블로그

Joonhyuk Shin, a Ph.D. student at POSTECH’s Department of Electrical Engineering (first author, advisor: Prof. Sooseok Choi), received the Best Paper Presentation Award at the 2024 Korean Polymer Society conference for his paper titled “Strategic Designs for Strain Control Using Mechanochromism.”

This research addresses the issue of unavoidable non-uniform strain in stretchable electronic devices by using kirigami cuts and rigid plates to create a uniform strain distribution. To measure the strain, the study employed flexible and stretchable chiral liquid crystal elastomers that enable optical sensing through color changes. Additionally, by adjusting the gap between the rigid plates, the design reflects only the desired wavelength of light, leading to the development of a flexible photonic device. The findings of this research hold great promise for the application of uniform strain control in stretchable devices, with potential implications in the field of optical/electronic devices.

The research was supported by the Samsung Future Technology Foundation and the Display Innovation Process Program of the Industrial Technology Evaluation and Research Institute.

Seungmin Nam, a postdoctoral researcher at POSTECH’s Department of Electrical Engineering (first author, advisor: Prof. Sooseok Choi), received the Encouragement Award at the 2024 Fall Conference of the Korean Polymer Society for his paper titled “Bidirectional Wavelength Tuning in Stretchable Chiral Liquid Crystal Elastomers using Multi-modal Soft Actuators.”

This research combines nano-rotational structural materials with electric-active polymers to develop flexible actuators that can freely adjust the structural color wavelength and position of nanostructures in both directions. By overcoming the limitations of traditional unidirectional wavelength tuning, this technology enables flexible and stretchable photonic devices that can change color freely across a wide visible range (450-650nm) in both short and long wavelength directions. This significant improvement in wavelength control capabilities offers potential applications in a wide range of fields, including displays, optical sensors, optical camouflage, biomimetic sensors, smart wearable devices, and broadband color and electromagnetic applications.

The research was supported by the Samsung Future Technology Foundation and Samsung Electronics.

Professor Seokhyeong Kang from POSTECH’s Department of Electrical Engineering has been selected for the “Google Silicon Research Program” and has secured an unrestricted gift funding of USD $30,000. This gift fund will support his research team’s development of open-source semiconductor design automation software.

The program is awarded annually through a competitive selection process to outstanding research groups in the semiconductor design field worldwide, and Professor Kang’s team has been selected for the second consecutive year. Through this program, Jaekyung Lim, a student in the Integrated Program, will receive research support and computing resources from the Google Silicon team for their work on semiconductor design placement optimization software.

Professor Youngju Lee from POSTECH’s Department of Electrical Engineering has been selected as the Secretary of the Circuits and Systems for Communications (CASCOM) Technical Committee (TC) of the IEEE Circuits and Systems (CAS) Society.

CASCOM TC oversees advancements in analog and digital circuit design to improve the quality of both wired and wireless communications, with over 100 experts participating from around the world. Recently, the committee has expanded its research scope to include IoT sensor networks, cryptography/security signal processing, and AI-based communication signal processing, offering new perspectives on hardware design for communication systems.

Professor Lee was recognized for his global achievements in digital baseband signal processing and error correction coding hardware design for wireless and wireline communication systems. He has been elected as the TC Secretary for 2025-2026, followed by the roles of TC Chair-Elect in 2027-2028 and TC Chair in 2029-2030. His leadership is expected to guide the future direction of circuit design for communications, particularly in integrating new design technologies, and drive the development of digital system semiconductor design capabilities in Korea.

Professor Yosep Jeon from POSTECH’s Department of Electrical Engineering has been appointed as an Associate Editor for IEEE Wireless Communications Letters (IEEE WCL), one of the leading journals in the field of communications. IEEE WCL is recognized as an excellent journal, ranking in the top 17.6% of all electronics and electrical engineering journals (IF=6.3, according to the 2022 JCR).

In addition to his new role at IEEE WCL, Professor Jeon was recently appointed as an editor for the Journal of Communications and Networks (JCN) (IF=3.6, according to the 2022 JCR). At both IEEE WCL and JCN, he will be reviewing papers related to next-generation wireless communication technologies and AI-based wireless communication technologies.

Jiyoon Park, a Ph.D. student at POSTECH’s Department of Electrical Engineering (first author, advisor: Prof. Sooseok Choi), received the Best Paper Award at the prestigious International Meeting on Information Display (IMID 2024) for her paper titled “Advanced Multiform Shape Bendings for Deformable Devices Using Piezoelectric Actuators.”

This research developed thin, flexible actuators based on piezoelectric polymers, which convert electrical energy into mechanical energy. The technology enables both shape deformation and sound generation in response to electrical signals. Unlike traditional bendable display technologies that rely on applying physical force to deform flexible display panels, this approach uses thin, flexible film actuators that react to electrical signals, significantly improving the potential for real-world applications in flexible electronic devices.

The findings of this study open up possibilities for next-generation displays, wearable devices, and other electronic applications. The research was supported by LG Display’s business initiative and the Industrial Technology Evaluation and Display Innovation Process Program.

Seungmin Nam, a postdoctoral researcher at POSTECH’s Department of Electrical Engineering (first author, advisor: Prof. Sooseok Choi), received the Best Paper Award at the prestigious International Meeting on Information Display (IMID 2024) for his paper titled “Bidirectional Wavelength Tunable Structural Color using Stretchable Chiral Photonic Elastomers on Multi-Modal Soft Actuators.”

This research demonstrates a technology that enables bidirectional tuning of color wavelengths by freely changing the length of nanostructures using flexible and stretchable chiral liquid crystal elastomers and dielectric elastomer actuators. Unlike previous nanostructure color technologies, which were limited to unidirectional tuning, this approach allows for flexible control over both short and long wavelengths, offering great potential for real-world applications in flexible photonic devices.

The outcomes of this research have significant implications for various optical/electronic device fields, including displays, image sensors, and biomedical devices, and are expected to have a substantial technological impact.

Kyungjun Min, Seonghyun Park (Integrated Program), and Hyunwoo Park (Master’s Program), students under the supervision of Professor Seokhyeong Kang at POSTECH’s Department of Electrical Engineering, received the “2024 ISOCC Best Poster Award” at the 21st International SoC Conference (ISOCC 2024) held in Sapporo, Japan, from August 19 to August 22, 2024.

Their research, titled VeriLogos, utilizes a large language model (LLM) to generate Verilog RTL code that is both grammatically and functionally accurate, as well as optimized for Post-Synthesis PPA (Power, Performance, Area) metrics. VeriLogos helps reduce errors when humans write code, accelerates the design process, and lowers the entry barriers for Verilog HDL coding, making it a valuable contribution. The excellence of this research earned them the award.

Junho Jeong, a student in the Integrated Program at POSTECH’s Department of Electrical Engineering (advisor: Prof. Kyungtae Kim), received the “Best Paper Award” at the 2024 Summer Conference hosted by the Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science (KIEES) for his paper titled “A Study on Digit Recognition in Air-Writing Using Single CW Radar System.”

The paper proposed a method for tracking hand movements in space using a single Continuous Wave (CW) radar system to recognize various inputs. The study developed a robust filter against noise in indoor environments to effectively track Doppler and azimuth components, while using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model to recognize the digits. The paper was highly praised for demonstrating that the model could be trained using an existing handwritten dataset without radar-acquired training data, thanks to a series of signal processing steps before training the CNN model. Additionally, the use of a single frequency CW radar, rather than a high-bandwidth FMCW radar, significantly reduced the system cost, earning the recognition for this achievement.

Hyundong Kim (Master’s Program), Mingon Cho, and Inhyuk Lee (Ph.D. Program), students under the supervision of Professor Kyungtae Kim at POSTECH’s Department of Electrical Engineering, presented a paper titled “Research on High-Angle Target Estimation in Maritime Environments Using Passive Radar” at the 2024 Summer Conference hosted by the Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science (KIEES). Their presentation was awarded the “IEEE GRSS Seoul Chapter Chair Award.”

The paper proposed a new algorithm combining the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm and monostatic radar signal processing using three receivers. The research was highly praised for its ability to estimate the angle of a target with high accuracy while minimizing the impact of reflected and scattered signals in a maritime environment, where only radar signals are received.