On day 9 of Plus3 South Korea we had yet another busy day of visiting companies and learning about their business models and smart systems. On this day we visited both HY Fredit and the Samsung Innovation Museum. While very different in their business models, both companies are success stories in how aspects of Korean culture and entertainment grew into massive enterprises with country and world-wide reach.
HY Fredit Company
In Korean culture, digestive health and diet are extremely important. This is one of the main reasons for why Kimchi is served as an appetizer before virtually every meal. In the days of the major Korean dynasties, dairy products were especially rare and thus eaten by the royalty only. To this day, the vision of dairy products as a wonderful treat lives on. Yakult is a particular dairy product packed with certian strains of probiotics that Koreans love to enjoy as a treat mostly during breakfast. This kind of liquified yogurt when combined with fiber is extremely beneficial for digestive health and is seen almost as like ice cream in America.
HY Fredit in Korea is tasked with the duty of producing and delivering this delicious treat in its signature bottle all over South Korea. In fact, our tour guide informed us that at any given time, their production tanks have enough Yakult to last the entirety of South Korea three whole days before running out. By far, HY Fredit had the most welcoming environment for students/executives/tourists to view the processes of their factory. Throughout the tour we got to see reenactments of workers going throughout their day, projected videos explaining the production line, and a very friendly tour guide explaining the ins and outs of the line itself. From this experience, we learned a lot about how HY Fredit uses smart systems to ensure that they are meeting government regulations in the production of their products. Better yet, to deliver their Yakult products, they have created AI temperature controlled, ride-on carts that can be used by independent vendors all over Korea interested in selling their products. This visit offered perspective into how Korean advancements have created opportunities for even food companies to streamline their sales and safety through computer-learning tactics.
Samsung Innovation Museum
To say that the Samsung Innovation Museum (SIM) is the best museum I have ever been to is a vast understatement. While most exhibitions have displays meant to be read and pondered for many hours at a time, the SIM knows just how to keep computer engineers like me engaged for those same periods of time through interactive exhibits. The SIM covers everything from the first recorded electromagnetic experiments all the way to Samsung’s massive market presence, now, in 2024.
Throughout the tour, we learned about humanity’s collective advancements in the field of electronics engineering and how Samsung became the technological giant that it is today by first improving the family television. Once the company had established its brand name with innovation and convenience, it began expanding into mobile phones, appliances and other technology to improve people’s quality of life around the globe. My personal favorite part of the tour was hall #3 where Samsung set up a display room to showcase all their products in one location. The tour guide did a fantastic job of not only explaining each of the products, but also how Samsung is trying to build the smart home by connecting all their devices to be controlled through one app. As Samsung continues to venture into this field of AI and Big Data, they are looking to match Amazon Web Services in terms of helping both individual users and companies with their machine learning solutions. For individuals, this may look like a smart thermostat that adjusts to user input and patterns of the user’s preferred climate. For companies, this may look like offering compute power and storage solutions through a cloud computing platform. After being a part of this tour, I cannot express how excited I am to enter the field of computer engineering and to offer my abilities to a company like Samsung as they work to fulfill their mission.