. At the special lecture, Choi said, "The success of the Saemaul Undong lies with the political philosophy of leaders, national consensus, and consistent policies," while emphasizing, "Taking this into consideration, the roles of those who are visiting YU today are very crucial." After the special lecture, Vice Prime Minister Yim passed on a special message by Prime Minister Hun Sen. It was a request to provide advice for the establishment and operation of the 'Saemaul College' (tentative name) that the Cambodian government is pursuing and to make a visit to Cambodia in the near future. Director Choi visited Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in January and discussed cooperation plans for the localization of the Saemaul Undong and Saemaul spirit. Director Choi and Prime Minister Hun Sen agreed that it is important for leaders and the people to share political philosophies for the success of the Saemaul Undong and agreed to have YU and the Cambodian government continuously cooperate so that the Cambodia-customized Saemaul Undong can take root not only in the government, but private sectors as well. Following the special lecture, the Cambodian delegation held a meeting with foreign students studying Saemaul at the YU Park Chung Hee School of Policy and Saemaul (hereinafter called 'Saemaul School') and shared opinions about the localization of the Saemaul Undong. At this meeting, two students from Cambodia studying at the Saemaul School attended to hold in-depth discussions with their vice prime-minister's delegation. Pheap Chakriya (28), who studied computer engineering at Phnom Penh University and worked as a manager at an agricultural and rural development company in Cambodia from 2010 to 2013 and entered the YU Saemaul School master's degree program (major in public policy and leadership), said, "I'm very happy to see key figures from my home's government visiting YU showing interest in the Saemaul Undong especially since I am an international student learning Saemaul in Korea," and added, "Since government figures of Cambodia are interested and are willing to take part in the Saemaul Undong, I hope to go back home and take what I learn from YU and integrate it in my work to start the Saemaul Undong in Cambodia." Meanwhile, in June of last year, YU was selected as an international cooperation leading university and will receive 1.6 billion won over the next four years in national funding to export the Saemaul Undong and Saemaul science overseas. From April of this year, they were selected for the master's degree program operating institute for the 'leader and faculty fostering project for regional development of emerging countries' from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). Thus, YU will receive a total of 3.6 billion won for the next three years and educate 36 public officials, workers and faculty of emerging countries every year (108 over 3 years) as they play a leading role in fostering global leaders and social contribution activities for global co-prosperity.
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Professor Cho Gyeong-hyeon’s research team(School of Biotechnology) presents scientific evidence on 'Skin Aging accelerated by Smoking' for the first time in the world. The team finds out that blood proteins of smoker in 20s are distorted and shrunken like ones in their 70s. The research thesis is published in international academic journal ranked top 9% in the field of toxicological sciences. [Jun 11, 2014] <School of Biotechnology Professor Cho Gyeong-hyeon (right) and Researcher Park Gi-hoon> “Is it really true that smokers age faster than non-smokers? Why do smokers look older?" The scientific answer on this was revealed for the first time by a research team at a Korean university. School of Biotechnology Professor Cho Gyeong-hyeon (45) (BK21 Plus Blood Serum Bio Medical Project Team Director) and his research team announced their research results that scientifically proved that transformation of high density lipoprotein (HDL) of smokers progressed similar to that which occur in the blood serum of the elderly in their 70s, and thus such HDL transformation accelerated aging of skin cells. Such research results were published in the May 2014 issue of the international academic journal <Toxicological Sciences> (impact factor (IF) 4.328), which is in the top 9% in the toxicology field. Furthermore, the 'smoking assessment method using lipoprotein' to identify smokers and the amount of smoking developed during the course of this study was applied for a patent in August of last year. <Old cell dyed in green (photo on right)> Professor Cho's research team that conducted this study for two years as part of the YU school fund support project made comparative analyses on the blood serum proteins of smokers and non-smokers in their 20s to scientifically explain the correlation of smoking and skin aging. Upon making tests on 20 smokers of the age of 24 who smoked less than 10 cigarettes a day for at least three years and 20 non-smokers of the same age, it was found that there was considerably higher oxidation and saccharification in all lipoproteins of smokers. In particular, despite the smokers being in their early 20s, there was a large decrease in HDL, which maintains youth and health in blood serum protein, while the size of cholesterol within the HDL also decreased considerably. Furthermore, it was discovered that a core protein (apoA-I protein) that makes up HDL was broken and transformed. Such transformation was found to be at similar levels as that of the blood serum of senior citizens in their 70s. In order to examine the effects of the HDL transformation within the blood serum of smokers on the skin cells of people, the research team treated the skin fiber cell with concentrations equal to the oxidation and saccharification that occurs in the lipoproteins of smokers. In result, it was confirmed that the HDL of smokers accelerated skin cell aging. In addition, because the transformed HDL due to smoking lost its true functions, the research team found that there was higher potential for vascular metabolism diseases such as atherosclerosis and diabetes. <HDL of smokers (right) and non-smokers observed through an electron microscope> On such research results, Professor Cho Gyeong-hyeon said, "Not only for the so-called 'chain smokers', but by smoking just ten cigarettes a day for three years, this shows that transformation of blood serum proteins like that of an elderly in their 70s occurs," and added, "This shows that smoking even a small amount can increase risks of vascular metabolism diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer's and myocardial infarction, in addition to the promoting of skin aging. We are also planning to conduct research on damages to second-hand smokers." Meanwhile, the primary author of this paper is researcher Park Gi-hoon (25), one of the first students of the YU School of Biotechnology, who is currently in a combined master's and PhD program (7th). When he was a senior as an undergraduate in December 2008, he made news by publishing a thesis as the primary author in an SCI-level international academic journal and accrued expertise through the undergraduate and graduate school programs at the YU School of Biotechnology for the past decade. His advisor, Professor Cho Gyeong-hyeon said, "I would like to thank Gi-hoon and the other researchers who proved that the location you are in cannot hold you back."
