(EDITORIAL from the Korea Herald on July 22)

'Green Growth' projects

KAIST, a leading research university, has recently established two affiliate
firms for commercial support of its two pioneer projects, development of a mobile
harbor and online electric vehicles. President Lee Myung-bak has endorsed a 50
billion won research grant for these new "growth engine" projects.

While the university campus appears quiet in the summer recess, researchers in
crammed laboratories are racing against time to produce tangible results that
translate their visions into reality. A demonstration session for "MH" and "OLEV"
is scheduled for late August to convince representatives of the government,
businesses and the media of the technological and economic feasibilities of these
undertakings.
At the moment, there are perhaps more skeptics than enthusiasts about these
projects, which both are the brainchild of KAIST president Suh Nam-pyo, a
mechanical engineer who has over 60 international patents to his name. After
shaking up the university community with a series of academic reforms, including
strict tenure screening and charging tuition in accordance with grades, he took
up these two ambitious projects, which could bring direct benefits to the
national economy.
KAIST's OLEV differs from other electric vehicles in that it picks up power from
"inverters" or re-charging strips embedded in roadways, rather than through rails
or overhead wires. A small battery stores power for vehicles travelling over
lanes without the inverter strips. Non-contact charging is the essence of the
KAIST electric car. The mobile harbor is a concept that would allow cargo to be
taken from a container ship by a floating (mobile) dock in congested ports. The
mobile harbor transports cargo to the container terminal and makes reverse trips
for loading.
Even to amateurs, the KAIST OLEV and MH projects seem to have too many obstacles
to clear. Laying the charging strips all over the multiple-lane streets of
metropolises - not to mention along hundreds of miles of highways - seems like a
wild sci-fi dream. In the case of the mobile harbor, installing heavy cranes on
the limited space of a floating dock and maintaining balance in rough waters must
be a colossal problem requiring great engineering ingenuity.
Yet, the researchers started their project in response to some grave realities:
that carbon emissions from oil-using vehicles is changing the climate, the fossil
fuel deposits are being quickly depleted, and that the limited supply of lithium
will not be sufficient for future electric cars. Mankind has got to resolve these
problems, and visionaries like Suh believe that Korean scientists and engineers
can do the task for the nation and the world. Any initial failure should be
followed by a new attempt, with lessons learned from the experience. Scientists
will eventually find a way to contribute to the betterment of human life.
When John F. Kennedy announced in 1961 that the United States would land a man on
the moon by the end of the decade, even the chief of the NASA's Mission Control
thought he was crazy. But the world has just celebrated the 40th anniversary of
Apollo 11's moon landing.
Certainly, KAIST's and many other organizations' growth engine projects are long
shots or could at worst prove impracticable. But undaunted scientists can search
for new processes until they reach their final goals or could come to unexpected
inventions along the way. The history of science reveals many examples, including
some Nobel Prize winning projects.
(END)