Study Tour Evolve: Singapore & South Korea
Last September, a group of students and teachers set sail to Asia to embark on a study tour. The group spent 3 weeks exploring Singapore and South Korea by visiting companies and universities while also partaking in cultural activities.
Preparation
During these visits participants can experience the working environment, cutting edge technology and get a tour around leading universities and companies. Next to these visits, the participants also have the opportunity to face an entirely new culture and experience the ins and outs of Singapore and South Korea.
Of course, such a trip does not appear out of thin air. The committee which organized study tour Evolve started all the way back in June 2021. From early mornings to try and contact companies in the countries we were visiting to late nights figuring out if all our plans actually fit the budget, a lot had to be done.
However, the participants also have to put in a lot of effort. Prior to the study tour, participants have to complete a research project within the theme of the study tour, “Cities of the Future”, similar to the research project at the end of the bachelor’s program. This was performed in the third and fourth quartile of the previous academic year. In the summer break, the participants performed a contract research assignment. These assignments are IT-related work assignments at a company or the university. These contract research assignments do not only provide the participant with relevant working experience, but also fund the study tour.
Finally, the participants follow a 3 week course at the start of the new academic year. During this course, they conduct research and analysis on the countries we visit. The cultural differences between the Netherlands and the countries of destination are analyzed, as well as the scientific and professional landscape. Now that all this was done, it was finally time to depart!
Singapore
After sitting in the plane for around 15 hours, with a transfer in Helsinki in between, we arrived in Singapore. Here we stayed in a nice hostel in a district called Little India, with the local 7-Eleven available to supply us with food, even if jetlag keeps us up late at night. On an average day in the study tour, we visit 1 or 2 companies/universities, with a visit being either in the morning or in the afternoon. The evenings were either planned with activities, like visiting the Gardens by the Bay, or participants had some free time to explore the city themselves. Besides activities organized by the committee, many people also came up with things to do themselves. For example, some people went to watch the F1 race that took place while we were visiting Singapore. After 10 days in Singapore, the study tour continued its journey in South Korea.
South Korea
After being interrogated about potential corona symptoms, everyone safely made it through into Korea. After hopping onto a bus we were driven straight to the city of Daejeon. We would be staying there for a couple of nights and we stayed in a beautiful hotel, which was a godsend following the large hostel rooms in Singapore. Amongst other things, we visited KAIST, a university with a beautiful campus where we got to learn about the research they do and projects the university had worked on in the past. We also went to Twinny, a smaller company which makes self-navigating robots, which ended up chasing us! After those couple days in Daejeon, we took an early bus to Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Luckily for us, the day after arriving in Seoul was a holiday, so we could take some time to explore the city. Some headed into the city to do some shopping, while others visited the mountains surrounding Seoul for some hiking.
After these free days, it was time to see what Seoul had to offer in terms of company and university visits. We went to Korea University, KINX (the Korea Internet Neutral Exchange) and even a bus that took us all to Incheon (just west of Seoul) for some visits there. Similarly to Singapore, these visits were also focussed on Cities of the Future. The last visit we had was to OP.gg, a company which produces an application to help players in certain Esports.
Of course, there was also still time to have some fun (not that the company visits are not fun obviously). While in Seoul we also went on a ferry cruise over the Han river, and even got up super early in the morning to get to the DMZ, the demilitarized zone of the border between North and South Korea.
All in all, we feel the trip was a great success, but if you want to know more about the trip we encourage you to take a look at the travel blog. The blog was written by various participants of the tour and given a unique insight into everything that happened while in Asia! You can find the travel blog at ictsv.nl/evolve.
It is of course too late to join Study Tour Evolve, but don’t be sad, there will most likely be another Study Tour in 2024! This Study Tour will go to a new destination and have a new theme so it could be a unique experience for you, while also picking up work experience at the same time. If all that is not enough for you, consider joining the next Study Tour committee, information for which will be available soon.
Study Tour
The study tour is a trip organized by a committee of Inter-Actief where students get to experience the (working) culture in countries outside of Europe. This takes place every 2 years, so the next iteration will take place in September or October of 2024.
Besides students, several teachers join the study tour. They are there to make sure the participants do the work to earn the ECs (study points) they can receive for joining the study tour, as well as join in on the fun.
In general, a study tour visits 1 or 2 countries. Previous iterations of the study tour include:
Study Tour Shift (2018) - South Korea & Japan
Study Tour MISC (2016) - Singapore, Malaysia & Indonesia
Study Tour USB 14.0 (2014) - United States & Brazil
Study Tour Noodle (2012) - South Korea & China
Study Tour Bonsai (2008) - Japan
Study Tour Chakra (2005) - India
Study Tour Samba (2003) - Brazil
