The Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy Collaborates with Microsoft Research Asia
The Ministry of Knowledge Economy of Korea announced a research collaboration agreement with Microsoft Research Asia, known as the Information Technology Software (IT/SW) Creative Research Program, in September 2010. This program brings together academia, government, and local companies by promoting creative research programs and providing support to world-class researchers. While recognizing the importance of advancing creative research in collaboration with Microsoft Research Asia to build mutually beneficial relationships, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy of Korea announced plans to provides matching funds in the amount of five times the amount Microsoft Research Asia spends (in other words, the ministry provides $5 for every $1 spent by Microsoft Research Asia) on collaborative research projects that are conducted by Korean academia.
“Fostering highly skilled people in the IT and software industry is becoming the most important factor for the growth of IT in Korea. Market-leading local and foreign IT companies collaborating as creative research partners to discover creative and innovative human resources is a significant milestone,” said Gyong won Jeong, president of the National IT Promotional Agency (NIPA), a non-profit governmental organization affiliated to Ministry of Knowledge Economy of Korea. “We are expecting to create a win-win synergy between student and partnering companies through the IT/SW Creative Research Program.”
The IT/SW Creative Research Program provides benefits to universities and researchers who can now spearhead larger, more ground-breaking projects by collaborating with and receiving funding support from Microsoft Research Asia. The range of eligible projects includes hardware computing, human computing interaction, Internet graphics, Internet media, information retrieval and mining, media computing, media communication, machine learning, natural language processing, software analytics, visual computing, wireless and networking, web retrieval and mining, web intelligence, web data management, systems, speech recognition, theory, machine learning, and innovative engineering.
In addition to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy’s matching funds, the program also offers internships at Microsoft Research for graduate students. Select candidates will be awarded a six-month internship opportunity to work at Microsoft Research Asia starting in September 2011. An additional 12-week internship at Microsoft Research headquarters in Redmond, Washington, is also planned for outstanding students who receive high evaluations from their mentors. This internship opportunity aims to help increase students’ professional skills and knowledge on the basis of practical research.
“Microsoft Research Asia is focusing on building a foundation to align governments and academic organizations in the Asia Pacific region with Microsoft’s fundamental research aim. The collaboration program with the Ministry of Knowledge Economy of Korea is one of our significant milestones that well reflects our goal to create opportunities for universities to experience world-class research, discover potential talents, and accelerate innovation,” said Hsiao-Wuen Hon, managing director of Microsoft Research Asia. “Microsoft Research Asia will provide continuous support for Korean universities and government programs to be the driving force in strengthening the competitiveness of IT power in Korea.”
Selected Projects: 2011 IT/SW Creative Research Program
For the second year of the IT/SW Creative Research Program, 24 projects were selected after a two-round review of 54 proposals. More than 90 graduate students will participate as project team members. Projects commenced on October 1, 2011, and will be completed by end of June 2012.
|
Project Title |
Name of Awardee |
Institution |
|
Database and Data Mining Techniques |
Sang-Wook Kim |
Hanyang University |
|
Smartphone Operating System Support for Dynamic Computation Offloading |
Insik Shin |
KAIST |
|
Cleansing and Mapping Web-scale Entity Graphs |
Seung-won Hwang |
POSTECH |
|
Multi-View Hashing for Content-Based Image Retrieval with Multiple Features |
Seungjin Choi |
POSTECH |
|
Community-Based Question Answering for Twitter |
Hae-Chang Rim |
Korea University |
|
Development of Algorithms for Video Enhancement and Editing Using Inputs from Xbox Kinect |
Yu-Wing Tai |
KAIST |
|
Entity/Relation Detection and Optimization for Ad Copy |
Hwanjo Yu |
POSTECH |
|
Research on Three Enabling Technologies of Cognitive Radio Networks |
Cheeha Kim |
POSTECH |
|
Fast Large Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition with CPU and GPU Hybrid Systems |
Wonyong Sung |
Seoul National University |
|
Analyzing Relationships, Emotions, and Privacy of Online Conversations with Probabilistic Topic Models |
Alice Oh |
KAIST |
|
Using Audio-Visual Information of KINECT |
Hong Goo Kang |
Yonsei University |
|
Sensor-Assisted Communication |
Hyogon Kim |
Korea University |
|
Kinect Reality: Real-Time 3D Scanning |
Seungyong Lee |
POSTECH |
|
Exploring the Impact of Process Variation on Software Systems in Future Many-cores |
Jaehyuk Huh |
KAIST |
|
Computational Methods for Modeling the Spread of Information in Online Social Networks |
Meeyoung Cha |
KAIST |
|
Developing an Entity Search System for Academic Domain |
Jeawoo Kang |
Korea University |
|
Automatic Organization of Object-Wise |
Sang Uk Lee |
Seoul National University |
|
Design Multiverse : Space Computing Framework for Collaborative 3D Idea Sketching |
Seok-Hyung Bae |
KAIST |
| A Hybrid Recommender System based on Data Content and Collaborative Filtering | Jihoon Yang | Sogang University |
| Exploring Store-Visit Detection in a Shopping Mall | Junewha Song | KAIST |
| Automated Vulnerability Analysis Using Machine Learning | Heejo Lee | Korea University |
| Event Reasoning and Summarization in Surveillance Videos | Kyoung Mu Lee | Seoul National University |
| Development of a Cancer Oriented Search Engine | Hyunju Lee | GIST |
| Design and Implementation of Datacenter Network Monitoring and Analysis System |
James Won-Ki Hong | POSTECH |
Selected Projects: 2010 IT/SW Creative Research Program
|
Project Title |
Name of Awardee |
Institution |
|
Design of an Interactive User Interface for Visualization of Pre-modern Textual Land-books |
Jinwook SEO |
Seoul National University |
|
What Motion Estimation on Stereo Sequence Can Benefit Us |
Sang Uk LEE |
Seoul National University |
|
A High Performance Parallel Mobile Web Browsing Engine |
Shin-Dug KIM |
Yonsei University |
|
The Study of Acceleration Techniques for Ray Tracing of Incoherent Rays |
Tack-Don HAN |
Yonsei University |
|
A Unified Speech Recognition Framework for Captioning Video Clips |
Hong Goo KANG |
Yonsei University |
|
Multivariate Feature Discretization for Efficient Data Mining and Machine Learning |
Andrew Teoh Beng JIN |
Yonsei University |
|
Supporting Semantic Search on Product Data |
Seung Won HWANG |
Pohang University of Science and Technology |
|
Multi-Instance Hashing for Large-Scale Localized Content-Based Image Retrieval |
Seungjin CHOI |
Pohang University of Science and Technology |
|
Mining for High Utility Ads in Web Search Engines |
Hwanjo YU |
Pohang University of Science and Technology |
|
Enabling Multimedia-Content Search using Semantic Descriptors Extracted from User Generated Texts |
Jaewoo KANG |
Korea University |
|
Utilizing ODP and Web Search Logs for Contextual Advertising Engine |
SangKeun LEE |
Korea University |
|
Predicting Target Syntactic Structure for Phrase-based Statistical Machine Translation |
Hae-Chang RIM |
Korea University |
|
Stereoscopic Image Retargeting and Disparity Remapping for Adaptation of 3D Video Contents for Various Display Devices |
Chang-Su KIM |
Korea University |
|
Supporting Ranked Spatial-Keyword Queries in Search |
Kyu-Young WHANG |
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology |
|
Achieving Bandwidth Guarantees and Isolation in Datacenter Computing |
John KIM |
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology |
|
Energy-Efficient Location Logging for Mobile Device |
Dong-Soo HAN |
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology |
|
Mobile Social Media Retrieval Using Hierarchical Context Representation |
Woontack Woo |
Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology |
|
A Study on Techniques for Intelligent Image Search and Browsing using Region-Based Image Tagging in Web 2.0 Environment |
Dong Ho LEE |
Hanyang University |
The results of the first year IT/SW Creative Research Program ending in June 2011 included 37 internationally published journals and papers, five patent applications, 18 project demo websites, and participation in the Microsoft Research Asia six-month internship program by 10 students. These achievements were celebrated at the Korean Day Event held on September 1, 2011, at Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing. Korean professors, students, and delegates from NIPA Korea participated in the event and discussed opportunities to further explore collaborative projects with researchers from Microsoft Research Asia. Eighteen project demos were also presented by student leaders and supervising professors.
