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Mechanical Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering - Attracting Creative Engineering Talent

 

“Our aim is to make Mechanical Engineering a hub of creative engineering talent.”

 

Seoul National University’s Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering manages two degree programs in one department, but each program accepts new students separately. Professor Frank Chongwoo Park, current Department Chair, explained that “the educational purpose is to cultivate innovative leaders in industry, academia, and society in general, through a creative engineering education curriculum.”

He added that “mechanical engineering is the field where creative thinking skills are most needed,” as it mainly aims to design innovative machines and systems that fulfill people’s needs, utilizing basic principles of nature.

For example, in mechanical engineering, students study the basic principles of solids, fluids, heat, and movement of bodies. Then, they go on to researching technologies that design and control products, processes, and systems using such principles. “The best example would be a robot,” Prof. Park said. “Using our knowledge in physics, robots are created to interact with humans.”

Creative thinking skills in engineering has also been dubbed as ‘design thinking.’ Especially as robots have started to enter our daily lives, the need for design thinking is growing as well. In the past, the ‘machines’ in the field of mechanical engineering were manufacturing robots in factories. Now, the very concept of a robot is changing. Starbucks USA is planning on introducing hundreds of robots in order to help the work of baristas. Prof. Park predicted that “the demand for mechanical engineers will increase dramatically from now on.”

 

Faculty From soft robots to smart farms

“Mechanical engineering helps students explore a wide variety of careers,” said Prof. Park. “The spectrum of research interests of our faculty ranges from soft robots to smart farms.”

Unlike “hard” robotics, soft robotics deals with robots made out of soft materials. The best example would be the manta ray robot, which mimics flexible movements of a real manta ray. SNU Mechanical Engineering Professor Kyu-Jin Cho, a well-known expert in this field, has developed a soft robot that helps patients with hand paralysis and muscle damage move their hands. This robot is water-proof, made of wires and polymeric materials.

Smart farm technology is used for automatic management of agricultural processes. It manages the quality of crops by inspecting the nutritional status and sugar content of crops with censors and distributing necessary substances. SNU Mechanical Engineering Professor Junghoon Lee is the founder and current CEO of agricultural startup company Telofarm that uses smart farm technology developed by his research team. Telofarm’s system uses nanotechnology-enabled sensors to examine the condition of plants and automatically dispenses supplements.

 

As for Prof. Park, his research interest is robot control. Robot control deals with movements of robots such as humanoids, which move with their joints. In order for them to stably operate in an external environment, engineers perform quick calculations to plan and control their movements.

 

Education Programs More debate classes and practical training

 

Career Support Individual meetings with professors & KIST thesis project

 

Qualities of Our Engineers Must be proactive and positive

 

Advice Master basic skills and have perseverance

 

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