Yonsei News

(Photography by fotografierende / www.pexel.com) 

The Yonsei Innovation Center for Engineering Education (Yonsei ICEE), in line with Yonsei University's prolonged effort to foster creative convergence talent, was established in March 2003 as an organization dedicated to research in engineering education. The Yonsei ICEE's mission was to provide students the opportunities for convergence thinking while establishing the system for engineering education that meets the increasing societal and industrial demand for professional engineers in the field.

The Yonsei ICEE strives to produce world-class creative convergence engineering talents who lead the technological development of the future, under the vision 'To cultivate creative convergence engineering talents through education on problem-solving, humanities convergence and strong entrepreneurial capacity'. The center has also established five main agendas to work on: 1) establishing firm cooperative partnerships between schools, industry, and local communities, 2) developing creative convergence capabilities, 3) specialized education for undergraduate and graduate school students, 4) enhancing global social responsibility while strengthening communication skills, 5) ensuring literacy in humanities education.

Initially started as an organization within the College of Engineering, the Yonsei ICEE was promoted to a university-affiliated research institute in 2007 in recognition of its contributions to the development of engineering education courses and the cultivation of next-generation R&D talent. With the Yonsei ICEE subsequently shortlisted for 'Creative Engineering Leader Cultivation Project' under the initiative of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, it has proudly established itself as a successful role model for creative convergence engineering talent training system.

As of 2021, the Yonsei ICEE operates a wide variety of engineering education programs to foster world-class creative convergence engineering talents, with students being educated in areas such as creative enhancement and future industry awareness, industry-academic cooperation and research, global competency, patent registration, and startup creation.

Future of Engineering with a Touch of Creative Innovation

The 'Yonsei Creative Exhibition' is an annual event to display and present outstanding design works of students from ten majors within the College of Engineering, held at the end of May to foster creative and excellent engineers. The following exhibition serves as a medium of opportunity for students to independently find problems in the local community, explore and develop solutions to be shared, and it has evolved into a community festival where students from other majors, middle and high school students, as well as members of various industries are invited to interact and share their engineering ideas. In addition, exemplary projects are granted the opportunity to participate in competitions at the national level.

The Yonsei ICEE also organizes 'Emerging Industries of the Future Program' that enhances the capacity of the students as engineers of the fourth industrial revolution. Some of the main sessions that are gaining popularity among students include 'VR·AR content creation training' that educates students on interactive contents production such as virtual reality using the Unity engine, '3D printing and 3D modeling training,' in which students learn to design 2D and 3D models with Fusion 360, a next-generation design and engineering tool, and print them out with 3D printers.

The Yonsei ICEE is continuously working on developing new programs to enhance students' learning capacity in emerging industries of the future, with the center freshly introducing the 'artificial intelligence and machine learning basic training course' in 2021. Additionally, to strengthen students' job competencies, the Yonsei ICEE also provides a ‘software coding evaluation preparation course’ that prepares students for compulsory tests conducted by multinational corporations in the field.

Techno Leadership in the Local Community

The 'Servant Leadership Program' is a volunteering program where students in the College of Engineering would provide teaching to children from underprivileged or multicultural backgrounds with science kits. Since its start in 2011, over 200 students have participated in the program. A weekly visit to a multicultural study room in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul, was made to carry out educational programs with science kits and experiential programs through visits to exhibitions. Amidst disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020, engineering students would create "how to?" videos on building the science kits to be distributed to the study rooms, while educational mentoring sessions were conducted via ZOOM lecture programs. By providing education and mentoring for underprivileged children in the community, engineering students are cultivating a sense of responsibility and the spirit of service, setting the stage for their growth as leaders within the community.

The 'Women's Engineering Community,' since its establishment in 2006 with the aim of fostering women's engineering leaders in the 21st century, has striven to achieve a number of goals such as forming a network of women engineers, creating a women-friendly educational environment, and cultivating humanities and leadership. With the participation of more than 170 female engineering students since its formation, the community would recruit new members annually in the spring semester, who will have the opportunity to participate in major engineering events such as creative exhibitions and the National Engineering Festival as ambassadors. The 'Women's Engineering Community' carries out independent sessions and education programs under the support of the Yonsei ICEE, with instances such as monthly regular meetings and one-day engineering camp.

Nurturing Talents Tailored for Employment and Startups

The Yonsei Innovation Center for Engineering Education provides industry-academic cooperation programs such as corporate field training and startup field training under the College of Engineering to establish the necessary linkages of engineering talents with the local industries. Through active cooperation between universities and corporations, Yonsei University seeks to minimize the experiential gap between the engineering talents desired by the industry and the engineers nurtured from the university by operating field training.

Through such field training, students can experience how their major knowledge is actually incorporated in the industrial sites, not only motivating students to pursue further studies in their majors but also helping their adaptations to the field through detailed job experience, providing them with valuable references as they later choose their career path. The field training for engineers currently operates in a variety of four to sixteen weeks, and three to 12 credits will be granted depending on the duration of the training through the ‘Engineer Field Training’ module. Currently, Yonsei University operates such training in conjunction with a number of corporations including Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, LG CNS, LG Display, POSCO, Lotte Chemical, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Hyundai Oilbank, and SK Innovation.

In addition, startup field training allows startup companies to utilize manpower from our university's outstanding pool of engineering talents, and at the same time provides students with experience in the startup field, thereby relieving concerns on startups and eventually helping them to create a successful startup.

Nurturing Global Competency in the Age of Internationalization

The 'Global Engineer Program (GEP)' is a notable volunteer program under the College of Engineering that aims to cultivate the value of creative problem solving, leadership to serve, and responsibility as a global engineer through community-based service learning as students volunteer in underdeveloped nations. The value of learning and service can be acquired simultaneously by improving understanding of other cultures and ability to adapt to the international community through educational services for elementary, middle, and high school students, efforts for local residents, water quality tests using major knowledge, and academic and cultural exchanges with local engineering students. Since 2010, a total of 136 students from the first to 10th batch have visited the underprivileged areas of the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia through the GEP.

The Yonsei ICEE also provides opportunities for students to enrich their learning by sharing ideas and competing with students from world-class universities through the 'Silicon Valley Startup Training,' through which Yonseians are jointly dispatched along with students from other domestic universities, touring Silicon Valley's outstanding companies and technology startups sites in the Americas to gain motivation for technology startups. Additionally, through participation in 'Singapore NUS SUMMER Program', which is held annually with themes on emerging future technologies ('Exploring New Space Technologies and Applications'), students are expanding their sphere of interaction as they design future satellites and create models using 3D printing after learning satellite orbits, operating methods, and activation systems with students from the National University of Singapore.

Breeding the 'Next Edison' through Intellectual Property Education

The Yonsei ICEE is also making conscientious efforts to strengthen students' intellectual property capacity and to spread the culture of intellectual property creation. With the growing demand for awareness on intellectual property, it is strengthening students' intellectual property and startup capabilities by developing and operating undergraduate-postgraduate-startup integrated intellectual property education programs. Since 2017, Yonsei University has steadily offered regular lectures that teach students how to create and utilize intellectual property, while designating 'technology creation and patent' and 'knowledge property valuation and finance' modules as engineering-elective courses are can be conducted as large-scale courses. Furthermore, Yonsei University provides experience in creating intellectual property through patent applications in the name of students (31 in 2018, 32 in 2019, and 23 in 2020) for excellent ideas presented from regular courses on intellectual property.

The Yonsei ICEE has been organizing 'Lunchtime Seminar For Engineering Students' at least twice a semester, for which experts in the field of intellectual property are invited to present on topics that meet the interests of the students as well as the societal trend. The topics of the seminars held so far include 'Analysis of Corporate Technology Through Patents,' 'Understanding IP-R&D,' 'Employment Mentoring Day' and 'Startup Mentoring Day'. The following seminar consists of the core competency program (basic) of intellectual property and the capacity building program (advance) in the segments of theory education and practicals.

Yonsei University also runs the annual 'Summer Vacation Patent Mentoring Camp' for engineering students from universities in the vicinity of Sinchon (Ewha Woman's University, Hongik University, Sogang University, Korea University, etc.) to offer education programs on the acquisition and utilization of intellectual property rights necessary for employment and startups. Through lectures and training conducted by experts and startups personnel in the field of intellectual property, students can not only gain awareness on intellectual property and build up relevant capacities but are also provided practical assistance in startups preparations by exchanging ideas with students from other universities.

As of June 2021, including Professor Ji Yong Gu, the head of the Yonsei ICEE, the center has four professors and three researchers, who are making continuous efforts to foster creative convergence engineering talent. A brief interview was carried out with professors, Ji Yong Gu, Kang So Yeon, Han Kyong Hee, and Kim Jaejin, to hear about the future direction of the Yonsei ICEE, which has brought about a new wave of nurturing the future engineering talents in South Korea.

"Yonsei University has been working to a great extent to nurture creative and convergent engineering talents, establishing South Korea's first engineering education and engineering center in 2003, and developing convergent engineering education programs that reflects the societal, industrial demand for professional engineers who can lead the future."

Professor JI Yong Gu, Director of the Yonsei ICEE

"The Yonsei ICEE was the first organization dedicated to research in engineering education in South Korea and it has significantly contributed to the overall development of engineering education by spreading its model to almost every engineering school in the country. Developing excellent engineering talents plays an essential role in the development of a nation's industry. The Yonsei ICEE, at the global level, is leading the study of engineering education and the spread of new approaches towards engineering education. In particular, we are trying to foster engineering talents who could lead the rapidly evolving era through new researches on the direction of engineering education in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, development of engineering courses, methods of engineering education, and the evaluation systems."

Professor KANG So Yeon, Student Advisor

"It's said that engineering has changed the world. That's right, but more precisely, we can say that engineers' imaginations have changed the world through the medium of engineering. The Yonsei ICEE has been focusing on developing and providing convergent engineering skills education and non-disciplinary programs to train aspiring engineers with imagination. We are also striving to create a new curriculum so that students' activities in the university grant them the ability to discover and solve problems in real life."

Professor HAN Kyong Hee, Student Advisor

"The government's direction on intellectual property education, as seen by organizations such as the Ministry of Education and the Korean Intellectual Property Office, is shifting from theory and creation of intellectual property to utilization of intellectual property in forms of intellectual property-based employment and startup, technology transfer and commercialization. As a result, the Yonsei ICEE is operating practical-oriented curricular and extracurricular intellectual property education programs while establishing direct and indirect industry-academic cooperation systems to ensure students in securing employment in the field while allowing them to actively adapt to intellectual property-linked career education, technological innovation-type startups, and policies to expand intellectual property finance."

Professor KIM Jaejin, In Charge of Industry-Academic Cooperation and Intellectual Property Education