The Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) said on the 3rd that they selected Son Hoon, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at KAIST, as the winner of the June "Korea Scientist and Engineer Award."
The Korea Scientist and Engineer Award selects one researcher each month who has produced original research results over the past three years and contributed to the development of science and technology, and confers the vice minister award from the Ministry of Science and ICT and prize money of 10 million won.
Professor Son was recognized for developing a popularized high-precision sensor technology that can detect the displacement of small and medium-sized social infrastructure in real time. The technology can be used to measure minute movements occurring in bridges, buildings, and road structures to identify disaster risks at an early stage.
Professor Son's team combined millimeter-wave radar and a MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System) accelerometer and applied a signal-processing algorithm to develop a technology that simultaneously measures acceleration, tilt, and displacement with a single sensor. Millimeter-wave radar excels at measuring slow displacement, while a MEMS accelerometer is advantageous for detecting fast vibrations. The team combined the strengths of the two technologies so that various movements of a structure can be identified with one device.
The developed sensor costs 1 million won or less to produce, significantly lowering the expense compared with existing high-priced equipment. The measurement precision is reported to be at the 0.026 mm level. Power consumption has also been reduced, and Energy Harvesting technology was incorporated to enable wireless operation. The sensor is equipped with edge-computing capabilities, allowing it to assess collapse risk on site and transmit alerts without sending data to an external server.
The technology has undergone field verification at more than 13 sites in and outside Korea, including a parking structure at Stanford University and the San Jose expressway in the United States, the Weifang Bridge in China, and the Geumgang Pedestrian Bridge in Sejong.
Professor Son said, "It is meaningful that we have laid the groundwork to precisely manage small and medium-sized facilities that were relatively neglected in continuous monitoring," and added, "We will continue research on AI-based Digital Twin technology to contribute to the automation and intelligence of safety diagnostics."