TEDxKAIST event 1's theme was “Happiness for Science & Science for Happiness.” This theme is significant for people living in Korea and many KAIST students who struggle to survive in the seeming paradox of hard work and true happiness. An excerpt demonstrates our inspiration.

“Of the more highly educated sections of the community, the happiest in the present day are the men of science. Many of the most eminent of them are emotionally simple, and obtain from their work a satisfaction so profound that they can derive pleasure from eating and even marrying.”
- Bertrand Russell. (1930). The Conquest of Happiness

Daejeon
South Korea

Don Norman

Dr. Norman is a distinguished visiting professor at KAIST and holds many other significant positions around the world. He studies how real people interact with design, exploring the gulf between what a designer intends and what a regular person actually wants. His work has resulted in a number of influential books including “The Design of Everyday Things” and most recently “Living With Complexity.” He is also a TED veteran.

Young Hae Noh

Dr. Noh has been dean of multiple departments at KAIST; College of Cultural Science, School of Humanities & Social Science and the Office of Student Affairs. Her research area includes Musicology, Traditional Korean, Historical and Contemporary studies. She is heavily involved and helps significantly in bringing happiness to KAIST.

Minhwa Lee

Dr. Lee is the Business Ombudsman, who makes a link between the government and the small and medium businesses. He is well-known visionary founder of Medison, the first venture company in Korea, initiating the era of Korean venture. In 1995, he founded Korea Venture Association and was the first president. Now he is a professor at KAIST.

Spanish Koffee

‘Digital Bohemian’ is the single album of Spanish Koffee and the name of open project, which pursue free distribution of digital music sources. This single album, ass the first work of the project, is freely availabe in forms of mp3, ringtone and even music video for mobile through their official homepage. Spanish Koffee cries out for “Passion worth spreding!” just like TED’s “Ideas worth spreading” and sends out the message of invitation for those who has passions and talents to participate in their next single album.

Sungdong Park

Sungdong Park is Chief Executive Officer of Satrec Initiative (SI), the world’s leading company in high performance, cost-effective Earth observation small satellite solutions. Park founded SI in 1999 with his colleagues in order to commercialize the space technologies accumulated through a series of satellite development in the university, KAIST, for 10 years. Before establishing the company, Park was the leader in developing advanced small satellites in KAIST, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, for 10 years and successfully developed 3 Earth observations satellites including the first South Korean satellite launched in 1992. The third satellite, KITSAT-3 which was launched in 1999, was recognized as the best Earth observation small satellite of the time by the participants at the UNISPACE-III held in Vienna in 1999. He won a Civil Merit Medal for the contribution to Korean space science and technology development in 1992, a presidential commandment for contributing to the industry development in 2006, and a Industrial Service Medal for the export of space systems. He is a board member of Korean Remote Sensing Society and a committee member of large-scale technologies of Korea Science and Technology Council.

Woonseung Yeo

Woonseung Yeo is a professor at GSCT, KAIST (Audio & Interactive Media Lab). He received his Ph.D. on Computer based music technology at CCRMA center, Stanford University and introduced the field of sonification which transmit information through audio signal at last seminar.

Byungwoo Jang

Byungwoo Jang worked in LG Chemical and LG Electronics for 15 years after graduating SNU. After 26 years working at LG he became the CEO of LG OTIS Elevator in 1999. He is a son of a great scholar in English literature, Wangrok Jang and a brother of a famous essayist and professor, Younghee Jang.