As a part of the 40th anniversary celebrations and the spring festival, the KAIST International Festival was hosted by KISA and the Office for Special Projects and Institutional Relations on May 4. Officials from many foreign embassies joined the event, which consisted of a brief introduction of the main projects and research conducted at KAIST such as the HUBO Lab, Mobile Harbor and OLEV, followed by the opening ceremony of the KOICA and Peace Corps photo exhibition and the International food festival.

Representatives from around twenty embassies visited the campus including the United States, Japanese and British embassies. Associate Vice President Dr. Yong-Taek Im gave a welcoming speech for the envoys before they were conducted on a tour around the main research facilities of KAIST, starting with the HUBO Lab at the main campus and finishing with a visit to the OLEV and Mobile Harbor research centers at the ICC campus. The envoys were then conducted back to the International Center where they cut the ribbon to officially open the KOICA photo exhibition.

One of the highlights of the day was the International food festival. A well-known event to many KAIST students, this year’s edition saw around 1300 guests both from within and outside the KAIST community, according to KISA estimates. The food festival featured traditional foods from 18 different countries and traditional performances from six different nations. The Brazilian booth, participating at the food festival for the first time, contributed with Pastels and recorded the best overall revenue, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. According to KISA president Nayan Kalita, this year’s festival had more visitors than previous years’, and overall the people enjoyed the food variety and traditional performances.

For those who could not enjoy the International Festival, the photo exhibition titled “A Story of Volunteerism: Americans in Korea, Koreans in the World” will be on exhibition at the International Center (W2-1). The exhibition is a collection of pictures taken by Peace Corps volunteers from the 1960s until the early 1980s, along with pictures of KOICA volunteers abroad. The exhibition is organized by the KAIST International Center and co-organized by KOICA and the United States Embassy in Seoul.