Keynotes
Keynote Speech: Phase-changing gels for sustainable thermal and electric energy harvesting
Bio:
Insu Jeon is a professor at Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Korea. He received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Design Engineering from Pusan National University, Busan, Korea in 1993 and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Korea, in 1995 and 2000, respectively. Prof. Insu Jeon initiated research on the development of various gels during a one-year visiting research period at Harvard University in USA starting in 2013. Since 2016, he has been conducting research on the development of various functional gels and has continuously published papers in prestigious international journals such as Progress in Materials Science, Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, Materials Horizons, Water Research, and the Chemical Engineering Journal. He has received various awards from the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers, including Research Excellence Award (2022) and Experimental Mechanics Academic Award (2020) and the Reliability Academic Award (2016) in the Reliability Division, and Yoo-Dam Academic Award (2005) in the Materials and Fracture Division. He served as a Program Member (Review Board) of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) from 2018 to 2021 and as the Chair of the Reliability Division of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2019. He served as the chairman and a co-chairman of ICMR (International Conference on Materials and Reliability) held in Jeju, Republic of Korea in 2019 and in Yamaguchi, Japan in 2022, respectively. He was an adjunct professor (2021~2024) at Zhejiang University in China. Furthermore, he is currently serving as the editor of the Journal of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers, Series A (2023~).
Abstract
Hydrated-salt-induced phase changes can be leveraged toward the development of cost-effective and environmentally friendly materials with many invaluable functions, including interchangeable states, energy (heat, electricity, and mechanical) harvesting, and switchable adhesion. However, the use of existing materials presents challenges such as limited supercooling, uncontrolled nucleation, a narrow operational temperature range, and cyclic instability, which collectively limit the practical applications of phase-changing gels. In this study, we propose a strategy that utilizes the synergistic effect of hydrated sodium acetate trihydrate (SAT) and glycerol to develop phase-changing gels with excellent supercoolability (below –80 ℃). The proposed strategy concurrently resolves all the aforementioned issues by creating a stronger yet switchable solvation barrier around the salt ions in the gel network. As a proof of concept, we rationally integrate SAT and glycerol within a polymer gel matrix at the molecular level to develop a supersaturated glycerogel. This supersaturated glycerogel possesses a cyclic, on-demand, and sustainable (by concentrating sunlight) structural transformability (~2000-fold change in stiffness) and exhibits prolonged environmental and mechanical stability. In addition, we demonstrate its ability to generate high-performance heat (~42 ℃) and thermoelectric voltages (~336 mV) at environmental temperatures of −30–37 ℃. Furthermore, it exhibits stable shape adaptability (~100%) and shape-memory ability (~100%), along with extremely tough and reversible adhesiveness (debonding energy for gel/glass adhesion: ~800 J m-2). The utilization of the SAT/glycerol synergy promotes the development of diverse high-performance phase-changing gels for advanced medical and technological applications.
Keynote Speech: From Pixels to Pose: Learning-Based Localization for Robots
Bio:
Joo-Ho Lee (Senior Member, IEEE) received the B.E. and M.E. degrees in electrical engineering from Korea University, Seoul, South Korea, in 1993 and 1995, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, in 1999. He is currently a Professor with the Department of Information Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga, Japan. From 1999 to 2003, he was a JSPS Postdoctoral Researcher with the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo. From 2003 to 2004, he was a Research Associate with Tokyo University of Science, Japan, and in 2004, he joined Ritsumeikan University as an Associate Professor. From 2008 to 2009, he was a Visiting Scholar with the Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. In 2017, he was a Research Professor with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University. His research interests include intelligent environments, intelligent robots, computer vision, machine learning, and medical/healthcare applications. He is a member of the RSJ, JSME, SICE, HIS, IEICE, KROS, and IEEJ.
Abstract
In this keynote, we present recent research efforts on vision-based localization for robots and mobile devices with limited computational power, conducted at AISLAB. As robots and smartphones increasingly rely on accurate and efficient localization, traditional feature-matching-based methods face challenges in scalability, memory requirements, and real-time performance. To address these limitations, our research explores learning-based approaches that effectively utilize features of our environments while optimizing computational efficiency.
This talk will highlight the challenges, key innovations, and future directions in computer vision-driven localization for robotics and mobile platforms, emphasizing the importance of efficient deep learning models for real-time applications.
Keynote Speech: Air-Decarbonization: the Potential of eSAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuel)
Bio:
Prof. Wei-Cheng Wang obtained his Ph.D. in 2011 from North Carolina State University, NC, USA. After doctoral degree, he worked as a researcher in National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), CO, USA for 2 years. He is now a Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan. Prof. Wei-Cheng Wang has published 85 SCI Journal papers with H-Index of 29 and citations of 3553, which one of his review papers has granted 686 citations. He was awarded the World’s Top 2% Scientists in 2022. Prof. Wang also serves as a visiting professor in UCSI University, Malaysia (2025~2027). The research interests of Prof. Wang is Fuel and Combustion, which the research topics includes Production, Combustion, and Process Evaluation of Jet Fuel, especially Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). He has also been conducting research on Carbon Capture and Utilization, leading to the production of eSAF. The research goal of Prof. Wang is to promote Fly Net Zero.
Abstract
Approximately 21.2 billion of carbon has to be reduced for achieving Fly Net Zero. The International Air Transport Association has targeted the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to be 449 billion liters by the year of 2050. In the previous decade, the research team of Prof. Wei-Cheng Wang has dedicated on the development of SAF, in terms of fuel production process, combustion behaviors, and process evaluations. The SAF produced through Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA) process over a “home-made” catalyst has shown to meet all the jet fuel specifications. The combustion behaviors, regarding spray/atomization, ignition characteristics, laminar flame speed, and soot formation have been carried out through a Constant Volume Combustion Chamber (CVCC), a Rapid Compression Machine (RCM), and a Swirl Combustion Chamber. The spray/atomization and laminar flame speed of SAF present similar characteristics as Jet A1 fuel. Relatively lower ignition delay and soot volume fraction of SAF than conventional jet fuels indicate the SAF to be perfect for “Clean Air”. The energy/exergy as well as techno-economic analyses for SAF production are also carried out. Recently, for the purpose of Air-Decarbonization, eSAF production, deriving from the CO2 through a carbon capture technology with the Green Hydrogen produced from electrolysis, is performed in Prof. Wang’s research team. The combustion behaviors, economic cost, and carbon footprint of eSAF will be interesting topics for Aviation Sustainability.
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
Department of Mechanical and Electro-Mechanical Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan
Keynote Speech: Performance Analysis of Low Temperature Metal-Supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
Bio:
Jenn-Kun Kuo received his Ph.D. from National Cheng Kung University in 2007 and is currently a Mechanical and Electro-Mechanical Engineering Professor at National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU), Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Since 2007, he has been leading the Laboratory for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell. His research focuses on hydrogen energy, PEM fuel cells, heat transfer, hydrogen production and purification, clean energy technologies, thermoelectric generation, carbon capture and utilization, and energy system analysis, including optimization, evolutionary computation, and AI.
He has published over 80 research papers in reputable international journals, with an H-index of 26 (Web of Science). From 2011 to 2017, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan honored him as a Young Scholar. In 2024, he received the distinguished engineering professorship award from the Chinese Society of Mechanical Engineering. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Taiwan Association for Hydrogen Energy and Fuel Cells (THEFC) and as the Vice Dean of the College of Engineering at NSYSU.
Abstract
In this novel study, the mass transfer and energy balance equations for the metal-supported layer solid oxide fuel cell model (MS-SOFC Model) and the steam reforming model (Steam Methane Reformer Model) are described using partial differential equations. In the context of MS-SOFC, the primary focus is on achieving low-temperature operation at 600°C and enhancing current density. Lowering the temperature increases the voltage loss due to polarization, leading to a decrease in current density. Therefore, it is crucial to improve the conductivity of the materials and reduce their thickness. This approach allows for the optimization of current density, temperature distribution, voltage, and other cell reaction mechanisms. The peak power density using pure hydrogen fuel is 0.24201 W . The highest peak power density for the hybrid fuel, at a water-to-carbon ratio of 2 and a methane vapor reforming reaction rate of 100%, was 4.793% lower than that of the pure hydrogen fuel.
