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- Fall in Love with Korean Language - Korean Writing Contest Held in Ho Chi Minh City
- Fall in Love with Korean Language - Korean Writing Contest Held in Ho Chi Minh City Students Utilize the Topic 'Seed' to Show off Their Korean Writing Skills “Just as a seed in the ground grows towards the sun, we have to work hard for our future.” (Ding Thi Nga, Ho Chi Minh Human Science University) “There are no bad seeds in the beginning; the important thing is where we plant them.” (Line Sreinit, Royal Phenomph University) The ‘SungKyun Korean Writing Contest’, hosted by Sungkyunkwan University with the goal of spreading interest and proficiency in the Korean language, was held on the 25th of this month at Eden Saigon Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. There were 37 students chosen from 15 universities in 4 countries in Southeast Asia such as Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. It was filled with the enthusiasm of the local university students eager to display their skills and win a chance to study in Korea. The students used the ‘seed’ metaphor to write about the future and the concept of hope. Even though the writing wasn’t perfect, the students’ love for the Korean language was reflected in each letter. Chief Examiner, Prof. Jae Ho Sung, of SKKU’s School of Law said, “We have chosen seed as the topic because we wish that the contest will be a bridge that connects not only the economics but also the social culture and humanitarianism of Korea and Southeast Asia.” Lee Yeon Le (21) from Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities who is majoring Korean studies said, “It regrettable that I spent too much time thinking about how to write about the subject ‘seed’ because it has various meanings.” Ding Thi Nga (23) won first prize and the other twenty-three students were honored with prizes as well. The first, second, and third prize winners were awarded full scholarships to attend Sungkyunkwan University’s master’s course. The Vice President of International Affairs and also the Chairman of the Writing Contest Committee, Dr. Suke Kyu Lee, said, “There have been lots of changes since we have been holding the writing contest four times a year. For example, Vietnamese middle schools and high schools have chosen to have Korean taught as a second foreign language from this year.”
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- 작성일 2016-04-28
- 조회수 4058
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- Restraining Fat stem cell differentiation to avoid child obesity
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Korean researchers have figured out the mechanism for the cause of obesity. This contribution can be led to developing new obesity-curing drugs, especially in child obesity. Here’s the report from Mr. Shin. Last year, it is estimated by the CDC that 10% of children and teenagers are obese. Once the fat cell has been created, it never vanishes causing adult obesity. Prof. Choi, Min-kyu(Hallym Univ. Medical Center) Chile obesity is mainly caused by increasing fat cells. It often leads to adult obesity and increases possibility of hypertension or diabetes. Local researchers presented in the acdemic journal that they found the mechanism how protein induces fat cells to cause obesity. ‘S6K1’, a signal transmitter in the body, was dyed in green to observe the fat stem cells. S6K1 is activated by food intake, causing excessive fat cells. It seems that a new medicine can be developed to prevent S6K1. Prof. Han, Jung-hwan(Sungkyunkwan University) “If we can restrain S6K1 from going into the nucleus, it will be a safe medicine to cure child obesity problem.” In fact, the mouse that had restrained S6K1 weighted less than half of the mouse without restraint. Also, visceral fat was only 1/4. If it is possible to prevent excessive differentiation from the stem cell to fat cell, the stem cell can differentiate into the bone or muscle, lessening the possibility of obesity. -
- 작성일 2016-04-26
- 조회수 4005
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- [10 years of Korean MBA] Local MBA proceeds to global level
- 3300 applicants in 13 universities Significant increase in customized curriculums 10 years have passed since Korean MBA was launched. Started with 8 in September 2006, 13 Korean MBA programs are currently available in Korea. The recruiting number has tripled to 2023 students, while the total number of applicants has doubled. Korean MBA strived to be ‘Global’ by recruiting foreign professors and students. All 13 schools accepted foreign students last year. 134 students from 55 countries, mostly from US(19 students) and China(14 students) and France(5 students). National variety as well as number of students increased both, compared to the last year. For globalization of academic curricular, the effort for recruiting foreign professors continues, with 83 foreign professors instructing in Korean MBAs. English taught courses take 53% of all courses, amounting up to 831 courses. Among those, 11 full-time programs and 3 night-weekend programs are being held 100% in English. With the effort of universities, 13 programs are lisensed by AACSB(Association to Advance Collegiate School of Business) and EQUIS(European Quality Improvement System). These endeavors resulted in good performances in overseas. Especially, Sungkyunkwan GSB program(daytime) ranked 66th worldwide in 2012, jumping to 59th last year, ranked world’s top 100 MBA for three consecutive years. For night MBA, ‘Corporate MBA’ by Yonsei University ranked 45th in 2015 Financial Times ‘World’s 100 Executives’. Executive MBA by Korea University ranked 27th in FT World’s 100 MBA rankings in 2015, proving its excellence globally. Currently, local MBA programs are developing over time to suit applicants’ various needs. Ewha Women’s University introduced ‘Engineering program for management’, to raise female CEOs who can understand cutting edge technologies. Understanding Artificial Intelligence, Virtual reality, 3D printing is included. Addition to that, Ewha is opening ‘Creating Shared Value’ track, which will focus on low growth, environment, rich-poor gap, etc. Also, Ewha is supporting various networking groups as to provide sucessful careers of women CEOs. Sungkyunkwan University(SKKU) has opened MSMS(Master of Science in Management Studies) for students who just finished their bachelor’s degrees or less than 2 years of experience in the company. It is highly merited that non-business major students can learn fast to prepare for future careers. Graduate School of China in SKKU, which was established in 2005, aims to focus on 10 year project regarding Chinese silk road. Starting from Xian, China, every student will walk step by step to complete the Silk Road through middle Asia and Europe.
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- 작성일 2016-04-26
- 조회수 4020
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- Early Adoption of Software Based Education in SKKU, Ewha, and KU
- The leading universities in Korea have begun to reorganize their Computer Science departments to incorporate software technology. These efforts are intended to satisfy the demands of technicians working in the software sector. Starting next year, Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) has decided to increase enrollment in the Department of Software from 50 to 135. On April 8th, a faculty member involved announced, “The decision has been made to expand the Department of Software by downsizing and altering the Faculty of Computer Science & Engineering, in which there are a lot of possibilities such as scholarships and a free exchange student program for students. Five years since it was established in 2011, SKKU’s Department of Software has initiated a special course where bachelor’s and master’s degrees can be directly obtained. The students who undertake the course will have great opportunities such as studying with around thirty major companies in Korea like Samsung and SK Planet and visiting global enterprises like Google and Facebook. There is a full scholarship offered for the top 50 ranked students and a 50% scholarship offered for extra students chosen annually. Ewha University appears to be executing the same plan as SKKU by enlarging its Department of Computer Science and Engineering and reorganizing it as the Department of Software; the amount of enrollment is undetermined though. The university has changed its educational policies starting from the 2016 spring semester so that every freshman, except in the Department of Pharmacology, must take information technology and computer science classes for graduation. These are all related to software technology. A faculty member said, “The Ewha Software Center will be built next year for teaching software technology and promoting female professionals in the field.” In the meantime, Korea University (KU) has been initiating a “Software-friendly Plan” by instituting a new department that combines the studies of language, brain science, and computer technology (LB&C). KU is able to enroll up to 20 students in the new department and they must acquire 36 credits to obtain a degree in LB&C. Dongguk University has also decided to begin fostering software education in the 2016 fall semester. It will offer various classes in the subject by fusing it with Criminalistics, Robot Convergence, and Cultural Art. A faculty member stated that the motivation for developing the new software-oriented majors with the aforementioned subjects was because they have become the primary ones students are interested in at the university.
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- 작성일 2016-04-26
- 조회수 4177
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- The Instant a Water Drop Evaporates Has Been Captured
- A research group led by Professor Byung Mook Won from Sungkyunkwan University’s Faculty of New Materials Engineering was successful in capturing a water drop’s evaporation for 0.3 seconds. The head of the group announced on April 4th, “We have initially made a success in watching the process of evaporation of water drop 214fL in volume. The abbreviation in this case ‘fL’ denotes one liter over a quadrillion. The group captured the scene of the process in which a water drop becomes invisible as it is squeezed between micro particles by using an ‘Ultrahigh Speed X-ray Nano Picture Beam Line’ that belongs to Pohang Laboratory. The result from the study shows that the internal pressure of water drop is 0.6, which is lower than that of the air. The speed of the evaporation was one-sixth the speed a normal water drop evaporates. As a result, the hypothesis that the speed of evaporation of a squeezed water drop may be slower than usual has been proved. Prof. Won says, “The evaporation slows down as it becomes harder for the vapor to escape from the water drop on account of the lower internal pressure compared to the surrounding air. This discovery will contribute to the understanding of the formation of clouds and the control of nanoparticles. The research group’s findings have been posted on Scientific Reports in cooperation with Nature.
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- 작성일 2016-04-26
- 조회수 3843
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- Sungkyunkwan University Professor Ahn, Chang Wook develops ‘AI Composer’
- Professor Ahn, Chang Wook (39) from the Computer Engineering Department has been developing an ‘AI Composer’ using deep-learning (a technique that makes the computer learn on its own) and an evolution algorithm (problem-solving process). The computer analyzes the inputs and combines them to a scale to produce thousands of songs and pick out the best one(s). Professor Ahn has dreamed of developing the AI Composer since he was a graduate student back in early 2000s. As he started his Ph.D. program after finishing his master’s degree, he changed his major from wireless communications to evolution computing in order to study artificial intelligence (AI). He said, “I had more fun studying AI than my original major and was interested in music since I was in high school. I even played acoustic guitar.” He is regularly having the AI Composer’s songs evaluated by real composers. The professor said, “For now, AI is not able to create completely new or highly artistic songs like people do. However, composers are saying that its songs can be matched with that of amateur composers.” Ph.D. student, Chung, Jae Hoon has been developing the AI Composer along with Professor Ahn since the beginning. To fully understand the art of musical composition, he has been attending a music academy for two years now where he has been learning theory and how to generate compositions. Mr. Chung said, “I thought that to develop a humanlike AI Composer a profound understanding of music is required just as much as deep learning is.” Professor Ahn and Mr. Chung’s study did not always go smoothly. They applied for research funding from many organizations, but got rejected. They are continuing their AI Composer study without any outside research funding. They cover necessary funds with profits from other research projects. Professor Ahn’s goal is to start a business with his students. He wants to develop a program that creates matching music to video, or matching video to music. The Professor says, “Now we are fusing music with AI only. We are trying to expand the area into various arts such as painting as well. We assume it will take about three to four years to develop these other fields.”
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- 작성일 2016-04-26
- 조회수 3828
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- Study Shows It Is More Effective to Read Long Text in Paper Form
- Most people think they read more after the advent of SNS and internet, but the effect of reading is more effective in paper form, especially when the text is long and complicated with implicative content. Chosun Daily Newspaper and Professor Myung Won Choi (German Language and Literature and Human ICT Convergence) of Sungkyunkwan University held an experiment to verify how long and how accurately the information stays in the brain when reading a text by smartphone. The experiment showed both groups were better when reading with paper than with SNS. The effect was stronger when the text was longer and complicated. American university professor, Dr. Naomi Baron said, “After experimenting reading through mass media, 85% of people tend to slack off while reading on a screen which is a higher percentage than reading those reading paper (26%) and it also reduces concentration.” One of the students in the experiment conducted by the journal said, “I have tried to read an article on Facebook, but an advertisement popped up and I struggled to get rid of it. Also, it was hard to concentrate because I kept getting messages from my friends”. Prof. Myung Won Choi said, “This experiment shows that reading through digital screens through SNS is not so much ‘reading’ but is actually closer to simply ‘seeing’.”
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- 작성일 2016-04-26
- 조회수 3849
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- A New Trial of SUNGKYUNKWAN UNIVERSITY, “Exhilarating Welcome Party without Drinking Alcohol”
- -During the event, 250 freshmen, exceeding the expected number of 100, assembled in the hall- “I, as a board member of the SUNGKYUNKWAN UNIVERSITY STUDENT GROUP (called “JANG UEE”), couldn’t have been more pleased about the food prepared” A hundred freshmen, wearing a Korean traditional hat for students called “YU GUN” and bluish conventional cloth, sent a Korean traditional cookie to their superiors at 12:30 PM on March 06, 2016. This is a scene presented by freshmen that is a reenactment of a conventional event originally conducted between freshmen and superiors in which the freshmen prepared food and shared it with their superiors. The freshmen standing at the hall laughed when Hyun Tae Kim’s saying, “Everybody, be careful not to drop your food on your cloth; It is expensive”, who was taking a role as a Jang Uee, a sophomore majoring in department of painting. The traditional version of the welcome party was planned by a group responsible for preserving Korean tradition at SUNGKYUNKWAN UNIVERSITY. The group announced that the purpose of the event was to make a healthy atmosphere at the welcome parties of Korean universities, not like conventional welcome parties in Korean culture, where students are only drinking alcohol. The students of the group spend a lot of effort to represent traditional events properly by studying old documents. Inspired by their efforts, the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea allowed them to hold the event at Korean national treasures, Munmyo Shrine and SUNKYUNKWAN. The number of participants was beyond anticipation and reached around 250 people. Making a bow, all of the freshmen took part in the event with pleasure even taking jokes from their superiors. The leader of the group, Shin Hong Min showed his satisfaction about the event saying, “I’m glad to prove that a welcome party can be delightful as well as meaningful without any provocativeness such as drinking too much alcohol.”
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- 작성일 2016-04-26
- 조회수 3852
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- Employment Rate of SKKU Convergence Software Interdisciplinary Program Liberal Arts Studies Students
- Liberal arts students succeeded in finding employment at major companies, utilizing their combined knowledge in both liberal arts and IT-related fields. Students who were majoring in psychology, Confucian and oriental studies, and journalism and mass communication applied for the Interdisciplinary Program of Convergence Software in their second year and completed 36 credits during the last three years. Based on their efforts, they successfully found employment in the IT departments of major companies such as Hyundai Motor Group, LG, and CJ. According to SKKU, 16 out of 20 of the first students to graduate from the Interdisciplinary Program of Convergence Software found employment at major companies or foreign companies, making the employment rate almost 80%. Not including the students that did not seek employment for personal reasons, virtually all of the students found jobs. Out of the 16 students, one majored in mathematics, and the rest majored in liberal arts, business management, or economics. There are four students from journalism and mass communications, one from Confucian and oriental studies, one from history, one from psychology, and two from statistics. Also, four students are from business administration and economics. Han, Su Jin, who found employment at the IT department of KIA motors (class of 2010 Confucian and oriental studies) said, “Even though people say liberal arts, history, and philosophy are almost dying nowadays, everything they do at the corporations is basically centered around solving people’s problems. Humanistic imaginations and contemplation got combined with computer engineering and produced synergy.” This means that by fusing technology with a humanistic foundation she was able to distinguish herself from other people. Students also said they found it ‘fun’ to study subjects that were completely different from their major. Kim, Jae Yeon (Business administration class of 2010) said, “I applied for interdisciplinary studies because I wanted to try an unfamiliar area. I found the difficulties and challenges I faced when studying the new subjects interesting, which made me dream of becoming a software developer.” Kim is going to work at a foreign business application software company this year. The university is surprised by the accomplishments of the students. SKKU said, “Students did even better than we expected. Various kinds of convergence are occurring nowadays. SKKU will continue to support multidisciplinary students equipped with knowledge from both liberal arts and science.” The SKKU Interdisciplinary Program of Convergence Software is a curriculum that combines other departments with software, enabling students to work in software related fields. The curriculum was first established in the spring of 2013 and 80% of its students are from liberal arts.
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- 작성일 2016-04-26
- 조회수 3952
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- Key to the Success of No.1 Research Lab: Teamwork
- The Biomacromolecular Research Lab (Director: Professor Jae Hyung Park) in Sungkyunkwan University’s Natural Sciences Campus has produced the highest number of ‘Global PhD Fellowship’ members in Korea. The Global PhD Fellowship is a governmental scholarship designed to cultivate world-class PhD professionals by providing 30 million won annually per person for 5 years. Four graduate students were selected to be Global PhD Fellows. Along with that, sixteen graduate students out of the nineteen in the lab have been selected for other fellowships including the President Post-Doc Fellowship, National Junior Research Fellowship, and so on. The President Post-Doc Fellowship is the biggest scholarship a post-doc researcher can win; it provides 130 million won annually for five years. Wooram Uhm who was chosen for the Global PhD Fellowship said, “It’s exceptional for one research team to make progress with such large projects as well as have most of the graduate students in the lab win a scholarship fund. As a result, the number of graduate students in the research center has almost quadrupled.” Furthermore, this leads to outstanding results in research areas. For the past four years, 51 Science Citation Index (SCI) class theses have been published in world-class scientific journals in the biomedical field including Biomaterials. The research center is also conducting joint research with Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Samsung Medical Center. The graduate students in the research center said that the secret to this outcome was strong teamwork. Prof. Jae Hyung Park has a discussion every month with all of the graduate students in the research center and the doctoral researchers to share the contents of their research and determine which directions they should pursue. “New pharmaceuticals are hard to develop in Korea with insufficient research and development funding. Increasing the efficiency of pre-existing medicine is our main research aim,” said Prof. Park
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- 작성일 2016-02-15
- 조회수 4047