The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced on the 1st that Professor Hyun-soo Choi of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering has been selected as the recipient of this year's Hyunwoo KAIST Academic Award.
Professor Choi won this academic award, which is organized by KAIST and sponsored by the Hyunwoo Cultural Foundation, for his research achievements in increasing the expense and energy efficiency of 'phase change memory' devices recognized as next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor technology.
Earlier, in April of last year, Professor Choi developed a next-generation phase change memory device optimized for a vertical stacking structure that saves more than 15 times the electricity compared to existing methods using expensive ultra-fine lithography processes.
Phase change memory is a semiconductor device technology that alters the state of a material between amorphous and crystalline states using thermal energy and stores information by utilizing resistance changes. It is gaining attention as a next-generation memory semiconductor due to its fast data read and write speeds and high durability.
Now in its fifth year, the Hyunwoo KAIST Academic Award was established based on funds donated by Su-Il Kwak, chairman of the Hyunwoo Cultural Foundation, to annually honor scholars who have made outstanding academic achievements at KAIST.
After evaluation by the selection committee of the Hyunwoo Foundation and the faculty reward recommendation committee at KAIST, the award is presented to one faculty member who has achieved exceptional academic performance, with a prize of 10 million won.
Professor Choi said, "I am honored to receive this meaningful award for hardware research related to IT and artificial intelligence," and added, "I will continuously strive to produce research outcomes that can inspire future researchers and contribute to society."