The last Hack4Glarus Summer Edition was a bit of our midsummer night's dream. We had all kinds of the brightest people coming from every part of the world and they hacked for Glarus (read our recap here). We had participants with very diverse backgrounds, and one person who came from the furthest was Jinguk : he won by far in terms of distance by flying more than 10 hours to come all the way to Linthal. Wonder what his story is? Let's find out in his interview.
What is your name and where do you come from?
My name is Jinguk, and I’m from South Korea. I grew up in Andong, and now I live in Incheon, which is a big city next to Seoul.
Tell us about your hometown.
In South Korea, Andong is known as the city of the nobles. It is very much in the mountains, and one of the bigger cities in the region. In terns of its size, it is bigger than Seoul and certainly bigger than canton Glarus. There are about 150,000 people living in Andong.
My parents live in the countryside. It is very mountainous, but our mountains are not higher than 300 meters - so they are rather low. There is a big lake which gets misty every morning. Not much flat land, and not much space for grazing cows. I was surprised to see so many cows grazing in the mountains here, and surprised that there are hills without trees. Because where I come from, mountains are full of trees and no space is reserved for cattle.
Andong, South Korea. (Above picture is a small village of Andong)
Is this your first visit to Switzerland?
This is my second visit to Switzerland. The first time was 8 years ago, I came for a week as a tourist. I’ve been to all the classic destinations - Interlaken, Bern, Zermatt, and I enoyed the Glacierexpress..., you know.
And what brought you back to Switzerland?
I got to know Nico and ungleich through a colleague of mine, about the project Digital Glarus and Data Centre Light. It sounded very interesting so I was intrigued to know more about them.
I started to talk to them via ungleich chat which is open for everyone, and we got to know each other better. I learnt more about their projects, and we exchanged our ideas. Then ungleich announced that they are hosting Hack4Glarus again for the Summer Edition, so I flew in to participate.
If you came to participate in Hack4Glarus, I assume you’re also working in IT. What is your expertise?
I have a master in electronics engineering, and have worked in embedded system for automobiles for long - to be more specific, developing software platform for automobiles. Automobile is a strong industry in South Korea - Hyundai, Kia, Ssangyong are South Korean car makers, just to name a few.
And what are you working on at Hack4Glarus?
Here I’ve paired up with team ungleich. We are working on a monitoring system for Data Centre Light, which is a cloud provider located in Glarus Süd, and which is also where the hackathon is happening.
The project is to work on a system which automatically notifies the temperature of its server room. The administrator will be automatically notified when there is a problem of system capacity, or when a downtime occurs. I find the data center project of ungleich very interesting becase it is a field in which I see a lot of growth potential for the future.
What is it like to work with team ungleich at Hack4Glarus?
It is very international, and very mixed, in a really positive way. My team has people from Slovakia, Eritrea, Germany, Switzerland, and South Korea. Everybody has different background and expertise. I think having such diversity broadens our perspective - because we are so different yet similar, we bring synergy in finding solutions.
At Hack4Glarus, Jinguk paired up with team ungleich
Did you know about canton Glarus before coming to Hack4Glarus?
No, not really. I only learnt about this region through ungleich and Hack4Glarus. Even during my first visit to Switzerland, I didn't know about Glarus at all.
What is your impression of canton Glarus?
I am very impressed at how high the mountains are, and how close they are to the villages. I am used to mountains as high as 200-300 meters, but now I am surrounded by 2000, 3000m high mountains. It is more beautiful than I imagined. I think this place is ideal for mountain lovers. There are so many different hiking paths one can try every day, and they are right outside the door. You don’t even need 10 minutes to reach the hiking paths, you can always jump into the mountain.
This time I happen to be here in the summer, it’s a pity that I don’t get to try skiing. I suppose I must come back in winter.
The beautiful mountains of canton Glarus he enjoyed.
What do you think about the project Digital Glarus?
It is very attractive that you get to work in IT while being in the nature. You raise your head from your computer and see the impressive mountains, it’s a great way to refresh your mind.
Compared to how one works in IT in a city... where I work in Incheon (South Korea) is an industrial district and you only see factories already built, or factories being built. It is a rather bleak landscape.
Here on the other hand... you can just turn your head while working, and you see beautiful mountains. It is very special.
Songdo, Incheon
The other IT workers that I know are all like-minded. They want to stay near the nature. I know that a lot of them would like to buy a house outside the city, where things are more calm and quieter, with more space. In the countryside for example the children can run as much as they want, and dogs are happier too. That’s what everybody is dreaming. I heard that such way of life is possible in Digital Glarus, and it seems to be indeed so.
What is your goal in the near future?
I must say that after seeing Digital Glarus, this became a goal for my near future. Living in the nature, working in cutting-edge IT.
And last but not least, what is your dream?
Living happily in the nature is my dream. Living, in happiness!
Thank you for answering our questions, it was great!
My pleasure.
Thank you Jinguk for sharing your thoughts with us in this interesting interview, and many many thanks for coming all the way to Hack4Glarus. We had a great time hacking with you, and hope to see you again at our next Hack4Glarus!
And of course, we look forward to skiing with you next time!