Technology and Society

“Defining Convergence” Asia Institute Seminar Featured in Korea IT Times (article)

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KOREA IT TIMES

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

 

“Wrestling with Convergence, Part 3: Defining the Convergence of Industries”

 

The Asia Institute recently held a round-table discussion on the topic of technology convergence. The discussion was led by Dr. Emanuel Pastreich, Professor of Humanities at the Humanitas College of Kyung Hee University. Also in attendance were Charlie Wolf, Director at the Social Impact Assessment Center in the Greater New York City Area; Paul Callomon, Collections Manager at the Academy of Natural Sciences in the Greater Philadelphia Area; Stephanie Wan, the YGNSS Project Co-Lead and the North, Central America & Caribbean regional Coordinator of the Space Generation Advisory Council; Daniel Lafontaine, Business Coach and Consultant at AMA Korea; Alan Engel, President at Paterra, Inc. in Japan; Matthew Weigand, founder of Responsiv.asia and former editor of the Korea IT Times; Tahir Hameed, Research Fellow and PhD Candidate at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology; and Vince Rubino, Global Team Leader of Business Development and AQ at the Korea Institute of Toxicology. In this third part of a five-part series, the experts discuss the true definition of the term convergence that is so easily thrown around these days.

Matthew Weigand: Personally I’ve always thought that the term Convergence was broad and generalized for political reasons – it encompasses the greatest possible meaning because people would like it to. Nailing it down to any one specific meaning would be marginalizing some segment of new technologies which want to claim the label for financial or political reasons. So I guess Emanuel’s take on breaking down convergence into sub-categories would be the only way to make any headway on discussing it.

Tahir Hameed: Thanks for a quite agreeable stance, and rightly pointing the only way forward. My intention was to just to establish a perceived weakness before carrying it on. Coming to the next question, there should be at least two aspects to discuss this; the possibility of development of S&T, innovation or industry, and the benefits that brings for society in general. There can be several issues in each. For now, I share my thinking about how the term convergence is useful to Korea in general. Will try to contribute on specifics and possible growth projections later.

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Op Ed by Vice President Strobel of Yale University

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Professor Scott Strobel, Vice President for West Campus at Yale University, has taken a deep interest in Korea of late. He recently wrote this very thoughtful article about Korea’s possible future role in science and technology.

KOREA IT TIMES

“Korea’s Potential in Scientific Discovery: A Strategy for Realization”

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

Scott Strobel

Vice President for West Campus

Yale University

The Growing Trend towards Asia in Science and Technology

Korea has a tremendous opportunity to play a central role in the future of discovery in science and technology if it takes advantage of some emerging trends. We can already see the growing sophistication of science in Asia in terms of the quality of its

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“Convergence in Space” (article in Korea IT Times)

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Recent Asia Institute Seminar on convergence and space featured in Korea IT Times.

Wrestling with Convergence, Part 2: Convergence in Space

Friday, September 30th, 2011

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The Asia Institute recently held a round-table discussion on the topic of technology convergence. The discussion was led by Dr. Emanuel Pastreich, Professor of Humanities at the Humanitas College of Kyung Hee University. Also in attendance were Charlie Wolf, Director at the Social Impact Assessment Center in the Greater New York City Area; Paul Callomon, Collections Manager

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Essential points for Research Institutes (과학연구기관의 향후성과를 위한 핵심요인) Essay

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과학연구기관의 향후성과를 위한 핵심요인

연구기관의 미래는 이시대의 가장 중요한 문제중하나이다. 전세계에 곳곳의 연구기관들은 비전을 정립하고 급속한 기술의 발전과 변화 무쌍한 경제 및 인구환경에 대응하여 제기능을 다하는데 있어어려움을 겪고있다. 미래의 연구기관이 잠재력을 무한 발휘할수 있도록 확신하기 위해 가장 중요한 몇가지 쟁점을 제시해보고자한다.

1. 연구기관의 사회적 기여에 대한 비전필요

장기적인 관점에서 대규모 연구프로젝트들은 분명한 사회적 기여에 대한 중요한 비전을 제시할수만있다면 강력한 재정지원 및 근로자, 연구원, 그리고 납세자의 폭넓은 지지의 대상이 될 것이다. 제한된 예산이라는 시대에서 사회적 관련성에 대한 제시의 필요성이 결정적인 요인이 될것이다.

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Presentation before Ahn Chul-Soo 안철수, President of SNU AICT

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Emanuel made a presentation Thursday, September 21, to a director’s meeting of Seoul National University’s Advanced Institutes of Convergence Technology concerning the results of the recent research project and suggestions for future work. Professor Ahn Chul-soo (안철수 박사) recently appointed President of SNU AICT, was present for the event. Emanuel stressed the importance of international collaboration and made suggestions for increasing the international visibility of SNU AICT.

The photo from the meeting is a bit dark.

“Don’t Repeat the Mistakes of Cyworld” MK News (in Korean) 매일경제신문 기고

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매일경제신문

2011.09.22

  제2의 싸이월드 되지 않으려면

한국은 현재 기로에 서 있다. 혁신적인 기술 개발, 새로운 비즈니스 모델과 디자인 창출을 추진하고 있음에도 이 모든 것이 단지 일시적인 현상인지 혹은 장기적인 전환인지 불확실하다. 삼성전자 현대차 등 대기업 이름으로 좋은 제품을 외국에 수출하고 있지만 아직까지 구글이나 마이크로소프트처럼 세상을 변화시킨 제품을 생산해 내지는 못하고 있다.

과거 한국은 세상을 크게 변화시킬 수 있는 기회를 가진 바 있다. 1372년 `직지심체요절`을 인쇄했던 세계 최초 이동식 금속 활자가 바로 그것이다. 안타깝게도 당시 금속활자는 세계적으로 영향력 있는 획기적인 혁신으로 나아가지 못했으며, 결과적으로 금속활자 기술 개발의 공을 고스란히 유럽인들에게 넘겨준 셈이 됐다. 무한한 가능성을 가지고 있음에도 세계로 나아가기를 주저한 결과 초래된 안타까운 역사적 사실이다. 

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RIKEN’s Asia Research Network

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Emanuel visited the headquarters of RIKEN in  Wako, Japan on July 29th to discuss with Professor Hara Masahiko concerning RIKEN’s a”Asia Research Network” and to learn about Professor Hara’s current research.

RIKEN has shown a strong commitment to international collaboration with a focus on Asia over the last few years. RIKEN has launched an Asia Research Network that at present includes representative offices in Singapore and Beijing to oversee initiatives and maintain close institutional ties with research institutes throughout the region.

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Future Success of Scientific Research Institutes (Article)

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KOREA IT TIMES 

Key Factors for the Future Success of Scientific Research Institutes

Friday, September 9th, 2011

Emanuel Pastreich

The future of the research institute is one of the most critical topics of our age. Across the world, research institutes are struggling to define their vision and their function in response to the rapid evolution of technology and a changing economic and demographic environment. Here are a few issues that are central to assuring that a future research institute fully realizes its potential.

1. The need for a vision of how the research institute contributes to society

In the long term, large research projects will be strong candidates for funding, and broad enthusiasm among workers, researchers and taxpayers if they feature an over-arching vision for explicit social contributions. In an age of limited budgets, the need to show social relevance will be decisive. We have many research institutes that describe their research in terms of biotechnology or nanotechnology. Such descriptions are fine from an intellectual point of view, but in the future justifications for funding must be made in terms of a direct response to serious medical, environmental, or energy challenges, locally and internationally. Creating an intellectual backdrop that highlights how the research institute is leading the way, not only in terms of new developments in medicine and biotechnology, but also in an ethical sense, will be the key to building international collaboration networks. Those networks, by extension, will determine the effectiveness of the institution.

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Report “Strategies for Promoting Successful International Collaboration in Convergence Technologies” submitted to Seoul National University

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The Interdisciplinary Studies Program at Humanitas College, Kyung Hee University, submitted to Seoul National University’s Advanced Institutes of Convergence Technology (AICT) a research report entitled “Strategies for Promoting Successful International Collaboration in Convergence Technologies: A Consideration of the Korean Bio-Medical Field” on September 1, 2011. This report was the culmination of Emanuel’s work over the summer including his discussions with University of Illinois, Yale University, MIT, RIKEN (Japan) and other institutes concerning effective strategies for international collaboration in convergence technology research.

The study was guided by Emanuel Pastreich, Eugene Pak, Ph.D.,  of SNU, AICT, and Vince Rubino of SEE GENE Incorporated. Michael Gehret, Associate Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies  and Richard Herman, Chancellor Emeritus of University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, participated in the study.

We hope to expand the study into a long-term program for facilitating international collaboration in the near future.

 

Alliance for Environmental Technologies? What do you think?

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I wrote this article for possible publication in Nautilus Institute’s NAPSNET newsletter about three months ago. Several individuals who read the manuscript, however, noted that my understanding of the technologies involved was mistaken and also suggested that I had not properly assessed the accident because of rather unreliable materials available on the internet.

I decided not to publish the article, but I do think the concept of an alliance for cooperation in the development of technologies to address environmental threats is worthy of consideration. I am placing the manuscript here in the hope that I may solicit the opinions of everyone.

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