NWRC2011 Conference Summary

Co-organized by the Korea-US-Science Cooperation Center (KUSCO) and the Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association (KSEA), the North-West Regional Conference (NWRC2011) was held on Nov. 19, Saturday at Sheraton Sunnyvale in Sunnyvale, CA.

There were about 110 people attending the NWRC this year. Total 5 Keynote papers and 34 regular technical papers were presented. Among the presenters, there were roughly 20% of non-Korean heritage US researchers and engineers attending and presenting plenary and technical session materials to help initiate Korea-US cooperation in Science and Engineering area.

In the morning Plenary session, the following 4 Keynote Speeches were presented.

• "Is it time for Smart-Appliances?", Dr. Manas Saksena,  Senior Director of Technology, Marvell
• "How is the wireless technology changing the world?", Dr. Jae Hoon Kim, Executive/Sr. Technical Fellow, Boeing 
• "A Mobile Startup Story of Survival in Turbulent Times", Dr. Paul H.J. Kim, Chairman of GCT
• "What Keeps Corporate Board Members Wake at Night?", Dr. C.S. Park, Lead Board Director, Seagate Technology

Thirty four papers in the following subject areas were presented in the afternoon technical sessions:

• Green Energy and Clean Technologies
• Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Mobile, Wireless, Bio, Nano, Semiconductor Technologies
• Social Science and Young Generation Forum

To encourage participation of College and Graduate students, we included a special YG session to give them some insights on technology trends and progress made in many different fields. We also held a mentoring session as well as a sponsor company meeting to give them some idea on career development. Over 20 students and 3 companies participated in this special session.

During the dinner time, an invited Keynote speech was presented by Dr. Dong-Hyuk Ju in the following topic:

“The Spirit of Silicon Valley - from California Gold Rush to Internet Age”

The conference program brochure can be found at
http://www.ksea-siv.org/?module=file&act=procFileDownload&file_srl=1278&sid=0ce221de1b1485c83ba162d4e46e58ff

Detailed conference program can be found at
http://www.ksea-siv.org/nwrc2011