The TriggerThe beginning of the crisis was when PIA (The full-name is not known) - an independent, unauthorized student group formed to arouse issues surrounding human rights - posted the result of a survey on Dec. 20 regarding the school members’ opinions on homosexuality.The result of the survey contains several charts from the questions asked through the survey. The questions were generally asked questions such as “what do you think about homosexuality?” or “What do you think is the cause of homosexuality?”Also included was the pie chart to the question, “what is your sexual orientation?” S

For the last 25 years, POSTECH has grown rapidly. Finally, in return for the growth, POSTECH was ranked 28th in The Times World University Rankings in 2010. It’s a valuable fruition mainly from aggressive investments and results in research.Only a few steps remain to be completed in order for us to realize the dream of VISION 2020. However, the standard of POSTECH is not only determined by its academic achievement, but also its tradition and culture. In that sense, the number of steps looks far larger. POSTECH needs special alumnus, symbol, and events like what it has produced ? special output

Our founding chairman, and also the greatest among modern Koreans, Tae-Joon Park left a lot of heritages. Real evidences, including steel mill of POSCO, 14 schools in Pohang and Gwangyang, and POSTECH, which already grows as a world-class university, correspond to them. Moreover, there were two prominent philosophies which say “Serve the nation through steelmaking, and Serve the nation through education.” As a director in charge of the construction of POSTECH, only within a year and ten months did I finish establishing softwares, hardwares, and humanwares, and that’s why I couldn’t stop being

Alas, the founding chairman Mr. Tae-Joon Park, always eager to push POSTECH to become a world-class university, will never be back again. Such a steel magnate, who made miraculous industrial growth possible, passed away. He produced steel, the “Rice of industry,” and supplied it to all the industries in Korea. By doing so he helped gain freedom from poverty after the Korean War. When recruiting Ph.D. researchers for technological progress of POSCO was slow, Chung Am (the pen name of Park) decided to train scientists and engineers through establishing a university and invite Korean scholars abr

Dear founding chairman Tae-Joon ParkAfter participating in the unveiling performance for your statue, I was motivated to send you a letter and so I write this now. I did join the ceremonial luncheon as the vice president of POSTECH Alumni Association. While seeing the video about your life, I felt something touched my heart. I had a talk with several people about you Mr. Park, and they let me know that founding POSTECH and POSCO is the biggest achievement of yours. I totally agree with that. Also I believe it’s really hard to find a person with such remarkable achievements.Only twice did I per

I wrote this by recalling the precious ties with our university’s founder, late Tae-Joon Park.It was late August in 1985 when late Hogil Kim came to KAIST in Hong-reung, Seoul in order to persuade me to participate in his impressive dream to construct a world-class university specialized in science and technology. His logic was that we were all fully capable to construct the university led by great faculty from both domestic and foreign backgrounds with ten or so great scholars by amassing the excellent students with the preeminent financial resources of POSCO. In a little while, the four-part

As I kept my post at the Severance Hospital funeral hall, I was amazed by the founding chairman’s wide personal connections in economic, political, cultural, religious, and soccer areas. At the same time, however, I wished that the significance of POSTECH’s foundation would have received more attention. He knew the importance of quality human resources in today’s world of creativity and knowledge as well as in the steel industry, which fuels the overall industry. For this reason, I think the establishment of the university, despite difficulties, that fulfilled his gigantic dream has more signi

The foreign readers might not be familiar with Tae-Joon Park, who passed away on Dec. 13, other than the fact that he was the founder of POSTECH. For those who may be curious of the POSTECH founder’s life, The Postech Times has briefly written about the life of Tae-Joon Park from his birth to death.Early AgeTae-Joon Park was born in Yangsan-si, Gyeongsangnam-do in 1927. He moved to Japan when he was six and how he spent his early ages is not known. He entered Waseda University and studied mechanical engineering. After Korea’s independence in 1945, Park came back to South Korea.Return to South

POSTECH recently celebrated its 25th anniversary since its foundation. As many people already know, POSTECH has a special tie with POSCO. In fact, POSTECH could not exist today without the support from the recently deceased founding chairman Tae-Joon Park.A major steel tycoon in South Korean history, Park is also known as the education revolutionist, one of many nicknames he liked to call himself. He always treated education with the utmost importance and is known to have said, “the country is made by outstanding individuals, and outstanding individuals are made by education.”When he first cam

Tae-Joon Park, the founder of POSTECHwas famous as the founder of the iron and steel industry in Korea and led the industry to the top position of Global market. Therefore, he is often called“Steel King.” He holds status with the past president of Korea, Park Chung-hee and started the iron and steelbusiness under the support of the president. Though the business did not seem tobe a success at first, the factory was constructed in Pohang and developed quickly as one of Korea’s main industries. With the development of the industry, there are four more achievements of Park: Politics, Economics, S

One good thing about being a Postechian is you do not need to worry about leg exercises, unless you are too tired to go to class after the overnight lan party at the dorm. Here are fun facts about the 78 Stairs.The origin of the nameThere is a famous rumor concerning the meaning of the name. As the proverb goes, many believe that the origin of the name of the 78 Stairs comes from the Korean proverb ‘For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again.’ Here is the fact. The 13 meters high 78 Stairs consists of seven staircases with 78 steps in total.The legendAccording to the legend of the

There was a POSTECH Orchestra concert on Dec 1, 2011 in celebration of POSTECH’s 25th anniversary. The Postech Times had an interview with Maestro Uihwan Chong. Maestro Chong took the position six years ago when he came to organize the POSTECH Orchestra with Professor Jung Ki Kim of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences.How did you come to lead POSTECH Orchestra?This is a question I was asked five years ago. My wife, then, was a professor at POSTECH. Once I came to POSTECH to see one of the POSTECH’s culture programs with my wife. I somehow met Jung Ki Kim, who’s the head of POSTECH

Kicking off with the front-runner Samsung GALAXY S II LTE which launched in September, Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology is now widely available to many mobile devices. However, extensive use of this blazingly fast device often drains away the power from the phone making it a useless gadget. Many times, it so happens that the phones need to be charged immediately but with no charging point available nearby. To solve this problem, advanced technology has been used in some cellphone designs that make them capable to power themselves with solar energy.Photovolatics, which were once used almost

Did you enjoy Pepero Day with your loved ones? Every 11th day of November is called Pepero Day in Korea. It is similar to Valentine’s Day but couples exchange Pepero rather than chocolate.A stick-shaped Pepero is covered with chocolate syrup at the top. Firstly, Lotte Confectionery, one of the biggest food companies in Korea. got inspiration from the Japanese cookie called Pocky and produced Pepero massively since 1963. As its shape looks like 1, 11/11 resembles that there are four sticks of Pepero; therefore, Nov. 11 is called Pepero Day. Moreover, many young couples enjoy it as a special hol

We usually refer to the principle of dialectic in discussion of how things change and improve; it is a principle that the previous thesis is contradicted by antithesis. Then, there gets to be a synthesis of collusion. The same applies to the communication methods trend. Telegrams replaced the manually delivered letters. The phones replaced the telegrams, and Facebook is replacing Cyworld and other online networks in Postechian background since Sep. 2010. In POSTECH, though the adoption has been little late, Facebook is overriding Cyworld, a social network service that once was the only online

Autumn has arrived in POSTECH, and with it comes the ending days of October, with a bottle of beer, student rock band club Steeler’s performance, and Jack-o’-lantern. The Dormitory for Cultural Exchange (DICE) and Steeler together hosted a Friday Night Party (FNP) for Halloween at the Atlas Hall of the Student Union on Oct.28. Halloween is celebrated in the United States and European countries on Oct 31. The history of Halloween has its roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain- a time used by the ancient Pagans to prepare for winter. The ancient Gaels believed that on the last day of October, t

At noon, a bus arrived in Andong Hahoe Folk Village. This trip was organized by the International Relations Office (IRO), and was also a collaborative program with the Dormitory for International Cultural Exchange. The members of this tour consisted of 40 foreign students and seven Korean students, including two reporters from The Postech times.One of the groups, which include reporters, went to Hahoe marketplace first. There were many shops which sold various things about Hahoe Village, such as small masks and traditional necessaries. Some international students were interested in acupressure

Here comes October again, a beautiful month for travelling and sightseeing as the weather is not too cold yet, and there are many festivals held around nearby areas. Located in the middle of Gyeongsangbuk-do, Andong is a place where genuine Korean tradition is still alive. Despite the recent boom in the tourist industry by adding it to the UNESCO World Heritage List on 2010, Andong Hahoe Folk Village has not lost its touch with its rich cultural heritage, providing visitors a taste of the essence of Korea’s traditional lifestyles.Hahoe Village holds its significance in that it has preserved th

The second session of the Seoul Forum (see page 2) discussed how to manage the cooperation system of universities, industries, and research institutes. As a really “hot potato” of this era, there was a careful discourse on what we should do to transfer scientific innovations from universities to industries. Additionally considered is what the mission is of universities to have desirable interactions with industrial firms.President Yongmin Kim opened the session with his keynote lecture, emphasizing the awareness of university members on commercialization of basic research is always required. T

There were many interesting points that occurred during the recent POSTECH & KAIST Science War held at KAIST. Nobody could anticipate the result of the competition until the basketball game finished. If supporters were asked to choose the most interesting points of the Science War, they would likely pick the dramatic victory and unexpected outcome of the competitions. While POSTECH gained the championship easily by winning from every category except AI programming in the ninth KAIST & POSTECH Science War, no one could know the result until the end and every student from both universities watch