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In the morning on July 12, the Korea Robot Industry Promotion Institute held an opening ceremony at the IT Fusion Industrial Building in the Daegu Technopark in Daegu City.
At the opening ceremony, over 400 people from the industry, academia, research institutes, and the government attended. They included the Minister of Knowledge Economy Choi Kyung-hwan, the Grand National Party Assemblyman Lee Myung-Gyu, and the Mayor of Daegu City Kim Bum-il. Diverse high-tech robots were fully mobilized, congratulating the first step of the robot promotion institute. The first President of the Korea Robot Industry Promotion Institute Ju Duk-young will lead the organization for the next three years.
The Korea Robot Industry Promotion Institute is a foundation that the government has established with the purpose of promoting the nation’s robot industry according to “The law for promoting the development and supply of intelligent robots.” The Ministry of Knowledge Economy, which is in charge, has paid attention to the growth possibility of the robot industry. It has been unfolding an active fostering policy, including the creation of a department that is in exclusive charge in 2005.
The institute will conduct researches on the formulation of policies and the direction for development of robots. Also, it will comprehensively manage the support projects for the technological development related to robot production, international joint researches, and the entry into overseas market
New Beijing Center Completes LS Industrial Systems’ R&D Portfolio for China
LS Industrial Systems held an opening ceremony of its research and development center in Beijing which was attended by Koo Ja-kyun, Vice President and other executives and employees on July 8. The LS Beijing R&D center will be involved in high-voltage gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) and high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission systems making the company the only foreign-invested entity with an R&D capability of electric equipment and systems in China. In the cases of ABB and Siemens, only static groups can develop low- to high-voltage systems in China while conducting core R&D activities in their global headquarters. The Beijing center announced its plan to develop 550kV GIS technology first before developing the advanced 126kV and 252kV technologies keeping in step with the status of the Chinese market.
“We opened the center to respond to the latest trends of the Chinese electricity market which demand an advanced GID and HVDC research and development,” a company source says.
“The company completed its R&D portfolio for the Chinese market by establishing the Beijing center focused on electric systems in addition to the existing Shanghai center focused on the research and development of electric equipment,” it added.
Last year, LS Industrial Systems established the Chinese Headquarters incorporating sales, production and research functions and announced a plan to increase its sales in China to US$ 1,172 million (1.44 trillion won) by 2015.
Public Green Business Market to Double in Scale by 2013
Presidential Committee on Green Growth will increase its funding for their construction of eco-friendly public building from 3 trillion won to 6 trillion won by year 2013. Together with Ministry of Strategy and Finance and Public Procurement Office, the committee will officially report its plans on July 13 at the 8th Presidential Committee on Green Growth Report Conference.
Details of the report include the deregulation of distribution and entrance of products made with green technology. The contract period is also to be extended to two years instead of one.
Additionally, the committee will ask for a smoother licensing process for new and renewable energy equipment and to help notable products that are outstanding in quality to make its way into the market faster and easier. Infrastructure for creating demand for green products will also be significantly increased. The government plans to establish a green purchase network, to raise interest in green products from consumers.
Korean government will require Public Procurement Office to provide 3D BIM (Building Information Modeling) for building all the public offices with a budget of 50 billion won or more starting from 2012. Such projects include remodeling of worn out government buildings using green technology. The government also plans to support ESCO (Energy Service Company) with preliminary examinations and memorandum assessments before construction.
°fiTerminology= BIM (Building Information Modeling): the process of generating and managing building data during its life cycle. It typically uses three-dimensional, real-time, building modeling software to increase productivity in building design and construction and allows management of information (energy consumption, facility replacement cycle, insulation performance).
Korea to Establish National Standards on Semiconductor Equipment; First in the World
On July 8, The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) laid down the Korean standards on the “safety guideline for semiconductor equipment manufacturing” and announced the related public hearing will be held starting on 11am, July 9 at L Center. KATS is planning to establish the Korean standards by the end of August after collecting opinions from the semiconductor specialists who attend the public hearing. Furthermore, they intend to improve safety and overseas competiveness of Korean semiconductor industry by applying global standards on domestic equipments. However, some of the domestic semiconductor equipment companies raised a concern that the specification of safety guideline, more detailed than the standard of Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI), will be a burden for their R&D activities, while foreign companies concern about another trade barrier owing to this guideline.
As the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC) legislated last year the standard on safety in semiconductor manufacturing equipment, KATS notified a legislation of the standards on June 23 after going through the review by the expert committee on standardization.
For establishment of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment safety standard, the safety guideline will include ICE’s electric safety requirements as well as domestic independent safety standards on chemicals and ionizing radiation. KATS said, “The domestic and foreign equipment companies have been complaining the difficulties in meeting the different safety standards that Samsung or Hynix requires, which would be lessened significantly by their adopting the guideline.”
Public Offices Targeted for DDoS Attack to Double in Scale by 2013
Zombie PC, an uncured computer which was used during last year’s July 7 DDoS attack, was executed for the second time targeting public offices. Head of National Computing and Information Agency Kwak Byeong-jin stated, “An attack was detected around 6pm from a zombie PC, targeting G4C site (Ministry of Public Administration and Security’s e-Gov website). Traffic doubled in capacity for three minutes from 30Mbps to 60Mbps before it went back to normal.” He pointed out, “There was no damage done to the actual services provided by the website.”
A KrCERT (Korea Internet and Security Agency) official stated, “It can be confirmed that the e-Gov website has not been affected by the DDoS attack as of yet but we are in full guard against any malignant traffic that might occur.”
KCC(Korea Communication Commission) officials have announced, “We are working on solutions to deal with cyber terror attacks, including the restriction of internet access on zombie PC’s to cure the virus. We plan to submit more detailed measures at the next National Assembly session in September.”
MCST Preventing Piracy with Movie DNA
On July 5, Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism (MCST) and Korea Federation of Copyright Organizations (KOFOCO) announced they have found a way to prevent piracy of movies. Korean Open Movie Exchange (KOME) provides a movie DNA much like human DNA, a digital file that contains information of a specific film. The DNA was developed by Korean Film Council.
KOFIC then sends the movie DNA to Copyright Protection Center and the center puts the DNA into a database which goes under surveillance through ICOP (Illegal Copyrights Obstruction Program). If an illegal activity is detected, it is halted by notifying online service providers or webhard sites, preventing further distribution of the pirated film.
MCST plans to assign night shifts to employees so they are able to monitor the illegal activities at all times to strengthen their restriction of piracy.