University Summit in Kyushu 2007
Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan, 27-28 October
Session 1(Part2): The "Science City" of the Future and the Environment

Prof. Dr. Ki - Ho KIM
Dean, Graduate School of Environmental Studies
Seoul National University

 

Initiatives of Science and Technology
at Seoul National University

 
   

Korea has advanced rapidly in the past decades with making miracles of the Han River. Recently, however, Korea faces challenges by a rise of BRICs and NICs and a widening of technological gap with advanced countries. Science and Technology(S&T) is a key determining factor for global competitiveness. The Seoul National University (SNU) has an important role for an enhancement of S&T of Korea. The SNU has five missions in initiatives of S&T. They are critical thinking, balance between intellectual cultivation, interest-and curiosity-based S&T education, globalization, and information hub of S&T education. The SNU is in the process of establishing new campuses to lead the fusion technology. One is the Advanced Institute of Convergence Technology located in the Kyungi-Research Park. The other one is the Greenbio Research and Education Campus located in Cheongna, Incheon. In order to successfully accomplish both projects, the SNU has been closely working with national, and local governments and private companies. These projects shall benefit the related local communities as well in various aspects.

This year, the Urban Environment Design Center worked on "A Conceptual Design for Renewal of the College of Humanities." This Proposal shows how to design university campus for "knowledge convergence." And it also shows how to design an environment-friendly campus. In this project, the design problem was how to institutionalize the spontaneous interaction between the disciplines on the campus. In solving this design problem, the design goals were to redefine major nodes of activities, to build an integrated pedestrian network, and to create continuous greenways, among others. A transformation of the existing campus of the college of liberal arts into a campus where a real interaction can take place between the disciplines will  likely help to encourage  new and interesting developments like "convergence in knowledge and in sciences."