On September 27 and 28, KAIST-POSTECH Science War will be held right here at our university. As KAIST defeated POSTECH against the odds last year, lots of students and players are anticipating a definite victory once again. The KAIST Herald met with the head of the organizing committee for KAIST-POSTECH Science War.

Hello. My name is Suk June Song, and I major in mathematical sciences. This is my third year in KAIST and also my third year joining KAIST-POSTECH Science War. This year, I am the head of the organizing committee for KAIST-POSTECH Science War.

It is a group composed of members from KAIST’s event planning committee Imagination Effect and other KAIST students who volunteered to help organize this year’s science war. We also cooperate with POSTECH’s organizing committee to prepare for KAIST-POSTECH Science War every year.

This year marks the 12th Science War, and it is held to foster the friendly rivalry between the two universities through sports games and other activities. It is far more than just winning and beating the other university – it is a way of interacting and collaborating with each other through many programs. To be more specific, there are four sports events including football, baseball, basketball, and the electronic sports (more commonly known as eSports) League of Legends. For scientific game programs, there are artificial intelligence (AI), hacking, and scientific quiz game.

We first started establishing this big group of committee members at the end of last semester, around June. Then as summer vacation started, we began contacting POSTECH’s organizing committee and actively promoted organizing and preparing for the event. It took us a total of more than three months to fully be set.

There are seven teams with different roles. Two teams actually plan and manage sports events and scientific game programs. Then, there is a team in charge of arranging exchanging programs, such as the beer party. Furthermore, there is a team for managing supporters, another team for publicizing and promotions, a team for designing posters, booklets, and other souvenirs, and lastly, a team for finance accounting. Under the big concept and rules we set with POSTECH, our seven teams divide their roles and actively prepare their programs.

It can be rather difficult to work with other committees, and we do have to cooperate with many other groups of people. Even when we plan one little program, there are many groups of people involved whom we have to negotiate and cooperate with. It requires lots of discussions and mediations to put aside the differences in each group’s interests and finally reach an agreement. This can be somewhat tricky when we prepare for such a big event.

One new program for this year is the football competition of professors from each university. For the past years, we only had sports programs for students from the two universities. However, this year for the first time, there will be a sports event joined by the professors as well. Moreover, for the beer party, we decided to spread mats rather than using chairs and tables for a more picnic-like, comfortable, and intimate atmosphere.

Last year, we had an away competition where we visited POSTECH in Pohang. Now POSTECH students are visiting our school, and there are many more jobs to be done in order to properly accommodate POSTECH students. I feel more pressure to organize meticulously and diligently, starting from making reservations to scheduling the movement of more than 500 students. There are more details to be considered and to be cared for.