South Korea - Day 6

I started the fourth day of IAC by giving my second presentation. This one was on the topic of using remote sensing data to provide disease early warning, and included a case study of Nigeria. I think this is a really interesting application of space technology, but there are only a few operational systems that are already doing this (NASA and DoD collaborate on one predicting Rift Valley Fever in Africa, for example). Since Nigeria has a space program, including a remote sensing satellite and a remote sensing data center, I thought they would be an interesting case to examine. I think the whole Nigerian delegation to IAC attended the presentation. They said they enjoyed it and thought it was interesting, and also suggested that I visit the Nigierian Space Agency to get a more detailed idea of what their facilities, programs, and capabilities include. Sounds good to me. :)
The panel that I presented on was about satellite applications, and there were a few other presentations that were really interesting. There was one called 'flysafe' where ESA is using space assets to track bird movements to provide a warning system for commercial and military aviation. Not only do they track whole flocks of birds, but they've also used GPS to track individual birds, so they have a ton of data. Pretty cool stuff.

Later in the afternoon I found some time to head back to downtown Daejeon. There is a big shopping area near Daejeon station that we wanted to check out.
We stumbled upon a store filled with photo booths, and had a great time making a set of photos. It's incredible how many options there are to decorate them - pages of backgrounds to choose from, borders, and little icons and decorations to add.
The lady running the store helped us a bit, which is why we have Korean writing on the photos. (We didn't know what they said until we brought them back to IAC and asked for a translation at the help desk.)


We stopped and grabbed some street food for lunch. I'm not sure what was inside of the things we ate, but they were fried and tasted good.


We wandered through a market with lots of seafood, meat, and spices.


On our way back to IAC, our cab missed the turn, and dropped us off on the other side of the Expo Park from where we wanted to be. It turned out to be ok, though, since the walk back to the convention center took us through some cool space-themed attractions.


We went to the ISU reception first, and took a little reunion photo with all of the Summer 2008 (SSP08) people.


From there, it was off to the young professionals and students party. There was barbeque at the party - which included multiple whole, cooked pigs being pulled apart and put on your plate by the servers. (It was tasty, though.)


There were break-dancers and hip hop dancers that performed on stage.


And then there was the dance party. We were hanging out with a bunch of Korean students we had met on the way over to the party, and at one point, decided to take a photo. But every time we'd ask someone to take the picture, that person would want to be in it, so they'd pass the camera off to someone else. Finally, one of the Korean students said that whoever wanted to be in the picture should just get in now... and people came running. So that's how a picture of Jeff and I and one friend turned into a photo of half the people on the dance floor.


After that we visiting the Statistical Institute, where many of the students were staying, and then headed out to a bar in the area near our hotels. Apparently Thursdays are not a big night for going out in Korea, though, so things were fairly quiet. Still, it was a great last night in Daejeon!