The Ministry of Science, Information and Communications Technology, and Future Planning (MSIP) has established ITRC in hopes of creating a place where knowledgeable researchers from all over the nation can convene to deeply research many different types of innovative technologies. This ambitious project has been carried out by the MSIP for 15 years, and 30 to 40 research centers with such nature are spread all over the country. Every year, four ITRCs are added, and they usually last four to six years, after which they disband.

 

There have been two main reasons for the establishmentof ITRC for quantum communications. First, it is to continuously nurture and improve researchers in ITRCs, and second, it is to encourage the research into the said field. Professor Heo Jun (School of Electrical Engineering), who oversees the entire quantum communications ITRC project being implemented in KU, has stressed that,“There has not been an ITRC for quantum communications until now,” emphasizing how crucial the project is for KU and the country.

 

The main administration office for the ITRC is located in the International Center for Converging Technology, room number 134, and the center comprises 13 professors of seven different universities and four companies, one of which is SK Telecom (SKT). 46 graduate students, some of which being from KU, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and Seoul National University (SNU) are expected to collaborate in this joint effort.

 

“Now, you might be wondering why KU, KAIST, and SNU were selected to undertake the very important project of the new research field,” explained Heo. “Every once in a while, the MISP sets a research topic, sort of like a team project, and the graduate schools of the universities are expected to form teams with others to come up with the best proposal to the topic.” Heo went on by confessing that, “The entire thing [preparation for the proposal] was pretty intense.” He elaborated further that the team which KU was in had beaten the team with such members as Busan National University (BNU) and Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH).

 

The ITRC quantum communications project boasts its comprehensiveness by employing students from diverse majors, which include Electrical Engineering, Physics, Psychology, and Art and Design. The two former majors arecategorized as “ICT majors” and the two latter as “non-ICT majors.” “While it is true that ICT majors are greatly crucial to the prosperity of the ITRC, it does not mean that we don’t want the non-ICT majors. They are an imperative for converging technology,” added Heo. Students of ICT majors and non-ICT majors are not familiar with each other’s field of study, but via interaction, the two will have a very useful exchange of ideas.

 

 

To delve more into the establishment goals of the quantum communications ITRC is to discuss more deeply the reasons behind researching in the field of quantum communications. “South Korea can be said to be an IT superpower because it possesses one of the world’s fastest internet connections. But, so far, the country has been only focused on the speed of the internet and not necessarily the secureness,” explained Heo. “That is why the technology of quantum communications came into being,” asserted Heo. “Quantum communications utilizes a safe method of communication, an aspect which corrects the errors with the previous technologies.”

 

Heo also did not hesitate to explain the basic concept behind quantum communication. “The current method IT devices use puts numbers zero and one into electric signals and transmitting these signals from one device to another. Quantum communication is literally the same except instead of electric signals, it uses photons.” An advantage Heo mentioned was that whenever a malicious hacker attempts to hack into the photons, all the information stored inside the particle disintegrates and disappears permanently.

 

Despite the great upside quantum communication has over other mode of communication, the said method is not without its limitations. “If a hacker with malicious intentions tries to steal the information, the information will be destroyed and available to no one, not even the actual recipients of the data,” expressed Heo. “To compare this situation to a house and a thief, we currently only have the method to secure the door but not anywhere else such as the window or the roof.” However, Heo did not end his remark about how incompetent quantum communications were. Instead, he concluded his point by claiming that it is still by far the safest method of communication out there right now.

 

The quantum communications ITRC at KU came up with six assignments for itself, and they are as follows: ground quantum communications, satellite quantum communications, quantum computing, establishment of companies specializing in the said field, nurturing future researchers in the field, and

education of software programming to the students majoring in humanities. Ground communications simply mean what its name suggests, communication on the ground.

 

Per chance the two items following ground communications are what will bring about a technology revolution in Korea. Satellite quantum communications have been one of the biggest interests of many developed countries such as several European Union (EU) countries, China, and the United States (U.S.). While they have been pushing for the further research and development into the

field, Korea has just started to take baby steps with the launch of the ITRC at KU.

 

The second item is quantum computers, which have been proved to surpass the computing power of supercomputers. “In the field of IT, tedious and tiresome calculations are always made, and to make this task easier, super computers have helped us,” said Heo. “In contrast to the computers out there right now, which arranges their Central Process Units (CPU) in a row, all operating via electric signals, Quantum computers instead uses photons,” elaborates Heo. “The ITRC at KU will focus on developing this technology of the future which will get the country way ahead of others.”

 

Following the aforementioned two are the fourth, fifth, and sixth projects, the first two focusing on nurturing a company and the last one on providing education which fuses science and humanities. The sixth project aims to help engineering students start and manage a company so that the experience, whether it leads to success or failure, will help them later on with opening up a business. 

 

Heo made a concluding remark by saying that learning science is just as important as learning liberal arts. “Steve Jobs once said that students in the field of science need a good amount of knowledge of liberal arts,” commented Heo. “Students in the field of liberal arts, vice versa, then also need a good amount of knowledge of science. And this knowledge of science can be obtained by studying computer science, one of the many programs which ITRC at KU offers,” concluded Heo.