Founded February 1, 1998
(042)-869-2241 FAX: 869-2245
Vol. 267, November 11, 2005

THE KAIST TIMES http://kaisttimes.com

Participants of the 2005 Computing Festival.

2005 Computing Festival Concludes

"I want study more for my dream"

By Kyun-ho Kim
[Translated by Harrison Lee]
Korea Advanced Institute for Science and Technology
373 Guseong-dong, Yuseong-gu
Daejeon 305-711, Republic of Korea

The 2005 Computing Festival, hosted by KAIST Computer Science Department and MMRC (Mobile Media Research Center) has just concluded.

The KAIST Times spoke to winners Tae-soo Kim (Computer Science, 03) and Dae-wook Kim (Korea Digital media high school). Dae-wook is presently being educated by KAIST Science Young-Talented Education Center.

Times:

What's the impression of winning?

Tae:

A team with 6 members prepared very hard for 2 months. I think this prize is especially valuable.

Wook:

This festival motivated me to realize my dream by setting and achieving a goal. I will remember this prize as I study in the future, and will make an even greater effort. I thank my parents, my teacher Seung-wan Nam who guided me well, and my other teachers.

Times:

Please introduce your work briefly.

Tae:

The program name is "wireless internet based embedded RC motor design and unmanned control." The program works through embedded linux, and allows the network to interact with the RC motor and control it wirelessly. The user sends commands to an onboard computer, which then takes the surrounding environment into account before passing the command on to the RC motor. It appears that we got a good mark because we accomplished a task which looks easy but isn't.

Wook: It might be called "voice recognition secretary system using voice recognition technology". The formal program name is "Speech Recognition Secretary". It is the software for giving control commands to a computer using your voice. This program works by finding the closest match to the voced command in a library of natural language "scripts". If this system is connected to a parallel port, it can be linked to home networking system.

Times:

What made you take part in this festival?

Tae:

The biggest reason is to advertise KAOS, which is now established. We need financial support to upload PSP planned by KAOS on linux.

Wook:

One of my club members mentioned this festival to me. I then accessed the homepage, read the material, and became interested in the fact that most of participants are from science schools. I decided to participate because I thought that I could learn many things by competing with science high school students.

Times:

What were the toughtest things in your preparation?

Tae:

We trained mostly by seminar for a month. Dealing with hardware was the toughest because all of us major in computer science. Also I had many things I want to do, and finding a financial support was a real headache.

Wook:

I originally applied for this festival with 2 younger students. But something happened in the middle, so I had to participate alone. Because I had to manage everything by myself, it was pretty tough. But I did not give up and made it to the end, thanks to encouragement from friends and teachers.

Times:

Do you have any proposition to the hosts of the computing festival?

Tae:

I wish homepage and schedule management were more thorough. Also, I think more encouragement is needed. Many teams applied for this festival but then gave up in the middle because it was so tough.

Times:

Will you explain KAOS?

Tae:

It is the abbreviation of KAIST Open Source. We do all the activities related to open source. We work in three teams: the embedding team, the internet management team, and the rest.

Times:

Any messages to students interested in computer science?

Tae:

Isn't computer science cool? It seems like that the people who are studying computer science or want to major in it are the people who want to make their dream into reality. If you want to change the world and feel things directly, learning computer science would be good.

Times:

Wasn't it inconvenient, because the venue is Daejon?

Wook:

There wasn't any serious trouble because we could hear news about festival progress through MSN messenger talk with assistant professors. And coming to KAIST, where I wanted to visit somday, was pretty good too.

Times:

What's the impression of KAIST?

Wook:

I had lots of trouble because I had studied only by myself so far. But I feel I'm dreaming because KAIST has a lot of great professors, assistant professors, colleagues and labs. Honestly, I applied for KAIST but failed to be admitted. I will apply for KAIST one more time next year. Coming here is my dream.

Times:

Will you introduce the Digital Media High School briefly?

Wook:

The Korea Digital Media High School is Korea's first IT specialized high school. It has four departments - e-business, digital content, web programming and hacking defense. First graders learn the same things they do in other schools, but from 2nd grade on we learn about computers in earnest. Naturally we have an large number of clubs related to IT, and students in these clubs have gone on to win many prizes in IT contests.

Times:

What is your future dream?

Tae:

Personally, I am interested in robotics, and so I want to study it continuously.

Wook:

I want to develop computer systems that do something for human beings. To do this, I want to go to computer science and learn more about HCI (Human Computer Interaction) and artificial intelligence.


[© 2005 KAIST. This work is distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons license. Permission is granted to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work in unaltered form, with attribution to KAIST, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved.]