Author: Santiago Ricoy

Contact information:

U.S. Phone: 702-466-3380

Email: [email protected], [email protected]

I'm putting together some of my more useful notes as well as some of my anxieties before coming to Korea, in another link that can be found below:

Notes for Others

Well, at the time of this writing I am at a South Korean research university. We just got here, Keitaro and I. This is my story and/or my half of our story.

The name of the university is the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). They do everything here. From autonomous vehicles to nanotechnology; polymer synthesis to humanoid robotics. That's why we're here actually, humanoid robotics.

At the end of each week, I'll be answering some simple prompts as we are steeped in our projects and a completely different culture. They're just vague enough to allow some inventiveness, and maybe even some fun! Here they are:

1. What I learned about Korea this week
2. Project status
3. Photo of the week
4. What I'm learning about myself
5. New person/people (Korean) I met this week

This ought to be interesting.

So we've only been here since Tuesday, but it's a good time to get everything out before there's too much to ever remember. I think I'll add a few of my own notes for those who might follow in the same footsteps here.

1.) What I learned about Korea this week:

I learned that Koreans are known for caring about their own image. This results in lots of well-dressed people, but the trend continues when it comes to public places.

It might simply be the population density here, but many public places seem well planned out, so that they look good, and they're functional. There are lit paths to walk and bike along the river, large stepping stones to get across the river, public benches, (functioning) exercise equipment in parks, umbrellas, beautiful bus stops, etc…

In America, or at least in Las Vegas, it feels like we could not care any less. Don't get me wrong, some public places look nice, but often it comes across as a “good enough” kind of feel. One might think that this doesn't matter, but I feel so much more at home when areas seemed planned for my living. It's like my home extends beyond the dormitory now.

2.) Project status:

We're learning at a decent pace how to use Hubo and I've found quite a few changes I'd like to make to the manual; that seems to be a lot of English stuff and correction of charts within it. For example, our motor drivers work on a separate number system apart from what is used in PODO. So, say you're sending a command to the motor without first entering the Daemon. The command could do nothing, or it could move the wrong joint, and that would be awful.

The last thing we worked on was how to check a motor driver for errors, change parameters, select, and move motors.

We'll also be updating parts of the Hubo manual because we found some limits to what we can actually change on the driver board. Specifically, we have a number limit as to what we can assign the name of our motor board. Also if we set the wrong motor channel on a board it will freeze. It is easily reset but during joint setup it could potentially absorb a lot of time.

Other than that, I finally get to exercise some of my grammar and spelling stickler skills on the PDF editing software.

3.) Photo of the week:

I figured I needed to get a nice view of KAIST so I found the tallest building and went to the top of it. Now to be honest, this may or may not have been allowed, but I can't yet understand what's being said on Korean signs. It looks great though, right? I mean the only city I've seen that is built vertically this way is New York city, and that was very different.

4.) What I'm learning about myself:

I can be a little too adventurous sometimes. Although the risks are calculated, it can be concerning. I had decided to go from our dormitory to a local store, Home Plus, on my own. I got hopelessly lost trying to get myself there. About 7 miles (probably much more looking at it on the map) of walking and 6 hours later, I finally figured out how to get to the store and then home. That accelerated my language learning quite a bit. Of course, this was a choice, because taxis are pretty cheap, and I could have accessed the internet at any time, but still, I know few others that would have gone on the same adventure alone.

5.) New (Korean) person(s) I met this week:

I met my new labmates. We actually went out with a few of them this week to experience a bit of Daejeon nightlife. It was really fun, and I learned a lot from the experience; for example what social pressures exist in a bar atmosphere. I think we're all going to get along just fine, as our lab culture, surprisingly, is much the same a lot of the time as DASL.

Notes: I should give a few recommendations if you plan to take a visit and don't want to be a complete tourist everywhere you go. So my recommendation this week is to learn to read, write, and pronounce the Korean alphabet, a.k.a. Hangul. This is a very easy system to learn and you can do it in about an hour. Check out a good place to start HERE.

I highly recommend this because in Korea, most things are written in, you guessed it, Korean. With that said, it's super useful to know how to read even if you're only able to sound out one word per minute. Without Hangul in your arsenal, many things that should be simple will pose a large problem for you. Examples would be bus stops, ordering food, buying clothes, navigating maps, walking through parks, giving addresses, and of course learning to speak Korean.

I've done quite a bit more exploring of the city and as a result, getting around is much easier now. Getting lost is still an issue, but, as it turns out, if you get lost and need to speak a certain language to get places, you pick it up faster.

1.) What I learned about Korea this week:

This is tough because of the sheer number of things I've had to learn. For this week, I'll go with the personalist mindset in Korea, with some help from a book I found outside the cafe in W2-1 (a building at KAIST) called Insight Into Korea, which I hear is a series. This is indeed something to get used to and you won't realize it until you're here for more than a week because everyone is so nice. There is much more to it than that though.

Within Korea, to break it down quite simply, you ARE your circle of friends, and you're obligated to connect your groups to most of your actions. “Minding your own business” is not the same here. This is normal among friends; counseling exists but it would be odd for a person not to seek help among their friends first. Especially among friends (perhaps at parties it's a little scary) your personal space is a figment of your imagination. I've been on several excursions so far. I've gotten lost, had great experiences, and some…interesting. For a few of these I went alone (well, before meeting new people) and upon talking to labmates and other friends about it, one of the most common questions I get is “why did you go alone?”

This will become normal and I'll bet most Americans coming here will enjoy the change of pace. It makes all your relationships feel more substantial. People really care about their friends and family. Expect to (on occasion) find the opposite with strangers on the bus or subway though. If you're not part of someone's circle, there's much less concern for your well-being. Foreigners, however, sometimes get a break for not being Korean and I often get hordes of people just trying to give me directions when I'm lost.

2.) Project status:

Progress, while not quite up to the pace I'd like, is going quite well. The manual editing for the first revision is finished, we're waiting for feedback, and we're now working with Gazebo, the robotics simulation. Or rather, Keitaro has gotten it working, but it seems doing your own things through PODO isn't as simple as it sounds.

The next step seems to be actual operation of the Hubo robot, but for now Keitaro and I are working on getting the Gazebo software to run normally on our laptops. It seems like that actually isn't as easy as it seems, because a smooth installation of the software is not nearly what one would hope it would be. Because of this, it seems best not to try on my laptop because it is slow by 2014 standards.

I'm also looking into the gear ratios and harmonic drives on Hubo 2, because I'm betting that eventually I'll have to repair them.

3.) Photo of the week:

It was between this, a tree, and a trash can (see my notes). What you see here is a television that is mounted within the shuttle bus we use to move between our dorm and the main campus. While driving, the driver, other students, and myself were watching a baseball game between the Nexen and Hanwha baseball teams. It's very interesting to see people absolutely glued to their entertainment devices all over the place, which adds to the separation between strangers.

This might sound negative but trust me, it's flippin' AWESOME. Because of this there is free wifi everywhere and if you want more wifi just grab an Olleh wifi card (about 10 bucks for four 24 hour uses) that allows you to connect to Olleh wifi hotspots, which are nearly omnipresent.

4.) What I'm learning about myself:

As you can likely tell from earlier in this post, I'm beginning to understand just how disconnected from others I can be. The importance of community in Las Vegas is only expressed by the networking opportunities available for business people and students. Otherwise, almost no need to establish strong relationships really gets emphasized unless this is shown through family or good friends.

This is seriously highlighted in Korea. Being immersed in this culture is teaching me what community is and why it is necessary for us, as humans. I feel pretty good about that, because it is the things we never see like this that change our lives.

As an aside, I'd recommend reading up on blue zones, which is a name for areas with high concentrations of people living over 90 years old (often over 100), and normally dying of natural causes. There are a number of these zones all over the world, but they baffle some scientists because in some, the people smoke, drink, do manual labor, eat greasy food, etc… The only consistent factor is a strong community connection.

5.) New (Korean) person/people I met this week:

This week I met Sophie, or 지헤 (Jee-heh). She works on cosmetic and household products at a local company in Daejeon. Her specialty is polymer synthesis (though she says that's not chemical engineering, but something else). It's just been really interesting to hear that there are engineers working on these things that I honestly didn't think were even being worked on nowadays. I know there are many different cleaning sprays and makeup, but I figured we only ever change the colors.

Sophie has also helped me develop more of my Korean and absolutely hates that I can't seem to wrap my head around Korean honorifics to use between older and younger people (she just doesn't like to seem old, and thus prefers I use the American way of calling someone by their first name with no -ya, nor -shi, nor -nuna).

Notes:

Public trash cans; you can't find them. There's no serious littering problem in Korea, which is a wonder because outside of anywhere that needs a trash can, there are none. I've found a few, but certainly you shouldn't expect to see them often.

Humidity: If you're from Vegas, please buy a small purse or some similar bag and use it. Keep things out of your pockets because you're going to sweat and it will not be comfortable. You'll see lots of people carrying backpacks, normally for this sole purpose. I don't recommend actual backpacks because you'll be tempted to put everything in it. In Vegas, you take off your backpack after a long walk, and in 30 seconds your back is dry. Here you'll do the same and… buy a new shirt. Also, you're going to misplace things, so instead of fishing through all your pants pockets, a bag with everything in it helps consolidate life a bit.

Eye contact: If you're not from here, well, it'll be obvious. Thus, I get a lot of staring sometimes. This winds up turning into eye contact. No, that's not common. Here, simply making eye contact with a waiter means you want to order or ask for something, for example. So what should you do when this happens on the street? Give a small bow, head nod, or even a small wave (a friend said she did that finger gun thing with the wink once; didn't go well). If you're lucky enough to have roots in east Asia, you won't have to worry about sticking out too much. For example, at language exchange groups, everyone assumes Keitaro (Japanese-American) is Korean, so he gets “안녕하세요” and I get “HI!”, every time (it can be bad for him too because often people won't believe he can't speak Korean).

1.) What I learned about Korea this week:

Chungang-ro station underground mall

In Korea, everyone is connected through their devices. It is normal to see people on their phones wherever they go. Most young people that are commuting alone have headphones on, often in a call. Even at a baseball game I saw people on social media the whole time, and some of them were playing online games on their phones! It seems like one cannot be Korean without the Kakaotalk app, and sometimes asking for a Kakaotalk user ID is essentially asking for a phone number, as I found out once. I also have yet to find one elderly Korean person that is confused by or against smart phones (in strong contrast to America).

I can't go anywhere in the country without finding less than 3 wifi connections nearby me (and I read that even on the beach there's wifi). One of these connections is normally a paid service that is availabe on the bus, subway, high-speed rail, cafes, restaurants, baseball stadiums, malls, bazaars, etc… The wifi is normally just for faster connections, as 100% of Koreans I've met have a mobile data plan, often unlimited.

2.) Project status:

Note: I was totally right. The harmonics will definitely not break normally, but they can be accidentally disassembled and, though very rarely, do pop out of place.

We are being taught PODO (the operating software for DRC-Hubo). Podo means “grape bunch” in Korean; it's an odd word that doesn't work the same in English. The name Podo is named as such because “Podo al” means grape in Korean, and the programs we integrate are called “Al”s. Everything goes through the shared memory, thus the name is actually a description of the way the software is built. What I'd like to expand on is the actual integration of PODO with other things.

I've expanded the DRC-Hubo manual after receiving feedback. Meanwhile my laptop lacks the grunt to work with the Gazebo simulator, so I will use a PC in the lab to learn the ropes quicker; though when I'll have access to it is a different story; could be tomorrow, could be never. I kinda got a confusing answer.

That has left me with a little extra time the past few days so I've just been helping with prototype testing and other things like that. There's this large load cell being developed for Hyundai (part of the company that produces the DRC-Hubo robot, Rainbow, is across the hall). I get to see this and I find the calibration process very interesting.

We use large bars attached to the load cell and use a hydraulic jack to generate specific pressure at a measured distance away from the load cell. As that happens we record the load cell's raw output at that point. At some point that data will be used to calibrate the readout to give units instead of whatever it is giving now.

I imagine this is essentially working like a giant force-torque sensor, like those in the wrists and ankles of DRC-Hubo and Hubo 2.

3.) Photo of the week:

This is a photo of the Hanbat (한밭) baseball stadium in the Daejeon Sports Complex. I was at a baseball game between the Hanwha Eagles and the Samsung Lions. The Hanwha Eagles are Daejeon's baseball team and their primary color is orange. At this baseball game, and I suppose most Korean baseball games, you should buy these inflatable noodle things that you can hit together for noise instead of clapping. They also sell ice cream, fried chicken, and beer in addition to many other Korean dishes and snacks. There is no salesman walking around selling things at these games, as the stands are pretty packed. However, the seats are much cheaper in comparison to the United States, where similar seats to mine would be 30 dollars. These were around 12 dollars. Oh, and in case you're wondering, we tied that night, but won the next day.

Trust me on this: Korean baseball games are amazing compared to back home. There are “excitement zone” seats (which were sold out for us, but looked fun) where there is some kind of stage for different activities. The Eagles had cheerleaders, games with a host, mascots running around, banners flying over the fans, and of course the antics the fans engage in all displayed on the jumbotron.

4.) What I'm learning about myself:

Mexican food in Korea. Looks similar, tastes different.

This week I'm beginning to realize how much my native tongue affects my mindset. I think this was expressed most explicitly in a Korean lesson with a friend on Saturday. In Korean, the state of a subject is expressed, where the adjective is fully contained within itself and conveys its own meaning. In English an example would go something like 'subject'-'verb'-'state', so “My friend is happy”. In Korean though, it goes more like 'subject'-'state' “My friend happy”. I'd much rather not type it in Korean to explain, but this state of happiness in Korean completely expresses itself without another verb to say “is” or to express that it is being done. In Korean, there seems to be much more to express when it comes to adjectives and other ways of describing state, while in English, we are much more concerned with action. Thus, as my friend puts it, Korean tends to talk more about how people feel, where English speaks more about what people do.

I find myself now more understanding of the importance of emotions and how others might feel versus how I've previously focused only on what was done. Now if that sounds like something obvious I should already be more aware of, that's because it is. However, I don't think I ever would have given it thought if the difference in language (and therefore culture) was never mentioned. Here, that is even more important, because Korea has a relatively high Power Distance Index, which means if someone is older or their position is higher than yours, you absolutely must use the appropriate honorifics when speaking to them. If that person feels like you are not respecting them to their liking, that is indeed enough to give you (and your associates) a bad name.

5.) New person/people (Korean) I met this week:

This is 조한진 (Cho Hanjin), or as I call him, Mr. Cho. He works at the International Intellectual Property Training Institute (IIPTI), which is across the street from KAIST. We have lunch together sometimes during the week and generally discuss the differences and similarities between Korean and American culture. It's been interesting to discuss these as you come to see just how deeply human we all are.

Mr. Cho also teaches me Korean, but his lessons are not structured in the same manner as most are and I really enjoy that. They tend to focus on breaking down the meaning, roots, and the parallels we have in English that are subtly different in their usage yet quite impactful in meaning. For example, the subject-adjective sentence structure in Korean and the English subject-verb-adjective change a lot. In English we can indeed convey similar meaning in the same order but it requires different cadence and, in writing, punctuation. “He will be angry” (through rough translation) in Korean is “그는 화날거에요” and note there are two words (He angry-willbe). Thus, you are waiting for the end of the sentence to hear what someone will do, when, and how. If we were to try this in English, the closest we'll get is something like Yoda: “Angry, he will be” (in Korean, we can often altogether drop the subject too). But you see here, it's almost poetic, the sentence takes a stronger emphasis on the state and although we can't exactly portray the same meaning, you can see how this simple difference quickly snowballs into a difference in thought for the native speaker.

Notes:

Transportation: Buses stop running at 10:30 in Daejeon, and the trains stop some time before midnight. They do start running again around 6am though. You're going to need to get around town. Take AN HOUR to learn Hangul, and then the numbers!! They are too easy not to do. There are too many expats I've met here that can barely read Korean and honestly it's quite concerning. Don't do that.

Anyway, you're going to want a T-Money card. To sum it up, T-Money is a card you load up to make all your transportation more convenient. Just beep and go. It works on subways, buses, and even taxis. You can even purchase things at some stores with it. And if the card runs out of credit just walk into the nearest convenience store, say “T-Money Card”, hand over your cash, and they'll load it up for you.

Navigation: Want to learn Korean quickly? Download Naver maps, or Daum maps. They can get you everywhere with minimal input. Google maps does help a little in a pinch, but it has gotten me lost more than once. Here are some key words: 지도–Map, 도착–Destination, 역–station (usually at the end of a name). Naver maps also lets you download directions and maps. Just hit the little download icon when looking at directions (open the menu and look for 다운로드 to find your saved directions). Oh and KAIST has a Korean name but we all call it KAIST. Ask for KAIST from a taxi driver and usually it works out.

Food: In Korea, eating out is relatively cheap. You can get a decent meal for under 5000 won (of course, if you spend more you can find better). If cheap food is the goal, you should go to a 김밥 (pronounced: keembop) restaurant, which will normally have that in the name. They don't only serve this, but 김밥 is Korea's “sushi” in a way, without the raw fish. It's a rice roll wrapped in seaweed with other items in the middle, like cheese or other meats. Other options at these restaurants are usually something I recall as being called “topoki”, ramen (commonly pronounced in Korean like “lahmyuhn”), and a few more items.

Shuttles: If you're in Hwa-am or any dormitory separate from the main campus, we have KAIST shuttles that go between most of the dorms, Munji campus, and main campus. There are also a couple shuttles that go elsewhere like Wolpyeong station, and an electric bus that circulates through campus every 15 minutes. I recommend taking a picture of the schedule, printing it, or at least recalling a few of the bus times for different circuits, especially the very last ones that come to main campus. If you're trying to live a fairly Korean experience, you'll either study until midnight or you'll probably go out and come back very late. I tend to get on the 2am shuttle back to my dorm at least twice a week. Once from the lab after working on something, and once on the weekend after a long night.

1.) What I learned about Korea this week:

Delicious cakes from Real Cake.

I've learned this week that Korea is a very homogeneous country. Things I've already written show this clearly, but what I'm trying to convey is what you notice once this is recognized. In America, it's different. People from all over the world have immigrated there in large numbers, mixing with all the diverse people already in the states, with different religions, clothing styles, skin color, values, sexual orientation, etc.. You name it, someone is doing it differently in America. In Korea, of course my lack of exposure contributes to my opinion, but it feels as if every individual is assumed or even expected to be more or less the same as the next person. There is a divide among socioeconomic statuses, but beyond these, one might even say it's demographically true. It's not a bad thing. Cool stuff like National Health Insurance and other things come from this. But my friend often says Korea's culture can't seem to create a whole lot of Steve Jobs-like people.

2.) Project status:

Sometimes we need a LOT of help.

Well, we're moving onto using sensors through PODO and the implications of combining them with motors. Programming the ALs is completely mystifying me and Keitaro sometimes. Luckily, we have Dr. Lim available to help us get through each time we're stuck. Well, most of the time.

It's frustrating though, because we're not moving nearly fast enough. We're a week behind (well, that's what it feels like, in reality it's a couple days; I don't like waiting). It isn't that the project isn't coming together (we have motor driver homework), it's that we don't know WHY it's coming together, which, as you might guess, is usually the point of laboratory work.

So what we have been shown is how to work within the ALTutorial, how to access it, and how PODO is set up. Sometimes what seems perfectly logical is the worst way to do things. Sometimes that idea is flipped. I'm just trying to get to the point where I can actually explain things right now. I'd rather be really late than completely clueless.

3.) Photo of the week:

I've no idea what it was called, but this raw-fish-mixed-with-rice-and-stuff bowl was fantastic.

Okay the picture isn't amazing, but it has a story. This is delivery food in Korea. Delivery is HUGE here. There is a company called Coupang here that promises to deliver just about anything in under 24 hours. Besides that, you can order any food you want and have it delivered, and if that place you want it from doesn't deliver, there are services to deliver for them. It's pretty cool, but also terrifying. Often times you'll be walking along the sidewalk having a chat, and someone on a motor scooter will fly by delivering food.

I hear that's not legal, but traffic laws are also pretty lenient here so unless you're absolutely positive you'll make it, do not cross the street unless the signal says it's okay. If you're from Vegas, you probably already understand that, but then again, we usually drive in Vegas.

4.) What I'm learning about myself:

I thought someone was tapping their desk once. It was just the A/C moving.

I have realized just how easily distracted I am. It has always been apparent and I could have an actual problem, but it has become more pronounced by the saturation of smartphone usage here in Korea, and how I have developed a weird bit of anxiety once I fall outside of a wifi connection. Mix that in with the recent release of Pokemon Go (or, PkGo, as I prefer to call it) and it becomes obvious that I have some weird obsession with my phone and I can't seem to pay attention to the real world. This was noted very explicitly when I attended an event to discuss a TED talk about this exact subject.

However, I began to recognize my own issue with distraction upon joining Hubolab. In the picture above you can see all of my fellow lab members working on something or other, and it is dead silent. Any talking is mostly about other types of work or study, but of course they also have fun toward the end of the day. Just being next to these students has made me a more productive and dedicated person, and while it's a bit sad to think about what happens if one never gets the opportunity to work alongside people of this caliber, that does absolute wonders for self-esteem and confidence.

5.) New Korean person/people I met this week:

Don't be ashamed to read children's stuff to learn a language; I've been made fun of. I once couldn't read English either though.

Above is a picture of the study materials and 팟빙수 (pronounced “pot bing soo” and it is fantastic stuff) I had with my friend Esmerelda, who prefers that her picture not be on the web. We got acquainted at a meetup in Dunsan-dong (둔산동) called Stammtish (I recommend finding it on Facebook). Since then, we've hung out while discussing a TED talk, visiting a salsa dancing class, struggling to get the taxi to the right place, and of course, Korean lessons.

I enjoy her style of teaching because it is extremely fast-paced, allowing me to hear about important details that many Korean classes won't touch on very early. Basically, it consists of her breaking down all the key words and concepts that I'll need in order to understand this short children's story, Little Red Riding Hood. What's also interesting is that Esmerelda is from Korea, but spent considerable amounts of time in Canada and China, among other trips, giving her complete fluency in English, Chinese, and Korean. This gives her the ability to understand exactly where I'm struggling and give English equivalents to the sentences I'm working through, along with the Chinese origin of many Korean words.

Notes:

Vegetarianism: You'd think everything would have a lot of fish and seafood in it in Korea. However, lots of foods are actually composed of lots of vegetables. However, don't go thinking that it'll be easy for a vegetarian or a vegan. Just about everything is made with some kind of animal product, be it the sauce, broth, or otherwise. Many of the best dishes (in my opinion) contain some animal, especially meats like pork and beef. If you're considering Korea and have any similar dietary restrictions, I would say to look into pescetarianism, as that's probably what you'll do if you don't try. If you can't speak Korean, but still want to maintain a vegan or vegetarian diet in Korea, well good luck. There are definitely kitchens in the dormitories somewhere, and one in our lab.

Coins: If you don't have a card that waives foreign transaction fees, you'll want to take out a lot of cash. If you want to pay with cash, you'll end up with coins. I keep a tiny bag with drawstrings as my coin purse, but I recommend trying to use your coins to give exact change when possible to avoid jingling everywhere you go.

Contact lenses: I may have already mentioned this at some point, but don't buy contacts for your stay in Korea. Save your money and wear glasses for a little while. Then while you're here, buy contacts AND glasses. Keitaro bought brand new prescription glasses for 60,000 won (they also handed him back cash saying “lucky money”), and the entire process took 20 minutes. I got a box of thirty daily contacts with 10 more freebies on top of that so I could try each brand for 30 dollars. You don't even need to know your prescription or anything, but if you do, you can simply hand it over and it'll be easy. There is a contact lens and glasses shop in KAIST.

1.) What I learned about Korea:

These were in Seoul plaza.

Well, once you get used to living in some place different, it's funny just how much becomes normal to you. Even being introduced to new things becomes normal to you, at least in my experience.

In any case, I've learned this week that Korea is incredibly safe. That is to say that violent crime and thievery are so uncommon that the response I got when asking about it was “well it happens more in other cities”. I don't mean that people are never exposed to danger, but the necessity to watch out for our own safety is much less in this country.

2.) Project status:

Look how happy Jaemi is!

We've moved on to upgrading Jaemi Hubo and will learn to set up computers so that we can utilize that knowledge with the robot back home. I find disassembling (what we've been able to do so far) Jaemi really fun actually, because I have only worked on specific sections before, thus I only assumed how other parts work. It turns out I've been wrong.

Soon we'll have new parts for Jaemi and we'll begin reassembling with them to get her back up to speed. I was told that it isn't a short process though. Regardless of how many times the lab members have done it, there is always some new issue (science).

Our next steps are to finish the “Hello Worlds” for DRC-Hubo to essentially have a solid crash coure on PODO and the DRC-Hubo platform. Let's hope that goes by a little more smoothly than some other things…

Note: Harmonic drives are frustrating to get back together, so we ought not to take them apart completely.

3.) Photo of the week:

It seems to go on forever.

This is a picture of the 광창 (kwang-chang) market in Seoul. I thought this place was just amazing. Not only could you get all sorts off different groceries here, but there were also lots of different street food and small restaurants. If you can visit Seoul, I'd say the “main” palace near city hall, this market, and Hongdae are the places to check out. Hongdae is a bit of a hotspot for nightlife. You may hear of Itaewon as well. Itaewon is similar and also very fun, but it may not be as desirable if you are trying to experience Korean culture as it really targets foreigners.

4.) What I'm learning about myself:

A nice spot to sit and have a coffee.

Well this week I'm finding that I often focus only on the objective and lose the wonder. It isn't by dreaming conservatively and realistically that we create the technology of the future, and I think that's incredibly important to remember. My experiences here have reignited that flame to aim high and not give up.

Each of the lab members has a different story, but every single one of them has a dream, some are pretty lofty, and they're all right on track to get there. Even outside of the lab I've met people that constantly make me challenge myself to do more. It's amazing how much just being some place can change you.

5.) New person/people (Korean) I met this week:

She taught me how to order food better!

I met my friend Dasom (다솜). She is a teacher at a nearby middle school in Daejeon, and taught elementary for a while in Atlanta, Georgia. She's really fun to hang out with because she knows those small things to do that make Korea, like arcades with coin karaoke, corn ice cream, watching Korean dramas, renting cars for a day, and other stuff that you don't think you'll miss until you don't have them.

Notes:

Hair cuts: I got a Korean haircut. Luckily for me, my hair is fairly similar to many Koreans', as the stylist pointed out. So if you think you have a similar situation, don't worry (well I don't know about women, but it's probably the same for more money). For about 20 dollars, the experience was fantastic. As my hair was cut, an assistant stood by to gently sweep way any extra hair away from my eyes, and after she washed my hair, the stylist double checked his work before styling it with some product. It was all done very meticulously, and I left with my head feeling so much cleaner than when I went in.

Long distance travel: So you want to visit the beach huh? Maybe Jeju island? Just a different city? You've got plenty of options here between the KTX and the express buses. If you're really adamant about Jeju, then a round trip flight from Seoul (ICN and Gimpo) and Cheonju are relatively cheap, from 140 to 300 dollars depending on your airport, airline, and departure date. Of course, as is usual, you gotta know how to read Korean to use it all.

1.) What I learned about Korea this week:

Korean Harry Potter books. These four actually make up the 6th book in the series.

Koreans care about what happens in other countries. Being used to discussing the upcoming election, I hadn't noticed, but I realized that a lot of questions come in the form of “why is Donald Trump a candidate, are Americans crazy?” Which is funny, because, well, how is Donald Trump even a topic here in Korea? (The answer is quite simple actually.) I mean to say that if it weren't for comedy and subscriptions to global news feeds, I would be oblivious to just about anything going on around the world. It seems if there's no explicit security threat, and no one important dies abroad, we usually just don't hear about it. That's just my experience though.

Among Koreans it's much more common to hear discussions about all sorts of things around the world. Whenever I'm in a group with Koreans and we meet someone foreign to either of our countries, I'm always hear something along the lines of “oh, you're from *country's name*? That's so cool, so are you near *city in that country*?”. It's amazing because first of all, I'm terrible at geography, so just knowing a city is impressive for me, but also because there's a legitimate interest involved in these questions. I hear questions about culture, politics, how some food is the same or different, recent news from abroad, and everything in between.

2.) Project status:

We're in the middle of our “Hubo quick-start” tutorials right now. They should be done in a week or so. I'm going to regret saying “should” in about a week. Putting Jaemi back together will continue on Thursday of this upcoming week. That's what I was told.

Though a very simple task based on just following directions, that is a bit nice because now when people ask if I built it, I can at least answer somewhat in the affirmative.

Getting to test our motions on the actual DRC-Hubo robot may not happen as quickly because it is always being used or worked on, but I don't think that will be much of a problem, because we've got to get the simulations to run anyway. With that

Being exposed to a solid application of C++ programming is very exciting for me, as I've used the language in the past, but never had to actually understand what was going on. So this is tons of fun each day. I've learned how to use so much and I'd say I understand what's going on too.

Pointers used to mystify me, but how exactly everything is working is beginning to make sense. There are some parts of programming that still poses a problem, but it only seems to arise because I lack some computer science experience and can't understand some of the inner workings of PODO. For example, timing, and how exactly the speed of the loops are regulated. You would think that would be easy. It sounds like a lot of simple division and iterations. It isn't. Xenomai is part of what makes the whole thing work and that I definitely don't understand.

I think that just points out the value of specialization. The people working on Xenomai aren't doing robotics (I think), but they sure support a lot of it. With that said, I may not be at a high level of proficiency on this topic, but I'm learning how to learn. So is Keitaro. I'd say that's far more useful.

3.) Photo of the week:

Well, this is the water festival in Jangheung a.k.a. The Jangheung Aqua Festival. I hear there was also a water festival held in Seoul, but if that was any more fun than this one I would probably have died. I say that coming from living in Las Vegas. I didn't think 24 hours could ever hold so much excitement for me.

4.) What I'm learning about myself:

Underground rest area in the forest.

I learned that I am in a fairly small group of people that can follow a path to do what they dreamed they would do. I've wanted to try travelling this far from home for a long time, and even longer than that I've wanted to do this engineering and robotics work. I've spoken to many, many people from around the world, and I assumed everyone that came here did so for school, for money, or an adventure. While that sometimes covers the basics, that does not mean everyone is here doing what they love, or arrived with a smile on their face.

Realizing that just makes you want to work so much harder. It also makes you very appreciative.

5.) New Korean person/people I met this week:

You can see Down middle left and Ara middle right.

I met Ara and Down. They are the ones that got me to the water festival. Ara studies physics at a lab in Jeonju doing mostly quantum transports. Down teaches English in Jeonju, and was born in Korea, but raised in Minnesota.

Notes:

Driver's Licenses: Have a driver's license in the U.S.? Do some quick research on Google on how to get an international driver's license. You will likely never need one in Korea, but just in case, I recommend picking one up. If you ever want to rent a car, you'll want that.

Festivals: You may find there are very large, or at least well-known events happening around Korea. Pretty much nowhere in Korea is too far for a weekend trip, so if you decide to check some events out there will be a few different places selling all-in-one packages with transportation, some food, and tickets to the event included. I'm not saying these places are terribly overpriced for what they offer, but if you can do a bit of research on the price of transportation to and from (sometimes car rentals are cheap), factor in food, and look into lodging options, you can often beat that price by a significant amount. Plus (depending on the event) some tickets are sold in such a way that they cannot be sold out online, so you can always buy a ticket at the door.

1.) What I learned about Korea:

Being a couple seems to be a pretty big deal. I always end up walking by some sort of couples photo opportunity (like giant hearts made of lights), or reading a menu with good deals, only to find they're couples options (sometimes it explicitly says they're only for couples). You absolutely cannot go anywhere without finding a couple taking a selfie to share on the web. It's interesting, but sometimes I feel it borders on obsession.

2.) Project status:

Part of the network setup.

We've gotten through most of the tutorials we intend to finish while we're here. Those are almost complete and I'll be copying my finished files into the wiki soon. Some hardware is proving difficult to get a hold of but it should be here some time in the week so I can wrap up my last tutorial. Jaemi is coming together soon here (there was a delay). But other than that, we seem to be working out the problems just fine. I'm pretty sure we'll be skipping a few nights of sleep though, just trying to hit our target date.

On Tuesday we'll be having our last lesson on PODO, which is pretty exciting I think, because I was under the impression that we had already covered all of it.

3.) Photo of the week:

You don't understand; there were a LOT of lights.

This is a photo from O-World in Daejeon (an hour bus ride from KAIST). Trust me, you can absolutely work over the weekend and still have fun Saturday night.

O-World is part zoo, part “safari”, part garden, and it has a few rides too. There's a basic ticket that gets you to the zoo, and a more expensive ticket that gets you into the safari and some rides. I went with a labmate, Uiuk, because I have a friend that works there on the weekends. When I was there they happened to be doing this event called Lumiere, where at night the whole park is covered in lights. On top of that there is a water fountain show, a fireworks show, and performances in the middle of “Flower Land”, the garden section of the park covered in flowers. For about 12,000 won, I had a pretty good time for a night with a basic ticket.

On that note, if you want to don't ever want to leave Daejeon, that is totally fine. There's plenty to do here. I just like the challenge of new surroundings without a map.

4.) What I'm learning about myself:

Did you know there's yellow watermelon?

I really am starting to find that point where I can just get completely absorbed by and flow through whatever work I need to do. That feeling is best described as the “hum” by Shonda Rhimes. I've been wondering about this for a few weeks, since a meetup I enjoy attending, Daejeon TED and Red, watched her TED talk for our discussion topic (you can watch that HERE). Every person in HuboLab has that hum. They'll just sit and work on something from morning to late night and repeat it; not all the time but more than I can do. It's something I've found a lot of people have. They can just sit down, focus and keep working for hours, but it doesn't wear them out. I'll try not to spoil the good parts of the talk, but it seems the secret is accepting what gives you joy in your life.

For me it has always been brute force to stay focused and work on just one thing, unless it was extremely interesting (and even if it is). You have to understand; I'm often doing in the lab EXACTLY what I wanted to do. However, I think I'm getting to a point where it's no longer me just staring at something until my mind is forced to find meaning in it. While here, I've figured out a lot about what I want, why I do my work, and what makes me happy. While pursuing those things, work is becoming more fluid, and more streamlined. I think I've finally found a hum of my own, and I think that leads to the best and most efficient kind of work.

5.) New Korean person(s) I met this week:

It took me a while to find the KAIST International House (called KI House) and by chance at a language exchange, I met a lady that works at KAIST that gave me the tip that it exists in N5. So finally, I met my Korean language teacher, Sue. She's super nice and enjoys the small insights I have into English that help her learn as well.

Notes:

Eating: I don't know if this is just me, but I feel like my labmates eat a million times faster than I do. It makes me feel just a little awkward since the whole group will stay at the table until everyone is finished with their meal. Some people really enjoy their work, and you will too, so try to keep up with them.

Hardware: As connected and tech savvy as Korea is, a lot of the things we need in the lab just aren't in the brick and mortar stores. That means you'll have to buy online, which is nearly impossible with a foreign card. So get a labmate to order your hardware online and transfer the money to them/give them cash. Try not to worry too much about getting the wrong thing; returns are relatively easy here. Just figure out what hardware you need, and don't be afraid to ask questions, even if those questions are about who you need to ask. Once ordered, it's pretty quick, and it is pretty common to receive your package the next day.

1.) What I learned about Korea:

I learned that there are expected trends in populations growth that are affecting government policy now. The birth rate is quite low when considering trends in life expectancy and the percentage of elderly people expected in the future population. Something around 40% of the population in 2060 is predicted to be aged 65 or older.

Numbers aside, the government has taken notice and I was told that the push to bring foreign workers and scholars into South Korea is actually part of the response to the predicted trends. Elementary schools at the moment are dealing with 30 children or more per classroom in the city, but in more affected (generally rural) areas the schools are holding 100 children total. Sometimes it's much less than that, as ridiculously low as 10. The birth rate has dropped so severely that some expatriates I've met that teach English to children are considering what they will do in coming years when their class sizes suddenly drop and people are fired.

2.) Project status:

All tutorials to be finished while in Korea are almost finished. Keitaro's ahead of me at this point. I'm working with integrating ROS and the simulator, along with smaller things like backup installations of PODO or Gazebo.

I feel that we'll be using tons more of the simulator in the future, since experimentally it's safer than using the physical robot. At this point I really wish I had a more powerful computer to use as the simulator seems to devour system resources and crash computers.

Jaemi's fate is looking quite grim, and we're likely going to have the robot shipped to us once completed. The problem with that isn't actually the hardware. What I was really looking forward to was all the other setup required for walking or otherwise. I understand that I can learn it after, but here we have all the experts available to explain everything that's going on and sometimes that's the difference between getting something to happen, and knowing what you're doing.

Sure Korea is fun, but I'm really going to miss this lab. There's just so much to do that I wonder how anyone looks at these tasks and says “okay that's possible”.

3.) Photo of the week:

This is a (terrible) photo of a spider at the Hwaam dormitories. There is nothing special about this spider, except that it's about the size of my thumb. I'm not too keen on spiders to be honest. I really dislike them, but unfortunately for me, in Korea, they're everywhere. You'll often see webs with strands that stretch 5 feet or more and when walking down sidewalks lined with trees, definitely expect to suddenly walk into one. If it's any consolation, my Australian friends told me it's WAY worse in Australia.

4.) What I'm learning about myself:

I learned just how uncultured I am, or rather, how cultured I might be becoming.

So, I was watching a movie with a Korean, and it just so happened to be in English. That means the subtitles were in Korean. In the movie was a scene where all of the characters begin speaking in Chinese, but the subtitles were still in Korean. So I naturally began reading the subtitles, not with perfect comprehension, but enough to know exactly what was going on. It wasn't until afterwards when my friend asked if I understood, did I realize what I had actually done. I'd just understood Chinese by going through Korean first. It wasn't much, but that was amazing! The implications of just that concept are so massive I'd rather not get into writing about it.

5.) New Korean person I met this week:

I met my friend Sohee. She is a mechanical engineering major at a neighboring school in Daejeon. It's not the most common thing for me to meet other mechanical engineering majors outside of KAIST for some reason. So it was fun to meet and talk with Sohee about it. She's currently freaking out over a test that I can never remember the name of. There seems to be tests for just about everything here, with so much focus on writing or otherwise that I hear many students say they don't actually know what they're doing, but can memorize like there's no tomorrow. It often makes me worry about the driving tests here….

1.) What I learned about Korea:

I learned about schools in Korea. Korea is accepted in many lists as having the best education system in the world. I know quite a few teachers, so I can see how. However, among Korean friends I've discussed this with, some people disagree with it being the best. It isn't that the statistics aren't true; it's the experience for the students. That top ranking, for some people, comes at great cost. I was told primary school is practically 7 days a week, 12 hours a day; it can be brutal. Besides that, literacy rates and comprehension of various subjects may be the best in the world, but my Korean friends tell that too much of the education system is aimed at having students do well on tests.

The largest example of this is English speaking ability. Since getting into a good university requires good test scores on English tests, like TOEFL or TOEIC, at KAIST everyone has a decent score on these tests. Many Korean people have told me that they've been studying English since they were 5 years old. Essentially no one I met was exempt from that, but it seems that very few people have the ability to fluidly carry a conversation in English, and even when they can, it can be quite difficult.

Even so, I find the schools really impressive, as Las Vegas sometimes ranks near the bottom of primary school district comparisons in the United States.

2.) Project status:

I'm also really sad to be going…BUT I'm mostly worried because I am holding up Keitaro and I. This last tutorial I was told by my labmates is improbable to get finished, but possible (yay hope!). Gazebo should be integrated with ROS and I simply show how to begin doing our own things, i.e. not just launching SLAM in the simulator; which should also be simple.

Dr. Lim seems to know how to work on the issue, but when it comes to testing, everyone else just uses the actual robot since it's easier. Now while I find that absolutely hilarious, it might be just a little useful to be able to simulate new actions, or rather, just my goal which is waving hands.

Installation is simple enough; follow instructions. Running is not quite the same. Sometimes Gazebo runs. Other times it doesn't. After that PODO ought to connect and it always refuses.

I suppose this is a nice solid lesson in why beginning a project AS SOON AS the prerequisites are done is important. If I had followed Dr. Lim's ROS and Gazebo tutorial once I figured out how to create the hand waving command in PODO, by now I'd at least be sorting out bugs instead of worrying over reinstalling things correctly to get something to run.

For now though I'd best get ready to fly back. Missing a flight because you slept at the lab and didn't pack can't go over well…

NOTE: Do NOT switch out SSDs from the Intel NUC in order to make hard backups for the computer. If you're very lucky you can do that, but for me it didn't work. After 2 days of setting things up to work just right on the backups, so we had some for the lab back home, I found out that method won't work. It won't boot the disk after the swap. So all work on them is now gone. Just insert an SSD, do a fresh install of your operating system and other software, and work with that; don't swap.

3.) Photo of the week:

This photo is part of KAIST Munji campus. I was supposed to be headed to my own farewell party, but unfortunately it was a Saturday, and I forgot the shuttle from my dormitory hardly operates on the weekends. So I was stranded, but eventually found my way.

What is cool about Munji campus is that it has its own unique things about it that I don't think I would have found if I never got stuck there for a few minutes. In just that 10 minutes, I found a greenhouse, research wing, a KAIST logo-ed car, and upon leaving bumped into the Samsung Heavy Industries complex.

4.) What I'm learning about myself:

I think positivity has really accelerated my ability to move forward on tasks regardless of how confused I am, and it's probably good to see and know that as opposed to just blindly saying yes to things. So when things get a bit concerning and I begin to freak out, it is valuable to see the bright side.

Aside from that, after a while, you notice keeping a good attitude can begin to affect others as well. At first, I could see frustration in the faces of my teachers upon asking for help with things that were ultimately very simple, but after a while I think that finding reasons to keep a smile on really changes the outlook from a waste of time to an investment to save time later.

5.) New Korean person I met this week:

I had the opportunity to meet Tae Hyung (Terry) Choi, the CEO and president of Seoyoung Engineering. We had a great discussion of the future of robotics/technology as well as the more interesting differences in Korean lifestyle versus American lifestyle. I was quite impressed with what his company does and his current dreams in the next steps for the company. What I found intriguing was 5-dimensional project and city planning simulations. The 4th dimension is of course time, but the 5th involves monetary changes, like maintenance over time. This is important to the company because there may be several projects being done at once and small but important financial details about projects sometimes can be overlooked. Terry's company is doing too many interesting things for me to discuss here, so if you're interested in learning more, the website can be found at http://www.seoyeong.co.kr/en/