Work-in-Progress: Running an in-person NSF IRES Program in South Korea before and during COVID-19

Gloria Kim; Yong Yoon; Jin-woo Choi

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: International Division Technical Session 5: COVID-19 Pandemic Lessons and Best Practices
Page Count: 6
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40819
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/40819
Download Count: 247

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Paper Authors

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Gloria Kim University of Florida

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Dr. Gloria Kim is the Associate Chair for Research of the Department of Engineering Education in the UF Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering. She received her B.S. degree in Chemistry from Seoul National University, M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. Her technical expertise is in biomaterials, molecular imaging and drug delivery. She has taught and developed courses in circuits, biomechanics, biomaterials, bioinstrumentation, and nanotechnology. She is interested in educational environments and student learning; and social and ethical issues in STEM research and teaching. Her work includes creating opportunities for students to globalize their engineering degrees and mentoring students in teaching. In addition, Dr. Kim has mentored numerous student entrepreneurial teams to success. For more information, visit her website at: https://faculty.eng.ufl.edu/gloria-kim/

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Yong Yoon

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Yong-Kyu Yoon received his BS and MS degrees in Electrical
Engineering from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea in 1992 and
1994, respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical and
Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology,
Atlanta, GA, USA in 2004. He held a postdoctoral position at the
Georgia Institute of Technology from 2004 to 2006. He was an
Assistant Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the
State University of New York at Buffalo between 2006 and 2010.
Currently, he is a Professor and the Graduate Coordinator of the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University
of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA. He spent his sabbatical in ECE
at the Seoul National University from July and Dec. 2017. He received the NSF Early Career
Development Award (CAREER) and SUNY Young Investigator Award. He has more than 250
peer reviewed publications. He is a member of IEEE society. His research interests include engineering education, semiconductor micro/nanofabrication, microelectromechanical systems, and energy storage devices; metamaterials for RF/microwave applications; micromachined millimeter wave/terahertz antennas and waveguides; wireless telemetry systems for biomedical applications; lab-on-a-chip devices; and ferroelectric materials for memory and tunable devices.

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Jin-woo Choi Louisiana State University and A&M College

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Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA.

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Abstract

The goal of the National Science Foundation’s International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) program is to provide high quality educational experiences for small groups of U.S. students through active research participation in collaboration with foreign researchers at an international site and provide students with international collaborative research training and a personal network on which to build future collaborations. Interdisciplinary Research in Korea on Applied smart systems (IRiKA) is an NSF IRES Track I program that commenced in 2019. Over the lifetime of this 3-year project (2019 - 2021), a cohort of 5 students selected from three participating U.S. institutions are to be supported each year, making the total number of participants 15. In Summer 2019, the first cohort of five students completed their 8-week immersive research internship at Korea’s top-ranked university. COVID-19 affected most, if not all, in-bound and out-bound international programs. IRiKA was no exception. In late February 2020, the program was canceled altogether because no viable alternative could be offered for Summer 2020, as institutions world-wide were grappling with disruptive challenges the pandemic brought on. In Fall 2020, with contingency plans in place and an additional Korean host site aboard, the project team solicited applications. However, in early 2021, before the final selection of the 2021 cohort was complete, two of the U.S. participating institutions announced that international travel would not be permitted for their faculty and students. The project team went on to select a cohort from one U.S. institution only and continued to monitor the travel health notice level for Korea. While some modifications were made to the in-country program to comply with the COVID-19 regulations in Korea, the 8-week research experience was in-person and remained largely uncompromised for the 2021 cohort. In this Work-in-Progress paper, the three US-based lead investigators compare the two versions of the IRiKA program – before and during the pandemic – and share the lessons learned. The no-cost-extension will allow IRiKA to continue until Summer 2022. Selection of the Summer 2022 cohort will be complete by early March of 2022.

Citation
Format

Kim, G., & Yoon, Y., & Choi, J. (2022, August), Work-in-Progress: Running an in-person NSF IRES Program in South Korea before and during COVID-19 Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40819

TY - CPAPER
AB - The goal of the National Science Foundation’s International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) program is to provide high quality educational experiences for small groups of U.S. students through active research participation in collaboration with foreign researchers at an international site and provide students with international collaborative research training and a personal network on which to build future collaborations.
Interdisciplinary Research in Korea on Applied smart systems (IRiKA) is an NSF IRES Track I program that commenced in 2019. Over the lifetime of this 3-year project (2019 - 2021), a cohort of 5 students selected from three participating U.S. institutions are to be supported each year, making the total number of participants 15. In Summer 2019, the first cohort of five students completed their 8-week immersive research internship at Korea’s top-ranked university.
COVID-19 affected most, if not all, in-bound and out-bound international programs. IRiKA was no exception. In late February 2020, the program was canceled altogether because no viable alternative could be offered for Summer 2020, as institutions world-wide were grappling with disruptive challenges the pandemic brought on. In Fall 2020, with contingency plans in place and an additional Korean host site aboard, the project team solicited applications. However, in early 2021, before the final selection of the 2021 cohort was complete, two of the U.S. participating institutions announced that international travel would not be permitted for their faculty and students. The project team went on to select a cohort from one U.S. institution only and continued to monitor the travel health notice level for Korea. While some modifications were made to the in-country program to comply with the COVID-19 regulations in Korea, the 8-week research experience was in-person and remained largely uncompromised for the 2021 cohort.
In this Work-in-Progress paper, the three US-based lead investigators compare the two versions of the IRiKA program – before and during the pandemic – and share the lessons learned. The no-cost-extension will allow IRiKA to continue until Summer 2022. Selection of the Summer 2022 cohort will be complete by early March of 2022.
AU - Gloria Kim
AU - Yong Yoon
AU - Jin-woo Choi
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Work-in-Progress: Running an in-person NSF IRES Program in South Korea before and during COVID-19
UR - https://peer.asee.org/40819
DO - 10.18260/1-2--40819
ER -