To get driver’s license, people have to pass the driving test which consists of theory test, functional test, and road test. Theory test is about traffic law, traffic safety mark, road surface marking, etc. In functional test driver has to drive the car along the driver’s license test course. Purpose of functional test is to teach the bare minimum amount of driving ability and enable basic driving. In road test, driver has to drive in the real road with other ordinary cars. There were some critics about low level of difficulty of the driving test, so it was decided to increase the difficulty o

Bin Wang is a distinguished professor of Physics and Astronomy Department in Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He was selected as the Cross Century Excellent Young Researcher award in 2003, and won the NNSFC Outstanding Young Researcher Award in 2005. He has published over 100 papers and got more than 3000 citations. During overseas reportage, The Postech Times had a chance to interview Prof. Wang about the his research, students, and the university.Q. What is your main area of research?I am working on general relativity, and two research topics: black hole physics and cosmology. Questions like w

There is one thing for sure about traveling China as a Korean. The prevalent convention for China in Korea influences the tour experience a lot at first. It goes both ways in a very extreme sense especially when traveling Shanghai. The first thing to notice when driving from Shanghai Pudong International Airport to downtown Shanghai is the colossal highways that stretch almost endlessly. The everlasting vertical scale is insurmountable. The next thing to notice is the prevailing color of the city. Abundant skyscrapers and busy intersections and streets make it clear why Shanghai is called “the

Last year, there were various science or technology issues that caught the public’s eye. New discoveries were enough to shock people, and new technologies offered glimpses of how our life may improve. Some issues brought up problems that scientists and the society should be concerned about. We will review 4 of the hot science issues of 2016.Artificial IntelligenceArtificial intelligence became an issue as Google DeepMind Challenge Match, AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol, drew huge attention from the public. As AlphaGo won by 4:1 against one of the best Go players in the world, people were shocked by h

Pohang Light Source (PLS) is a national research facility for analyzing fine structure and feature of a substance. Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL) has been open to users since 1995. The fourth-generation synchrotron radiation facility, Pohang Acceleration Laboratory X-ray Free Electron Laser (PAL-XFEL), was completed in 2015 and is being prepared for testing. Online application service for beamline of PLS is served on “pal.postech.ac.kr.” Application is a three step process. The initial step is writing basic information: applicant’s contact information and research theme. The second step i

On Jan. 12, 2016, the Bank of Korea (BOK) announced that it will focus on the research of coinless society this year. It revealed its plan to make a coinless society by 2020. Due to the high cost of coin casting, coinless societies are rising as the alternative of coin economies. There is a well-known incident of people who melted bunch of 10 KRW coins and made it into copper and zinc. 54 billion KRW was spent in 2015, making coins. According to the data of Korea Minting, Security Printing & ID Card Operating Corp in 2007; 40, 91, 139, 192 KRW was spent for making 10, 50, 100, 500 KRW coins re

Corruptions related to the Choi Sun-sil incident are continuously being revealed. One of the most significant events brought up to the surface recently was athletes getting caught up into the Choi Sun-sil incident. Turned out, not even the world’s greatest athletes can get past politicians. Yuna Kim, former figure skater and Olympic champion, was reported to have fallen into disfavor with the government by refusing to participate in Neulpum calisthenics demonstration, which Cha Eun-taek took lead in. Yuna Kim refused the “invitation” since she was very busy at the time promoting PyeongChang 20

After the personal gains of Choi Sun-sil and her acquaintances being involved in the decision making of the Korean government becoming widely known to public, people are enraged about the collapse of democratic order. The most significant change is found in the public opinion poll. According to Gallup Korea, the approval rate for Park Geun-hye government has been below 5% for 3 weeks in a row, since the first week of November. Another poll conductor, Realmeter, also announced that the approval rate had decreased to 9.7%. Results from both organizations are the lowest since Park Geun-hye’s gove

Triggered by exclusive news of JTBC on Oct. 24, the Choi Sun-sil Incident as a whole has put a majority of South Korean citizens into consternation. The revelation of the catastrophic fact that the South Korean government has been run by a single mid-aged woman during the last four years has generated speculation among other countries regarding their diplomatic relations with South Korea. The USAWhile the Choi Sun-sil Incident was getting the spotlight in South Korea, the USA was busy with her own presidential election. The American government has not said much about the matter. Alicia Edwards

I came across some pre-entrepreneur college students at ‘Idea Marketplace,’ a program held at POSCO Center in Daechi, Seoul. They were Postechians. ‘Idea Marketplace’ is a job creating exhibit that connects people with investors through a contest between different venture ideas. A team composed of Postechians introduced several different experimental products such as using bio 3D printer to solve arteriosclerosis through biodegradable stent, managing system for large storage batteries, a social media application modeled after dandelion spore, etc. to the public. The reason Postechians, student

Choi Soon-sil Incident has been the hottest topic in Korea since last August, and still, it is indisputably rising up with no limit as an unprecedented national crisis. How has Choi Soon-sil, a normal ‘Gangnam madam,’ got herself involved in national event of this scale? While new political scandals are revealed day by day, The Postech Times has closely followed the events to provide a summary of what has happened so far.Who is Choi Soon-sil?Choi Soon-sil is the 5th daughter of Choi Tae Min, who was in close relationship with former President of Korea, Park Jung Hee, President Park Geun-hye’s

Passion of Pohang (POP) is a festival directed by student steering committees from three universities of Pohang: Sunlin University, Handong University, and POSTECH. POP has been held since 2006 as a mean of promoting social intercourse between the students from Handong University and POSTECH. Sunlin University joined the alliance just a year later, forming what is called Pohang University Association today. The city of Pohang started backing the occasion from 2007, uncovering POP as conducive to shaping the city community’s culture. POP is striving to expand itself from a meetup between univer

Due to continuous earthquakes occurring in South Korea, there are lots of controversy about the evacuation plan and being prepared for another attack. Lots and lots of problems are brought up to the surface. Critics are saying that this country has learned nothing from previous disasters: Sewol, Sampoong Department Store, etc. The main problem was the insufficient correspondence of the Ministry of Public Safety and Security (MPSS) when 5.1 and 5.8 magnitude earthquakes struck the country. MPSS’s homepage froze and people were unable to gather information about earthquake evacuation at the time

On Sep. 12, the strongest earthquake in Korea since meteorological observation occurred in Gyeongju. Even though two continuous earthquakes each with magnitude 5.1 and 5.8 caused damage in structures and air of anxiety, earthquake alert system did not work properly in time. In case of Korea, Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) detects the earthquake and gathers the information. According to the comprehensive plan about earthquakes and tsunamis that has been published by KMA in 2015, there are currently a total of 389 observatories which allows to inform earthquakes stronger than magnitud

THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense Missile) is a defense system with radar that senses enemy missiles and shoots them down. On Jul. 8, the government declared THAAD will be deployed in Seongju. The location was decided by considering military effectiveness. It can shield cities like Pyeongtaek, Gyeryongdae and Busan which are all important military points.However, the residents of Seongju highly resisted the deployment. On Jul. 13, more than 5,000 people joined a rally and on Jul. 20, about 2,000 residents went up to Seoul Station Plaza and had a peace demonstration. They expressed con

The decision to arrange THAAD in South Korea is also getting various voices from inside the US as well. The voices that agree with the decision say one thing in common: national security. The first reason is the reinforcement of defense against North Korea’s growing missile threat. The other is to improve allied defenses. After all, it is a fact that North Korea continues to launch asymmetrical life-threatening provocations and that their nuclear experiments are not faltering. On the other hand, the US’s THAAD deployment is also claimed to be ‘the worst’ for South Korea. On Sputnik News, Theod

The current stance of China on the deployment of THAAD in South Korea is indisputable. China opposes to North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons and is suggesting six-party nuclear talks (the US, China, South Korea, Japan, Russia, North Korea) as the solution, favoring “conversation over constriction.” Therefore, China relentlessly disagrees with the deployment of THAAD, asking for the US and South Korea to respect China’s “strategic safety profit”.After the summit meeting between President Park Geun-hye and President Xi Jinping in Hangzhou on Sep. 5, there was an interpretation that the op

Technology allows us to live a comfortable and valuable life. Everything surrounding us including foods, clothings, and shelters cannot function without technology. Technologies surround us, but not every technology helps out our life. Tribes living in Amazon jungle do not need smartphones because they cannot utilize it, as people living in city do not feel the necessity to hunt and slaughter animals. “Appropriate” technology needs to be applied on appropriate situation to improve the quality of life.Appropriate technology is the technology that considers political, cultural, and environmental

Today’s world is a tumultuous one where everything is looked back again and remastered its best efficacy. Even the traditional systems, especially the ones that resisted the most against revising, are being challenged by agile startups. In short, it is a time of uncertainty for many people, as the landscape is shifting faster and tougher to read. ICISTS, the abbreviation for International Conference for the Integration of Science, Technology and Society, has been holding conventions that offered insight into today’s world since 2005. Every year, ICISTS-KAIST came up with the hottest contempora

While learning a new language, the biggest obstacle learners struggle with is the vocabulary. Grammar is also both difficult and important, but it is impossible to communicate in a foreign language without sufficient vocabulary. Eventually, people spend a lot of time practicing various words. However, the ocean of vocabulary is so deep and many people flounder in the ocean. The Postech Times would like to introduce a special life vest, “Etymology,” that will keep you from sinking in the ocean.Etymology is the study of the origin of words. To research the footprint of a language, it is essentia