A turbulent age calls for a hero! A conundrum calls for a KU student!

KU Idea Festival ‘Ji-Sung-Bal-Gwang(知性發光)’

“How to increase the population in Korea & How to decrease the temperature of the earth”

 

 

 

 

Could KU students’ brilliant ideas double the population of Korea and cool the earth down by 1°C?

 

The Office of Student Affairs, the Korea University Newspaper, and the Center for Teaching & Learning co-held the 1st KU Idea Festival Ji-Sung-Bal-Gwang in the Global Conference Room of the Centennial Digital Library on Thursday, May 19th at 4pm.

 

Ji-Sung-Bal-Gwang was created in order to facilitate the exchange of thoughts among KU students and to invite brilliant ideas for leading a sustainable future. Participants were given two questions: (1) How can we double the population of Korea? and (2) How can we cool the Earth down by 1°C? Among the 44 three-member teams that competed, only 6 teams survived the preliminary and semi-final competitions.

 

 

 

 

With the aim of providing leadership training for youths who face new problems, the event offers KU students a place to gather and collaborate for novel solutions. In total, 12 teams who have passed the preliminary competition were invited to partake in the 3-day Logical Speaking Workshop, where they learned how to organize and deliver their thoughts in a systematic manner. The 6 finalists were offered another opportunity to consult with senior mentors, Gil-young Song (Vice-president of Daumsoft) and Taewon Kim (Google Korea), for further development of their ideas. Song and Kim provided the students not only with consultations for developing their ideas, but also with heartfelt advice as friends.

 

The final competition went as follows: each team presented their ideas based on a slide they prepared, and answered questions from other teams, audiences and the judges. The panel of judges included: Professors Ji-young Shin, Taekyun Hur, Seongcheol Kim and Hong Seo Ryoo, and Juntae Yoon (Vice-President of Daumsoft), and Yoonho Lee (Manager, Google Korea).

 

 

 

 

The question about doubling the Korean population was discussed for the first half of the event. Team ZZan, comprised of Hwan-Hee Cho, Hyo-Jung Kwon, and Soo-Bin Ahn, began by noting that fact that the birth rate in Korea rises every 20-30 years due to the baby boom generation. “The birth rate in Korea surges when the baby boom generation reaches the average birth-giving age,” they explained. “The children of the baby boom generation are called the Echo Generation.” Team Chyan suggested “shooting at the target at the right time.” In other words, to “establish an Echo City where a variety of benefits are offered to people of the Echo Generation who will soon reach the average age of giving birth, so as to boost the birth rate even more.” In response to a concern raised by an audience member about its “being discriminatory against people in other generations,” Chyan said, “The program shall not rule out people of other generations. We simply mean to provide extra benefits to the Echo Generation for a strategic reason.”

 

Team A-Ing, consisting of Ye-Rin Moon, Eriko Kikuchi, and Da-Won Lee, took the podium after Chyan. They proposed to include artificial intelligence in a census. “Being realistic about the matter,” they said, “it seems almost impossible to double the birth rate.” However, they suggested an alternative by stating, “Grown-up artificial intelligence can be produced without pregnancy and parenting and within a short amount of time.” Moreover, A-Ing argued, “Since all of their income may be taxed, the government would be better able to promote the welfare of the citizens, which in turn would push the birth rate up to the level in other welfare nations.”

 

Team Poinsettia, made up of Kyung-Soo Park, Hyung-Bo Shim, and So-Yeon Kim, started by asking a critical question: “Why should we double the population in the first place?” They noted that the reason is, “We should support the group of the elderly, the size of which is on the steady rise, but having babies is very costly.” They then emphasized the need to look outside of the nation. In particular they proposed the idea of ‘Prudence Citizenship’. The team proposed, “What if foreigners pay taxes to Korea? The government, in return, can offer them the national medical care and various other benefits that Korea citizens are entitled to.” They predicted this policy would “help the nation to attract foreign currency and boost the related industries.”

 

The other question on cooling the Earth down by 1°C was discussed for the second half of the event. Team Good Morning, comprised of Woo-Seok Hong, Yong-Seok Jung, and Sang-In Han, first noted the fact that the energy consumption is 80% greater at night than in the morning. “Once the energy consumption during the night time goes down, the 〖CO〗_2 emissions will also go down, which would lead to subsequent decreases in the temperature, considering the fact that 〖CO〗_2 keeps the heat energy.” The solution they suggested is to encourage people to go to bed earlier, that is, “to limit the sales of alcoholic beverages at night time, and to install toilets at the entrances of cafes, so as to cause a sense of disgust to those who would otherwise drink more coffee.” An audience expressed a worry that it would violate the rights of individuals to an excessive extent, to which Good Morning answered, “The government is already intervening into the sales of cigarettes for their being unhealthy. Cooling down the earth is concerned with the health of all people in the world. It is not, we thus believe, illegitimate for the government to take the actions.”

 

 

 

Team SuperMarimo, made up of Sun-Ho Kim, Sun-Ho Choi, and Tae-Yoon Kim, argued for increasing the sunlight reflection rate of the ocean in order to cool the planet. “Reflecting off more sunlight would help to dissipate the heat energy as well,” they explained, “such attempts have in fact been made for a long time. Painting the roofs white and covering them with green plants are notable examples.” However, they found that “changing the roofs is not effective enough” and thus another strategy is needed. They finally came to think, “What about the ocean that takes up 70% of the surface of the globe?” They explained, “The dark-blue ocean reflects off only 6% of the sunlight, but the green area of it reflects up to 30%.” Their solution was to “develop Super Marimo, a maritime plant, and to cover the whole ocean with it, in order to increase the reflection rate.”

 

Team Gwang-Bal-Ji-Sung, consisting of Min-Hyuk Kang, Ji-Yeon Baek, and Chun Lee, proposed to build waterways and pilotis, through which wind will blow, all over the cities. They explained, “Wind tends to blow along with the waterways,” and suggested the excavating of waterways as one solution to global warming. The team explained, “Germany has already made waterways of 30cm width throughout its cities, thereby having had the average temperature lowered by 3°C.” They added, “For highly developed cities like Seoul, pilotis, namely, pillars designed to raise buildings above ground level, could be another good solution.” The special architectural structure would allow a pathway for water, as well as the flow of wind. “The effects could be boosted,” they also mentioned, “if the piloti structures connect to green areas.” They concluded their presentation by making a final suggestion to utilize the Geographic Information System (GIS) to figure out “from where to where the wind blows” and “which areas of city are particularly hot” in order to build the pilotis and waterways in the right places.

 

The 1st prize went to team Gal-Bal-Ji-Sung and 2nd to Super Marimo, each of which also received scholarships of 3 million and 2 million KRW, respectively. Min-Hyun Kang, on behalf of his team, said, “We did not expect much – let alone the first prize. We are honored to win it, and we would like to thank everyone.”