Dr. Kotnis: The Indian doctor revered in China
In the bustling administrative offices of Gangnam District, the sleek area of southern Seoul famous for its glamour and wealth, public service counters are undergoing a futuristic transformation. Where transparent acrylic panels once merely served as physical barriers between residents and city officials, new artificial intelligence-powered displays are now translating spoken words with real-time subtitles across 130 languages. The Gangnam District Office said that it has deployed a state-of-the-art "Real-Time Transparent OLED Communication Window" as part of its drive to eliminate communication hurdles for foreign nationals and hearing-impaired residents. Developed in collaboration with private tech partners through an open innovation initiative, the system merges transparent organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens with advanced speech-to-text and machine translation engines. For Gangnam's international and hearing-impaired residents, the technology eliminates the tedious routine of writing notes back and forth or waiting for on-call interpreters. The interface is relatively seamles
PAJU, Gyeonggi Province — Hyundai Motor is banking on the redesigned Tucson to help turn around its weakening sales momentum, putting one of its global best-selling SUVs at the center of its global sales strategy in the second half of the year. The automaker unveiled the fifth-generation Tucson on Friday, six years after the previous model was introduced, positioning the compact SUV alongside the redesigned Avante and the facelifted Grandeur as key models for its swift sales recovery. The launch comes at a difficult time for the carmaker. Its domestic sales plunged 41.1 percent in August from the previous year to its lowest level in 11 years, largely due to production disruptions caused by a prolonged labor strike. With its relatively affordable, high-volume models expected to provide a more immediate boost to its global sales, the launch of the highly sought-after SUV came at the opportune time for the carmaker. Tucson is particularly important because its role extends beyond the Korean market. It is one of Hyundai's major global volume models, giving the company an opportunity to use
Sungkyunkwan University’s Biomedical Institute for Convergence hosted a special seminar featuring Craig C. Mello, a 2006 Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine and professor at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, on Sept. 10. In his lecture, titled “RNAi: A Molecular Spark in an Information Inferno,” Mello recounted the discovery of RNA interference and how basic research evolved into therapies that can save patients’ lives. Addressing students and young researchers in particular, he repeatedly emphasized the importance of embracing challenges without fear of failure. A university official quoted Mello as saying, “Great discoveries do not come from finding predetermined answers, but from a process of constantly asking questions and going through countless failures.” Professor Mello is a world-renowned scientist who discovered RNA interference (RNAi), a “gene-silencing” mechanism that can switch off the activity of specific genes inside cells. Genes serve as blueprints for our bodies, and his discovery that specific genetic instructions could be selective
The number of Vietnamese nationals holding Korea's E-7-1 professional visa has nearly doubled over the past four years, data showed Sunday. As of August, 3,572 Vietnamese nationals held the visa, up 1.84 times from 1,938 in 2022, according to the data submitted to Rep. Kim Joon-hwan of the Democratic Party of Korea by the justice ministry. The E-7-1 visa is granted to foreign nationals working in government-designated professional fields such as information technology and robotics. Indian nationals saw a similar rise, growing 1.46 times to 1,014 during the same period. Chinese nationals holding the visa, by contrast, declined to 1,566 from 2,213 in 2022. American E-7-1 holders also slipped to 1,355 from 1,471. Meanwhile, Chinese nationals dominate a separate visa category, the semi-professional E-7-2, which covers areas such as caregiving. They accounted for 80.6 percent of all 10,759 E-7-2 holders. The lawmaker called the influx of such tech talent "a positive sign," but said the country needs to improve working and living conditions for those workers to generate "bigger synergy."
LG Innotek has developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered system that recommends components suitable for use in new products, the company said Sunday. Completed recently after two years of development, the system analyzes vast amounts of internal and external component data using AI and allows users to compare specifications and prices at a glance. LG Innotek’s key products include camera modules, semiconductor substrates and automotive components, each of which can contain hundreds of individual parts. By using AI to speed up component selection while considering both price and performance, the company expects to strengthen its competitiveness. When users enter the specifications they need, the system searches through the data of more than 2 million components in its database and suggests parts with similar specifications. By providing information on components previously purchased by LG Innotek and from the external market, the system significantly broadens the search domain. A distinctive feature of the system is its reference price function. The AI analyzes actual purchase r
Samsung Electronics said Sunday it held its eighth annual technology forum in the United States to share its artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and business strategies with global developers. About 80 executives from Samsung Electronics and global information technology companies took part in the 2026 Tech Forum in Silicon Valley, the company said in a press release. Samsung brass, including President Roh Tae-moon, who heads its device experience (DX) division, and Chief Technology Officer Yoon Jang-hyun, presented the company's mid and long-term AI vision and business strategies and exchanged views with participants on recent technology trends. Yoon discussed how the combination of next-generation AI technologies and robotics could drive changes in the future, the company said. "AI is a driving force for delivering intelligent and hyper-personalized experiences across every aspect of consumers' daily lives and for driving innovation," Roh said, adding that Samsung aims to provide customers with the best possible AI experience.
I grew up in Delhi. Not Lutyens’ Delhi, that quieter, greener stretch of tree-lined avenues and high-walled colonial bungalows where the VIPs live. But close enough to know that two cities share one name. One Delhi is generally messy. Rubbish piled into small mountains by the roadside. No footpaths to walk on. Narrow streets marked as one way, with every kind of traffic coming at you from every direction, and then simply stuck. And the dust. Not a film on the windowsill, but something you...
Chinese team fixes panda's crooked jaw in first-of-its-kind procedure
Zhang Dongdong has been fielding ever more requests for legal advice from jittery entrepreneurs, nervous government officials or their desperate relatives. They usually do not tell him the whole story, and sometimes say it happened “to a friend”, but most want to know the same thing: what to do when they are targeted by China’s corruption busters. “Some had received a tip-off that they were being investigated, some got a call from disciplinary inspectors asking them to cooperate, but in most of...
China advances lunar spacesuit, bed rest research for moon landing
In late August, I took my parents to see Once Upon a Time in the Middle East in their small-town cinema on the mainland. Built around an unnamed conflict widely understood to be the US-led Iraq war, the film has become the kind of phenomenon no marketing budget could buy, projected to reach 2.5 billion yuan (US$372.5 million) largely through word of mouth. Its Hong Kong and overseas release will revive geopolitical arguments over a Chinese commercial film entering a narrative world long...
