On April 30 and May 7, tvN’s popular TV show Problematic Men aired a KAIST special with KAIST students as guests. Problematic Men is a show in which cast and guests solve puzzle sets and compete for the title of “Problematic Man” of the episode. The regular cast includes Hyun-moo Jeon, Seok-jin Ha, Ji-seok Kim, Jang-won Lee, Tyler Rasch, and Kyung Park.

The students who appeared in the special were chosen from an applicant pool of over 200 students. After three stages of the selection process — application review, problem solving tests, and interviews — they boasted exceptional problem-solving skills and charm and were chosen as the final six to represent the school. They were the following: Min-gil Kang, called the Seung-ho Yoo of KAIST; Won-ho Jang, who scored the highest on the problem-solving tests out of the 200 KAIST students; Young-jong Kim, who was accepted to Seoul National University, POSTECH, and KAIST; Hyuk-pyo Hong, the president of the KAIST Mathematical Problem Solving Group; Chan-hyung Ryu, the national representative for the International Odyssey of the Mind; and Kyu-bum Han, the national representative for the International Astronomy Olympiad.

Episode 110 was a tight competition between the Problematic Men and KAIST teams. The two teams took a point each in the first two rounds. In the third round, Won-ho Jang found the solution and gave the answer “ABCD”. However, the exact answer was “alphabet”. Realizing this, the Problematic Men team quickly snatched the point away from the KAIST team.

The KAIST team had more trouble in Episode 111 as the veteran Problematic Men members increased the score difference to 5:3 during the first half. However, the KAIST students were not discouraged and showed exceptional teamwork that got them two consecutive wins in the final problems.

The final score was 6:5 with the Problematic Men team leading by a point, but the staff chose the KAIST team as the “Problematic Team” of the special. The six KAIST students each received an electric kickboard as the prize.The KAIST team thanked the cast and staff for the valuable experience. Young-jong Kim said, “Now I will return to my original position and work hard to become a researcher that represents Korea.”

Problematic Men airs on tvN every Sunday at 11 p.m.

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