On September 5, the Korea Research Center of History of Science, Technology, and Civilization (HISTAC) hosted a seminar on seeking creative ways of educating engineers based on their knowledge of science history. Sponsored by KAIST and the Academy of Korean Studies, the seminar welcome more than 100 participants at Terman Hall of the Creative Learning Building (E11) from 1:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

HISTAC was founded in 2010 to conduct researches and publish several versions of encyclopedia encompassing everything including history, science, sociology, medicine, literature, and language throughout the ancient times, medieval ages, modern, and contemporary society.

Marking the third anniversary of its foundation, the research center aimed to intrigue the audience to actively develop ways of building creative leaders in the field of engineering who will lead Korea in the 21st century. The opening message from the director of the research center, Dongwon Shin, emphasized the necessity of organizing and keeping track of scientific and technological developments of the country and hence, the need for the comprehensive encyclopedia titled Science and Civilization in Korea. The directory hopes to make this publication useful in raising future leaders in engineering.

Se-Jung Oh, President of the Institute of Basic Science, highlighted the slowly deteriorating “fast-follower” strategy that Korea has been employing for the most part of the last few decades. He asserted that a creative, “first-mover” trend can only be achieved by moving away from short-term goals, and investing more in the basic sciences research and development (R&D). To be more specific, he accentuated a flexible research budget, a liberal research environment, and an open-source, collaborative approach as key components of the R&D paradigm shift.