International Capstone Design Program, South Korea
The international competition brought together participants from Korea, Thailand, Japan, and Singapore. We were inspired by problems we might face in our everyday lives and applied CDIO — Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate to come up with a product using the Internet of things (IoT) to solve a problem.
The competition made us work collaboratively across cultures and learning to work creatively with people from other backgrounds was a key highlight of the competition. As the leader, I had to rely on my cultural metacognition from my past experience to navigate through the language barrier and to recombine existing ideas while combining ideas that had never been combined before to produce something useful. In my mind, there is no doubt that such a confluence of diverse cultures can create opportunities for us to come with something innovative but I knew that I had to minimize any misunderstanding to reap the benefits. Therefore, I devised a method of showing instead of telling to better bring an idea across. This made the working process far more effective and efficient.
SmartBox was our solution after multiple rounds of CDIO. It is a convenient and secure method of receive packages with security features like fingerprint, RFID, password authentication, and live camera streaming. The problem statement we set out to address protected packages from “package thieves”. How it works: When your package arrives, you will receive a notification through the LINE messager. Next, you can open your app to see the delivery process taking place in real-time. With access to your SmartBox registered to the deliveryman in the district, you will never have to be home to collect your package ever again.
After the competition, we went on an industry visit and got a glimpse into the Po-hang Iron & Steel Company (POSCO) and the history of steel-making. The creation of POSCO was the result of the South Korean government deliberations during the 1960s that self-sufficiency in iron and steel and construction of an integrated steel plant was essential to Korea’s economic development. Through countless obstacles and undertakings, they managed to construct the first steelwork at Pohang. This seemed like a miracle as the guide brought us through the chain of unfortunate events. Even after becoming one of the world’s leading steel-making companies, POSCO never stopped improving its process. We found out that POSCO came up with FINEX which is an innovative technology where molten iron is produced directly in a blast furnace. The process eliminates preliminary processing and uses cheaper powder-type iron ore and bituminous coal as raw materials.
Indeed, this competition has deepened our technical abilities and allowed us to apply CDIO through empathy studies. Under a collaborative and hands-on learning environment, I was able to bond, network, and learn together with friends from so many different countries. 읽어 주셔서 감사합니다!
