Last month, Stony Brook University’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) hosted 10 students from Korea to conduct research and study with university professors.

The students, who were selected from over 100 applicants, were sponsored to come to Stony Brook University (SBU) through a Korean government agency called the National IT Promotion Agency, or NIPA. NIPA is a university partner who recently donated $10M to SUNY Korea, Stony Brook’s global campus in Songdo, South Korea.

Four of the students, Song-a Kim, Sung-min Lee, Ki-youn Lee, and Song-yi Park, worked with Rong Zhao, PhD, Professor of Computer Science at SBU, Director of Software Systems Division at the Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology (CEWIT), and an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Technology and Society.

Before their departure back to Korea, the students presented their work at CEWIT, and were able to demo their projects.

Ki Youn Lee and Song Yi Park, advised by Professor Zhao, presented their project entitled Healthcare Cost Analytics App; Song-A Kim and Sung-Min Lee presented theirs on Multi-User Asynchronous Music Application.

“The NIPA Project was a substantial but gratifying challenge for me. I was assigned to create an iOS application, called Healthcare Cost Analytics. Although I had previously learned how to develop Android applications, I was not familiar with creating iOS applications,” Lee said. “Though the construction process was rather simple, I was daunted by having to navigate my way through new tools to find solutions through trials and failures. After collaborating with my peers and mentor in every step of creating the iOS application, achieving the final demo program was immensely rewarding.”

Lee also added how smooth the transition was to life at Stony Brook-- all made possible by the Stony Brook faculty and staff.

“It was a great pleasure working with the students on their NIPA projects. In 3 1/2 weeks, the two teams learned a lot about how to program mobile apps and they successfully developed two working prototypes - an iOS app for healthcare providers to manage their costs and an asynchronous music composition app for Android devices,” Professor Zhao said. “The students worked extremely hard but I can tell they truly enjoyed the experience of being a part of Stony Brook and having the opportunity to interact with our faculty, staff and students and to explore Long Island and New York.”

The Department of Computer Science works closely with their colleagues at SUNY Korea, which opened in March 2012 and is the first American and international university to offer both undergraduate and graduate degree programs in Korea. Students can earn degrees through SBU’s CEAS in Technology and Society, Computer Science, Information Systems, and Mechanical Engineering.