EXPERIENCE 3

1. Detailed Abstract

     

     I will be taking 12 credit hours of Industrial Design classes at KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) in Daejeon, South Korea for the whole Fall 2017 semester. On August 21st, I will board a direct flight from Chicago to the Incheon Airport. When I arrive there on August 23rd, I will get on a bus from the airport to Daejeon. From there, a taxi will take me to the on-campus female residence hall in which I will be staying. International student orientation takes place on August 24-26th. Class starts on August 28th and ends on December 15th. During orientation, I will be able to register for courses of my choice. Based on the courses which were available during Fall 2016, I plan on taking these classes (with these UC course equivalents):     

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                    Product Design Program (INDL 3043)     

                    Design for Professional Practice (DSGN 3081)

                    Information Design (INDL 3047)

                    Interaction Prototyping (INDL elective course)

                    Basic Korean I for Foreign Students (KOAN elective course)

                    20th Century East Asian Art (ARTH elective course)

 

    I knew that I wanted to attend KAIST the moment I heard about it during my freshman orientation at UC. My second visit to South Korea will definitely build on the impact of the first – a 12 day service trip to Dongducheon that I took with my high school in 2014. This will be my first international flight without my parents, and I am excited about gaining experience and finding my way around as an independent adult in a significantly different country. Through experience and the effort that I put forth to learn the language and meet people, I will gain the confidence to explore and take initiative in this new environment. I would also like to take home a few authentic Korean recipes and perhaps try learning some martial arts. While I am there, I want to travel to Seoul to sightsee in the capital, Busan to see the ocean, possibly to Japan for a weekend, and back to Dongducheon to visit some of the people I know from the last time I went to Korea.

    In regards to my profession, the teaching that I receive at KAIST will have a great positive impact on the quality of the Industrial Design project portfolio. My personal passion for product design is focused on consumer merchandise like small appliances, home goods, and cutting edge kitchen tech. KAIST is a technical school that focuses more heavily on the electronic side of design than my current program at UC. Since KAIST is technology focused, I can learn how to apply realistic electronic components to my projects. This heightens the authenticity of my concepts as I will be able to build interactive prototypes and speak knowledgeably about the internal workings of my design. My solutions will be taken more seriously and have a higher likelihood for production in the workplace.

     I also have a deep appreciation for the Korean lifestyle and aesthetic that I observed the last time I was there. I hope to pick up a new approach to design, unique to the Korean culture, which I cannot find here in the USA. At my last internship at BISSELL Homecare Inc, we partnered with a Korean design consultancy to create a new visual language for high-end products. Their fresh approach helped us expand our ideas and create a product appearance that would appeal to people from a variety of backgrounds. Exposure to Korean design theory and thinking methods will allow me to apply a new strategy to the way I solve problems and make aesthetic choices. Moreover, I will return to the US with a global vision of design and a better grasp of the international marketplace.

     When I return, I will be able to point specifically to Korean design as inspiration in my projects, and I am sure that my peers will be able to see an improvement in my work as I apply a more developed thought process, fresh aesthetic taste, and electronic realism to my projects. I have always advocated for international travel as a means for personal growth, and my trip to Korea will be a testament to the fact that even the other side of the world is accessible to students who are willing to be teachable and to try new things.

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2. Connection to Learning Outcomes

 

From the Global Studies Thematic Area:

Develop practical travel skills that promote safe, stimulating, and productive travel throughout your life.

     From booking my own plane ticket for the first time and hailing a taxi in a foreign language to managing Korean Won and learning a new alphabet, this trip will be full of challenging and necessary travel experiences that will train me to be a safe and well-prepared traveler in the future. I will learn to be accustomed to traveling primarily by bicycle, bus, and train since I will not have access to my own car for the first time in five years. I am already using this summer semester to refresh my Korean reading skills and build up a basic conversational vocabulary with which I can meet people and ask for help. I plan on traveling more throughout the semester to the cities of Busan and Dongducheon as well as to Japan for a weekend.

 

From the Creativity Thematic Area:

Discover new techniques to gain knowledge, consider options, make new connections, and ask questions.

     While in Korea, I am sure that I will encounter an entirely new approach to design. At UC, I have been taught a process and techniques for ideation, concept development, and design decision-making. I hope to add a whole new array of brainstorming and problem solving methods to my creative arsenal as I learn more about the Korean way of approaching problems and collaborating with others to find solutions. I will follow the design and communication processes that are taught in both my Product Design Program and Design for Professional Practice courses.

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Seek new ways to engage an existing competency/medium.

     This past semester at UC, I learned how to code in a mixture of C and C++ coding language in order to make interactive electronic prototypes using the Arduino software and hardware platforms. Since KAIST is a technical college that emphasizes the electronic aspects of forward-thinking design, I plan on greatly advancing my skills in that department. I will be learning how to code and wire up sensor inputs and communication outputs to my project models so that they can be semi-functional for presentations and critiques. My projects can begin to explore the fields of “smart” design and connectivity in the Internet of Things complete with user interfaces, real-time feedback, and data analysis.

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3. Academic Resources Connected to the Learning Outcomes

     

     “See You in Korea” is a documentary by the Korean National Tourist Association. It shares information on the food, culture, and ideal travel destinations around the entire country of Korea. By familiarizing myself with the tips and suggestions in this film, I can be a more respectful and engaged traveler as I explore the sights that South Korea has to offer.

     I will be stepping up my foreign language skills with this book: Korean from Zero! 1 by George Trombley, Reed Bullen, Sunhee Bong, and Myunghee Han. It will start off my refreshing my memory of the Korean alphabet and take me all the way to creating basic sentences that I can use to meet people and actively display my desire to learn about the culture. I have read that many South Koreans are particularly surprised and feel honored when foreigners attempt to learn their language.

     Korea Style, a book by Marcia Iwatate and Kim Unsoo, gives a well curated presentation of Korean design history and its modern state. These images and their detailed descriptions will help me get a better sense of the design theory and aesthetic principles which I can hope to learn during my time in Asia.

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4. Reflection

 

     Throughout my semester at KAIST, I will be building up a great collection of industrial design projects which will serve as artifacts from this learning experience. In my Interaction Prototyping course, for example, I will be learning how to create semi-functional product models equipped with a programmable Arduino circuit board. These projects demonstrate my grasp on the new concepts that I have learned at college and the progress that I have made towards achieving my professional learning goals.

     My designs will exhibit Korea-inspired shapes, materials, and colors. After each project, I will take the time to point out and justify design decisions based on Korean influences such as architecture, culture and history, or modern design. I can do this by creating an inspiration page specifically for this purpose in my final process book for each project. Much of this design inspiration will come from photos that I take as I travel. (These pictures can also serve as a type of travel journal.) Moreover, I will determine what each project taught me about product design on an international scale; I will ask myself how design in Asia is both similar and different to what I have seen in the USA and how these differences can stem from culture and/or environment.

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5. Dissemination

 

     I will pass on this learning to others primarily through the IDSA mentorship program and outlets provided through UC International. I will be making regular updates to my honors portfolio website blog with pictures of the design culture that surrounds me. As I take design theory and history courses at KAIST, I will be come more familiar with the Korean design aesthetic and the visual language with which they treat their architecture and products. Design is as unique to a culture as its spoken language, and I hope to learn both as much as I can while I am there. I will seek out these examples of Korean cultural expression in visual form and document them on my website in a gallery fashion with a name, place, and short description. The audience of my website are prospective employers, my peers at DAAP, and members of the industrial design realm of Instagram and Behance. The format of my images allows them to be easily shared as posts on the aforementioned online media platforms as well. In addition, I plan to take over both the DAAP and the UC International Snapchat account for a day. This will allow me to share images of a typical day at KAIST and short descriptions of text. The audience of this outreach is anyone who keeps tabs on the DAAP social media platform (both grad and undergrad DAAP students, those on co-op, and others studying abroad elsewhere) as well as people who are interested in potentially studying abroad through UC.

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6. Project Adviser

 

     My experience adviser is also my UC International travel adviser, Ryan Meyer. His email is: meyerr2@ucmail.uc.edu, and his phone number is: (513) 556-0395. He is my connection to the administration at KAIST and has years of experience in advising industrial design students in the Korea exchange program. We have already been in contact throughout the registration process; he is knowledgeable about both UC and KAIST requirements. I can come to him with questions and concerns about travel preparation, best financial practices, and cultural expectations before and during my trip. 

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7. Budget

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Plane Ticket: $1,233

Student Visa: $70

Alien Registration Card: $30

Vaccinations: $250

Korean language learning software: $64

Insurance: $115

Tuition: $5,500

Housing: $700

Living/travel Expenses: $650