Dankook opens software design center
Dankook University President Chang Ho-sung, third from left, hosts an opening ceremony for the Software Design Convergent Center on its Jukjeon campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. Rep. You Seung-hee of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea, second from left, and Yongin Mayor Jung Chan-min, second from right, participated in the ceremony. / Courtesy of Dankook University
By Chung Hyun-chae
Dankook University held an opening ceremony for the Software Design Convergent Center on its Jukjeon campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday.
“I hope our students will become creative talents who can innovate in a free atmosphere at the SW Design Convergent Center,” Dankook University President Chang Ho-sung said.
“We aim to cultivate creative talent inspired by the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs,” said university spokesman Kim Nam-phil.
The university launched the center in May in cooperation with SAP, IBM, SK Telecom and Yongin municipal authorities. The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning also provided financial support for the establishment of the center.
Dankook and the three global companies signed agreements on nurturing great talent during the opening ceremony.
Under the accord, the university and the companies will jointly develop innovative educational programs, create high value-added jobs and exchange information and manpower.
Design thinking is a solution-focused thinking method breaking away from fixed ideas. This is usually conducted in groups or teams rather than individually to encourage collective intellect.
D.school of Stanford University and i.school of the University of Tokyo are leading design thinking. D.school focuses on industries by collaborating with global companies to launch new products and services, while i.school tries to apply design thinking methods to public research for the common good.
“We will develop Korean-type design thinking combining the two schools’ good points,” Kim Tae-hyeong, director of the SW Design Convergent Center, told The Korea Times.
As part of helping students put design thinking to practical use, Dankook encouraged the graduate school’s data science master’s students in April to participate in a contest where five teams from six universities competed to activate a flower festival in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, and they won the competition.
The center has also been trying to promote public interest. Dankook faculty and students attended a workshop organized by the i.school last month.
“We practiced coming up with ideas and solving real problems such as illegal banners in Yongin while conducting a field investigation in Tokyo with i.school researchers and students,” said a workshop participant.
Dankook and IBM signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish the company’s Bluemix Garage, a research space where students can explore new ideas and start their own businesses, in the center.
The Software Design Convergent Center also has a space in which students can experience augmented reality, receiving help from Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC), a U.S.-based computer software company specializing in augmented reality technology.
“We expect our students to be able to conduct a real technology demonstration of the prototypes they made at the space,” said spokesman Kim said.
Recently augmented reality technology has been spotlighted, taking advantage of the popularity of the Pokemon Go, a free-to-play location-based augmented reality mobile game developed by Niantic, a startup company which was started as a Google in-house venture.