The 12th KOCSEA Annual Technical Symposium was held in San Jose, CA at the KOTRA Silicon Valley Building in December 17-18, 2011. It featured 21 technical presentations, 4 keynote speeches, 21 short talks. The symposium successfully attracted top-class computer science researchers from all over the country, being attended by 63 people including 5 non-Korean heritage attendants and more than 30 new participants. Researchers from well-known Silicon Valley companies including HP, Intel, Accenture, VMware, Boeing, IBM, Marvell, Microsoft, etc. joined and gave speeches.
One of the keynote speeches was given by an internationally known computer artist, Prof. Insook Choi from CUNY. In her video demonstration, she showed a unique perspective on how computer and art could be merged. Another interesting keynote speech was given by Prof. Chanmo Park, the Chancellor of Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, on the topic of Science and Diplomacy. In addition to the regular presentations, the people who was not selected for full presentation was given an opportunity for 3-minute lightning speech. It was a very effective way of learning each other’s personal and research interests. Poster session started after lunch and featured a dozen high quality research posters prepared by students or other researchers. At the banquet, there was a remembrance ceremony for the late Prof. Kane Kim who was a former KOCSEA and KSEA president.
Three students were selected for scholarship through a poster competition. Two scholarships were awarded from the donations from the family of late Prof. Moon Jung Chung and Prof. Kane Kim. Another scholarship was awarded by KOCSEA. Several people won various awards and raffle prizes. Best presenters were selected in 4 areas, i.e., best presenter for day 1 and day 2 respectively, best lightning talk presenter, and best poster. To everyone’s surprise and pleasure, the best presenter award went to a foreign speaker, Dr. Jean-Philippe Martin, Microsoft Research. After the symposium, 13 people visited the Computer History Museum and enjoyed more productive time together.
This event was widely recognized and sponsored by 8 organizations, KSEA, KOFST, KOTRA, KISTI, ETRI, Samsung Electronics, and LG Electronics along with KUSCO.