Many of the top universities around the world follow a system that provides students with a theory course running parallel with a lab course. This aims to achieve the goal of providing the student with a vision about the broad spectrum of areas and ideas germinating from the same underlying theory. Checking the list of courses available for the undergraduate program from the course catalogue for the Department of Electrical Engineering, I was astounded to see that there were fewer than five laboratory courses during a student’s entire undergraduate education. The question is, do we have the skill sets for a technical job right after finishing our undergraduate degree with such limited amount of practical knowledge? The answer is not too difficult to guess.

 

Some people could counter my opinions by saying that the individual study system has been put into place for that very reason, but I strongly feel that an individual study would not give you the basic knowledge that act as a foundation for any pursued projects or research lines. If you do not know how to cement two bricks together, how can you imagine constructing a firm wall?

I do not deny the importance of theory, but undergraduate students need to have a flavor of practical applications in the areas they are majoring in. Imagine having a laboratory parallel with every theory class, you might forget the theory that you studied in textbooks after appearing for your exams, but you will definitely remember that ambiguity that you observed in the functionality of your circuit during an experiment in laboratory session. On the other hand, having too many compulsory laboratory sessions could make the whole process strenuous and boring, leading students to lose interest. A way out could be making laboratory sessions optional, which would enable enthusiastic students to come forth and try out their interests.

 

My argument is that when we step into the corporate field, we will need to work on new interdisciplinary areas and come up with innovations. At that point of time, the effort that we put in reading the textbook word by word, trying to push in all the content into our minds, will hardly come to our rescue. It is but harsh reality that an undergraduate degree from KAIST from many departments is not enough to pursue a job demanding technical expertise. How do we get around this problem? We cannot change the system immediately. What we can do rather is to be broad-minded while thinking about our expectations from our careers in the long run and constantly work to improve our skill sets. Factors like leadership skills and a spectrum of values, both technical and social, would enable us to do so. We can start small by keeping track of current research going on in our campus. The more aware we are, better is the probability of coming up with new ideas. Sparing a little time off our busy schedules and working on long term goals to extend our skill sets will definitely give us a head start and make us more ready for the grueling corporate world. Till we find our standing, the journey continues on.