President Seong Keun Kim is reviving the trip to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the Nobel Week program and turning them into annual events. These events are designed to provide students with international experience and inspiration by networking with world-changing scholars and entrepreneurs at venues that would otherwise be hard to attend individually. POSTECH also provides financial support for accommodation, traveling fees, visas, and insurance.
  CES is one of the largest conferences where tech companies from around the world showcase their latest products and software solutions. Last year’s CES had over 3200 exhibitors among which were Google, Hyundai, and Samsung introducing their latest on AI, automobile, and display technologies. This year’s conference is held in Las Vegas where selected students will freely explore the conference from Jan. 8 to Jan. 13.
  Nobel Week is an annual global event hosted by the Nobel Foundation alongside the Nobel Prize ceremony where participants are given the opportunity to attend exhibitions, lectures and discussions of the Nobel laureates. This program is expected to be an opportunity for students to expand their international horizons by experiencing the Nobel Prize Lecture & Dialogue, visiting universities in Sweden, visiting research institutes near Frankfurt, Germany, and networking with various alumni. A group of 30 students will be attending the Nobel Week program in Sweden from Dec. 4 to Dec. 13.
  These programs were suggested as one of the President’s comprehensive roadmaps to create a university of academic integrity and intellectual curiosity, which he believes are lacking, yet vitally important academic cultures to be established among Korean universities. He said in his inaugural speech that although Korean universities have grown rapidly, “the academic traditions that Western universities have cultivated over hundreds of years are still rarely seen.”
  Although he believes POSTECH has made great achievements, “we should not be lulled into complacency of its past.” In particular, the idea that POSTECH has an inherent geographical disadvantage should no longer be a valid argument during the era of interconnectedness. As he envisions POSTECH as becoming a more open campus both inwards and outwards, CES and the Nobel Week programs are one of his ways of bridging the gap between Pohang and the World.