World Cup Futbol

After a "hard" day of research, Gustavo and I rode our bicycles 3 miles from the dorms to watch a local futbol game at the World Cup Stadium in Daejeon. Gustavo has a terrible sense of direction. We get on our bikes in front of the dorm. His bike was pointing in one direction and mine in the opposite. Asking, where are you going, he says the stadium is left, out of the main gate to the university. I persuaded him the stadium was to the right. Before we exited the university, he wanted to stop to make sure we were heading in the right direction. I responded by saying we did not have time to stop as we might be late. We kept going, riding out the west gate of the university meandering through and toward the general direction of our destination. The adjacent neighborhood is where many of the students go for lunch, shopping, bar hopping with narrow one lane roads intended for two-way traffic. The right turn out of the main gate is a very busy four lane road going right by the stadium which happens to parallel to our meanderings through the neighborhood at the west gate area of the university. The pedestrian traffic is heavy at times as the neighborhood extends to a public school about ten blocks to the west although far better than riding the sidewalk of the highway with vehicular traffic and the loud noises. After the neighborhood, with Gustavo still unconvinced at every turn, we took a right onto the main highway leading to the stadium with the university main gate about a mile and a half behind us. I stopped immediately on a river bridge with Gustavo stopping beside me from about fifty feet behind, I look at him questioningly saying I do not recognize this place as an area I had looked at on the map earlier this evening and I think we should turn around and head back in the opposite direction. He looks at me with an irritating look on his face and begins to ask the next person, a Korean female, walking toward us if she speaks English to ask for directions. She holds up her hand with her thumb and forefinger close together as she says a rittle Engwish. The bridge where I happened to stop, noticing the sign before stopping, had a huge sign overhead about ten yards further reading World Cup Stadium 1.6 km and an arrow pointing ahead. As Gustavo is trying to ask the girl if the stadium is in the direction where we had just come, I lightly interrupted tapping on his shoulder and pointing at the overhead sign. It took him a few seconds to realize the sign I was pointing toward with the big smile on my face.

Bridge Damping Research

I think I have learned enough to try and explain what type of research we are conducting here in South Korea. Our group, consisting of three undergraduate students including myself representing Univ of Connecticut, Ben Davis representing Univ of South Carolina and Abby Hurley from Univ of Akron, Ohio is researching how to harvest energy from the ambient vibrations in cable stay bridges. Close to the anchor points at each end of an individual cable on a bridge has a damping device called a Magneto-rheological(MR)Damper which currently is powered by an external source of electricity. These MR Dampers act as a means to reduce the vibrations in the cables by pushing on the cable in one direction as the wind pushes the cable in the opposite direction. There are other excitations which cause the vibrations such as traffic from cars, trucks, even pedestrian traffic can cause a frequency vibration. As the cable vibrates, there are sensors which send a signal through a control device telling the damper how much force to push or pull reducing the cable vibration. In our daily lectures, there have been several examples given of bridge failure due to these vibrations caused by wind or traffic loading forces. One such example was the Tacoma Narrows Bridge which collapsed under a 42 mph wind in 1940. Watch the vibrations by clicking Tacoma Narrows Bridge With my lack of knowledge from not having a class in structural dynamics and the computer programming class called Mat Lab (this coming year when I return), I have been assigned the task of collecting pertinent information from published technical journal articles relating to MR Dampers in preparation to an introduction and general overview for the beginning of our research paper. So far the three of us have collected 22 related journal articles of which I am sifting through and collecting text for future writing and documentation. My other two team members have been self delegated the computer programming aspects of the project which involves...I have no clue what this involves...maybe I will be able to answer this question toward the end of the summer. The short two hour lectures covering MatLab and Structural Dynamics given here at KAIST (Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) would normally be taught in a semester long class. Having no prior introduction, I may compare this to trying to learn the fundamentals of a new language within the same time period. While bicycling around the city this past Monday, I rode 10.5 km one way to a traditional Korean market with fresh seafood both live and on ice, many fresh vegetables and 30 varieties of kimchi. With the somewhat popularity of dog meat, I half-way expected to see dog carcass hanging amongst other large cuts of meat. The meat vendors had only family size packages of a variety of cuts. There may have been dog meat there but all the signs were illegible to me being in the Korean language. On the return trip, a came across a Korean couple who I had passed hearing the guy speaking broken English. They were on their bikes traveling much slower. Out of curiosity, I turned around to talk with someone outside of the KAIST. As we talked, I asked him of points of interest within an hours radius by bike from the university. When he asked about me, I told him I was studying/researching at KAIST. He said I must be really smart as the university is very prestigious and is in the top ten engineering research institutions in the world. Seoul was a wonderful trip this past weekend as we saw a Royal Palace in the city center and a night view of the city atop a mountain overlook with a skytower on the top. This coming weekend we are going to Busan, on the southern coast. Busan is the second largest city in South Korea and hosts the largest fish market in the country. I read a restaurant review today of ordering baby octopus as an appetizer. Apparently the octopus is served still squiggling on the plate prior to consumption. I may have to try this.

South Korea Photos

I have posted all my pictures to date at http://www.facebook.com/williameric.white/photos which also includes photos posted of me by others.

Electronic Toilet Seats

I sat the other day to do my business and was curious about the various controls on the toilet seat so I stayed in the stall quite a bit longer than anticipated. The green/white button closest to the seat flushes the toilet. The next button I tried produced a stream of air while another press caused a stream of water between the cheeks. These streams were controlled by the brown buttons closest to the rear wall allowing for an increase/decrease in water/air pressure. As I finished the paperwork and pressed the red button to turn off the stream of air and the power to the system, I got up to see where these streams were coming from. There seemed to be nothing there. I started pressing buttons. Still nothing. No power! I realized the seat was sensor activated by weight as shown by the red circle on the right front of the seat. Maintaining firm pressure with a couple of fingers, I was able to press the green/white button again to turn on the power. If I released the pressure with my right hand, the power would go off. I again started pressing buttons not remembering which ones performed which duties in order to see where the stream of water came from. The next one I pressed rapidly extracted a thin rigid tube from the rear and squirted a stream of water almost to the door. With my right hand holding the pressure down on the red button and my left hand pressing a button with instructions written in Korean, I happened to be standing in the middle of the stream as I got hit from my chest and below. Immediately afterwards, I washed my hands, took a shower and did laundry. The other toilet is self explanatory. I have yet to try this one as the ones with a seat, I feel are much more comfortable.

gahm-sah-hahm-ni-da, Thank You!

I am beginning to wonder when our actual research is going to start as tomorrow one of the KAIST doctoral students (Thomas, English name) is taking the seven of us on a tour of Deajeon and its surrounding areas. Thomas came and picked us up at our dorms at 2300 this evening to take us to his office where he showed us a short presentation of our itinerary. He has rented a Hyundai 8 passenger diesel van for tomorrow. Some of the locations include a National Park with temples and a small canyon, a 4.8 km hike round trip with lunch at the entrance to the national park, an arboretum close to the city, a city center tour with a traditional Korean dinner and some drinks, then off to a mountain overlook area on the opposite side of the city for a night time view of the city. Starting at 0930 in the morning, he expects we will be out till midnight. With gas nearly US$7 per gallon, the entire trip including the rental van, food, park entrance fees, etc Thomas expects the costs to be about 90,000 won per person for the day ($76). After supper with Professor Jung, Kaist students and the REU interns, I did a self guided tour of the city aimlessly wondering trying to get lost on the bicycle while taking a few photos. I ended up at Time World, a popular entertainment district of Daaejeon with clubs, street food vendors, bars, and a massive amount of people walking the streets. After taking about ten photos, a local man about my age approached me and asked me where I was from. A short conversation later found us drinking a beer at a bar just around the corner. One beer was all I had time for as I had to be back at the university for our 2300 meeting with Thomas. The man turned out to be a local realtor who spoke no English. He used his smart phone to translate his Korean characters to a few phrases in English. One of which was I am a realtor and another, would you like to join me for a beer. The proprietor in Lucky`s bar spoke good English and had the time to join in our conversation while acting as a translator for the Korean language I have no knowledge of. So far I have only learned how to say one word, thank you, gahm-sah-hahm-ni-da.

Bicycling on a Dollar a Day

We were introduced to the engineering building today with a short lecture on things to do around campus; where to exercise, restaurants, swimming pool, entertainment, ping pong, even a Burger King (yuck!) on campus next to the dorm we are staying in. The seven of us with four Korean students whom we will be working with for the next five weeks joined for lunch adjacent to campus in a popular location for inexpensive restaurants and entertainment. This was the first restaurant Gustavo and I had eaten where we did not have to sit on the floor nor take our shoes off at the entrance. Subsequently, the prices were a little more expensive. Was this because of the extra costs of chairs and higher tables? Maybe there is a correlation there. No dog for lunch today. We were then dismissed until the evening meal where again we will meet with the other students and our professors of KAIST. We will travel maybe by taxi to the city. The city center is only three miles away from the dorm. After lunch, two of the KAIST students walked with Gustavo and I to a bicycle shop on campus to help and translate for us to buy two used bikes. Daejeon is mostly flat and very bicycle friendly as a couple main rivers join together after surrounding the city. I paid 80,000 won while Gustavo paid 70,000 won. With the exchange rate being 1,181 won per US dollar this equals $68 and $60. The manager also included a bicycle lock and said he would buy the bikes back for half price when we leave in five weeks. A little more than a dollar a day for having bicycle transportation at our disposal. Unlike my home university in Greensboro where one may find three or four bikes locked up adjacent to a building, here at KAIST, bicycles are very common with parking spots where one can lock their bike are very crowded. Bicycle riders enjoy covered parking three to four rows deep and are usually in front and behind the buildings.

Our hosts have several entertainment and cultural events planned for us over the next five weeks in including a trip to Seoul next weekend for the two nights/three days stay in the city. Population 10.5 million in 2010.

Bee Larvae and Dog Meat

As I write, it is 0045 in the morning. 1145, 15 minutes before noon in North Carolina. The seven of us have just returned from an evening meal of traditional Korean food after which we all went to a bar to try Korean vodka with a variety of appetizers including lightly sauteed larvae from a bee of some kind, I think? Our two Korean hosts, Gil and Thomas, 24 and 31 respectively ordered for us from the menu from both places. Their Korean names I can not even begin to say as they said it. They also gave their given English names as well. About half of the Koreans I have met here will tell me their name in Korean then they will tell me their given name in English. I wonder if they have a given name in English for those who are not of Korean descent in order to make it easier for us to remember. The majority of the group were very hesitant to even taste the Korean delicacy of bee larvae. I will try anything, especially if washed down with Korean vodka. The larvae had a consistency of a once hardened shell softened by being lightly sauteed with an inner consistency of liver mush which oozed out of the soft shell upon the first bite. I thought the larvae appetizer was tasty as I ate a few more tiny morsels through the evening conversations. Thomas, our remaining host at the second location did not try any saying he was not fond of them but wanted us foreigners to have the chance to try something out of the ordinary to US custom. Here are some interesting things I found out about dog meat. According to the National Assembly of South Korea, more than 20,000 restaurants, including the 6484 registered restaurants, served soups made from dog meat in Korea in 1998. Dog meat is often consumed during the summer months and is either roasted or prepared in soups or stews. In North Koreain early 2010, the government included dog meat in its new list of one hundred fixed prices, setting a fixed price of 500 won per kilogram. That`s about 45 cents per 2.2 pounds of dog meat. In contemporary times, some cultures view the consumption of dog meat to be a part of their traditional cuisine, while others consider consumption of dog to be inappropriate and offensive. In response to criticisms, proponents of dog meat have argued that distinctions between livestock and pets is subjective, and that there is no difference with eating the meat of different animals, while countering that those critical of dog meat consumption are guilty of cultural supremacy, if not racism. During teleconferencing and casual conversation about odd Korean foods before we all met one another in Chicago, the conversation once led to the personal consumption of the meat form a dog which can be found and is somewhat common here in Korea. After eating the larvae, I brought up the subject again at the dinner table as all but two of us said they would never consume what we here in the United States consider a pet. Our remaining host whose English is slow but understandable said he would never eat dog meat as the dogs which are raised here for restaurant consumption are not treated in the best manner of factory farmed animals although there are many establishments throughout the country which serve dog from the menu. If the opportunity arises, I am sure I will try it. Earlier in the day, Gustavo and I took a taxi to the city center with a goal in mind to walk indirectly back to the University, a distance of about 3 miles as the crow flies. As we meandered through the central shopping district including a shopping mall about 10 stories high, we say many karaoke bars, night clubs and entertainment venues which would open later in the evening. These establishments were mixed with the daytime street vendors selling a wide variety of things from clothing to fresh live seafood sold street side.

Korean Restaurant

Upon getting our laptop computers set up for ether net cable access in the dorms, Gustavo and I walked off campus into Daejeon in search of food. The other five of our group went looking for a Burger King on the KAIST campus after arriving in Daejeon early this morning and were currently sleeping in the middle of the afternoon. Being mid-afternoon, most the restaurants seemed to be closed as I thought they might open in time for the evening meal. Only finding a sandwich shop open, we decided to continue walking. Around the next block, a woman of North American appearance was walking toward us. As she came near, I asked "where is there a place open for us to eat?" After short conversation, she ultimately lead us to one of her favorite restaurants on a side street we had not walked. She happened to be in Daejeon for two years researching at KAIST from Elizabethtown, NC. Her husband, she said, was also at KAIST and was from Asheville, NC. The entryway of the restaurant contained three pair of shoes owned by the three patrons sitting nearby. Gustavo removed his shoes as I removed my sandals as we were seated on the floor on thin cushions. The dinner table consisted of two large gas burners where the food would be cooked in front of us. A menu on the wall, completely in Korean was pointed at by the waitress as we were supposed to choose what we wanted for dinner. After trying to explain we did not understand the menu, five minutes later she handed us a menu containing photos. She began to bring small dishes including rice and kimchi to accompany the main dish to be cooked in the center of the table. The main course was a mixture of thin slices of beef, cabbage, mushrooms, been sprouts, carrots and onion sauteed and simmered in a thin tasty sauce. The entire meal if had been eaten at an Asian Steak House restaurant in NC would have cost about $15 per person. Here the both of us were fully satisfied for just under $9. Here it is also not required or customary to tip the waitstaff for your meal. Gustavo age 32, pictured here is the doctoral student from Columbia, South America. He is studying on a Civil Engineering scholarship from South America at the University of South Carolina, Columbia. He and I have been conversing in Spanish and English. After eating, we walked a couple miles for a tour of the city center across the river adjacent to the KAIST campus. I lost my dorm room key, so we set out on a venture to find a place to make a copy while walking around downtown. A taxi ride earlier in the day for incidental shopping with a local Korean doctoral student, Nac (his name) led us to an equivalent to a Walmart Supercenter. Along the short ride, Nac pointed out a distant large green building across the river and said E-Mart was similar to a Sams Club/Department store. Returning back to campus, we stopped in E-Mart to try and duplicate the dorm room key. The first floor contained escalators and restrooms. At the top of the second floor was a small information booth. The lady behind the counter pointed downstairs as she shook her head no after being asked if she spoke English. We walked to the next proprietor on the same floor which was a pet shop with a few dogs behind the waist high glass enclosed small storefront and a cash register on the side. Asking the young guy if he spoke English, he held his thumb and forefinger tightly together as he timidly said "little Engwish" with a smilling, eyes slanted face. Using charades and a few key (pun not intended) English words, Gustavo and I tried to ask where we could get a key duplicated. Five minutes later and accomplishing nothing in the conversation. The young man accesses Google Translate on his registry`s computer and hands the keyboard to Gustavo. As Gustavo types "where can we have a key made and how do we get there?", I see the slanted eyes brighten and a wide smile as the Korean translation appears (우리가 어디에 미친 키와 어떻게 거기 도착합니까받을 수 있죠?) next to the English script. He shakes his head no, not here in E-Mart but goes to a map locator to find a store where one can be made. He shows us the map on the computer which has our present location and map directions 4.27 kilometers (approx. 2.4 miles) further from where we are. He then prints us out a copy of the map. Being late in the afternoon, he also calls the key shop to see if the shop is open, it is not. He begins to write down the business hours on the printed map for the next few days for when we can get a key made. Similar to the JAL (Japan Airlines) experience, the Asian culture or more specifically here in Korea, the hospitality to foreigners seems to go above and far beyond that which I have found or experienced in the US. Gustavo and I greatly appreciated the results of our attempts of finding information in a country where we do not speak the language. A gracious thank you was said many times as we departed the pet shop counter with labradors and poodles behind the counter. As is custom here in Korea, a short forward bend at the waist and a head nod of respect and welcome was presented by the three of us.

Chicago to Daejeon, South Korea

The seven of us have arrived in Daejeon, South Korea. As I thought, the flight went north east going as far in latitude as Anchorage, Alaska before descending across the Pacific Ocean. In my travels, I have been to all continental United States but not to Alaska and Hawaii. Our flight over Alaska definitely makes me want to visit there. Leaving Chicago following a path over Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba, Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territory of Alaska, Yukon Territory of Canada before plateauing on a 61 degree Northern latitude as the plane passed over Anchorage city proper. There were many beautiful glaciers between the Yukon Territory and the Prince William Sound of Anchorage as I had a bulkhead window seat looking south over the Gulf of Alaska. The highest peak of all was Mount Logan at 18,776 feet. I slept intermittently between trying to watch inflight movies for most of the rest of the trip to Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo to Seoul, South Korea was by far the best in flight service flying Japan Air Lines (JAL). The US could glean much from Japan the comfort and service provided to their guests. Magazines and periodicals were distributed upon entering the plane and the seats were much more comfortable than those on American Airlines. The large monitor two rows ahead showed a forward view from the aircraft during takeoff with the lights of Seoul as we gained altitude during last light of the evening. Immediately falling asleep, I awoke to the loud speaker 20 minutes before landing. A flight attendant quickly approached and asked if I wanted my dinner and something to drink. Five minutes before landing I had consumed the best flight meal I had ever had. Several morsels of a variety of fish, rice, lentils, a couple small pieces of sushi and rinsed with water. A 1335 Thursday (local time) departure from Chicago to an arrival at the KAIST (Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) dorm in Daejeon at 0200 (local) Saturday morning equates to 24.5 hours from door to door.

REU-Smart Structures

Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) is sponsored by the National Science Foundation allows undergraduate students to choose from many research opportunities at universities around the country.  In the early spring 2012 I had applied to two opportunities, one at the University of Colorado, Boulder (Environmental Engineering) and the other at the University of Connecticut, Storrs (Smart Structures) near Hartford.  The application for the U Conn process required a couple of short essays where I had to write my interests in Smart Structures of which at the time, I had none, nor did I know what it even meant.  The other essay was to write about how I defined the importance or lack of international educational research collaboration. 

I researched Smart Structures as I wrote a short paragraph.  There was space for 1500 words but I think I only wrote about 250 thinking I was not going to get the position.  Smart Structures, from an engineering standpoint is the ability to build structures stronger to better withstand natural forces such as hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, even the sway of tall buildings in ambient winds.

The REU with U Conn is researching in collaboration with two other universities,  the University of South Carolina, Columbia and the University of Ohio, Akron totaling six of us with two undergrad students and a Doctorate Professor from each university.  The previous two weeks were spent teleconferencing with the other two universities in preparation for the main research in South Korea. 

The main applications to the specific research we are conducting are courses I have not yet had, including Structural Dynamics (the movement of structures from forces mentioned above) and MatLab (computer programming).  Both of which I will have in the coming year upon return from South Korea.  The lectures and projects we have been assigned in these last two weeks have been difficult where my input to the projects have been almost non-existent.  I approached my professor the other day about my concerns of lack of knowledge. He responded these courses were not a prerequisite for the REU and to try and learn as much as I could.

Yesterday, I arrived in South Bend with my other REU candidate, Maggie and Dr. Christenson after flying into Chicago. We were met by the other students from SC with Dr. Caicedo (from Columbia, South America) and OH without Dr. Yun GunGin (from Korea).  We are all staying in the dorms at Notre Dame, a Catholic University while attending a Civil Engineering Conference specifically on Structural Dynamics.  The majority of the day today was spent listening to technical reports of Doctoral candidate student dissertations.  Again, much more information than could sink in.  All is not wasted though as I have listened to a few interesting topics such as dam deformation research on the many antiquated dam structures built around WWII along with how to build them better when they will soon have to be rebuilt. 

In my short essay I wrote about a research paper I had submitted in my environmental engineering class last year which mentioned the importance of being able to retrofit existing structures to reduce catastrophic damages in recent earthquakes in Turkey.  San Francisco has come a long way since the 1906 earthquake which decimated the city due to stringent building codes and Smart Structure research.  The lack of enforcement of building codes has been a main contributor to the devastation there. 

The six of us undergraduate students leave for South Korea Thursday with a graduate student (Gustavo) for 5 weeks of research in the city of Daejeon, population 1.5 million being the 5th largest city.  There are two research teams.  A student from each university comprises a team.  The team I am on will research the damping control systems on cable stay bridges.  These dampers significantly reduce the wind vibrations on the cables by applying force in the opposite direction of the wind.  These are already in use on bridges although we are going to try and design a damper which will use the energy in the cable caused by the wind vibration to create a closed electrical circuit so the dampers will require no external form of electricity for self sustainability.

Jamie, a Catholic student from USC invited me to mass at the beautiful Notre Dame Basilica last night.  Having been confirmed Episcopalian at around the age of 12 or 13, I was somewhat used to the standing, kneeling, sitting, singing, standing, kneeling, sitting...with an occasional script including "Thanks be to God" or some form followed by the sharing of the blood and the body of Christ.  I patiently waited in line taking my wafer upon my turn and proceeded to walk to the line with the least amount of people where the chalice of wine (maybe grape juice, I don`t know) was being held several yards away.  The mass was very crowded for a 9pm Sunday night with the choir in the balcony singing below the massive organ pipes.  There were at least 8 people distributing wafers with another 8 holding a chalice.

Half way between the wafer and chalice guys with my wafer in hand, the wafer guy said to me in a loud stern voice, "come back here!" within earshot of several attendees.  I turned wondering who he was talking to and he was looking directly at me with his finger pointing with the come here motion curling the index finger inward.  I returned to him and said almost as loud "what!" with an embarrassed smile on my face of innocence not knowing what I had done wrong.  "Put it in your mouth!" which was what I was going to do as I waited in line for the sip from the chalice.  It was humorous  to me how I had broken protocol enough for the wafer guy to enforce his authority as I returned to him to consume the wafer in his presence.

The adventure begins. The conference is over early Wednesday afternoon.  The six of us with a graduate student will be spending the night at a hotel near the Chicago airport Wednesday evening.  After checking into the hotel we are going sightseeing in the downtown area by subway and bus.  Wrigley stadium, Chicago style deeeeep dish pizza, Michigan Ave.,  top of the Willis Tower, Navy Pier etc...between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.  Then off to Korea in the afternoon through Tokyo.  Another day in the life of Chewy.