Testimonial Essay _  Qianqi Luo from Tokyo Institute of Technology

1)      What made you participate in the program?

Admittedly, I didn’t know this program at first and 1 week before the deadline of the application of this program, I happened to know this program occasionally from my friend. It is attractive to me since the one-month length program is during the summer vacation so that it will not have any effect on our normal class. And because the program pay for the airplane ticket and the fee of dormitory so we don’t need to worry about so much about money, then I applied for this program after talking with my parents.

Also, because Korea is an Asia country, so I thought the culture shock will not be so intensive. That’s also one of my reasons to apply for this program.

2)      What is the program about?  What did you learn from the program?

The program I took part in is one-month length Research-oriented program. We don’t take any classes and just to be assigned to a laboratory and to do the research. Actually, I am Junior in Tokyo Tech and I am not assigned to any laboratory yet so that’s my first time studying at a laboratory. The scale of the laboratory which receive me as a visiting student is very big: there are almost 100 peoples in the group (including intern students). And because there are many foreign students in the group, it is very easy to communicate with everyone. I practiced my English a lot and now I am not resistant to speak English with others. A mentor is assigned for me, and he gave me some tutorials to let me study the programming language and some modeling methods I didn’t learn before. I was shocked at first that people go to lab on unfixed time, and they just come home after they finished their tasks.

3)      What did you like most about the program?

Because we are living in the dormitory inside the KAIST campus, so that we don’t need to worry about staying late at outside so much. (Even though we didn’t do that J) And with the KAIST student card, we could use the KAIST library and student lounge hall. KAIST library building is so amazing, and I enjoyed it very much.

There are many cafeterias and cafes inside the campus. So that I could do the work at these places when I don’t need to go to lab.

I also enjoyed the day trip to Jeonju. It was my first time trying Hanbok and it is a unique experience for me. It was also my first time to eat yukhoe Bibimbap and first time to do such Korean craft. Thank for this program preparing such trip for us and I enjoyed it very much!

4)      How do you think your experience in this program will affect your future studies and career?

Firstly, I think this program make me have more courage to take actions. I don’t know Korean, so the only language I could use to communicate is English. When talking people with English, it is so common that I feel kind of feeling I couldn’t feel when I am using Japanese. Every time I must come through that feeling to communicate with others. It is a big challenge to me at first time, but then I found myself just used to it and could speak English with more confidence to do the things I want to do.

Secondly, I may not be able to explain clearly how this program will affect the career, but I am certainly sure about its positive effect on my future. By studying at lab, I get to know how people work and I found the field that I didn’t think I was interested in fascinating. And I was informed the importance to understand the mechanic of the methods we used when coding and that helps me a lot because I got to know what I could do if I encounter with some methods with not fully understanding.

Additionally, the fact that there is start-up building in KAIST surprised me as first. I hardly hear people around me talking about start-up things, so this word was not familiar to me at all. In KAIST, I realized again that start-up can be a choice for my future.