Jo Sep 14, 2022
Horse riding is a game in which riders compete on how fast they run or how skilfully they perform acrobatic acts on running horses.
Ancient Koreans, who regarded speed as the most important merit of a horse, raised native horses in large numbers suited to the topographical conditions of our country with many steep mountains. One of them was Kwahama of Ancient Korea. Kwahama was given the name because it was short enough (about one metre) to pass under fruit trees. It gained great fame in the neighbouring countries, too, as a renowned horse, a swift horse good at running up and down steep mountains.
A large number of horse bones, face pieces and other horse ornaments discovered on several ancient sites including Pomuigusok Site in Musan County, North Hamgyong Province prove that horses were raised in large numbers in Ancient Korea and our ancestors enjoyed riding from early times.
Later in the Middle Ages, excellent riding techniques of ancient Koreans were developed onto a higher level with addition of handling weapons and hurdling on a horse.
People in Koguryo raised numerous kinds of excellent horses like well-known Kwahama and mastered superb riding techniques on them. Such information can also be found in some Chinese historical books. In addition, murals in Koguryo tombs give a lifelike portrayal of riding skills like archery, spear throwing, hunting on horses, etc. In Koguryo there was a hunting competition on Rangnang Hill on March 3 (by lunar calendar) every year. The winners were awarded generous rewards and some of them were offered government positions.
The riding techniques of Koguryo were handed down through Koryo to feudal Joson Dynasty.
“Taejonhoethong” (1865) and “Haedongmyongjangjon” (1794) keep detailed records of archery, spear throwing and hurdling on horses in the first half period of feudal Joson Dynasty. It is recorded that Han Hui Yu, a military officer in the mid-thirteenth century used to fly into and out of the flames on a horse and Kim Tok Ryong, a famous swordsman in the period of Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592, was good at running through and immediately jumping back out narrow doors while Jong Ki Ryong could lightly jump over as wide a pit as six fathoms and leap onto the top of a precipice like a flying bird.
This fully demonstrates the superb riding techniques of our people in the past.
Im Sung Bin, section head at the Academy of Social Sciences
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Jo Sep 12, 2022
Ho Myong Guk, a lecturer at the Faculty of Information Science and Technology, has realized CDIO education by means of a comprehensive measurement and experimental device in the practice course of programming technology.
The device is one of the most representative terminal measurement devices for the realization of the process control system needed in the establishment of an integrated production system. With wired communication and wireless communication, it is a multifunctional integrated experimental device whereby a number of indicators such as temperature, humidity, illumination, etc. can be measured real time.
First, he developed a communication application program to accurately and quickly collect necessary indicators through the device, and built the collected data in the database in various forms for convenient history analysis. It was designed to carry out both real-time graphic processing of the data and file processing at the same time so that the data would prove useful in all future analyses.
Next, he ensured that various characteristic analyses to be displayed in the history analysis underwent various mathematical processing such as Newton interpolation, Lagrange interpolation and spline interpolation to give scientific guarantees in the characteristic analysis.
In order to realize CDIO education in the practice course, he, first of all, encouraged the students to conceive a question rather than considering given questions.
He explained to the students an air conditioning system and a cold storage management system on the basis of the collected data (external temperature, internal temperature, humidity, illuminance, water level, motor rotation speed, etc.)
Then, the students in groups were able to decide their own tasks ― for example, air conditioning systems and cold storage management systems for libraries, zoos, gymnasiums, cultural centres, swimming pools, hospitals, museums, factories, corporations, public buildings, and their classrooms and dormitories.
As the same collected indicators needed different processing for different application objects, the students could further enhance their practical ability while performing their tasks.
Second, he let the students design the selected tasks in groups drawing on what they had learnt in the lecture.
The items for program designing included interface, file processing, graphic processing, database and network communication, analysis method determination, and self-standard setting.
Third, he made the students implement their tasks.
The students worked in groups to complete the codes they wrote.
Fourth, he asked the students to operate and test their programs.
While he was running the prepared programs, he conducted error inspection and result analysis, and pointed out the characteristics, advantages and shortcomings of the tasks submitted by each group.
In the group presentation, the overall evaluation of the convenience of interface design, the speed and accuracy of communication data collection, database construction and history management, graphic processing results and history analysis and result analysis and group cooperation were made.
In conclusion, the realization of CDIO education helped students to further raise their practical abilities.
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Jo Sep 7, 2022
Tug-of-war is a folk game in which two teams pull at opposite ends of a long rope until one team drags the other over a line on the ground.
From ancient times our people with strong cohesion enjoyed doing tug-of-war that demonstrated communal might involving a lot of people.
Tug-of-war came into being through creative labour of mankind for survival. Whenever they needed to pull or drag up something in remote primitive times, our ancestors used to fasten ropes to them. This turned into a game little by little and eventually became tug-of-war, a competitive sport.
According to historical records, tug-of-war was usually done by peasants, especially in areas with a high proportion of paddy farming.
“Rimhaphilgi” (19th century) wrote that tug-of-war was already popular in the period of Three Kingdoms ― Koguryo, Paekje and Silla.
It became even more popular later in the period of Koryo and feudal Joson Dynasty. “Tongguksesigi”, “Hwagyejip”, “Tonggukyojisungram”, “Thamraji” and other historical books containing contemporary historical records give details of tug-of-war at that time.
Present-day tug-of-war is a little different in the ways of playing and ropes.
First, the thickness and length of a rope were altered to be convenient. After the national liberation, the thickness and length were fixed at 4~5cm and 20～30m each.
Next, unlike the past tug-of-war with main focus on strength only, the teams with tens of prearranged players have to pull the rope over one metre first to be the winner.
That is how tug-of-war was able to develop into a popular folk game in which many people can highly display the collectivist spirit of pooling their strength and wisdom, and players as well as spectators can enjoy themselves anywhere amidst tension, cheerfulness and laughter.
Im Sung Bin, section head at the Academy of Social Sciences
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Jo Sep 5, 2022
“Genetic algorithm” is one of the optimization techniques whereby the principles of genetics and evolution of living organisms are mathematically modeled and global optimization problems are solved based on them.
In the past, teaching genetic algorithms mainly focused on mathematical basis, principles and algorithmic description, and so it revealed that students had difficulty in selecting the best one of all different methods used to solve a problem.
To solve this problem, Kang Kum Sik, a lecturer at the Faculty of Applied Mathematics, let his students to write genetic algorithms and compare and analyse them.
Firstly, he encouraged the students to decide by themselves which methods are the best among different selection methods, crossover methods, and mutation methods used in each genetic algorithm, thereby enhancing their analytical and practical abilities.
Secondly, he led the students to synthesize the relationship of each genetic algorithm and find a genetic algorithm best suited for solving real-world problems, thus raising their synthesizing and systemizing ability and the creative ability of finding optimal solutions.
That is how students came to fully understand what they learn in both theoretical and programmatic ways, and acquire methods of finding optimal solutions while solving practical problems.
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Jo Sep 2, 2022
Yut game is a folk game in which players compete to be the first to move all their pieces to the finish position by throwing four yut sticks and making moves on the board as indicated by the sides of sticks.
Devised by the resourcefulness and talent of our people and played on several occasions including the lunar New Year’s Day, yut game is a time-honoured folk game peculiar to the Korean nation.
The game was invented in ancient times based on the principles of natural and social phenomena.
On the yut board is drawn a figure representing the principles of movements in the universe. According to historical records such as “Junggyongji” (1649) and “Ojuyonmunjangjonsango” (mid-19th century), the position in the middle of the board with a total of 29 signifies the Pole Star while other 28 positions around it represent the 28 constellations studded around the ecliptic. The routes on the board, on the other hand, reflect the law of change of four seasons. The shortest route (round through 11 points) stands for the winter solstice with shortest hours of daylight, the two routes through the diagonal paths for the spring equinox and the autumnal equinox with equal hours of daylight each, and the longest route for the summer solstice with longest hours of daylight.
The four sticks for throwing reflect four directions ― north, south, east and west.
The names of moves also reflect ancient social systems and customs. Not only the titles of ancient government positions Joga, Kuga, Uga, Maga, etc. but also the size and speed of domestic animals widely kept in those days were used to make the names of moves. For instance, the names “To”, “Kae”, “Kol”, “Yut”(Shung) and “Mo” mean “pig”, “dog”, “sheep”, “ox” and “horse” respectively. As they believed that oxen played the most important part in farming, they called this yut game.
All these imply that yut game originated from the small desire of ancient people who wanted to be successful and to travel all around the world on domestic animals to their hearts’ content.
This ancient game was carried forward and developed as a folk game peculiar to our nation in the period of Three Kingdoms (Koguryo, Paekje and Silla), Palhae and Later Silla and it was widely introduced into other countries, too.
At present, some newly devised ways of playing help players develop their intellectual faculties and have a good time. The number of pieces has now increased from four to ten, which means the first one to move all the 10 pieces is the winner. “Huto” (one step back) and “Tuhuto” (two steps back) and some other rules like the need to have one extra move before the finish point are now adopted, which makes it even more entertaining.
Today yut game is enjoyed at industrial establishments and public organizations as well as at home on several occasions including traditional holidays like the lunar New Year’s Day, Jongwoldaeborum (the lunar January 15), and Chusok (the autumn festival), national holidays and other public holidays.
Im Sung Bin, section head at the Academy of Social Sciences
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Jo Aug 29, 2022
Stability of earth and rockfill dams (ERD) usually includes sliding stabilities of steady seepage (at levels of normal water or flood water), earthquake and transient seepage (drawdown or heading-up).
In transient seepage such as rapid drawdown (RDD) unlike steady seepage, the phreatic surface, shear strength, boundary condition and effective stress of the slope soil, etc. dynamically change and they have coupled seepage-stress and nonlinear characteristics. These cause a number of problems with evaluating stability for transient seepage.
It can be a great expense to examine one by one the stability of earth and rockfill dams for rapid drawdown in civil engineering practice.
ERDs frequently met in civil engineering practice can be classified into homogeneous, sloping upstream core and central core according to whether they have an impervious core or not and where the impervious core exists.
Ri Yong Nam, a researcher at the Faculty of Earth Science and Technology, has proved that fully coupled seepage-stress analysis makes it possible to select the safest type for rapid drawdown among all common types of earth and rockfill dams and to approximately estimate the minimum safety factor for RDD from the steady safety factors.
The slope stability for RDD is very important in embankments such as a reservoir dam of relatively small storage capacity than its height, embankments under the effects of the high tide and the ebb tide, dams of agricultural reservoir, etc. In these cases, a central core dam (CCD) to improve the stability of ERD for RDD is recommended.
On the contrary, slope stability for RDD is not so important in embankments such as the reservoir dams of relatively large storage capacity compared to its height, embankments of gentle water level variation, etc. In these cases, an ERD which has larger steady stability for the same slope gradients is economically better and thus, a sloping upstream core dam (SUCD) is recommended.
The details about this is carried in his paper “Study on Stability Reduction Characteristics of Earth and Rockfill Dams under Rapid Drawdown Using Fully Coupled Seepage-Stress Analysis” presented to the SCI Journal “Advances in Civil Engineering”.
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