Towards World Class University (WCU): the seemingly impossible dream

Dr Kamran Eshraghian

Distinguished Professor and President of iDataMap Corporation

 As I am sitting in my 8^th floor office in the Industrial Technology Research Park overlooking the green hills of Cheongju and reflecting upon the past three years,  it seems that it was only yesterday that I embarked upon a venture leaving behind the golden fields of Silicon Valley that hosts world’s largest High Technology corporations and the gateway to San Francisco Bay area - boasting as one of the most beautiful cities in the world - and then the University of California networks with abundance of talents.

  It all began in early 2000 when Professor Kyoungrok Cho and Professor Younggap You visited my research laboratories and centre in Perth, Western Australia, prior to my move to University of California, Merced where I held the Inaugural Ferrero Chair in Electrical Engineering and was also visiting Professor of Engineering with the mission to build the new Electrical Engineering program.  The invitation to come to Cheongju to formulate a new research frontier and to lead the World Class University (WCU) program at Chungbuk National University was just too tempting that inspired me to respond to the challenge by moving to Cheongju in 2009. During the last two and half years a kaleidoscope of thought processes continued to push me into a new frontiers research domain namely System on System that I have been speaking about at various international conferences, and indeed the concept is conjectured to change the mind-set that the industry may have towards future System on Chip (SoC) integration. Response by faculty and students have been just remarkable  as each have risen to meet the demands of the new research on topics such as Memristors and memristive systems, 3 dimensional image encryption and processing, revisiting of old arithmetic to optimize the silicon chip utilization and composition of architectures for future image processing  leading towards new neuro- vision for health-care as an example. Such activities have challenged the thought processes of the team, much reminiscent of my work in silicon chip era in early 80’s. I have learnt a lot during this period. Korea has a vision; Korea works hard and never sleeps; Korea is hospitable; Korea is loveable. It has been a wonderful time for me here to live within this amazing culture - where I have created a strong bond of friendship with many from the President of the University who is meeting the challenges required of academic institution as globalization begins to take shape through to students whose future invariably is framed by the institution they attend. Their friendship will be cherished in the years to come.  I believe the dream will be a reality in a not too distant future as long as the University is vigilant in recognizing the importance of nurturing the staff that has embarked upon such demanding initiates and given the necessary support.  A World Class University by definition needs to have an international outlook – and hence the necessity to manage its image in the international arena.  Part of the process is to attract high caliber faculty and students to the campus. Therefore from my vantage position looking from outside there is a need for this University to initiate a change in its current culture and be more accommodating to foreign students.  Perhaps through the expose of WCU program there is a learning process that calls for Korea to “work smart” – maybe that process of Unity in Diversity can be initiated from Chungbuk National University.