The Undergraduate Research Program (UGRP) is a STEM research competition hosted by the POSTECH Innovation Center for Education and is opened specifically for POSTECH undergraduate students, and exceptionally Yonsei University undergraduate students in collaboration with POSTECH students. In a team of three or more, students are encouraged to choose and investigate a research topic of their choice over the course of 10 months. The motivation behind this program is to provide students with a unique and hands-on experience to conduct their own research with an advisor and research funds of up to two million KRW. This whole process is in a sense a microcosm of real research.
 Although there is no restriction in the scope of topics explored, they are usually application-based as opposed to theory-based. Especially with the recent popularities in – but not only – AI, Metaverse, and Blockchain technology, students are explicitly encouraged to explore topics related to those areas. By the end of 10 months, the teams are expected to submit a comprehensive report of their research as well as a 5-minute demo video and a poster summarizing their findings. They are strongly advised against cherry-picking the results but rather include all the successes and failures.
 One of the finalists’ projects in the previous UGRP competition was about developing a chatbot system to help students choose the menu for the day. A somewhat trivial and yet important decision in everyday life is dietary choice. With a relatively limited option during the weekends, the school cafeteria plays a significant role in the physical well-being of POSTECH members. Notwithstanding its importance, however, there is not a popularly-used application where students can easily inquire about the menu of the day and the live congestion level at the cafeteria. During peak hours, especially, there would be a long queue stretching outside the building and around the Jigok pond. To solve this inconvenience, the team developed a chatbot system on top of Kakao talk as a unified point of service for inquiring about anything related to the school cafeteria. The team now aims to improve the system by adding a Point of Sale feature where students can now order and pay for the food directly from the app instead of having to wait in a long queue.
 Twenty finalists are selected based on the quality and the impact of their research. Being selected as one of the finalists is of course a recognition of the team’s successful work but is also a reflection of responsible work ethics as they are required to conduct research on top of the already challenging academic calendar. This year’s competition accepts research proposals until April 26, after which the teams are given until Jan. 9 to draw a meaningful conclusion. One does not need a fancy research topic to be selected as a finalist, but rather the passion and perseverance to lead the research until the end of the tunnel.