On November 7, this year’s edition of the International Forum on Electric Vehicles (IFEV2012) was held at the KAIST Main Auditorium (E15). Speakers from both the academia and the industry gathered to share the advances into sustainable surface transportation technologies. The forum was organized by The Cho Chun Shik Graduate School for Green Transportation, with Professor Dong Ho Cho (Vice President of KAIST) as the General Chairman and Professor In-Soo Suh as the General Vice Chairman.

The main purpose of the forum was to provide a common space for the developers of emerging sustainable technologies to discuss and pursue solutions for the present transportation system’s environmental problems. The major topics covered at the event were electric vehicle, future railway transport, wireless power Transfer, system stabilization control, and future ocean transport, and invited were speakers from Germany, India, Japan, Korea, and Switzerland.

The event schedule started with a ride on the KAIST Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV) shuttle bus, followed by speeches from KAIST President Nam Pyo Suh, Korea Railroad Research Institute President Soon-Man Hong, Professor Takashi Ohira from Toyohashi University of Technology, and Korea Transport Institute President GwengChul Kim. The afternoon schedule consisted of a series of talks from the invited speakers and a round table discussion regarding the directions of sustainable transportation technologies for the near future. At the closure of the forum, there was a dinner with a performance by the Korean traditional fusion music group Silk Road.

This was the third edition of IFEV, and it demonstrated KAIST’s intention towards establishing itself as a reference and hub to exchange knowledge for sustainable technologies, especially in the field of green transportation. KAIST’s OLEV, Bombardier’s PRIMOVE, and Keio University’s SIM-Drive were some of the flagship technologies that were present at the forum, and are expected to be achieving full commercialization levels in the near future.

IFEV was sponsored by KAIST, OLEV Technologies, the Korea Railroad Research Institute, the Korea Automotive Technology Institute, Jeonbuk Institute of Automotive Technology, Road Traffic Authority, and Korea Transportation Safety Authority.