KY

Food festival at KAIST

On tactfullness (a.k.a. common sense) The more I talk to people from different backgrounds and origins, the more I realize the importance of "thinking before you speak." If we think about it, it's an incredibly fundamental concept that we are taught very early in life. However, the more people you see the more you can realize how undeveloped many people's tact is. The problem is humans have and will always have certain fundamental differences, and our ability to approach these nuances with care shows our degree of self-worth, -respect, and -understanding. I believe that most arguments and petty discords happen mainly owing to the deficiency of this exact trait among the counterparts, and arguments are fundamentally impractical, that is to say they don't lead anywhere but emotional complications. Essentially, if common sense would really be common, people would live a healthier and more fulfilling lives.

Sparks. Some of you who have been following this page for some time know that I have a small website that I use to catalogue my thoughts, projects, a bit of bio, books that caught my attention, and various lists of things I found useful to save. Among all of these sections, the one that I feel most appealed to is Sparks - spontaneous realizations/musings that can't be left unsaved. Some time in February I wrote a spark on my penchant for austerity. It was to say that a man doesn't need a lot to live a fulfilling life, and, in fact, the fewer and simpler the things one has, the easier it is for them to focus on something that matters. Lately, it feels like I've been drawing farther and farther from this idea. Not in a sense that I'm living a more lavish life - in fact I'm not - but more in a way that there is more craving for things that don't contribute to any helpful end: impulsive purchase decisions, rash trips, bad planning, and what not. So, this spark has been a good way to realign my principles.

5 / 5 midterms! ✅

4 / 5 midterms!

Got 2 midterms today but randomly inspired my roommate to implement his own algorithm for finding the Reduced Echelon Form of a matrix. Doing anything but preparing atp.

2 / 5 midterms!

1 / 5 midterms ✅

Got hold of past midterm papers for my Brain science fundamentals class. Med students, you are welcome to try! Others can see what brain engineering can be about. Either way, this is incredibly interesting were not for the fact that it tends to become quite heavy and hectic, especially given my modest background in biology.

Joined my university's Taekwondo team. Those who were following my page for the past 3-4 years are aware of my prior appreciation for the martial arts, particularly for taekwondo. Have done the sport for roughly 4 years before leaving it for my academic pursuits, but I always knew that martial arts will always be a part of me. Although, of course, the academic demands at college are not quite light at the moment (and will not perhaps get any lighter), it still seems like it's the opportune time to take taekwondo back up, at least as an intermittent hobby. Just picked up my uniform, and, man, I missed it! Here we go again!

I can happily announce that my theory has been proven right. There are 6 acceptances in this year's intake, which is a record number across all years by far.

KAIST results are out. Who is in?

By the way, we are having a voice chat on KAIST admissions in about 20 mins, and I will try to give some niche startegies to make your profile shine through. Feel free to drop by!

Had my first introductory neuroscience class today. My prof, Park Young-gyun, runs the Park Lab here, concerned with inventing tools to extract multimodal information from biological systems to understand brain networks and brain-body interactions. The class not only presents the fundamentals of brain science but also shows how to use the new understandings in neuroengineering and specifically in curing various brain disorders. The load of the course seems to be pretty intense as per my initial observation, and, considering my rather modest background in biology, I will likely need to study a lot more than others. Will keep you up-to-date with anything cool that we'll learn about. Let's see how it goes!

Bio-engineering, medical engineering, neuroscience. All are exciting fields. Especially now, with AI becoming more and more established as a tool to accelerate human progress and mutiply human potential, enhancement of human physiology and remedying the most pressing disorders are set to become the overarching goals across almost all research hubs. If you are considering bioengineering as a future field, you must definitely join the upcoming webinar at Neuronix!

Seoul trip Finally had some decent plov, relished an unexpectedly skilled competition at billiards, met my good friend and brother, visited the world's 5th tallest building, and saw my first heavy snow in Korea. Was a big pleasure to finally reunite with Sarvar and have his tour of the city first-hand. Happy to know you are locked in. Massive thanks for taking your time to host me! Looking forward to having you in Daejeon. Loved Seoul! Hoping to come back some time in the near future.

Architecture has always been my muse I would be so excited about drawing and houses (especially those in contemporary or 21st century style) that I ended up going to an art school for 3 years when I was in elementary school. I would always dream of building my own postmodernist house one day and giving it to my mom. However, I never finished the art school, but the love and appreciation for the art never faded. Excentric structures were never odd to me. There was always something beautiful in them, the beauty many of my friends would walk by while I would stand there in awe. Now, it feels like I am in the place where I can barely liberate myself from that same feeling - each step shows a detail I would hardly dare to pass by. I didn't have the right camera to convey how beautiful these details seem to my eyes, but now that I have, I am taking the opportunity to store and somehow share the beauty I see through the picture I take. Will keep my visual logs at ky.offset, and you feel free to check out!

Great news! It seems like there are more people applying to KAIST this year from Uzbekistan. This is great for one reason: from what I expect, the bigger the applicant pool from a particular country, the more quota is likely to be given to them. Last year, it was 4 people accepted, a year prior it was 2-3, if my memory doesn't fail me. The trend is clear: the growing interest brings more talent each cycle. Therefore, if enough talent shows interest in this one, I am positive the number can go to more than 4. I am excited to see the Uzbek community grow! Best of luck to everyone giving this a shot!

Someone: "You can skip the intro" *the intro in question*