A brief final reflection based on guidelines in the course syllabus:

I had a pretty good idea of what to expect going into the South Korea trip in terms of the organization of cultural and professional visits and the assignments that would be due, and my expectations were correct. For this, I have to commend the global experiences office on their marketing and communication about the program. Another major part of the program that they touted was the teamwork component. We had a few team projects before and during the trip: the pre-departure and end-of-trip smart system presentations and the video. Obviously, teamwork is an integral part of any career, especially engineering, and being able to work in interdisciplinary teams comprising engineers and non-engineers is a good skill to have. I found that I did not get very much experience with this on the trip for two reasons. First, there was only one SCI student in our group, so engineering perspectives were overwhelming. This was true for the greater group as well beyond the teams, since only a quarter of the students were SCI. More importantly though, because the projects weren’t very technical, our educational backgrounds weren’t that important. There was no real engineering or CS component to any of the groupwork, it was more just observing and communicating our observations, for which it turned out that the real diversity in the group was between people who are good at thinking critically and people who are not. Which is pretty useful for professional engineering life as well.

But I found that having to do these team projects was beneficial for another reason as well: having existing teams made socializing easier in-country. Going into the trip, I already knew three peers well from my personal life (my dorm roommate and two friends), but I think I was in the minority; most people probably knew very few of their peers going in. Having the team component gave me an additional four contacts to help jumpstart the social element of the trip. From there, I made friends across the teams, but my closest connections on the trip were those people from my original group. This does beg the question of whether having established teams limits our ability to socialize outside of the teams. In a traditional classroom space, I would say this is true, but not for an experience like this, where mingling is inherent and unavoidable.

The social aspect was what bound it all together, not just to make it enjoyable, but to make the professional portion more useful. Many university classes that we take end up being treated as chores, undesired, or boring, and part of that is because we often do not know many or most of our classmates. This makes expressing interest or emotions regarding the content a vulnerability, since you are opening up to a group that is socially closed. Here this was not the case; I was able to openly express my awe at the steel factory, or my doubts and concerns regarding TOPIS. In a traditional classroom, I would personally struggle to be so outspoken, and I think others are the same. Being in a social setting allowed me to fully interact with the professional topics.

I will now discuss some of the other aspects of engineering soft skills, the first of which is engineering ethics. South Korea is a prime place to discuss ethics, and this discussion culminates at TOPIS, where CCTV footage can be viewed by anyone online, and where government officials (and data analysts at private contractors) can control cameras even inside some vehicles. In a country where some corporations have serious leverage over national policy and where the government is on permanent high alert due to the threat of North Korea (whether true, perceived, or manufactured), data privacy is crucial. Things like America’s Patriot Act and the handling of data by private companies such as Palantir may be small concerns in South Korea due to the relative normalization of surveillance. Being in South Korea lets us discuss the balance between providing a high quality service (more efficient and safer transportation) to the citizens and protecting citizen privacy.

Next is educational breadth, interdisciplinary, and lifelong learning. I can’t say that we did much of this directly, but I did a lot of it personally through the blogs. As someone who enjoys writing quite a bit, I took advantage of the blogs to go deeper into ideas that I had tangential to but not directly pertaining to the events and observations of the day. These included discussions on city planning, architecture, civil engineering, urbanism, and religion. I found that looking at Korea through these varied lenses allowed me to develop my thoughts and learn more about the country beyond the engineering topics we discussed. In terms of the lifelong aspect of it, these blog posts were a kind of practice for future trips and general observations. Wherever I go, I like to use my observations as inspiration for some kind of creative production, usually art or writing. It’s a good way to stay curious throughout your life, and Korea was part of that lifelong curiosity for me. Having these larger societal considerations makes you a better engineer, not just directly but indirectly as well.

Finally, the global component of this trip must be discussed. Going abroad is a fantastic way to become a better professional in any sense, engineering is just one of these. Engineering especially is affected by the local region due to its interaction with policy, economics, and the consumer. In South Korea, for example, the industrial interest in semiconductors has affected the mission of the universities. Also, the cultural desire for society-level organization and collectivism has allowed the unopposed establishment of TOPIS and other widespread smart systems. Another example is history; the desire for greatness after the Korean war, and the “pali pali” culture has caused an engineering environment that encourages fast research and development and government investment in these fields. While many of these aspects differ from our experiences in the US, there are also many things that stay the same: both nations are rich, democratic, high standard of living, etc. For a total contrast with the US, a better country to visit would be a developing country such as India, where in spite of local talent and desire for growth, there are large hurdles to development including sheer size, poverty, corruption, and conservative culture. South Korea is better, though, than other Plus3 destinations, particularly the Netherlands, where many of the ideals and societal circumstances are very close to the US. Whether the differences are great or small, understanding that there are differences is crucial, and it can teach us to identify differences even within the US, which we may think is homogeneous. For example, civil engineering in cities versus in rural areas is completely different, even within one state. Or, making a medical device for patients of different ages requires different considerations. Differences are all around us, and we have a responsibility to design accordingly.

This concludes my brief reflections on the South Korea Plus3 program. I greatly enjoyed the trip, not just for the social aspects, but for the professional values and insights. I will definitely seek out another global program, whether of the same variety, or whether to take classes/do research/work for an extended period of time.

– Rohit