Today, we visited POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology), which was founded by a steel company called POSCO here in Pohang.
Something that really stood out to me was that despite the scenic differences, there’s quite a bit of similarities between Pittsburgh and Pohang! POSTECH is definitely smaller in terms of class sizes, has a larger graduate body vs undergraduates, and is way more research heavy—despite this, you can see that the students and researchers are passionate about their work, and due to being so research-oriented they have access to a lot of technology and opportunities for research that we don’t see back at Pitt.
In terms of Pittsburgh and Pohang, it’s very funny—American football has the Steelers as our team, while the soccer (football!) team in Pohang are ALSO the Steelers! I’d imagine it’s because POSCO has a large influence on the scene in Pohang, hence Steelers, which aligns well with Pittsburgh’s history with the steel mills.
We got to meet some POSTECH students and discuss lives, a bit. It was neat getting to see the difference. I’ll admit, the entire trip was a little more confusing—we started at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, where a professor described her current research surrounding human-computer interaction and how socially isolated older adults tend to be more closed off and what the best (and delicate) way is to go about aiding this issue, as well as AI chat bots and non-verbal cues, and more. It was quite neat, but the only thing I really understood.
POSTECH is extremely engineering oriented, and you can see this in most that they do; while still neat and interesting to learn, I was extremely confused about the specific tools and technology being used as, being Information Science and DNID, I’m probably the furthest away from any of these topics than anyone else. Sucks, but it was neat to see things like the PAL (Pohang Accelerator Laboratory) buildings and the nanotechnology tools being used and how the PAL stuff is used in aiding healthcare.
While the day isn’t over yet, I really wanted rice cakes (and so did Kali), so Emma and a couple of the guys went with me to go get some. I’ve hooked people onto my rice cakes agenda, ha (in my defense, they’re really good). I ate a fair bit because I was honestly starving despite eating lunch and breakfast, for whatever reason (this time, I got myself yaksik). Crossing my fingers we’ll go back one more time, because man, am I loving that market!
No song title. I need someone to write a song about going to college; it would make this theme a lot easier!
