Empowering Young People with Disability through STEM and Online Education

1. Empowering Young People with Disability through STEM and Online Education Sang-Mook Lee Seoul National University smlee@snu.ac.kr

2. Outline • A brief history of myself • Fame brings power to change things • “Computer is god's gift to people with disability” • Quality of Life Technology Initiative • Computational Sciences as path to STEM • Open Online Education (e.g., MOOC)

4. During geological field trip in California, 2006

5. Completely Paralyzed Neck Down Thanks God I'm a college professor

6. I have no recollection of that day. Was it really an accident?

7. They did not think that I would speak again.

8. No depression or psychological problem:Near-death experience or damage to the brain? A quick return back to the society thru Occupational Therapy and Assistive Technology

9. Special input device Speech recognition “Computer is god’s gift to disabled people.” “The gap between people is reduced in cyber-space.” Modified vehicle

10. Stephen Hawking of Korea andchance to do something Ministry of Knowledge Economy and Quality of Life Technology

11. Sud Corea 12000 10000 Diferença em resultado devido 8000 a crescimento TFP ou a acúmulo de conhecimento na Coréia PIB real per capita (2000 US$) 6000 4000 Brazil Diferença em resultado devido a crescimento no trabalho e no capital 2000 na Coréia 0 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 Source: FRA Report GDP per Capita: Brazil versus Korea

12. At the center of Knowledge Economy is Information and Communication TechnologyThe same technology we use daily can be used to solve important problems facing our society such as inclusion and diversity. Three Major Difficulties of People with Disability Economic hardship Inclusion in society Strain in family relationship  Independent Living Assistive Technology & Education Leading to Job

13. Quality of Life Technology Initiative launched by the government in 2010

14. Quality of Life Technology Research & Development - Accessible vehicles - Personalized cellphones & software - Exercise & health monitoring devices - Exoskeleton robots - Korean speech recognitions & AACs Infrastructure & Human Res. Development - UX/UI, infrastructural R&D - Advanced ICT training - Precollege activities, mentoring - Undergrad program in Computational Sciences - Grad prog in Rehabilitation Science & Technology

15. Controlling IPTV with sip-and-puff mouse Using touch screen device with sip-and-puff mouse

16. Quality of Life Technology Research & Development - Accessible vehicles - Personalized cellphones & software - Exercise & health monitoring devices - Exoskeleton robots - Korean speech recognitions & AACs Infrastructure & Human Res. Development - UX/UI, infrastructural R&D - Advanced ICT training - Precollege activities, mentoring - Undergrad program in Computational Sciences - Grad prog in Rehabilitation Science & Technology

17. What comes to your mind when I say Computational Sciences?

18. Science is all about observation and experiment. But some things are impractical to observe or conduct direct measurement. In such case, we use computer to simulate natural phenomena.

19. Weather, Climate Finance, Economy Social Movie, Cultural Life Sciences Environment Air, Space

20. Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Program in Computational Sciences • Numerical Analysis • Data Science (Big Data, Bioinformatics) • Graphics & Visualization

21. At Seoul National University • Currently 30 students (5 with disability) • 2% quota in elite science and fine art high schools in Metropolitan Seoul (Admission of 30 students with disability every year)

22. MOOC

23. Online Education • For nondisabled people, it’s effectiveness can be debated and is an option • For people with disability, it can sometimes be the only solution • Assumptions: • Online education is a headache for established universities • 99% of Koreans are disabled when it comes to listening English lectures (language barrier)

24. Disability is diverse so there cannot be one-size-fits-all solution.But two important questions: • How do you teach a blind person math? superb memory and logical • How do you teach a deaf person English?

25. Equations are two-dimensional Dynamic webpages updating all the time

26. LaTex? MathML?You have to start training at an early age.

27. QoLTx: New accessible solution • Goal: To provide foundational courses for student with disability across the border • Starting with edX platform (Ruby and Python) and improving its accessibility • Making courses at precollege, freshman and sophomore levels (science, engineering and math) • Multilingual (Korean, English and Arabic) • Creating new jobs for people with disability • Off-line voluntary services (academic Peace Corps) to developing countries

28. To make it global, we have to follow international standards and develop new technology.

29. My Vision By making online education accessible and multilingual, we might be able to help not only people with disability but also women in developing countries.

30. 40 days across US– Now or Never

32. But it took only 12 days to come back.

33. Thanks for your attention