Hi! I’m Grace O’Malley, a first-year Computer Engineer at Pitt. I’m also pursuing minors in Poetry and Physics. I was born in San Francisco, California, but I moved to West Chester, Pennsylvania about 5 years ago (so, like everyone else, I’m from “outside Philly”). I’m the oldest of 4, plus one cat, and I’m really close with my family. At Pitt, I’ve been involved in Theta Tau, a co-ed professional engineering fraternity, as well as ASME. On the side, I like to rock climb, run, play volleyball, read poetry, watch movies, and paint.

I chose to travel to Korea because I’m very interested in the topic covered, smart systems, as well as the country itself. The interest in smart systems stems naturally from my interest in computer engineering, as well as from a brief foray into high school debate team, in which I did relatively extensive research on the internet of things for a debate topic. In addition, I’m interested in the country of Korea itself. I’ve never been to Asia, and honestly, I might have been too intimidated by the language barrier to ever visit on my own if not for this trip. I’ve heard that the Plus3 Asia programs specifically are a great introduction into travelling in Asia, and I hope to use this experience as a platform to continue exploring other cultures. I’m really interested in Korea specifically because its cultural origins are so different from my European roots (Korean culture being on a different “family tree” than my own). But especially in the last 100 years, South Korean-US relations have been so strong, Korea being one of the US’s most important economic and strategic partners in Asia, and what’s happened therefore is a sort of convergent cultural evolution. I think Korean history, both internal and in relation to the US, is especially interesting, and I find it’s current presence on the world stage incredibly impressive given it’s size (I was shocked to find out that Korea is only about the size of Pennsylvania!)

I’m hoping that by the end of this trip, I will have a better understanding of a culture relatively foreign to me now, a taste of what it means to study abroad, and an understanding of international industry and what it means to design with and for people abroad.