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2021 Ewha Zero Carbon Forum Held
2021 Ewha Zero Carbon Forum Held Ewha Womans University hosted the “2021 Ewha Zero Carbon Forum” at the Ewha Campus Complex building at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, October 20. The forum, co-hosted by the Office of Research, the New and Renewable Energy Research Center, and the Center for Climate/Environment Change Prediction Research, and supervised by the Organizing Committee for the Ewha Zero Carbon Forum, was held to share and discuss policies in the fields of energy, climate, environment, and ESG under the theme of “The Role of Universities and Academy-Research-Industry Collaboration for the Achievement of Carbon Neutrality 2050,” and livestreamed on Ewha’s YouTube account. South Korea is consolidating its efforts to achieve its objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to achieve carbon neutrality, by declaring the 2050 Carbon Neutral Vision through the long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies submitted to the United Nations in December, 2020, and promulgating the Framework Act on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth in September, 2021 in response to the climate crisis. Ewha has been at the forefront of climate change research by establishing the Climate and Energy Systems Engineering major in 2017, conducting world-class research through the Center for Climate/Environmental Change Prediction Research as a university priority research institute in science and engineering, and advancing the development of international climate risk management models. The school also plans to further reinforce its leading role in the ESG field, starting with this forum. The opening ceremony commenced at 2 p.m. with an opening address by Lee Hyang-sook, Vice President of the Office of Research and President of the Ewha University-Industry Collaboration Foundation, and was followed by a welcome speech by President Kim Eun Mee, a video congratulatory remark by Minister of Science and ICT Lim Hye-sook, and a congratulatory speech by Chairwoman Yoo Young-sook of the Center for Climate/Environment Change Prediction Research Board of Directors. President Eun Mee Kim remarked, “One of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals that humanity must achieve by 2030 is to respond to climate change, and carbon neutrality is expected to become the most important topic of this era after the COVID-19 pandemic is over,” and added, “Through this forum, we hope to solidify Ewha’s status as a creative innovation platform that fosters global leaders, consolidates researchers’ capabilities, and leads a sustainable society.” Subsequently, Minister of Science and ICT Lim Hye-sook emphasized, “Universities will take on an expanded role as a starting point for nurturing innovative talents and R&D capabilities to develop carbon-neutral technologies. The government will also explore various policies to expand the role of universities in innovations regarding carbon-neutral technology and accelerate academy-research-industry collaboration.” Following the opening ceremony, keynote lectures were given from 2:30 p.m. by Chairman & CEO Lee Dong-gull of Korea Development Bank on the topic of “Carbon Neutrality and Korea Development Bank as a Green Bank,” President Kim Jong-nam of the Korea Institute of Energy Research on “The Role of Technologies for Carbon Neutrality,” and President Yoon Je-yong of the Korea Environment Institute on “Transformation and Journey toward a Carbon-Neutral Society.” Through these keynote lectures, the speakers offered insights on the importance of carbon neutrality and their respective institution’s strategies to ensure a clean and sustainable future. The second part of the forum opened with a topic presentation by Professor William Jo from the Department of Physics at Ewha and followed up with a discussion session, chaired by Professor Choi Yong-sang from the Climate and Energy Systems Engineering major, on methods and solutions to achieve carbon neutrality through academy-research-industry collaboration. Based on its top-tier research achievements, Ewha will continue to strive to discover leading research fields and future-oriented challenging research fields under the vision of “A Creative and Innovative Platform Leading to a Sustainable Society,” and strengthen the support system for cultivating global female leaders.
Professor Hwi Young Kim from Department of Medicine Develops AI-based Model to Predict Risk of Hepatocellular...
Professor Hwi Young Kim from Department of Medicine Develops AI-based Model to Predict Risk of Hepatocellular Carcinoma among Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B Professor Hwi Young Kim developed an AI-based model named “PLAN-B” to predict the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma among patients with chronic hepatitis B. The multinational and multi-institutional clinical study, conducted jointly with foreign and domestic researchers including a research team led by Professor Jeong-Hoon Lee from the Department of Internal Medicine at Seoul National University Hospital, is drawing attention as it is expected to demonstrate high practical utility in real clinical practice by improving the prediction accuracy of hepatocellular carcinoma risk among patients with chronic hepatitis B for which prediction and preparation are vital. In collaboration with researchers at home and abroad, research teams led by Professors Kim and Lee analyzed the data of a total of 13,508 patients with chronic hepatitis B from 18 institutions across South Korea and 11 institutions across Europe and North America, applying the data to AI-based machine learning algorithms to develop “PLAN-B,” which is a prediction model for the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma. “PLAN-B” is expected to be highly beneficial to practice as its prediction accuracy is significantly higher than that of existing prediction models. By providing more detailed analysis of hepatocellular carcinoma risk through a gradient-boosting machine algorithm, it will also contribute significantly to enabling treatment and patient management tailored to the characteristics of individual patients. First author Professor Kim remarked, “We developed a unique prediction model for hepatocellular carcinoma using artificial intelligence, and this study holds significant clinical implications as its efficacy was validated using large-scale patient data from the East and the West,” and explained, “PLAN-B will greatly help in identifying patients with high risk of hepatocellular carcinoma as well as those with very low risk.” PLAN-B was developed with support from “'Dr. Answer 2.0,” which is an AI-based precision medical solution development project. The research findings, titled “An Artificial Intelligence Model to Predict Hepatocellular Carcinoma Risk in Korean and Caucasian Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B,” were published in the online edition of Journal of Hepatology (IF = 25.083), a world-renowned academic journal in the field of gastrointestinal diseases and the official academic journal of the European Association of the Study of the Liver, on Friday, October 1. Professor Kim, an expert in liver diseases, is particularly recognized in the domestic and international academia for his outstanding research achievements in clinical epidemiologic studies and prediction model development for liver cancer, cirrhosis and fatty liver. He is also active as a member of the Publication Committee and the Public Relations Committee at the Korean Association for the Study of the Liver.
