After the second semester, I visited a nursing home nearby and spent a total of 64 hours over a 10 day period working two to eight hours every day. Before this voluntary service, (which I acknowledge that such voluntary services are meaningful and contributive to society), I thought it was kind of a waste of time and rewardless. So, it was my first time visiting this kind of facility, and the very reason I took part in it was not that I wanted to be of help to old people, but I simply needed some community service hours urgently. The nursing home consisted of three floors, and I spent most of

From Jan. 3 to Jan. 8, the world’s largest electronic show, the Consumer Electronics Show 2023 (CES 2023), was held in Las Vegas. This year’s catchphrase for the CES 2023 was BE IN IT, and as the slogan goes, POSTECH was in it! Overall, 181 third year students participated in the CES 2023 as industry attendees, absorbing all of the innovative technology that CES 2023 had to offer. I was lucky enough to be one of the attendees who was given the chance to participate in the CES 2023. Before attending the CES 2023, my expectations of the trip to the United States were not that high, thinking it w

Like many of the people who are reading this article, my own academic specialisation is in dark matter. Yet unlike many of those who are reading this now, my dark matter is conceived in the pages of fictional texts – not in the world of physics. Gothic literature is a deeply misunderstood area of literary studies – it is often confused with either horror or science fiction. There are many areas in which the three overlap. However modern gothic scholars, such as David Punter and Glennis Byron, prefer to classify gothic literature as a mode rather than a genre. The main difference here is that t

As I took an evening stroll through Hongdae on my first day in South Korea, it was full of couples holding hands and wearing trendy, matching clothes. The place seemed alive. At that point, it was hard to imagine I was in the country with the fastest declining population in the world. But as I reached my university town Pohang, a city of half a million people located on the other side of the country, it painted a different picture altogether. Heading down to the markets and streets, you’re met with a sea of ajjuma (old ladies) and often there is not a young person to be seen. Of course, a vast

From my youth, I was a bookworm - I loved reading. My parents said that I tended to learn about the world through books. Up to my high school days, I thought everything I could ever learn was written somewhere in a book in the library. I was not the type for hands-on projects or doing experiments. In particular, I disliked the grunt work of measuring something over and over, just to get a ‘good’ result that agreed with already established laws and theories. Or worse, the experiment would infuriatingly yield the ‘wrong’ result, in which case I had to do the whole thing again. Perhaps what chang

Please introduce yourself Hello, my name is Jung-in Youn, head of the Special Tax Treatment Division of the Tax and Customs Office, Ministry of Economy and Finance. I began my work as an officer at the International Finance Bureau, and worked through a variety of fields including national budget, policy, and tax, and returned to my current position at the Tax and Customs Office. I earned a doctorate in economics in the U.S. and worked for the Presidential Council on Nation Branding, where I wrote a book called “Korea Brand Power” that deals with national status. I also worked at the World Bank

Nowadays, being young means living for the future. Study to get into a good high school, work hard to get into university, do well in university to get a good job, the list goes on. Life is in constant motion forward, towards something. But what happens when we are forced to not think about the future? I used to comply perfectly with society's orientation on the future. I have always loved planning and had a strong sense of where I wanted to go. That is partly why I surprised myself by setting out for an exchange program to POSTECH. As many people know and the rest can guess, an exchange s

On Nov. 17, one of Korea’s biggest exams, the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), took place. Most students must go through it to enroll in the universities they want, and it involves keen competition for good grades. Many people had gone through this course, and the CSAT makes the headlines every year. As many as about 500,000 students took the CSAT this year, in just nine hours as well. These days, experts are increasingly criticizing this examination system. In addition, as participants decrease compared to over 800,000 students in earlier CSAT’s, grade evaluation systems have encounter

Introducing my Research Optics and condensed matter physics have been traditionally separated. My research is not confined to these two fields but is a new research field that has not existed before: combining both of them with nano-science technology. Specifically, it is to develop nano-scale spectral imaging technology that overcomes existing limitations. Using them, it is also to discover, analyze and control nano-optical properties newly emerging on a nano-scale when various matters including single-molecules, single-quantum light sources, and low-dimensional quantum matters contact with l

Resilience is one of human nature’s most highly praised qualities, and it is something that has been highlighted and honored in culture since the dawn of humanity. What is funny to notice is that as venerable a trait as it is, both on a microscopic and a macroscopic scale, it kind of lays dormant during times of euphoria and prosperity, and only awakens in times of turmoil and despair. Why? I just cannot help wondering if it is a biological quirk built inside each one of us or a behavioral flaw that we must fight to tame each day as an individual and as a society. I must have been eight years

As I am writing on a stale day like today thinking this will probably be my last column, I could not help but be a little retrospective. Writing a column is particularly challenging and cautious, not because there is nothing to write about, but because the column should not be an ode to dejection, and because, I am "confined to the narrowness of my experience that I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of the readers." So, whilst contemplating on an apt topic that ticked all the boxes, I came across an idea that would be relevant to everyone one way or another. I realize that th

Greetings, I am Gil-Ho Lee from the Department of Physics. Our Quantum Nano-electronics Lab is researching quantum nano-devices. I assume you have heard about quantum mechanics. Although quantum mechanics has been occasionally used as a synonym for an "unknown phenomenon" in science fiction movies, there have recently been more reports on "real quantum mechanics" in the media. It seems to be a time when quantum mechanics, which was traditionally an area of physics, is becoming more widely known since its breadth is widely expanding and connecting with the field of engineering. Our group makes

When I said that I will take a break during the 2022 Spring Semester, my friends asked, “What will you do during the six-month-long break?” Though I considered this break when I was a sophomore, I made the final decision rapidly because of my surgery in February. I planned to work in a company through an internship program, learn some techniques related to computer languages, as well as learn some VR technology along with my one-month rest after the surgery. Many people told me to take a rest since I was exhausted, having had a busy time with lots of work from several clubs, projects, and a lo

It had been five years since I had set foot on foreign soil. My high school life was full of dreams of freely traveling abroad and experiencing the various exotic cultures around the world. Yet, Covid-19 remained triumphant even after two years of pandemic madness. Hence, I was jubilant when travel regulations were slowly lifted, opening a slight window of opportunity for overseas travel. My original plan was to go to Osaka, Japan, where a friend of mine was living. However, the regulations imposed by the Japanese government banned free travel and only allowed package tours for large groups.On

Professor Chong Soo Lee in the Graduate School of Energy and Materials Technology (GIFT) recently published two ISO (International Organization for Standardization) standards for evaluating the hydrogen embrittlement resistance of high strength steels, which are essential for the wide application of hydrogen energy. Such achievement was possible through the collaboration with the Korea Testing Laboratory (KTL). In commemoration of the enactment of these standards, The Postech Times requested a contribution article about Prof. Lee’s research and teaching life.Brief information about Prof. Lee a

I think summer break is a time to do things that I have not done before and gain various experiences. I had a good opportunity this summer to meet friends from MIT, Berkeley, Georgia Tech, Seoul National University, and KAIST at the same time during my research experience. Meeting students from various universities around the world, I realized that what I was thinking was wrong, and I was able to broaden my horizons.Academic GrowthDuring this summer break, I studied machine learning. Although I am planning to go to the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, my knowledge of machine lea

A year ago, I wrote a column addressing my despair towards humanity’s collective climate action – or the lack thereof. The column was a reflection of my “feeling like I must do something” but “completely clueless as to what to do”. That cluelessness is perhaps mutual for all of us involved because, for a fact, no single person alone can solve this crisis. Therefore, we feel powerless as individuals and decide not to take any action at all, because blaming the collective inaction is easier than putting all the burden on yourself. However, last time, I convinced myself that individual-level acti

Professor Jung, Chea Yun studied law at Korea University, the New York University School of Law, and is licensed to practice law in the State of New York. She has previously spent time in the Supreme Court Judicial Policy Research Institute and the Graduate School of Future Strategy at KAIST. She is currently a professor in the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences at POSTECH and offers law courses – such as Artificial Intelligence and Law and Introduction to Law – that are popular amongst Postechian cohorts. She specializes in legal philosophy, legal sociology, and legal anthropology whi

Editor’s note: The following is a fictional first person narrative of the oracle in the Greek tragedy, Oedipus Rex. Where I landed was called Delphi by the locals. The temple of Apollo was built on Mount Parnassus, with great limestone cliffs surrounding its three sides. A perfect natural citadel. One could see a beautiful green valley stretched out in front of the temple. If one were to walk up the road, they would see buildings filled with treasuries donated by the wealthiest and strongest in the Greek world, which pilgrims can’t help but look in awe. I had a distaste for primitive civilizat

The winter break in the third year of high school is a good time to invest in hobbies. I fell in love with skiing and visited the Yongpyong ski resort more than 30 times. Skiing is a winter sport activity in which you come down from the top of the mountain while enjoying the view of the mountain range and the open sky. Skiing is attractive in that one can run at a speed that is difficult to experience in daily life and you can directly control the speed and posture. Feeling the air while skiing down at 70km/h is like thin ice crashing on your face which is cool and refreshing.The 2021/2022 ski