KAIST is well known for its small number of female students compared to other universities. Not only in KAIST but also in field of science, we see more male scientists and researchers than females. As a result, there have been movements to encourage and support women scientists and students in the field, such as the event 2014 KAIST Women’s Night held on September 30. The KAIST Herald met with one of the organizers of this event.

Please introduce yourself.

Hello, I am In Yang Hwang from the Academic Affairs Team in KAIST. I helped organizing 2014 KAIST Women’s Night.

Can you briefly explain what is 2014 KAIST Women’s Night?

2014 KAIST Women’s Night is one of the projects that we organized as an Institutional Innovation Project for this semester, cooperating with WISET and the Center for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology. We were selected by WISET to promote projects to increase research and development activities for women scientists and engineers. In addition to 2014 KAIST Women’s Night, we are also planning to hold events such as mentoring for KAIST women professors to motivate the female scientific community, and we are also planning to hold a lecture by a famous women scientist this November. KAIST Women’s Night was mainly promoted by Professor Mee young Cha from the Graduate School of Culture Technology and Youn Kyung Lim from the Department of Industrial Design as a networking event to celebrate the achievements and address the challenges faced by women in the field of science.

What was the motivation of organizing KAIST Women’s Night?

The female-to-male gender ratio at KAIST is lower than 20% and there are only 53 female professors at KAIST. We set up this event to give female students the opportunity to form networks and interact with their role-model women scientists from KAIST. At this meeting, students were able to meet female professors and senior researchers working in science and could even meet their mentors. Even though KAIST students have their own advisory professors, it is not often that female students get the opportunity to interact with female professors. Basically, it was a networking event to trigger more active mentoring and interaction between students and professors.

What were some of the activities done in the event?

First, there was teatime, during which students and professors gathered around and chatted for a while. Then we had an opening session attended by the president of KAIST, Sung Mo Kang, who came to encourage women scientists and he showed deep interest in the event. Next, the event itself was introduced along with its purpose, intent, and the system by which it would run. After the announcement, there were four short lectures from the guest speakers: Professor Sang Hee Park from the KAIST Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Professor Hae yun Oh from the Department of Computer Science and graduate students Hansol Ryu and Eun Jin Jung. The lectures included the real life problems and challenges that women face as a scientist. Professors gave advice and words of wisdom to students willing to take the similar paths. In addition, graduate students gave lectures on what it was like being a female student at KAIST. They also gave speeches on what it was like to study and research in the field of science as a gender minority and shared some of their ideas and concerns. After the lecture, there was a question-and-answer session followed by a closing session.

How did the students react to the event?

There were about 80 students participating in this event and I noticed some male students, which were more than I expected, and foreign students. Students participating in the event showed much enthusiasm and I could see that they had a great time.

Do you have any other plans for women scientists and female students in KAIST?

This Institutional Innovation Project started in late July and finishes in November; we will be having a women scientist as a guest speaker to give a lecture to the KAIST students. Even though this event is not a regular event, I am expecting to plan another meeting session for women scientists next year since students had great time this year.

Do you have any last comments?

I just want to add that I hope female students in KAIST engage themselves and carve their careers more actively.