IDE Field Work Report
TKT Campus Asia Program
Life in KAIST

Shuyang Kang
Hanaoka Lab B4
2013.11.6

1. Program Introduction
The TKT Campus Asia Program is established in 2012 among three universities.
They are Tokyo tech, KAIST and Tsinghua University. This time, I went to the KASIT,
which is short for Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology to attend thesummer exchanging program for one month. The period is from Aug. 1st to Sep. 1st.
There are also five more students from Tokyo Tech and six students from Tsinghua
University coming to KAIST to attend this program. KAIST is the best Institute in
Korea, which was first built in Seoul in 1971. After several years, in order to expand
the campus, it moved to Dajeon.

Badge of KAIST

Location of KAIST

2. Program Schedule1

2013.8.1
2013.8.1 – 2013.8.6
2013.8.7
2013.8.7 – 2013.8.28
2013.8.28
2013.8.28 – 2013.9.1
2013.9.1

Arrival at Seoul Gimpo Airport, dormitory check inFree time, my trip to Bussan
Program orientation and greeting, opening ceremony
Study (2 courses) and research, field trips
Program closing ceremony
Free time, my trip to Seoul and Jeju island
Departure from Seoul Gimpo Airport, go back to Japan

3. Study & Research(1) Study
In this summer program, I registered two courses. They are “Basic Korean and
Korean Culture” and “An Evolution of Advanced Mechanical Engineering
Technology.
The first language course started on every Monday to Thursday from 10:00 to
12:00. In three weeks study, there are eleven classes. In the first week study, welearned all the Korean syllables. There are more than one hundred syllables andKorean people almost only use them to write and speak. They seldom use Kanjibecause Kanji are only used for distinguishing names in Korea. This is different toJapanese and Chinese in which Kanji are normally used. More syllables and lessKanji make Korean an easy language to learn from my study experience. In thesecond and third week, we learned self-introduction and easy conversations.

Prof. Eun-young Lee of Korean class

All the students are enjoying the class

The second engineering course started on every Monday to Thursday from 13:00
to 14:30. In three weeks study, there are twelve classes which are given bydifferent twelve professors. They are from civil engineering, biological science,
aerospace engineering and mechanical engineering. Every professor had given us
an introduction about their research fields and labs. The course is given by English.
At first, I was surprised that all the professors can speak English natively. After thecourse finished, I found that there are more than 85% professors in KAIST havegotten the Ph.D. certificate in the western top level universities. From this course, I
expanded my field and become more curious about engineering. I also learned2many new technologies that I have never studied before.
The details of lectures show as following:
Professor

Department

Major

Yeo Hwasoo

Civil Engineering

Smart Transportation

Kim Jaehoon

Biological Science

Eukaryotic Transcription

Kwon Oh-Joon

Aerospace Engineering

Numerical Simulation

Kim Sung Jin

Mechanical Engineering

Applied Heat Transfer

Na Suck-Joo

Mechanical Engineering

Welding Processes

Huh Hoon

Mechanical Engineering

Computational Solid Mechanics

Park Inkyu

Mechanical Engineering

Nanosystems

Oh Wang-Yuhl

Mechanical Engineering

Biomedical Photonic Imaging

Park Sukyung

Mechanical Engineering

Biomimetics(2) Research
In this program, I was assigned to civil engineering department. My advisor isprofessor Yeo Hwasoo who gave us the first engineering course lecture.
Prof. Yeo
works in Smart Transportation Systems Lab. which deals with design, operation andmanagement methodologies of transportation systems for sustainable society. I
was attached to his lab and study at my work place every week day. During thethree weeks, I discussed my research proposal with professor Yeo and learnedIntelligent Transport System (ITS) knowledge.

My research building

My workplace

4. Field Trips
In this program, we went to field trips every Friday. First week, we went to Jeonju
paper factory to learn the producing paper process. By this trip, I learned that in3

order to make a paper, drying and heating are necessary processes but it is not thatdifficult. Second week, we went to the famous Samsung Head Quarters in Seoul
Gangnam district. By this trip, I learned the past, present and future of Samsung.
Samsung is very famous and popular for its cellphone in China. However, its mostprofitable products are monitors and TVs but not cellphones. I also enjoyed many
advanced products like High-quality monitor, which made me think that engineering
is very useful and efficient for the development of the society and our lives. Third
week, we went to Gwangju to attend a global conference called EPICS Forum. Five
letters stands for different meanings. E is eco, P is peace, I is IT, C is culture and S is
sport. This year’s topic is sport and many famous people like Korean Olympic
Weightlifting Champion Jang Mi-ran had given us a speech.

Jeonju – Paper Factory

Seoul – Samsung HQGwangju – Global Conference

5. Impressions(1) About KAISTKAIST was established in 1971 but has already become the 12 th best universities
in Asia. There are almost 3,500 Ph.D. in KAIST which makes the campus a very richatmosphere of studying and researching. Lighted study room for 24 hours are very
common in KAIST campus. Although the program was held in the summer vacation,
many students kept studying until very late in my lab. Both KAIST and Tsinghua
students told me that they are always using their lives to study in their universities.
By watching and knowing these facts, I think I need to study and work harder inthe future.
Lighted study room for 24 hours

KAIST Library(2) About Korean people
4Korean people are very kind which made me a feeling at home. The program’s
manager Prof. Im and his lab’s members treat us a lot. Including some dinners andsome events like mountain climbing. Besides that, he preferred that we can attend
the same program next time.

Program Manager Prof. Im

Student Staff Jaesung Cho(3) About ourselves
By attending this program, I made many new friends from different countries.
The reason why we become good friends is that we all have the courage to speakout English and communicate with each other. From this, I learned that language
ability and communication ability are very important for a people to learn newthings and new thoughts which can let us become more comprehensive and wiser.
Therefore, I want to participate in more programs and catch more chances topractice these abilities in the future.

Travel with my friends

Program members

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