This story is written by TOH Zi Jie, 2016 Intake, SMU School of Information Systems
As a participant, I was glad to be one of the 13 SIS students chosen to be part of this Korea Learning Trip, spanning over a duration of 7 days. The trip, with its focus on beyond the classroom experiences, gave all of us more insights about the business and start up culture of Korea, which could not be experienced otherwise.
The company visits were the highlights of the entire trip. A few of these company visits left a deep impression on me, one of which being the visit to AB180. AB180 is a start-up with an innovative idea which focuses on marketing analytics through the use of blockchain technology. The founders showed us the potential of blockchain and demonstrated to us some of the use cases. What was surprising to most of us during this particular visit was that the founders of the company were around our age and had already started to pursue their passions. Their sheer tenacity serves as great reminders that we too, have the capacity to chase our dreams. Additionally, we also found ourselves fostering new friendships with the employees of the company as we exchanged our contacts and kept in contact with each other.
Another site visit which remained fresh on my mind was the visit to Ajou University, one of the top universities in Korea. When we arrived at the university, Assistant Professor JeongGil Ko was there to welcome us. An individual with a strong passion in the healthcare industry, Professor Ko has executed multiple researches on improving the welfare of the patients and doctors. I felt particularly inspired by his dedication and determination towards achieving his goals and his insights in the healthcare industry has spurred interest in some of us to further deepen our knowledge in this sector. Professor Ko also emphasized the importance of user-centric design when creating application and it resonated with us as this is what we were taught in school too.
Professor Ko sharing with us his experiences in the industry
Another interesting aspect of Korea startup culture is that there are also organisations to facilitate collaboration between them. D.CAMP and Startup Alliance are organisations established with the goal of providing support to start ups with D.CAMP providing financial support and Startup Alliance providing the platform for communication between start-ups. The various startups founders present at the sites were friendly and were excited to share their products with us. This lifted the atmosphere, making the visit a relaxing yet beneficial one.
While company visits were the highlight of the trip, we spent a substantial amount of time learning and immersing ourselves into the Korean culture. I enjoyed the sightseeing activities where we visited Gyeongbokgung Palace, trying out the Hanbok, and tasting the great variety of authentic Korean dishes.
Overall, all of us enjoyed our stay in Korea and it is definitely a memorable learning trip!
Group photo of us wearing traditional Hanbok at Gyeongbokgung Palace