Week 3

KAIST Visit and Making the Most of our Climate Cards

Our NSF IRES group visited KAIST, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, in Daejon this week. During our visit, we met with a lab group making advances in interconnected transportation networks through digital twins. In Unity, they have created a virtual environment in which a simulated autonomous or driven vehicle can be tested. We also got the chance to test the virtual reality technology that allows tests to immerse drivers and pedestrians into the digital twin world. As we experienced, the technology still has bounds to go until the user experience of driving/walking in the simulated environment is equivalent to reality, but it was exciting to hear about the potential applications of this work. It provides a safe alternative to test in a way that would otherwise be expensive and pose safety concerns in a real-world environment.

I also attended my first KBO baseball game with Robert and his coworker! It was in the Jamsil stadium, which filled up by the time the game started. The energy was high and even though I’m not much of a sports fan, I loved the experience and want to attend another game. Going with Robert was great too because his enthusiasm for the game was infectious and he pointed out the strategy between every play, something I’d never be able to clock myself. Seating is divided so that you sit with fans of one team, which makes you feel more excited to root for them. We sat with the away team, the Hanhwa Eagles from Daejon (where KAIST is located!), who played against the Doosan Eagles. Despite sitting with the away team, our half of the stadium was still packed with an orange wave of fans decked out in jerseys and baseball bat-shaped noisemakers. Throughout the game, we were constantly singing and chanting to cheer on the players at bat. This amazed me; the entire game, our team was losing and despite this, energy was still high. Cheerleaders fulfilled their literal role, guiding us in the songs and dances that everybody did. Most of the time, Robert and I were just parroting back the Korean cheers without knowing what they meant. Eventually, I realized that parts of the cheers included the names of the players at bat, which I could read in Korean on the screen. Figuring this out felt like I unlocked a new piece of understanding and I could cheer more confidently being able to read at least one of the words the cacophonous crowd was shouting. 

Another highlight of the week was visiting the Hangeul Museum with Serena. Currently, the two of us are the ones in the cohort that are capable of reading it, so going with her was such a valuable experience to learn the rich history behind the script we just learned. The government is clearly very proud of Hangeul and the legacy it carries and it is amazing how such a basic thing – the written script, akin to our alphabet – is a point of national pride, and for good reason! Hangeul is framed as a mechanism for equity, being so simple to learn that anyone, despite socioeconomic or educational status, can easily become literate. This concept is honestly incredibly inspiring to me. The work I seek to do in life is completely different, but the idea of ‘universal design’, granting access to all, carries over to urban planning. Embedded inclusivity in planning practices is important and also evident in small ways, like the summer outdoor library in locations throughout Seoul. 

During our cohort meeting, Dr. Kim gave us more historical context and a museum recommendation along with some unique family history. I love history and in this city, its amazing how integrated it is into the urban fabric. I’m amazed at the extent of the museums I’ve seen so far and it is impressive that Seoul has invested so many resources into restoring historic buildings and monuments. 

In being laudatory of the beautiful (and free!) public libraries, museums, and other cultural institutions, I feel that it’s only fair I give a qualm that I have with Seoul to give a well-rounded blog post. It is baffling to me that the metro is only open until midnight on all days of the week! Especially in a city that has such thriving nightlife and generally seems to stay up late, I feel like there ought to be 24 hour service at least on weekends. Perhaps this is asking for too much – the interconnected network of metro and bus lines are an impressive feat themselves. But when in Hamburg, reliably knowing that the S-Bahn ran all night on weekends, albeit much less frequently, was a huge relief to me. However, taxi service here is comparatively inexpensive and night busses exist, so this isn’t prohibitive. It just serves as a caveat to the incredible ease that I can get around the city during the day (especially with the Climate Card, giving me unlimited access for a flat monthly fee).