The key to building a smart campus is data management
In the era of artificial intelligence (AI), competitiveness is determined by the quality of data. Korea University opened its “data hub” on September 1, based on its experience of big data storage operations. The data hub is a large dataset that can store and analyze all types of data. Data hubs are essential for leveraging technologies like AI and the Internet of Things (IoT), which require large amounts of data. Through the data hub, students can check various analysis data on their current status, including their course registration and convergence major. KU is planning to send significant analysis data to university members in a monthly newsletter format.
▲Gyu-Tae Kim, Vice President for Digital Information
“There are four types of information in the data,” says the Vice President Kim. “Unique information about an entity, information on the relationship between entities, information on activities related to research programs or university clubs, and predictive information that is developed on the basis of collated and combined strands of information. Our goal is to provide the necessary services based on these four types of information. As a step in this process, we conducted a survey to determine the technologies that the students and faculty members wanted on their smart campus – what they truly need in their everyday lives.” By encouraging all university members to participate in the survey and by utilising the latest technology based on their responses, the purpose of KU’s smart campus is to create a space which all members can freely access, and through which they can gain satisfaction from their participation in the life of the university, and consequently, share common goals. The conventional campus, which is physically limited, will develop into a twin, physical and cyber campus, the latter component based on network-centric data which will ensure that the campus' virtual space is as accessible as its physical space. For example, students will be able to use their smartphones to reserve a seminar room simply by taking its picture, and even to check their attendance record. 5G technology will be incorporated into the smart campus in order to offer customized services to users based on accumulated data on their personal preferences, such as room temperature and humidity, or personnel and time management.
“Kids play together in a sandbox,” continues the Vice President Kim. “We want to recapture something of that through making KU a place of challenge, of playing with a purpose. Everything we're doing is geared towards that. We will provide an IT service in which everyone participates, by building campus infrastructure for data-based services, including augmented reality and mixed reality. In particular, we will support students who want to start a business by providing big data that cannot be associated with their personal information. We are confident that this will encourage business startups. Moreover, we plan to test and develop commercial services for the medical industry. With the development of IoT, your mobile devices will become your campus tour guides. The campus will go beyond being a hall of univocal knowledge and become a playground of knowledge-generation that anyone can easily access and use.”
Digital twin campus, where you can share and use data
The basis of the AI society is the collating of scattered data and its appropriate use. KU will collate dispersed data and build an AI service through the data hub platform, which integrates the unique features of university departments and a range of applications. This will enable the use of customized recommendation services like chatbots. To start with, KU has focused on ensuring access to empty classrooms, because this was students' top concern in the survey. Students can now access empty classrooms by simply tagging their mobile IDs (smartphones) to the access control device.
Vice President for Digital Information, Gyu-Tae Kim says, “We are starting classroom rental services first because the students’ priority is was to be able to access empty classrooms, according to the survey results.” He explains, “A smart campus considers the needs of university members above anything else. And customizes services accordingly.”
He continues, “Based on data analysis, the shuttle bus, for instance, can be operated more frequently at certain rush hours or other measures can be taken. We can also make changes based on the behavior patterns of university members. In short, will base our services on their behavioral patterns, which we can identify based on data. We will first lay the groundwork for university members to experience AI in their everyday lives. For the students, we will offer career services based on big data and maximise the productivity of their school lives by using data to recommend courses or scholarships. This will entail the creation of a digital twin which will have all the necessary information about students.”
A digital twin is a technology that creates entities that are identical to real entities (twins) in virtual space and assesses various situations through simulation tests. KU plans to utilize blockchain technology to offer credits to students and faculty based on access frequency, and connect the system to actual financial services. In the future, local residents will also be allowed to access this KU facility.
Meanwhile, SK Future Hall is almost complete, having incorporated cutting-edge smart technology. The building will be equipped with a space reservation, access management, occupancy management, and sensor monitoring system, accessible using mobile devices. SK Future Hall is expected to become a testing ground for ICT and IoT-based smart campuses.
