After every mid-term examination of the first semester, Postechians look forward to the Sunrise Festival, especially freshmen who have high expectations of the programs and are thrilled to take part in activities that are organized by the festival committees. Unfortunately, the 2014 Sunrise Festival was cancelled due to a tragic accident that took place a month ago, leaving some students slightly disappointed. For the freshmen who have never experienced the taste of the festival, we have prepared some of the interesting aspects of the past festivals from 2010 to 2013.Let us travel back in time

In the past, some students took a semester off to earn their tuition. But these days, although many students take off, the reasons are different. These days many students take off to improve their ability or rest or trip before they become a member of society. The Postech Times conducted a survey of Postechians on a leave of absence to discover their reasons and degree of satisfaction. Almost 170 students answered the survey.Out of a total of 169 students, 43% had taken one semester or one year off and 20% had thought about that seriously. Rest was the most popular reason (46%), followed by vo

Except the language course held before the semester began, the first course that I took in TU Graz was “Creativity technique”, which let students master various idea-generating skills such as brain storming, mapping, or six hat thinking. The course lasted for three days from 8 A.M. to 5 P.M., and at the last day of the course, instructors and Philips manager gave each team one container for blender, and let teams propose at least five ideas to improve container. Just within five hours, each team had to generate ideas, make rough designs, and complete presentation material. I just thought that

POSTECH has numerous exchange programs with universities both within and outside Korea to provide opportunities for students to experience how big the world is. Among all, the four Korean universities -Korea National University of Arts, Ewha Womans University, Handong Global University, and SungKyunKwan University (K’Arts, Ewha, HGU, and SKKU for short, respectively)- have allowed Postechians to view the world in a different perspective. One of the most popular universities available during the summer/winter break is none other than K’Arts. Theatre plays and acting classes are the usual course

In POSTECH, there are some programs organized by POSTECH International Relations (PIR). PIR provide five outbound programs, which are Summer Session, Study Abroad Program, Short-term Studying Abroad, International Internship Program, and AEARU Camp. These programs have their own purposes in progression.The main purpose of studying abroad program is, as indicated by the word “study,” education. Postechians who participate in the studying abroad program (including Summer Session, Study Abroad, and Short-term Studying Abroad) have to receive credits from the other universities. Furthermore, study

Entering POSTECH, all Postechians leave their families. To get into POSTECH, they had to give it their all. However, their worries do not cease with just entering the university. About 40-50 students go to POSTECH Counseling Center each week to reveal their heartache. Study and future have the largest priority, followed by character, relationship, emotion and the opposite sex.AcademicsEach year, the top students from each high school enter POSTECH from all over Korea. As they gather at one place, there is bound to be higher competition to become the leaders in various fields. They may experien

In modern society, many people live so fast and hard that they need time to heal their mind. The word “healing” is somewhat famous recently. It is a time or a method to refresh one’s spirit while relaxing or doing leisure activities. Healing is related to meditation so the interests about meditation are also increasing in the trend. Steve Jobs, the last CEO of Apple, was also absorbed in meditation, saying “my passion and creativeness come from morning meditation”. Google, Yahoo, Nike, Samsung, and POSCO also offer meditation classes to their employees. There are many departments related to me

A lot of research has been carried out to discover the true relationship between physical activities and the subsequent level of concentration while studying; that is, whether doing exercise has a significant effect on one’s studying abilities. Generally, statistics have shown that physical work-outs do have positive effects on studies, especially to those who exercise regularly. In order to find out the degree of correlation with Postechians (only undergraduates), students were asked to participate in a survey regarding the aforementioned relationship, which was carried out from Apr. 16-18. Q

In Korea, there is a saying that the field of natural sciences and engineering is at a crisis, whether it is about the lack of applicants for the field, its educational system, or its policies regarding it. The Postech Times interviewed Professor Sang Joon Park (HSS), member of the Crossroads Editorial Board at the Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics, on the lack of science & technology board members making policies regarding the specific field. In order for scientists to research, they need funding. To gain support, scientists need to publish theses. As the cycle con

Recently, it is recommended to university students to have professional experience like an internship before going out to society. Postechians also do internships and most of those are arranged by POSTECH Venture Innovator (POVI) internship program, which is operated by ENP (a POSTECH club) and Ji-gok Club (a group of alumni of POSTECH who are working in venture companies). POVI makes some contacts with companies where the members of Ji-gok Club work, and if there are openings, the companies offer POSTECH students internships for two to six months. ENP made this internship program to help stud

There was a piano recital of Timothy Ehlen (Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign) at the POSCO International Center on Mar. 27. Members of POSTECH and citizens of Pohang freely came and appreciated Beethoven’s sonatas. It was definitely a rare opportunity to enjoy such a great cultural event, especially in Pohang! Established in 1988, the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL) has contributed to the advancement of science and technology with Pohang Light Source (PLS). In PAL, extensive research in the field of basic and applied science has been carried ou

In the beginning of the new semester, students are given a choice to pay for medical deduction by email. The medical deduction fee is collected by Student Medical Coverage Union (SMCU) as a medical insurance to bear expenses, which are used to cure injured students while practicing dangerous experiments and in dormitory.Before 2012, the board of the directors of SMCU consisted of professors, staff and students, so the authority of the union was concentrated to the university itself rather than the students. However, it has changed through two years to only consist of students, which means the

Do you think POSTECH is contributing to our local society? Universities can make contribution to society in a variety of ways, such as voluntary services, talent donation, and making great research outputs. By comparing it with other universities in Korea and abroad, POSTECH’s impact on the community can be reasonably assessed.Other universities provide an example of how universities can contribute to the community. Suwon Women’s University not only does an international voluntary service, but also offers a variety of services using their utilizing the majors it offers in the local community.

The majority of Postechians would have come across at least one of the so-called ?yths?of the university. Several stories are so ridiculous that when one tells others, they would simply laugh away, assuming they are merely jokes made up by silly individuals. In fact, those stories were never meant to be jokes but frightening non-exaggerated truths.The most startling ?yth?is that there used to be two pedestrian bridges -one linking Science Building II and III, another linking Science Building IV and V- that allowed people in the third floor to walk over to the opposite building without having t

A new semester is upon us, and a number of freshmen are beginning to gather around the campus. What are the first things that come to people’s minds thinking of new semester? There might be study, dating, new friends, and cherry blossoms on March as well. However, before those, they would imagine numerous drinking parties, such as Membership Training, and the first meeting ceremony. Also, in POSTECH, all those parties are doubled because there is not only one for department but also one for classes. Sometimes foreign students also participate in those drinking parties. Does everyone enjoy thos

In Professor Seung Koo Shin’s (CHEM) General Chemistry class, undergraduate freshmen had an opportunity to go through a new teaching method called “Flipped Learning (FL)”. The name comes from its reversed study process from traditional teaching. The difference between FL and traditional learning need to become clearer. In the traditional model, students sit in classes and instructors directly impart knowledge to pupils. In this case, class is a place for knowledge transmission from teacher to students. After class, students individually carry out their assignment such as reading textbooks or p

Every Postechian knows POSTECH’s Honor Code, “Honesty and respect for others ensure Postechians the honorable future”. However, answers to various quizzes and exams are widely available and most students make use of them, thinking it natural and their own answer undesirable. Three students, Sanghoon Baek (ME 11), Sunghyun Kim (ME 11), and Changhoe Kim (EEE 10), formed a team and was given an opportunity by Job Korea to investigate the situation and find solutions in four universities and one organization in the United States: Georgia Tech, MIT, Harvard, CALTECH, and The Organization of Researc

Graduating with Ph.D. degree is one of the most memorable times a student could have in his/her lifetime. It is after a range of challenges that one is able to impress the senior professors, who are always ready to ask tricky questions, with his/her ability of identifying and solving a research problem. As is the general trend that the most knowledgeable professors are commonly associated with universities of high ranking. The choice of the Institute is thus a crucial ingredient in general terms as to how much excellence a student can show at the end of his/her degree.Back in the time when I w

The winner of Mueunjae Scholarship was selected at February 2014, Toikye Cho (IME 05). The prize has been awarded with medal to celebrate Dr. Hogil Kim from 2004 to a student who contributed in developing POSTECH or enhancing the honor of POSTECH. Especially in 2004, the medal was given to the winner of 35th International Physics Olympiads, held at POSTECH in July. Toikye Cho was asked the reason of being given the award which is estimated by achievement rather than grade of a student, and answered the award is given to himself to encourage doing his best after graduating.He picked up one of h

Last year, a Postechian finished the entire master’s and doctorate program in only three and a half years. That famous person is Woosung Kwon (CE Postdocs). In his lecture, he introduces how to become successful in graduate school years.He said it is not the effort, but the best output that is the most important thing. According to his lecture, he specified that those people, who do well, always study by themselves, find the problems, and immediately figure out the solutions. How good one is, equals to how fast one finds one’s subject, experiment, and make a conclusion by writing a thesis.The