‘Global CDP’ hosted by the YU Hub Center for Engineering Education
Engineering students from 13 universities in four countries such as Korea, Thailand, Singapore and Japan gather their ideas
Filled with creative ideas such as feces analysis health care, crosswalks that protect the weak, etc.
Improving global communication and problem-solving skills through collaboration of various nationalities and majors
[July 19, 2019]
<Students and products participating in the ‘2018~2019 International Capstone Design Program: Global CDP’>
“Where will IoT (Internet of Things) be used in our future lives?”
College students from Korea, Thailand, Singapore and Japan gathered in one place. They came to share ideas on new fields where IoT can be used to and produce their own protypes and models.
The YU Hub Center for Engineering Education (Center Director Song Dong-joo) held the ‘2018-2019 International Capstone Design Program: Global CDP’ at the Gyeongju Suite Hotel for five nights and six days from the 15th to 20th where various IoT devices were introduced.
The theme of this program was ‘IoT Device for better life’. Over 40 students from foreign colleges including Thailand’s Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, Singapore Polytechnic, and Japan’s Kanazawa Institute of Technology, and YU and Kumoh National Institute of Technology for a total of 79 students from 13 universities both in Korea and abroad participated. Eight professors from four overseas universities and nine domestic university professors exchanged ideas with students during the camp and helped them build IoT devices. The students were in charge of establishing concepts and producing their works, while professors played an advisory role.
Participants were divided into 12 teams by equally mixing universities and majors to create their products fitting to their majors and personality. As various countries, universities and majors were combined, there were floods of creative ideas. Ideas included personal health care products that could be used conveniently and IoT that can be applied to public facilities closely associated with our everyday lives.
Team 3 that was comprised of Kumoh National Institute of Technology, Thailand’s Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi and Japan’s Kanazawa Institute of Technology presented a health care program that provides daily fecal-health checkup using feces analysis. This program analyzes the color and shape of feces and sends the information an application to provide real-time health information on mobile devices. It also allows two-directional communication where doctors can check the information and comment on it using the application.
Yang Jin-hyuk (24, Kumoh National Institute of Technology, senior) who led the three-nation team said, “Unlike traveling abroad or simply interacting with foreign students, we were able to work and sleep together in Thailand and Korea to share various opinions and exchange knowledge in our majors, and I think this helped us to upgrade to the next level.” Eom Chan-ho (24, Kumoh National Institute of Technology, senior) in the same team said, “By exchanging various ideas from different countries and majors, we were able to come up with completely unexpected ideas. Through the brainstorming process, we were able to check each other’s strengths and weaknesses, learn from each other’s strengths, understand each other’s cultures and throught process, and learn how to communicate with each other.”
Taloengrat Poomchaiya (21, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, Department of Computer Engineering, junior) said, “The best thing about this was sharing knowledge of our majors and interacting internationally. I also learned the importance of teamwork by sharing and concretizing each other’s ideas.”
The three-university team of YU, Inje University, and Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi drew attention with its crosswalk system for protecting the weak. This crosswalk includes a Bluetooth signal control system for the elderly and disabled, as well as jaywalking prevention functions using motion detection sensors. In particular, students with a variety of majors including architecture, mechanics, and computer engineering gathered and produced a precise crosswalk model that can demonstrate their idea, thus drawing the attention of other participants.
Kang Dae-wook (24), a junior at the YU School of Architecture who served as the team leader, said, “We had some trials and errors in gathering and materializing ideas because of our differences in nationality and majors. However, despite the fact that it was only for a short period, being able to gather opinions of different majors and creating a model served as an opportunity to gain more insight on each other’s majors and I felt that my spectrum of knowledge expanded.”
‘Capstone Design’, which means ‘comprehensive creative design’, aims at fostering engineers with practical abilities and creativity. This is an engineering education program with the goal of improving creativity, practical skills, teamwork, and leadership by having students design, produce and assess products that could be used in industries, etc. based on what they learned in the majors.
<‘2018~2019 International Capstone Design Program: Global CDP’ (January 2019, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, Thailand)>
YU has been holding the ‘International Capstone Design Program’ every year since 2013. It has been assessed that by hosting the program for the seventh year now, the level of students and perfection of projects have risen significantly. Unlike past years, the program was held over two sessions in two countries. During winter break of January this year, students gathered at Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi in Thailand to come up with ideas and design concepts, while the students continuously revised and supplemented their ideas during the semester using social media platforms and video conference calls. In the second part of the program held in Gyeongju, the students spent five nights and six days together to show and present their works that materialized each of their ideas.
YU Hub Center for Engineering Education Director Song Dong-joo (Professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering) who oversaw the program said, “The students were able to naturally improve their skills in their majors by brainstorming ideas on IoT devices that will be used in everyday life of the future, while also working on designing the concept, programming and producing prototypes on their own.” He added, “It will be a valuable experience to improve their global communication skills and problem-solving skills by collaborating with students having different majors and studying in various countries to complete the project.”
