On January 16, the 13th Annual Conference of Sookmyung Project for Asian and International Relations (SM-PAIR) was held with the slogan of ‘Science and the Next Phase of Humanity’. Its theme was ‘Humanity and the Sciences’ and was conducted on the 3rd floor of the Veritas Building. SM-PAIR is the Korean branch of H-PAIR. It was founded in September of 2001 with the vision of being the best forum of college students in Korea. It hosts the three-day conference for university students nationwide every January of each year. Starting with the 12th Annual H-PAIR conference in 2003, SM-PAIR has been responsible for planning and hosting conferences on various topics since 2003. The 2019 conference ran from January 16 to January 18, and it sessions started each day either at 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. and lasted until 9 p.m. The two workshops on January 16 and 17 were attended and hosted by many professors and doctors, which made the conference more enriching. One participant, Lee Junghyun, Department of Mechanical Engineering at KAIST, said “I was able to explore new perspectives on the subject-matter through the workshop. Above all, I was excited to make new alliances at the conference.” To create a sense of comfort, the conference created a number of ice-breaking activities designed to break the awkwardness between participants, established a clear mission for the workshop, and the participants could enjoy the conference together. On the last day, participants partook in a ‘group mission’, which required them to complete some tasks and present their research and joined an ending ceremony. “While prior conferences covered a lot of ideas in the humanities, this year, the conference concentrated on the fusion of science, technology, and the humanities. Students who missed this year’s conference are welcome to attend next year’s conference”, said one of the organizing staff, Joung Minyoung, Department of Statistics ‘17.
